Columbia University, Biomedical Informatics, New York , New York, United States.
Appl Clin Inform. 2013 Dec 25;4(4):618-35. doi: 10.4338/ACI-2013-08-RA-0058. eCollection 2013.
Many informatics studies use content analysis to generate functional requirements for system development. Explication of this translational process from qualitative data to functional requirements can strengthen the understanding and scientific rigor when applying content analysis in informatics studies.
To describe a user-centered approach transforming emergent themes derived from focus group data into functional requirements for informatics solutions and to illustrate these methods to the development of an antibiotic clinical decision support system (CDS).
THE APPROACH CONSISTED OF FIVE STEPS: 1) identify unmet therapeutic planning information needs via Focus Group Study-I, 2) develop a coding framework of therapeutic planning themes to refine the domain scope to antibiotic therapeutic planning, 3) identify functional requirements of an antibiotic CDS system via Focus Group Study-II, 4) discover informatics solutions and functional requirements from coded data, and 5) determine the types of information needed to support the antibiotic CDS system and link with the identified informatics solutions and functional requirements.
The coding framework for Focus Group Study-I revealed unmet therapeutic planning needs. Twelve subthemes emerged and were clustered into four themes; analysis indicated a need for an antibiotic CDS intervention. Focus Group Study-II included five types of information needs. Comments from the Barrier/Challenge to information access and Function/Feature themes produced three informatics solutions and 13 functional requirements of an antibiotic CDS system. Comments from the Patient, Institution, and Domain themes generated required data elements for each informatics solution.
This study presents one example explicating content analysis of focus group data and the analysis process to functional requirements from narrative data. Illustration of this 5-step method was used to develop an antibiotic CDS system, resolving unmet antibiotic prescribing needs. As a reusable approach, these techniques can be refined and applied to resolve unmet information needs with informatics interventions in additional domains.
许多信息学研究使用内容分析来生成系统开发的功能需求。从定性数据到功能需求的这种翻译过程的阐明可以在信息学研究中应用内容分析时加强理解和科学严谨性。
描述一种以用户为中心的方法，将从焦点小组数据中得出的新兴主题转化为信息学解决方案的功能需求，并举例说明这些方法在抗生素临床决策支持系统（CDS）的开发中的应用。
该方法包括五个步骤：1）通过焦点小组研究-I 确定未满足的治疗计划信息需求，2）开发治疗计划主题的编码框架，以细化抗生素治疗计划的领域范围，3）通过焦点小组研究-II 确定抗生素 CDS 系统的功能需求，4）从编码数据中发现信息学解决方案和功能需求，5）确定支持抗生素 CDS 系统所需的信息类型，并与确定的信息学解决方案和功能需求相联系。
焦点小组研究-I 的编码框架揭示了未满足的治疗计划需求。出现了 12 个子主题，并聚类为四个主题；分析表明需要进行抗生素 CDS 干预。焦点小组研究-II 包括五种类型的信息需求。来自障碍/信息访问挑战和功能/特征主题的评论产生了三个信息学解决方案和抗生素 CDS 系统的 13 个功能需求。来自患者、机构和领域主题的评论为每个信息学解决方案生成了所需的数据元素。
本研究提供了一个阐明焦点小组数据分析和从叙述性数据到功能需求的分析过程的示例。该 5 步方法的说明用于开发抗生素 CDS 系统，解决了抗生素处方的未满足需求。作为一种可重复使用的方法，这些技术可以进一步细化并应用于解决其他领域中信息学干预的未满足信息需求。
