Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics

This book is a general reference designed for individuals from a broad range of professional backgrounds at various stages of learning about medical information systems: those training for careers in informatics, those actively conducting evaluation studies, and those responsible for information systems in medical centers. It attempts to explain why medical information resources should be studied, and why this is a challenging process. It explores the options for conducting such studies, and specifically deciding what topic to study. It also explains how to design, carry out, and interpret a study using a particular set of techniques, how to conduct studies in the context of health care organizations, and how to communicate study designs and study results to the proper audience.
TOC: Contents: The Challenge of Evaluation in Medical Informatics.- Evaluation as a Field.- Studying Clinical Information Resources.- The Structure of Objectivist Studies.- The Basics of Measurement.- Developing Measurement Technique.- Design, Conduct and Analysis of Demonstration Studies.- Subjectivist Approaches to Evaluation.- Design and Conduct of Subjectivist Studies.- Organizational Evaluation of Medical Information Resources.- Proposing, Reporting, and Refereeing Empirical Studies, and Study Ethics.