Context-aware unified health knowledge services: an information systems architecture to improve clinicians’ research for evidence-based practice

A diverse group of clinicians (including general practitioners, nurses, medical researchers, dentists, psychologists, and pharmacists) utilise organisation knowledge services to practice evidence-based health care. These organisation knowledge services generally comprise a group of systems integrating a broad range of evidence-based clinical information and peer-reviewed medical research. Prior literature reveals that these knowledge services fail to meet the diverse and emerging research demands of clinicians due to the existing computer science approach to information retrieval. The interconnections of these subsystems also lead to a fragmented experience for clinicians, wasting valuable time and effort in the process of conducting research to remain current and provide appropriate care. This thesis designs and evaluates a novel knowledge services architecture using a user-oriented information sciences approach to solve practical challenges faced by clinicians to provide patient care, conduct medical research, and update professional knowledge. Drawing on the constructivist paradigm, we adopt Design Science Research (DSR), Design Thinking, and Systems Thinking to construct the solution architecture as a novel DSR artefact in three related studies. Firstly, we design and evaluate a context model with insight from health care practitioners and researchers. Secondly, we design a novel architecture to unify key systems and increase utility to clinicians. Thirdly, we assess a context aware unified architecture against real-world criteria by interviewing managers of three different healthcare organisations. Finally, we also develop a fourth artefact in the form of a design theory or mature knowledge to remove pain points or barriers clinicians face when retrieving information. Our final novel knowledge services architecture is of use to a range of clinicians seeking up-to-date, accessible, and streamlined information to practise evidence-based health care. Of particular interest is our finding of the significance of group context as key for clinicians to leap from organisational context to user context for improved information retrieval.