Page - vii - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Preface Philip J. SCOTT a,1 , Nicolette F. DE KEIZER b and Andrew GEORGIOU c a Centre for Healthcare Modelling & Informatics, University of Portsmouth, UK b Department of Medical Informatics, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Institute, The Netherlands c Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 1. Purpose Kurt Lewin, the pioneer of social psychology, famously said that ‘there is nothing more practical than a good theory’ [1]. We agree and hope that readers of this book will come to share this view. Our aim is to provide a scientific knowledge base to support education, research and implementation. The editors came together as proponents of evidence-based health informatics within the European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI) Work- ing Group on Health IT Evaluation and the International Medical Informatics Associa- tion (IMIA) Working Group on Technology Assessment and Quality Development [2]. We have the shared belief that theory is insufficiently considered in our field along with the collegiate aim to improve the status quo. We want to move theory from a niche in- terest to a core concern of health informatics, to contribute to the maturity of the disci- pline and above all to improve care by effective health IT interventions. Specifically, this book was motivated by the outcome of a workshop at Medinfo 2015 that called for a “theory toolbox”, as elaborated in a paper at Medical Informatics Europe 2016 [3]. There are distinct audiences and corresponding benefits from taking a theoretically- informed approach to health informatics. For implementers, application of theory can help adoption of best practice and work towards demonstrating improved outcomes of health informatics interventions. For researchers and evaluators, knowledge of theory can help to identify gaps in knowledge and hence prioritise, justify and guide research and evaluation where they are most needed. For educators, using theory can instil a scientific approach in their students. Importantly, we believe that all of these groups can be termed “practitioners” of health informatics (as our book title suggests). Overall, the purpose of the book is to move forward the agenda of evidence-based health informatics [4] by emphasising theory-informed work that aims to “enrich our … understanding of this uniquely complex field” [5]. We have not set out to offer an ex- haustive or comprehensive coverage of theory in health informatics. As our final chapter elaborates, we know that there are important topics that we have not been able to include in this volume. However, we do believe that this book discusses some of the most im- portant and commonly used theories relevant to health informatics and that this collection marks a significant milestone on the journey. We want this book to constitute a first iteration of a consolidated knowledge base that can advance the science of our field. 1 Corresponding Author: Philip Scott, E-mail: philip.scott@port.ac.uk vii