ArticleBMJ open quality2025
Ethical and legal considerations governing use of health data for quality improvement and performance management: a scoping review of the perspectives of health professionals and administrators.
Article in BMJ open quality, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Experiences of Health Professionals Regarding Existing Guidelines Used to Manage Obstetric Emergencies in a Rural Area of South Africa: A Qualitative Explorative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Review
- Development of an Ethico-Legal Framework for Quality Improvement and Performance Management in Health Care: Protocol for a Qualitative Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Ethical and legal considerations governing use of health data for quality improvement and performance management: a scoping review of the perspectives of health professionals and administrators.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe rapid digitisation of healthcare has resulted in the capture of a vast amount of health data, which are increasingly being used for secondary purposes, such as quality improvement and performance management.
objectivesThis study examined the legal and ethical considerations that affect if and how health professionals and administrators implement and use their performance data from the perspective of these stakeholder groups. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: The search strategy focused on the use of health data (1) for quality improvement and performance management, (2) by health professionals and (3) discussion of ethicolegal concerns. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: A scoping review was conducted of three medical databases (Medline, Scopus and Embase) in April 2023, updated in June 2024. CHARTING
methodsIncluded articles were first charted against 12 descriptive variables and then thematically analysed against the 16 substantive and procedural values of the Ethics Framework for Big Data in Health and Research (the Framework).
resultsWe identified 16 articles that explored 5/7 procedural and 8/9 substantive values of the Framework. Health professionals were mostly concerned with the fairness of data comparisons defined as the use of accurate and risk-adjusted datasets and the contextualisation of performance data against clinical experiences. Health administrators additionally emphasised the importance of good governance and data stewardship to improving professional engagement with performance data, but privacy remains a key barrier.
conclusionsThe growing interest in using health data for quality improvement and performance management requires health services to address barriers to utilisation of performance data. Legal and ethical concerns must be balanced and prioritised in collaboration with end users for performance data to be accepted as a valid form of quality and performance assessment. Although privacy remains a key issue, these fears can be effectively managed by restricting public reporting on performance to only what is essential for public assurance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.