Abstract

Objective

Qualitative methods are particularly well-suited to studying the complexities and contingencies that emerge in the development, preparation, and implementation of technological interventions in real-world clinical practice, and much remains to be done to use these methods to their full advantage. We aimed to analyze how qualitative methods have been used in health informatics research, focusing on objectives, populations studied, data collection, analysis methods, and fields of analytical origin.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of original, qualitative empirical research in JAMIA from its inception in 1994 to 2019. We queried PubMed to identify relevant articles, ultimately including and extracting data from 158 articles.

Results

The proportion of qualitative studies increased over time, constituting 4.2% of articles published in JAMIA overall. Studies overwhelmingly used interviews, observations, grounded theory, and thematic analysis. These articles used qualitative methods to analyze health informatics systems before, after, and separate from deployment. Providers have typically been the main focus of studies, but there has been an upward trend of articles focusing on healthcare consumers.

Discussion

While there has been a rich tradition of qualitative inquiry in JAMIA, its scope has been limited when compared with the range of qualitative methods used in other technology-oriented fields, such as human–computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, and science and technology studies.

Conclusion

We recommend increased public funding for and adoption of a broader variety of qualitative methods by scholars, practitioners, and policy makers and an expansion of the variety of participants studied. This should lead to systems that are more responsive to practical needs, improving usability, safety, and outcomes.

中文翻译：

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JAMIA 定性研究的范围审查：过去的贡献和未来工作的机会

摘要

客观的

定性方法特别适合研究现实世界临床实践中技术干预的开发、准备和实施过程中出现的复杂性和突发事件，要充分利用这些方法，还有很多工作要做。我们旨在分析如何在健康信息学研究中使用定性方法，重点关注目标、研究人群、数据收集、分析方法和分析起源领域。

方法

我们对JAMIA于 1994 年至 2019 年成立的原始、定性实证研究进行了范围界定。我们查询 PubMed 以识别相关文章，最终包括并从 158 篇文章中提取数据。

结果

定性研究的比例随着时间的推移而增加，占JAMIA总体发表文章的 4.2% 。研究绝大多数使用访谈、观察、扎根理论和主题分析。这些文章使用定性方法来分析部署之前、之后和分离的健康信息系统。提供者通常是研究的主要焦点，但关注医疗保健消费者的文章呈上升趋势。

讨论

尽管JAMIA拥有丰富的定性调查传统，但与其他面向技术领域（例如人机交互、计算机支持的合作工作以及科学与技术研究。

结论

我们建议学者、从业者和政策制定者增加公共资金并采用更广泛的定性方法，并扩大所研究的参与者的多样性。这应该导致系统更能响应实际需求，提高可用性、安全性和结果。