Survey of Electronic Workflow for Russian Healthcare Services

Abstract

The article discusses the issues of using e-health technologies and analyses the quality of Internet access for health care services in Russia and the CIS. The paper presents a critical research of financing the introduction of information technologies in health care services in various regions of Russia and proves the necessity of developing and implementing regional standards, the system of certifying both IT services and new types of health care activities. In order to create a single healthcare space, the authors suggest the principle of systematic approach to introducing information technologies in Russian healthcare services. To evaluate the economic efficiency of medical information technologies the authors present various methods based on the specific features of Russian healthcare service. The paper suggests using the Total Cost of Ownership method to assess the efficiency of IT systems as it is this method that can provide a comparative analysis of costs incurred in implementation and maintenance of information technologies. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the benefits of implementing electronic health records for outpatient and hospital healthcare services. The assessment of cost and outcome results in the evaluation of the economic efficiency of implementing IT in medicine.