Selected Proceedings from the 16th International Symposium for Health Information Management Research, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 27–28 June, 2013.
Peter A Bath
Abstract
Selected papers from the 16th International Symposium for Health Information Management Research (ISHIMR 2013).
Prudence W Dalrymple, Lisl Zach, Michelle L Rogers
Abstract
Health literacy is essential to achieving a healthy society and an informed and empowered citizenry. Health literacy research is evolving from an approach that focuses on the transfer of factual knowledge from the provider to the patient, to one that views the patient as an information seeker and a partner in decision-making.
In this paper, the authors suggest that this shift resembles one that took place in the field of information science. Using two examples from our previous work, this paper explores whether the two fields—information science and health literacy—will at some point converge and suggests implications for future research.
Julie Kim, Morgan Price, Francis Lau
Abstract
Case study research is a rigorous method of scientific enquiry. Its rediscovery for health services research is related to the dynamic and complex natures of health services interventions and settings. Complex interventions, comprised of several interacting components, are becoming a focus in health services research. Most or all health informatics interventions could be considered to be complex interventions. Case study research addresses questions of “how” and “why” and can be conducted for exploratory, descriptive or explanatory purposes using various philosophical lenses.
The use of the method requires thoughtful consideration for case selection, data sources and collection, analysis, and quality. Proposed guidelines for the reporting and evaluation of case study research have been developed to assist in achieving high quality studies, consistent reporting, and appropriate and optimal use of the method. Use of the proposed guidelines was illustrated using four studies pertaining to primary health care informatics, with variable results.
Jacqueline M MacDonald, Peter A Bath, Andrew Booth
Abstract
In an era of increasing emphasis on health research translation for health policy and health practice, there is a need for researchers to understand how service-level health policy and practice decisions are informed and made. This paper describes the documentary analysis methods used in a study to examine an electronic meeting room booking calendar in order to quantify opportunities for health service managers to meet and share information.
Study results suggest that managers of the District Health Authority may spend as much time in meetings sharing information than they do in their own departments. A key finding of this calendar study is that scheduled one-time small group meetings may be as important to health service managers as the two types of meetings typically described in the research literature: scheduled, recurring meetings of formally named groups and unscheduled, informal meetings.
Swapnil Mahajan, Syed Sibte Raza Abidi, Derek Reilly
Abstract
The use of online communities in providing health support has increased with the emergence of online virtual worlds over the past decade [1]. We are developing a personalized online virtual world to facilitate psychosocial support to young cancer patients who are between six and fourteen years old. Salient details from the patients records are stored in an ontology which is provided to a reasoning engine as input. Based on these details patients are provided with suggestions and resources about their ongoing treatment, for example what they might follow up on with their doctors.
Commonalities between patients (for example treatments, type of cancer, age, interests) can also be used to facilitate productive interactions in the world between the patients. In this paper we describe the architecture of our system, describe our current prototype implementation, and discuss how our system may be used in combination with physical co-located support groups.
Hannah Spring
Abstract
To date, there have been no studies that examine issues of research engagement exclusively within the context of UK health librarianship. This is the first and largest study of its kind and aimed to consider research participation in health librarianship, and answer the question, what are the barriers to and priorities for research engagement in health librarianship?
A focus group attended by seven participants was followed by a UK wide survey involving a total of 316 representatives from eight identified categories of health librarianship. The focus group reached consensus on the five key barriers and five key priorities to research engagement in health librarianship.
The survey results revealed that research engagement in health librarianship is linked to a number of factors including organisational and professional cultures around research, perceived limited resources to support research, perceived opportunities for research, and a diverse understanding and perception of what research is amongst health librarians.
André Blondiau, Anne Cleven, Peter Rohner
Abstract
With the introduction of case rates, the increase in regional competition and the increased quality awareness of patients, hospitals are faced with fundamental challenges. Experiences from health systems that have been working under these conditions for some time have shown that the following capabilities are crucial for their survival: Development of efficient supply structures, improving competitiveness and ensuring a high quality of treatment. In terms of a holistic supply and a quality advantage, the ability for intra-and inter-organisational with other medical service providers is therefore of fundamental importance.
Together with five hospitals from Switzerland and Germany, the researchers followed a maturity approach for measuring success factors for cooperation. They describe the identification of these factors and their evaluation with practitioners. Furthermore they present results of an initial pilot survey. As underlying foundation the multidimensional business engineering approach has been identified as an appropriate framework in order to reflect the organisational complexity of hospitals.
Noora Hirvonen, Maija-Leena Huotari
Abstract
The findings from a case study conducted to increase understanding of health-related everyday life information behaviour in the context of an e-health intervention to preventing cardiovascular diseases are reported. The theoretical framework combines the concepts of information behaviour and practices and related factors. The data, consisting of semi-structured interviews of five intervention participants’, were content analysed. The findings indicate that the practices of information seeking, use, and sharing were acted upon in the intervention.
Information sharing emerged as an important practice and was actualised in Skype meetings. Skype was considered to be advantageous for information sharing, while the web learning environment was perceived merely as information storage. The study was small-scaled with obvious limitations. However, the findings provide the viewpoint of an intervention’s participants in a real-life context. This information can be useful in designing future research focusing on a more detailed examination of how information provision may have an impact on people’s health behaviour.
Mirko Kühne, Nadine Blinn, Markus Nüttgens
Abstract
The Internet is increasingly used as a source for information and knowledge. Also in the field of healthcare, information is widely available. Against the backdrop of online health information, two questions are of interest: (a) which information or content is provided? and, (b) what are the users’ expectations towards information provision? Up to now, these questions have not been answered.
Based on the results of our study in 2009 regarding the content provision by German health insurances, we conducted an exploratory, survey-based study that aims at exploring the users’ expectations towards online provision of health information. Our descriptive results uncover a gap between provision and user expectation of health information and address researchers as well as practitioners. Moreover, our study provides a foundation for a holistic framework for the evaluation of provision and user expectations of online health information.
Ying Liao, Kiran Fernandes, Denise Downs, Gill Foley
Abstract
Open source initiatives like the U.S. Veteran VistA has had a profound impact on how services can be delivered to patients. Despite the growing support for the use of open source technologies in general and healthcare in particular, the United Kingdom healthcare community has been slow to adopt these technologies. Key reasons cited for this has been the lack of government policy and initiatives to support business to operate commercially in this sector.
This article proposes a framework for implementing a UK e-health open source ecosystem that can potentially foster the re-use of software components and promote interoperable software solutions in the National Health Service (NHS) to support improved patient-centred care.
Paolo Melillo, Leandro Pecchia, Peter A Bath, Marcello Bracale
Abstract
Previous research has identified various risk factors for mortality in older people. The aim of this paper was to use Classification and Regression Tree to predict 15-year survival in community-dwelling older people. Data were obtained from a United Kingdom representative sample of 1042 community-dwelling people aged 65 and over. Outcome was time from 1985 interview to death or censorship on 29 February 2000.
Classification and Regression Tree is a non-parametric technique widely used in medical domain classification. We applied CART to the set of risk-factors identified in a previous research. The selected CART model is based on age, dose of drug prescribed and handgrip measures. It predicts survival with a sensitivity rate of 76.3% and a specificity rate of 66.3%. The selection of variables are consistent with previous research. Finally, we observed the range of risk factors and their combination associated with increased and decreased mortality.
Jane Sharp, Barbara Anne Sen
Abstract
Automatic indexing is evaluated as an aid/replacement to manual indexing for biomedical literature. Manual indexing is costly and labour intensive. Technological innovations have the potential to increase efficiency and reduce costs. British Library produces a bibliographic database of allied and complementary medicine (AMED). This study compares articles which have been indexed manually for AMED with the same documents submitted to an automated indexing tool.
The indexing tool selected was Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Engineering, (HIVE) which is a jointly funded project by the University of North Carolina and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, North Carolina. A random selection of 100 records from a total of 1059 articles was selected. Each manually indexed document was compared with results returned by HIVE. Data analysis was made using SPSS. Results showed that HIVE does not provide a suitable replacement for the skills of a human indexer. Continued development of automatic indexing tools is recommended.