Page - 1 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

The Need for Theory to Inform Clinical Information Systems and Professionalise the Health Informatics Discipline Jeremy C. WYATT a,1 a Professor of Digital Healthcare and Director, Wessex Institute of Health Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK Abstract. This chapter introduces the idea of theories in health informatics, defines what we mean by theory and distinguishes theories from models, frameworks and predictive principles. After explaining why theories and predictive principles are needed to help us professionalize our discipline, the chapter offers five criteria for a successful predictive principle, discusses how to evaluate predictive principles and theories and links this with the emerging field of evidence-based health informatics. The chapter concludes with three actions needed to move the discipline of theory- based health informatics forward. Keywords. Theory, Professionalism, Evaluation, Scientific methods, Health informatics Learning objectives After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to: 1. Define “theory”, know where to locate relevant theories and understand what types of theory are relevant to health informatics. 2. Describe the importance of predictive principles and theories in advancing the health informatics discipline, health informatics research and in educating students and practitioners. 3. Explain the importance of theory in developing usable, effective health information systems, and the relevance of theory to procurement decisions. 1. Introduction: What are theories, and why do we need them in health informatics ? Nilsen [1] has written a valuable contribution about the nature of theory in the related field of implementation science which I believe should also inform our work in health informatics (HI). She conducted a careful review of the types and uses of theory and of the related concepts, models and frameworks [1] in her discipline, with two main findings. 1 Corresponding Author: Jeremy Wyatt, E-mail: j.c.wyatt@soton.ac.uk Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics P. Scott et al. (Eds.) © 2019 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/SHTI190105 1