Context Sensitive Health Informatics: Concepts, Methods and Tools

Abstract

Context is a key consideration when designing and evaluating health information technology (HIT) and cannot be overstated. Unintended consequences are common post HIT implementation and even well designed technology may not achieve desired outcomes because of contextual issues. While context should be considered in the design and evaluation of health information systems (HISs) there is a shortcoming of empirical research on contextual aspects of HIT. This conference integrates the sociotechnical and Human-Centered-Design (HCD) approaches and showcases current research on context sensitive health informatics. The papers and presentations outlines theories and models for studying contextual issues and insights on how we can better design HIT to accommodate different healthcare contexts.