Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted What are the barriers to User Acceptance and Use of EHRs in the Gulf Regions? Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Huntul, Ahmed; JENKINS, JUDYBackground: The global shift towards Electronic Health Records (EHRs) has been fuelled by the constraints of paper-based patient records, which have long been the norm in the healthcare industry. These drawbacks include limited accessibility, missing data, and legibility concerns. One of the main areas of healthcare reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the implementation of EHRs. But there are still a lot of obstacles to adoption and utilisation, particularly for frontline healthcare workers. Objective: Through a systematic review of qualitative studies, this study aims to investigate the obstacles to user acceptance and usage of EHRs in the Gulf area, offering thematic insights into adoption-affecting issues. Methods: For studies published between 2015 and June 2025, a systematic review using the SPIDER methodology was carried out across five databases (Scopus, Cinhal, Embase, Medline, and Google Scholar). Qualitative or mixed-methods research involving medical professionals in GCC countries were the focus of the inclusion criteria. The CASP checklist was used to evaluate quality. Four major themes, fourteen subthemes, and 141 codes were produced by thematically synthesising data from nine qualifying studies. Results: Technical and system-related problems, such as unstable infrastructure, poor interoperability, and usability issues; human and behavioural barriers, such as resistance to change, lack of training, and workload burden; organisational and administrative weaknesses, such as unstable leadership, poor governance, and staffing shortages; and data and security issues, such as privacy, confidentiality, and data integrity risks, were the four categories of barriers that were identified. Conclusion: EHR adoption in the Gulf is not only a technical problem, but also a cultural, organisational, and policy issue. For the region's digital health transition to be sustainable, it is essential that governance be strengthened, leadership be stable, user training be improved, and strong data governance frameworks be developed.10 0