Seite - 206 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Researchers often have a role in designing health IT and evaluating its effect. A good example is the chapter by Gude and Peek which outlines how Control Theorywas used to design electronic audit and feedback interventions and to understand the mechanisms behind it through thorough theory-based evaluation. When theories and frameworks appeared to be predictive in the success (or failure) of implementation of a health IT intervention, such as shown in the chapters on technology adaption of Ammenwerth and Greenhalgh et al, it seems unethical and inefficient when implementers of health IT intervention do not use this knowledge. We also believe this book provide important educational material to teachers and students. First it gives an overview of relevant theories and frameworks in the field. Second, by the example use cases young scientists may translate the use of these theories and frameworks to other applications they will encounter in their career. Third, the teaching questions at the end of each chapter support further discussion among students and teachers to deepen the understanding of theories and their applications. We had three specific objectives with this book, discussed in the following sections of this concluding chapter: To show where and how interdisciplinary theories have been applied in health informatics To identify theory developed specifically within health informatics To highlight where further work is necessary to develop theory-based approaches. The use cases in chapter two to sixteen show a wide range of applications of interdisciplinary theories in health informatics. We summarize and reflect upon this in sections 4-6 of this chapter. Researchers and implementers are motivated to add to this set of applications, thereby broadening the knowledge on applicability of theories in a variety of contexts. Researchers are encouraged to publish results, either positive or negative, so that all can learn from these findings. In section 7 we will discuss the limited amount of theories specifically developed within health informatics illustrating the fledgling status of health informatics as a discipline. In this final chapter we also offer our own overview of theory within the overall health informatics body of knowledge and propose a research agenda to contribute to the development of the health informatics discipline. 2. How comprehensive is our theory coverage? We organised the chapters of this book according to two of theAMIA“foundational domains” of health informatics [60]: information science and social science (see Table 1). The third foundational domain, health science, has not directly featured in this book. Yet, of course, theory abounds in the health sciences. There are theories of ethics [41] and applied theory drawn from the natural sciences [34]. We think of the fundamental theories of Western medicine such as Harvey’s theory of blood circulation [13] and the germ theory of disease [1], plus more recent developments such as the inflammation theory of disease [31] and social determinants theory [61]. The nursing profession has a rich and extensive body of theory, from Florence Nightingale onwards [44]. So far, in itself, the body of health sciences theory may seem less relevant for health informatics – though we return to this in section 6. We observe that many of the theories covered in P.J.Scott etal. /ReflectingandLooking to theFuture206