Innovation in Health Care Management Using Q Methodology

Knowledge management for the provision of health information services is an under-developed field of research and therefore needs to be informed by applied research. The current study was conducted with healthcare professionals and the general public in Australia to capture and distill their views regarding the development of a web-based information service. Given the complex and dynamic context of the healthcare sector, there is still a challenge in understanding the process of knowledge management in the healthcare environment. This research explores the use of Q methodology as an integrated and practical approach to the acquisition, sharing, and creation of knowledge in an organizational health context. The aim is to scope the relevant issues to the problem at hand, which is to maintain and innovate better web-based healthcare information systems, from a wide selection of stakeholders (qualitative). The second step of the process is to sort, group, rate, and prioritize these issues (quantitative) to give healthcare information system designers relevant information in order of importance. The use of Q methodology is somewhat established in several social research communities, including psychology, political science, and health research. The current manual method of concourse can be difficult in demanding environments, such as healthcare services. Thirty-seven healthcare participants successfully sorted 50 different statements about their views on web-based health information systems. The data analysis shows that a 4-factor solution is capable of explaining this unique phenomenon. The overall conclusion of this particular study relies on its unique contribution to the existing literature in the field of knowledge management and Q methodology.