Data from: National monitoring and evaluation of eHealth: a scoping review

Objective: There has been substantial growth in eHealth over the past
decade, driven by expectations of improved healthcare system performance.
Despite substantial eHealth investment, little is known about the
monitoring and evaluation strategies for gauging progress in terms of
eHealth availability and use. This scoping review aims to map the existing
literature and depict the predominant approaches and methodological
recommendations to national and regional monitoring and evaluation of
eHealth availability and use in order to advance national strategies for
monitoring and evaluating eHealth. Methods: Peer-reviewed and grey
literature on monitoring and evaluation of eHealth availability and use,
published between January 1st, 2009, to March 11th, 2019, were eligible
for inclusion. 2,354 publications were identified, and 36 publications
were included after full-text review. Data on publication type (e.g.
empirical research), country, level (national or regional), publication
year, method (e.g. survey), and domain (e.g., Provider-centric electronic
record) was charted. Results: The majority of publications monitored
availability alone or applied a combination of availability and use
measures. Surveys were the most common data collection method (used in 86%
of the publications). OECD, European Commission, Canada Health Infoway,
and WHO have developed comprehensive eHealth monitoring and evaluation
methodology recommendations. Discussion: Establishing continuous national
eHealth monitoring and evaluation, based on international approaches and
recommendations, could improve the ability for cross-country benchmarking
and learning. This scoping review provides an overview of the predominant
approaches and recommendations to national and regional monitoring and
evaluating eHealth and thereby provides a starting point for developing
national eHealth monitoring strategies.