Developing A General Framework for National Health Information Network for Developing Countries

BACKGROUND: The National Health Information Network (NHIN) is one of the key issues in health information systems in any country. However, the development of this network should be based on an appropriate framework. Unfortunately, the conducted projects of health information systems in the Ministry of Health of Iran do not fully comply with the concept of NHIN. The present study was aimed to develop a general framework for NHIN in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, in the first stage, the required information about the concept of the NHIN framework and related NHIN documents in the USA and the UK were collected based on a literature review. Then, according to the results of the first stage and with regards to the structure of the Iranian health system, a general framework for Iranian NHIN was proposed. The Delphi technique was conducted to verify the framework. RESULTS: The proposed framework for Iranian NHIN includes three dimensions; components, principles, and architecture. Over 80% of experts have evaluated all three aspects of the framework at an acceptable scale. In total, the proposed framework has been evaluated by 83.8% of the experts at an acceptable scale. CONCLUSION: The proposed framework was expected to serve as the starting point for moving towards the design and creation of Iranian NHIN. At any rate, the framework could be criticized, and it could only be used for the countries whose health system is similar to the structure of the health system in Iran.