Design and evaluation of Ubiquitous Information Systems and use in healthcare

Designing Ubiquitous Information Systems (UIS) for supporting complex everyday situations requires extended design methods and models. To address this, we introduce design models as a special class of conceptual models that support design processes for IS in general and UIS in particular. Design models for UIS are concise abstract conceptual models of key situations that conceive social, informational, physical, and service properties as requirements for targeted Information Systems. In this paper, we show how design models can be derived from narratives of key situations, guided by information systems ontologies, and domain specific input theories. This conceptual level offers an innovative approach for designing Ubiquitous Information Systems (UIS) in general and Healthcare Ubiquitous Information Systems (H-UIS) in particular. The proposed design approach is applied for developing H-UIS for reducing Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) by improving the communications between patients and healthcare professionals. Using the domain specific input theory of Health Promotion Model (HPM), the modeling guidelines for design models are generated and utilized in the development of a H-UIS to avoid ADEs. The H-UIS improves several processes involving information technologies for healthcare professionals. The system is empirically evaluated and results show high level of interest among users and initial positive adoption effects. Open issues and future research opportunities are also presented at the end.

► A situation-based design science method for Healthcare Ubiquitous IS is presented.
► We examine the translation of narratives into diagrammatic design models.
► We show how information system ontologies facilitate modeling tasks.
► The Health Promotion Model is used as kernel theory.
► By an adoption study we prove the utility of the prototype.