Assessment of Computerized Medical Equipment Management and Maintenance System from HTA perspective: Need and Approach

For providing quality health care proper management of medical equipments is important. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a software package used by healthcare technology management (HTM) programs as a tool to manage, organize, collect, store, analyze, and report data on medical technology in a healthcare facilities. Though, CMMS are introduced as a beneficial and flexible tool for transforming the management of biomedical equipment but no evidence of same has been documented yet to highlight the efficacy of CMMS in Indian context. CMMS, an e-Health system used by HTM programs, is a relative new technology being adapted by various states of India. It is very important to assess whether this system is functioning and producing the effects as expected. Assessment will inform decision makers about what is known and what is not known about the technology and will provide an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of this technology. Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a formal, systematic research process designed to synthesize and evaluate the existing evidence for a medical treatment or health delivery innovation. So considering HTA perspective, an assessment approach to CMMS could be planned. Systematic reviews and empirical frameworks that have been used to make sense of e-Health systems and their evaluation could be used for assessment of this technology. Assessment of CMMS from HTA perspective should be integral to the adoption of HTM systems by healthcare organizations.