Download PDF
Methods Inf Med 2023; 62(01/02): 005-018
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1761500
Original Article for Focus Theme

Data Quality in Health Care: Main Concepts and Assessment Methodologies

Mehrnaz Mashoufi
1   Department of Health Information Management, School of Medicine, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran
,
Haleh Ayatollahi
2   Health Management and Economics Research Center, Health Management Research Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3   Department of Health Information Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
,
Davoud Khorasani-Zavareh
4   Department of Health in Emergencies and Disasters, Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
,
Tahere Talebi Azad Boni 
3   Department of Health Information Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5   Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh, Iran
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
    Permissions and Reprints

Abstract

Introduction In the health care environment, a huge volume of data is produced on a daily basis. However, the processes of collecting, storing, sharing, analyzing, and reporting health data usually face with numerous challenges that lead to producing incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely data. As a result, data quality issues have received more attention than before.

Objective The purpose of this article is to provide an insight into the data quality definitions, dimensions, and assessment methodologies.

Methods In this article, a scoping literature review approach was used to describe and summarize the main concepts related to data quality and data quality assessment methodologies. Search terms were selected to find the relevant articles published between January 1, 2012 and September 31, 2022. The retrieved articles were then reviewed and the results were reported narratively.

Results In total, 23 papers were included in the study. According to the results, data quality dimensions were various and different methodologies were used to assess them. Most studies used quantitative methods to measure data quality dimensions either in paper-based or computer-based medical records. Only two studies investigated respondents' opinions about data quality.

Conclusion In health care, high-quality data not only are important for patient care, but also are vital for improving quality of health care services and better decision making. Therefore, using technical and nontechnical solutions as well as constant assessment and supervision is suggested to improve data quality.

Keywords

health - data quality - documentation - assessment


Publication History

Received: 29 June 2022

Accepted: 10 December 2022

Article published online:
30 January 2023

© 2023. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

  • References

  • 1 Pezoulas VC, Kourou KD, Kalatzis F. et al. Medical data quality assessment: on the development of an automated framework for medical data curation. Comput Biol Med 2019; 107: 270-283
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 2 Lemma S, Janson A, Persson LÅ, Wickremasinghe D, Källestål C. Improving quality and use of routine health information system data in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review. PLoS One 2020; 15 (10) e0239683
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 3 Zhang Y, Koru G. Understanding and detecting defects in healthcare administration data: toward higher data quality to better support healthcare operations and decisions. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020; 27 (03) 386-395
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 4 Sirgo G, Esteban F, Gómez J. et al. Validation of the ICU-DaMa tool for automatically extracting variables for minimum dataset and quality indicators: the importance of data quality assessment. Int J Med Inform 2018; 112: 166-172
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 Ehsani-Moghaddam B, Martin K, Queenan JA. Data quality in healthcare: a report of practical experience with the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network data. HIM J 2021; 50 (1–2): 88-92
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 6 Kurniati AP, Rojas E, Hogg D, Hall G, Johnson OA. The assessment of data quality issues for process mining in healthcare using Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III, a freely available e-health record database. Health Informatics J 2019; 25 (04) 1878-1893
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 7 Ehrlinger L, Wöß W. A survey of data quality measurement and monitoring tools. Front Big Data 2022; 5: 850611
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 8 Nikiforova A. Definition and evaluation of data quality: user-oriented data object-driven approach to data quality assessment. Balt J Mod Comput. 2020; 8 (03) 391-432
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 9 Naik S, Voong S, Bamford M, Smith K, Joyce A, Grinspun D. Assessment of the Nursing Quality Indicators for Reporting and Evaluation (NQuIRE) database using a data quality index. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020; 27 (05) 776-782
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 10 International Organization for Standardization. ISO 8000–8:2015-Data quality—Part 8: Information and data quality: Concepts and measuring. [Internet] 2015 [Updated, 2022, Cited 27 September 2022]. Accessed January 18, 2023 at: https://www.iso.org/standard/60805.html
    PubMed
  • 11 de Medeiros MM, Maçada ACG, Junior JCdSF. The effect of data strategy on competitive advantage. Bottom line (NYNY) 2020; 33 (02) 201-216
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 12 Terry AL, Stewart M, Cejic S. et al. A basic model for assessing primary healthcare electronic medical record data quality. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2019; 19 (01) 1-11
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 13 Liaw S-T, Pearce C, Liyanage H, Liaw GS, de Lusignan S. An integrated organisation-wide data quality management and information governance framework: theoretical underpinnings. Inform Prim Care 2014; 21 (04) 199-206
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 14 Rumisha SF, Lyimo EP, Mremi IR. et al. Data quality of the routine health management information system at the primary healthcare facility and district levels in Tanzania. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2020; 20 (01) 340
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 15 Papadiamantis AG, Klaessig FC, Exner TE. et al. Metadata stewardship in nanosafety research: community-driven organisation of metadata schemas to support FAIR nanoscience data. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2020; 10 (10) 2033
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 16 Arksey H, O'Malley L. Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. Int J Soc Res Methodol 2005; 8 (01) 19-32
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 17 Tricco AC, Lillie E, Zarin W. et al. PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR): checklist and explanation. Ann Intern Med 2018; 169 (07) 467-473
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 18 Adeleke IT, Adekanye AO, Onawola KA. et al. Data quality assessment in healthcare: a 365-day chart review of inpatients' health records at a Nigerian tertiary hospital. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2012; 19 (06) 1039-1042
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 19 Greiver M, Barnsley J, Glazier RH, Harvey BJ, Moineddin R. Measuring data reliability for preventive services in electronic medical records. BMC Health Serv Res 2012; 12 (01) 116
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 20 Laberge M, Shachak A. Developing a tool to assess the quality of socio-demographic data in community health centres. Appl Clin Inform 2013; 4 (01) 1-11
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 21 Singer A, Kroeker AL, Yakubovich S, Duarte R, Dufault B, Katz A. Data quality in electronic medical records in Manitoba: do problem lists reflect chronic disease as defined by prescriptions?. Can Fam Physician 2017; 63 (05) 382-389
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 22 Kahn MG, Raebel MA, Glanz JM, Riedlinger K, Steiner JF. A pragmatic framework for single-site and multisite data quality assessment in electronic health record-based clinical research. Med Care 2012; 50 (Suppl 0): S21-S29
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 23 Kahn MG, Callahan TJ, Barnard J. et al. A harmonized data quality assessment terminology and framework for the secondary use of electronic health record data. EGEMS (Wash DC) 2016; 4 (01) 1244
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 24 Weiskopf NG, Bakken S, Hripcsak G, Weng C. A data quality assessment guideline for electronic health record data reuse. EGEMS (Wash DC) 2017; 5 (01) 14
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 25 Feder SL. Data quality in electronic health records research: quality domains and assessment methods. West J Nurs Res 2018; 40 (05) 753-766
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 26 Harrington L. Quality of electronic health record data on which we stand. AACN Adv Crit Care 2019; 30 (02) 105-109
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 27 Keny A, Biondich P, Grannis S, Were MC. Adequacy and quality of immunization data in a comprehensive electronic health record system. J Health Inform Afr. 2013; 1(01):
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 28 Muthee V, Bochner AF, Osterman A. et al. The impact of routine data quality assessments on electronic medical record data quality in Kenya. PLoS One 2018; 13 (04) e0195362
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 29 Alipour J, Ahmadi M. Dimensions and assessment methods of data quality in health information systems. Acta Med Mediter 2017; (33) 313-320
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 30 Mashoufi M, Ayatollahi H, Khorasani-Zavareh D. A review of data quality assessment in emergency medical services. Open Med Inform J 2018; 12: 19-32
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 31 Mashoufi M, Ayatollahi H, Khorasani-Zavareh AD. Data quality assessment in emergency medical services: what are the stakeholders' perspectives?. Perspect Health Inf Manag 2019; 16 (Winter): 1c
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 32 Daneshkohan A, Alimoradi M, Ahmadi M, Alipour J. Data quality and data use in primary health care: a case study from Iran. Inform Med Unlocked. 2022; 28: 100855
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 33 Almeshari M, Khalifa M, El-Metwally A, Househ M, Alanazi A. Quality and accuracy of electronic pre-anesthesia evaluation forms. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 2018; 160: 51-56
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 34 Zan S, Zhang X. Medical data quality assessment model based on credibility analysis. Paper presented at: Proceedings of IEEE 4th Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering Conference (ITOEC): December 14–16, 2018, Chongqing, China. 2018: 940-944
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 35 Lodge W, Menon G, Kuchukhidze S. et al. Assessing completeness of patient medical records of surgical and obstetric patients in Northern Tanzania. Glob Health Action 2020; 13 (01) 1765526
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 36 Endashaw N, Birhanu B, Teka M, Abrham G. Quality of medical records in public health facilities of Jimma zone, Oromia regional state, Southwest, Ethiopia. Research Square 2021
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 37 Kaloyanova K, Naydenova I, Kovacheva Z. Addressing data quality in healthcare. Paper presented at: Proceedings of the Information Systems and Grid Technologies (ISGT 2021) Online, May 28–29, 2021
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 38 Thuraisingam S, Chondros P, Dowsey MM. et al. Assessing the suitability of general practice electronic health records for clinical prediction model development: a data quality assessment. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2021; 21 (01) 297
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 39 McClean K, Cross M, Reed S. An audit of obesity data and concordance with diagnostic coding for patients admitted to Western Australian country health service hospitals. Aust J Adv Nurs 2021; 38 (01) 45-52
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 40 Chen H, Hailey D, Wang N, Yu P. A review of data quality assessment methods for public health information systems. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2014; 11 (05) 5170-5207
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 41 Mohammed SA, Yusof MM. Towards an evaluation framework for information quality management (IQM) practices for health information systems–evaluation criteria for effective IQM practices. J Eval Clin Pract 2013; 19 (02) 379-387
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 42 Ayatollahi H, Bath PA, Goodacre S. Information needs of clinicians and non-clinicians in the Emergency Department: a qualitative study. Health Info Libr J 2013; 30 (03) 191-200
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 43 Ayatollahi H, Bath PA, Goodacre S. Accessibility versus confidentiality of information in the emergency department. Emerg Med J 2009; 26 (12) 857-860
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 44 Ayatollahi H, Bath PA, Goodacre S. Factors influencing the use of IT in the emergency department: a qualitative study. Health Informatics J 2010; 16 (03) 189-200
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 45 Wang Z, Talburt JR, Wu N, Dagtas S, Zozus MN. A rule-based data quality assessment system for electronic health record data. Appl Clin Inform 2020; 11 (04) 622-634
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar