Gagnon Marie-Pierre, Scott Richard E
Global e-Health Research and Training Program, Health Telematics Unit, University of Calgary, Canada.
J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11 Suppl 2:S34-6. doi: 10.1258/135763305775124722.
Evaluation is crucial to the integration of e-health applications into the health-care system and their ultimate sustainability. However, e-health evaluation is often criticized for the poor quality of research design, the lack of common outcome indicators and the absence of an agreed theory. Health technology assessment (HTA) could offer a sound methodological basis for e-health evaluation. However, there have been major concerns about the applicability of the HTA approach to the evaluation of e-health initiatives. Evaluators -- and decision makers -- must accept that telehealth evaluation may serve different purposes for different stakeholders, and therefore concede that no single evaluation framework or methodology, even the randomized controlled trial, is totally objective. To address the complex environment of telehealth evaluation, a participatory strategy is useful, whereby stakeholders are involved in the study design and definition of evaluation questions at each phase. This will also build confidence between the evaluation team and the stakeholders, facilitating informed decision making through an integrated knowledge mobilization activity.
评估对于电子健康应用融入医疗保健系统及其最终的可持续性至关重要。然而，电子健康评估常常因研究设计质量差、缺乏通用的结果指标以及没有公认的理论而受到批评。卫生技术评估（HTA）可为电子健康评估提供坚实的方法基础。然而，人们对HTA方法在电子健康计划评估中的适用性存在重大担忧。评估人员以及决策者必须承认，远程医疗评估对于不同的利益相关者可能有不同的目的，因此必须承认，即使是随机对照试验，也没有单一的评估框架或方法是完全客观的。为应对远程医疗评估的复杂环境，参与式策略很有用，即利益相关者在每个阶段都参与研究设计和评估问题的定义。这也将在评估团队和利益相关者之间建立信任，通过综合的知识传播活动促进明智的决策。
