PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ann R R Robertson AU - Ulugbek Nurmatov AU - Harpreet S Sood AU - Kathrin Cresswell AU - Pam Smith AU - Aziz Sheikh TI - A systematic scoping review of the domains and innovations in secondary uses of digitised health-related data AID - 10.14236/jhi.v23i3.841 DP - 2016 Jul 01 TA - BMJ Health & Care Informatics PG - 611--619 VI - 23 IP - 3 4099 - http://informatics.bmj.com/content/23/3/611.short 4100 - http://informatics.bmj.com/content/23/3/611.full AB - Background Substantial investments are being made in health information technology (HIT) based on assumptions that these systems will save costs through increased quality, safety and efficiency of care provision. Whilst short-term benefits have often proven difficult to demonstrate, there is increasing interest in achieving benefits in the medium and long term through secondary uses of HIT-derived data.Aims We aimed to describe the range of secondary uses of HIT-derived data in the international literature and identify innovative developments of particular relevance to UK policymakers and managers.Methods We searched nine electronic databases to conduct a systematic scoping review of the international literature and augmented this by consulting a range of experts in the field.Results Reviewers independently screened 16,806 titles, resulting in 583 eligible studies for inclusion. Thematic organisation of reported secondary uses was validated during expert consultation (n = 23). A primary division was made between patient-identifiable data and datasets in which individuals were not identified. Secondary uses were then categorised under four domain headings of: i) research; ii) quality and safety of care provision; iii) financial management; and iv) healthcare professional education. We found that innovative developments were most evident in research where, in particular, dataset linkage studies offered important opportunities for exploitation.Conclusions Distinguishing patient-identifiable data from aggregated, de-identified datasets gives greater conceptual clarity in secondary uses of HIT-derived data. Secondary uses research has substantial potential for realising future benefits through generating new medical knowledge from dataset linkage studies, developing precision medicine and enabling cross-sectoral, evidence-based policymaking to benefit population-level well-being.