Seite - 47 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Figure 6: The expected utility (EU) of completing a given task by human or computer can be plotted over a task space. The information value chain (represented as 5 separate tasks) can be plotted into this human- computer task space. The resulting value profile is a function of the given task, the specific technology implementation, the human user, and the context of use. The shape of the plot will likely vary by changing any of these four variables (from Coiera, 2016). Teaching questions for reflection 1. Describe the typical steps in an information value chain and explain how you would measure the effectiveness at each step for a conversational agent that assists patient’s check their symptoms and decide whether to seek professional help. 2. What is the value of information for a new radiological test that has an accuracy of 95%, and which is 20% more accurate in identifying early stage cancer than the current standard test, knowing that undetected cancers will otherwise result in death? Patients report that on a scale of 1 to 10 for discomfort, the new test rates 6, whilst the old test rated 2. 3. Figure 3 shows possible value profiles for several different classes of health information system. Which bundle of two technologies is most likely to improve patient outcomes, using three example profiles? 4. Looking at the value profile for telemedicine, how reasonable is it to expect that widespread use of telemedicine will improve patient outcomes? Contrast the scenario where patients all have full and easy access to face to face consultations with the circumstance where patients are in remote settings. 5. What advice would you give to a hospital proposing to implement a new Audit and Feedback tool to improve the quality of their oncology service, referring to the experience in Case Study 2? Acknowledgment. This chapter is based in part on material originally published in the Guide to Health Informatics, Third Edition, (2015) published by CRC Press. E.Coiera /AssessingTechnologySuccessandFailureUsing InformationValueChainTheory 47