Seite - 205 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Reflecting and Looking to the Future: What Philip J. SCOTTa, Nicolette F. DE KEIZERband Andrew GEORGIOUc aCentre for Healthcare Modelling & Informatics, University of Portsmouth, UK aDepartment of Medical Informatics, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Institute, The Netherlands cCentre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Abstract. In this chapter, we reflect on the aim and objectives of the textbook and address known gaps in our theory coverage. We reinforce the importance of theory in health informatics and review the varying disciplinary origins of the theories considered in the book. We discuss the question of what makes a good theory and how toknow which one is relevant for a given study. We recognize the limitations of the body of theorythat we have presented and suggest what might be regarded as “native” theory that is original to health informatics. Finally, we propose topics to form a research agenda for theory in health informatics. Keywords. Health informatics, Theory, Epistemology, Research 1. Introduction We wanted this book to provide a scientific knowledge base to progress the agenda of evidence-based health informatics [4] by emphasising theory-informed work which sets out to‘enrich our understanding of thiscomplex field’[5].The first hurdle we confronted was that the definition of ‘theory’ within our field was ambiguous and needed to be broadened and made flexible so as to be “abstract enough to permit generalization, but concrete enough to permit testing”.As a consequence, when predictive theories were not available, frameworks including (also non-causal) associations between concepts were selected. We have included fifteen different theories and frameworks in the book: five from information science and technology, nine from the social and psychological sciences and one ambitious framework that aims to integrate several theoretical approaches to the adoption and sustainability of health informatics interventions. Within each chapter use cases have been described that showed how the particular theory or framework enriched the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of health IT interventions to ultimately improve care. Although we do not pretend to have comprehensively covered the whole health informatics field with our fifteen chapters of theories and frameworks (see section 2), we believe that the theories included provide a solid base which will inspire further developments as needed. We believe that enhanced understanding of applied theories in health informatics can make a positive addition to health IT research, implementation and education. Is the Research Agenda for Theory in Health Informatics? 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/SHTI190124 205