A grounded theory guided approach to palliative care systems design

As healthcare looks for new and innovative ways to deliver more services with less resources we are increasingly turning to informatics based solutions. However, the means by which information systems (IS) are both designed and implemented will impact how successful the system will be at enhancing care delivery. We believe a key component to successful IS design is the methodological rigor by which design requirements are gleaned and applied. This paper describes our use of a grounded theory (GT) guided methodology for designing an ontology of palliative care severe pain management. In this paper we illustrate how the methodological rigor of GT was applied to three palliative information sources to allow us to gain an understanding of how severe pain is managed. We then illustrate how that understanding was formalized into an ontology and applied to IS design of a computer based tool to enhance education around palliative care severe pain management.