Methods

A scoping literature review is a systematic method to map the available evidence of a topic and can be used to identify and analyse knowledge gaps. Outcomes of a scoping review can be used to direct further research, or even support recommendations, depending on the topic (Munn et al., 2018; Peters et al., 2021; PRISMA, 2021; Rethlefsen et al., 2021). The research question is to determine the evidence base surrounding EMR implementation in Australia, so a scoping literature review would be the most appropriate methodology.
The review included five key phases:
  1. Identifying the research question
  2. Identifying and selecting relevant studies
  3. Evaluation of data
  4. Thematic analysis
  5. Summarising and reporting results
Prior to data collection, an exploratory search was performed to ascertain scope and eligibility criteria suitable for the time and researcher constraints.

Research question & objectives

This review was guided by the question: ‘Has the success of electronic medical record (EMR) implementation been evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively in the Australian health care system?’ broken down into the objectives in Table 2 .

Table 2: Research question breakdown and objective