A design theory to remove barriers to clinical information retrieval: Implementation feasibility case studies. (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Clinicians rely on their health organization’s knowledge services for clinical information retrieval however studies identified barriers or pain points that prevent them from accessing research from resource providers. OBJECTIVE Our study objective is to develop a feasible implementation design theory for health organizations to remove barriers to evidence-based clinical information retrieval, and improve Evidence-Based Practice, specifically the research evidence component. METHODS Literature from 2010 to 2020 was reviewed to define problems or pain points in evidence-based clinical information retrieval. Recommendations from literature are used to define purpose and scope. Design Science Research is used to complete three projects in a research stream, with the solutions evaluated iteratively and incrementally. Cloud services such as Web-Scale Discovery, Content Management System, Federated Access, Global Knowledgebase, and Document Delivery are unified as a holistic solution and evaluated using case studies by conducting in depth interviews with health sciences information managers. Frameworks and theories such as design thinking, systems thinking, and user-oriented theory of information need are adopted to construct a design theory. RESULTS Anatomy of a design theory is presented by developing its eight structural components to generalize results from the research stream as mature knowledge. The holistic solution’s implementation feasibility is evaluated as testable propositions to remove barriers to clinical information retrieval CONCLUSIONS Design theory provides practical knowledge for health sciences information managers to source existing components and integrate them as a holistic solution at their health organizations. Design theory also contributes to academic knowledge by addressing pain points and ‘call to action’ identified during literature review.