Information Needs of Health Care Professionals in an Aids Outpatient Clinic as Determined by Chart Review

BACKGROUND Smart home and telemonitoring technologies have often been suggested to assist health care workers in supporting older people to age in place. However, there is limited research examining diverse information needs of different groups of health care workers and their access to appropriate information technologies. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the issues associated with using technologies that connect older people to their health care providers to support aging in place and enhance older people’s health and well-being. METHODS Seven focus group discussions were conducted comprising 44 health care professionals who provided clinic-based or in-home services to community-dwelling older people. Participants were asked about their information needs and how technology could help them support older people to age in place. The recordings of the sessions were transcribed and thematically analyzed. RESULTS The perspectives varied between the respondents who worked in primary care clinics and those who worked in community-based services. Three overarching themes were identified. The first theme was “access to technology and systems,” which examined the different levels of technology in use and the problems that various groups of health care professionals had in accessing information about their patients. Primary care professionals had access to good internal information systems but they experienced poor integration with other health care providers. The community-based teams had poor access to technology. The second theme was “collecting and sharing of information,” which focused on how technology might be used to provide them with more information about their patients. Primary care teams were interested in telemonitoring for specific clinical indicators but they wanted the information to be preprocessed. Community-based teams were more concerned about gaining information on the patients’ social environment. The third theme was that all respondents identified similar “barriers to uptake”: cost and funding issues, usability of systems by older people, and information security and privacy concerns. CONCLUSIONS The participants perceived the potential benefits of technologies, but they were concerned that the information they received should be preprocessed and integrated with current information systems and tailored to the older people’s unique and changing situations. Several management and governance issues were identified, which needed to be resolved to enable the widespread integration of these technologies into the health care system. The disconnected nature of the current information architecture means that there is no clear way for sensor data from telemonitoring and smart home devices to be integrated with other patient information. Furthermore, cost, privacy, security, and usability barriers also need to be resolved. This study highlights the importance and the complexity of management and governance of systems to collect and disseminate such information. Further research into the requirements of all stakeholder groups and how the information can be processed and disseminated is required.

Download Full-text

Conceptualization and Implementation of the Central Information Portal on Rare Diseases: Protocol for a Qualitative Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.7425 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Svenja Litzkendorf ◽

Tobias Hartz ◽

Jens Göbel ◽

Holger Storf ◽

Frédéric Pauer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Rare Diseases ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Information Needs ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Quality Criteria ◽

Quality Information ◽

High Quality ◽

Information Portal ◽

High Quality Information

BACKGROUND Recently, public and political interest has focused on people living with rare diseases and their health concerns. Due to the large number of different types of rare diseases and the sizable number of patients, taking action to improve the life of those affected is gaining importance. In 2013, the federal government of Germany adopted a national action plan for rare diseases, including the call to establish a central information portal on rare diseases (Zentrales Informationsportal über seltene Erkrankungen, ZIPSE). OBJECTIVE The objective of this study, therefore, was to conduct scientific research on how such a portal must be designed to meet the needs of patients, their families, and medical professionals, and to provide high-quality information for information seekers. METHODS We chose a 3-step procedure to develop a needs-based prototype of a central information portal. In the first step, we determined the information needs of patients with rare diseases, their relatives, and health care professionals by means of qualitative interviews and their content-analytical evaluation. On the basis of this, we developed the basic structure of the portal. In the second step, we identified quality criteria for websites on rare diseases to ensure that the information linked with ZIPSE meets the quality demands. Therefore, we gathered existing criteria catalogs and discussed them in an expert workshop. In the third step, we implemented and tested the developed prototypical information portal. RESULTS A portal page was configured and made accessible on the Web. The structure of ZIPSE was based on the findings from 108 qualitative interviews with patients, their relatives, and health care professionals, through which numerous information needs were identified. We placed particularly important areas of information, such as symptoms, therapy, research, and advisory services, on the start page. Moreover, we defined 13 quality criteria, referring to factors such as author information, creation date, and privacy, enabling links with high-quality information. Moreover, 19 users tested all the developed routines based on usability and comprehensibility. Subsequently, we improved the visual presentation of search results and other important search functions. CONCLUSIONS The implemented information portal, ZIPSE, provides high-quality information on rare diseases from a central point of access. By integrating the targeted groups as well as different experts on medical information during the construction, the website can assure an improved search for information for users. ZIPSE can also serve as a model for other Web-based information systems in the field of rare diseases. REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER RR1-10.2196/7425

Download Full-text

Developing a Self-Administered Decision Aid for Fecal Immunochemical Test�Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Tailored to Citizens With Lower Educational Attainment: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.9696 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Pernille Gabel ◽

Pia Kirkegaard ◽

Mette Bach Larsen ◽

Adrian Edwards ◽

Berit Andersen

Keyword(s):

Colorectal Cancer ◽

Health Care ◽

Cancer Screening ◽

Colorectal Cancer Screening ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Decision Aid ◽

Information Needs ◽

Screening Participation ◽

Beta Testing ◽

Cancer Screening Participation

BACKGROUND Citizens with lower educational attainments (EA) take up colorectal cancer screening to a lesser degree, and more seldom read and understand conventional screening information than citizens with average EAs. The information needs of citizens with lower EA are diverse, however, with preferences ranging from wanting clear recommendations to seeking detailed information about screening. Decision aids have been developed to support citizens with lower EA in making informed decisions about colorectal cancer screening participation, but none embrace diverse information needs. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop a self-administered decision aid for participation in fecal immunochemical test–based colorectal cancer screening. The decision aid should be tailored to citizens with lower EA and should embrace diverse information needs. METHODS The Web-based decision aid was developed according to an international development framework, with specific steps for designing, alpha testing, peer reviewing, and beta testing the decision aid. In the design phase, a prototype of the decision aid was developed based on previous studies about the information needs of lower EA citizens and the International Patient Decision Aid Standards guidelines. Alpha testing was conducted using focus group interviews and email correspondence. Peer review was conducted using email correspondence. Both tests included both lower EA citizens and health care professionals. The beta testing was conducted using telephone interviews with citizens with lower EA. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS The developed decision aid presented information in steps, allowing citizens to read as much or as little as wanted. Values clarification questions were included after each section of information, and answers were summarized in a “choice-indicator” on the last page, guiding the citizens toward a decision about screening participation. Statistics were presented in both natural frequencies, absolute risk formats and graphically. The citizens easily and intuitively navigated around the final version of the decision aid and stated that they felt encouraged to think about the benefits and harms of colorectal cancer screening without being overloaded with information. They found the decision aid easy to understand and the text of suitable length. The health care professionals agreed with the citizens on most parts; however, concerns were raised about the length and readability of the text. CONCLUSIONS We have developed a self-administered decision aid presenting information in steps. We involved both citizens and health care professionals to target the decision aid for citizens with lower EA. This decision aid represents a new way of communicating detailed information and may be able to enhance informed choices about colorectal cancer screening participation among citizens with lower EA.

Download Full-text

Issues Associated With the Management and Governance of Sensor Data and Information to Assist Aging in Place: Focus Group Study With Health Care Professionals

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/24157 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. e24157

Author(s):

Inga Hunter ◽

Phoebe Elers ◽

Caroline Lockhart ◽

Hans Guesgen ◽

Amardeep Singh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Health Care ◽

Older People ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Information Needs ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Care Providers ◽

Community Based ◽

Age In Place

Background Smart home and telemonitoring technologies have often been suggested to assist health care workers in supporting older people to age in place. However, there is limited research examining diverse information needs of different groups of health care workers and their access to appropriate information technologies. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the issues associated with using technologies that connect older people to their health care providers to support aging in place and enhance older people’s health and well-being. Methods Seven focus group discussions were conducted comprising 44 health care professionals who provided clinic-based or in-home services to community-dwelling older people. Participants were asked about their information needs and how technology could help them support older people to age in place. The recordings of the sessions were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Results The perspectives varied between the respondents who worked in primary care clinics and those who worked in community-based services. Three overarching themes were identified. The first theme was “access to technology and systems,” which examined the different levels of technology in use and the problems that various groups of health care professionals had in accessing information about their patients. Primary care professionals had access to good internal information systems but they experienced poor integration with other health care providers. The community-based teams had poor access to technology. The second theme was “collecting and sharing of information,” which focused on how technology might be used to provide them with more information about their patients. Primary care teams were interested in telemonitoring for specific clinical indicators but they wanted the information to be preprocessed. Community-based teams were more concerned about gaining information on the patients’ social environment. The third theme was that all respondents identified similar “barriers to uptake”: cost and funding issues, usability of systems by older people, and information security and privacy concerns. Conclusions The participants perceived the potential benefits of technologies, but they were concerned that the information they received should be preprocessed and integrated with current information systems and tailored to the older people’s unique and changing situations. Several management and governance issues were identified, which needed to be resolved to enable the widespread integration of these technologies into the health care system. The disconnected nature of the current information architecture means that there is no clear way for sensor data from telemonitoring and smart home devices to be integrated with other patient information. Furthermore, cost, privacy, security, and usability barriers also need to be resolved. This study highlights the importance and the complexity of management and governance of systems to collect and disseminate such information. Further research into the requirements of all stakeholder groups and how the information can be processed and disseminated is required.

Download Full-text

Preoperative information needs of children

Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1708639 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 06 (02) ◽

pp. 040-043

Author(s):

Priya Reshma Aranha

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Information Needs ◽

Survey Design ◽

Care Facility ◽

Health Care Facility ◽

Sampling Technique ◽

Research Approach ◽

Study Results ◽

Preoperative Information

AbstractInformation seeking and receiving is the universally accepted right of children. When the children gets hospitalized and preparing for a surgery, it's the responsibility of the health care professionals to provide them with adequate information. Before giving the information it is essential to know what the children really wants to know. The main purpose of the study was to assess preoperative information needs of children undergoing surgery. With the non experimental research approach, a descriptive survey design was used in the study which was conducted in a selected hospital Mangaluru. Using non probability purposive sampling technique, 100 children of age 6-18 years were selected as study participants. The tool used were – the baseline proforma and the children's desire for preoperative information scale. The study results showed that majority of the children wanted to know the information regarding all the major happenings in their pre, intra and post operative events. Thus the study concludes that a structured preoperative teaching programme can be developed by the health care facility for the children undergoing surgery.

Download Full-text

Aged Care in Indonesia: Information Needs of Health care Professionals in Community Health Centers

World Health & Population ◽

10.12927/whp..17496 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Gita Sakti ◽

Duncan Boldy

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Community Health ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Information Needs ◽

Community Health Centers ◽

Aged Care ◽

Health Centers

Download Full-text

CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF ATTITUDE, PRACTICE AND KNOWLEDGE OF ORAL HYGIENE PRACTICES AND DENTAL TREATMENT IN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS IN SOUTH CANARA DISTRICT.( KARNATAKA)

Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1703827 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 04 (04) ◽

pp. 028-032

Author(s):

K.S Sharath ◽

Manavi Prabhu ◽

Biju Thomas ◽

Shamila Shetty

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Oral Hygiene ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Information Needs ◽

Dental Treatment ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Hygiene Practices

Abstract Objective: The purpose of the study is to estimate the knowledge, attitude and practise of the oral hygiene,and dental treatment, and its correlation with everyday oral hygiene practices among the health care professionals of south canara district ( Karnataka) Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted on 200 health care professionals between Jan 20th to Feb 20th 2013.Two hundred health professionals were asked to answer a questionnaire containing 15 questions.Data once collected was analysed using SPSS software. Results: 56.3% health professionals visited the dentist once in six months. 26% health professionals felt that unavailability of time is the main factor influencing dental visits. Main cause of taking a dental appointment in 33% subjects was found to be dental caries. 54.6% obtained information on oral hygiene practices through mass media followed by 22.3 % who obtained it directly from the dentist.59.2% brushed their teeth twice daily.50% used medium bristle tooth brush.48.5 % had a brushing time of 3-5 min. 41.5% did not use any other oral hygiene aid.28.64% got scaling done in the last 3-6 months. 56% did not have an habit of using a tooth pick. 43.3% used combination of circular, vertical and horizontal method of brushing.45.5% felt that scaling caused loss of enamel. Conclusion: It appears that knowledge, attitude, and behaviour attitude, practice and knowledge of oral hygiene practices and dental treatment in health care professionals in South Canara district is gud.Though more information needs to be provided about other oral hygiene aids.

Download Full-text

Development of a Scale to Measure Information Needs in Cancer Care

Journal of Nursing Measurement ◽

10.1891/1061-3749.6.2.137 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 137-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Lesley F. Degner ◽

B. Joyce Davison ◽

Jeff A. Sloan ◽

Bryan Mueller

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Cancer Care ◽

Information Needs ◽

Measurement Techniques ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Medical Visits ◽

Information Priorities ◽

Individualized Teaching ◽

Teaching Time

Developing approaches to improve the use of scarce health care resources is of increasing importance in cancer care. Being able to target the provision of information to the primary needs of consumers ensures more productive use of expensive teaching time by health care professionals. Researchers and clinicians have used a variety of measurement techniques to assess the information needs of individuals with cancer at various points in their illness trajectory. The two most common types of scaling techniques used by researchers to measure information needs have been summative and differential. The advantages and disadvantages of using these types of measurements are evaluated. This article describes the development and pilot testing of a measure of the information needs in cancer patients that uses one type of differential scaling technique, Thurstone scaling. This measure was subsequently converted into a patient-friendly computerized program capable of helping consumers identify their information priorities before their medical visits. Individualized teaching may be guided by this new measurement technique in the future.

Download Full-text