title: Benchmarking health IT among OECD countries: better data for better policy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop benchmark measures of health information and communication technology (ICT) use to facilitate cross-country comparisons and learning.
  
  
  METHODS
  The effort is led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Approaches to definition and measurement within four ICT domains were compared across seven OECD countries in order to identify functionalities in each domain. These informed a set of functionality-based benchmark measures, which were refined in collaboration with representatives from more than 20 OECD and non-OECD countries. We report on progress to date and remaining work to enable countries to begin to collect benchmark data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The four benchmarking domains include provider-centric electronic record, patient-centric electronic record, health information exchange, and tele-health. There was broad agreement on functionalities in the provider-centric electronic record domain (eg, entry of core patient data, decision support), and less agreement in the other three domains in which country representatives worked to select benchmark functionalities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many countries are working to implement ICTs to improve healthcare system performance. Although many countries are looking to others as potential models, the lack of consistent terminology and approach has made cross-national comparisons and learning difficult.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As countries develop and implement strategies to increase the use of ICTs to promote health goals, there is a historic opportunity to enable cross-country learning. To facilitate this learning and reduce the chances that individual countries flounder, a common understanding of health ICT adoption and use is needed. The OECD-led benchmarking process is a crucial step towards achieving this.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adler-Milstein
authors.forename: Elettra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ronchi
authors.forename: Genna R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Laura A Pannella
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Winn
authors.forename: Ashish K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D004467:Economics; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards*; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000592:standards*; D009938:Organizations; D011640:Public Policy; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000592:standards*
keywords: adoption of health IT; cross-country benchmarking; definitions of health IT; health policy