Electronic health records: research into design and implementation

I was surprised that the only systematic review referenced in the editorial on electronic records in your October issue¹ was 10 years old and based on studies of record systems that are long obsolete.² The editorial failed to mention a 2009 systematic review by my own team, that summarised 24 previous systematic reviews on electronic records (including Mitchell and Sullivan’s) and that offered a new synthesis of primary literature from the organisation and management literature, including but not limited to actor-network theory approaches.³ The editorial also failed to mention the 2011 ‘review of reviews’ of e-health applications by Ashly Black and colleagues, that summarised 108 previous systematic reviews on electronic records and other information and communication technologies in health care.⁴ While this editorial made some good points and referenced some of the important recent studies and commentaries in this area, it was ‘freely submitted, not externally peer reviewed’ and illustrates the dangers of such a policy.