Scientific production of electronic health record research, 1991-2005

Purpose: The increasing numbers of publications on electronic health record (EHR) indicate its increasing importance in the world. This study attempted to quantify the scientific production of EHR research articles, and how they have changed over time, in an effort to investigate changes in the trends cited in these critical evaluations. Method: The articles were based on the science citation index (SCI) from 1991 to 2005. A descriptive study was performed using the 1803 documents published in the SCI from 39 countries in America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The evaluation was based on parameters including document type, language, first author's country of origin, number of citations and citations per publication. Results: Of all publications, 1455 (80.7%) were articles, followed by meeting abstracts which represented about one-tenth of all types of EHR publications. Numbers of published articles have significantly increased when compared by each 5-year period. Most articles were published in English (98%) and were from the region of America (57%). The top 10 of the 374 journals accounted for 41% of the number of published articles. The US dominates publication production (57%) with a cumulative impact factor (IF) of 2227 and followed by the UK (8.5%, with a cumulative IF of 257.0) and the Netherlands (7.8%, with a cumulative IF of 211.1). An analysis of the number of articles related to population revealed a high publication output for relative small countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Norway. Conclusions: Research production in EHR showed a considerable increase during 1991-2005. The production was dominated by articles, those from the US, and those published in English. The production came from many countries, denoting the devotion to this field in different areas around the world.