Introduction
Malnutrition among elderly citizens is a major health issue both domestically and internationally. The consequences for the older citizen's health include more frequent and longer hospitalizations, impaired physical function, and increased morbidity. The causes of developing malnutrition are complex, and the condition may be a challenge to document timely for health professionals in primary healthcare, as it requires frequent and systematic observations. Patient-reported data can be of significance in the detection. Thus, it is desired to investigate whether an information system for patient reported data can support timely documentation of malnutrition in primary healthcare.
Method
Design Science Research is used as a methodological framework for the thesis, where the overall purpose is to develop a high-fidelity prototype design of an information system where patient-reported data accessible by municipal home nurses contributes to early detection of malnutrition. A low fidelity paper prototype of the information system containing questions based on systematically researched literature on early indicators of malnutrition was feasibility tested over five days with eight elderly citizens participating. The indicators were also feasibility tested with four municipal home nurses who evaluated the indicators by means of an open card sorting. The nurses evaluated how the citizen-reported data should be represented and how it should be prioritized. The feasibility test findings were implemented into a high-fidelity prototype design of the information system.
Discussion
The information system has several stakeholder groups with each their understanding and application of the technology. Through the problem-solving process in Design Science Research, an understanding of the importance of the information system for the individual stakeholder groups is achieved. The differences between the stakeholder perspectives on technology were expressed in the feasibility tests, where the elderly citizens saw the information system as a communication tool for communicating with the home nurse. The municipal home nurses saw the information system as a work tool that potentially allows for timely information about the nutritional state of the citizen. Here, thus, different views are identified on the applicability of the information system, where the problems that the actors group outlines influence the iterative development process. The cyclical processes in Design Science Research thus contribute to the further design process of the information system from low fidelity prototype design to high fidelity prototype design.