DESIGN OF A HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF OBESITY EXPERT AND CHILDREN TEAMS
Paper Type
Complete Research Paper
Description
The globally increasing prevalence of childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Du to the need for multi-professional therapies that require a high amount of personnel and financial resources, IT-supported interventions promise help. So far, meta-studies show their limited impact on health outcomes. This work presents therefore a design theory that helps constructing health information systems (HIS) that positively impact the performance of obesity expert and children teams. Team performance is measured through self-reports, patients´ adherence to therapy and positive health outcomes. In order to assess the utility of the proposed design theory, its underlying design process was adopted by an interdisciplinary team of therapists, patients, their parents, IS researcher and computer scientists. This team developed and evaluated several HIS services collaboratively over the course of two years. Results of this design process show first evidence of the utility of the HIS design theory. However, challenges with regard to the design process still exist and are discussed.
DESIGN OF A HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF OBESITY EXPERT AND CHILDREN TEAMS
The globally increasing prevalence of childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Du to the need for multi-professional therapies that require a high amount of personnel and financial resources, IT-supported interventions promise help. So far, meta-studies show their limited impact on health outcomes. This work presents therefore a design theory that helps constructing health information systems (HIS) that positively impact the performance of obesity expert and children teams. Team performance is measured through self-reports, patients´ adherence to therapy and positive health outcomes. In order to assess the utility of the proposed design theory, its underlying design process was adopted by an interdisciplinary team of therapists, patients, their parents, IS researcher and computer scientists. This team developed and evaluated several HIS services collaboratively over the course of two years. Results of this design process show first evidence of the utility of the HIS design theory. However, challenges with regard to the design process still exist and are discussed.