The Role of Information Retrieval in the Diagnostic/Decision making Process within the Medical Appointment: A Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT

Information retrieval/memory recall by patients/carers within the medical appointment is reported to be of paramount importance to the diagnostic/decision-making process within the medical appointment and hence to the outcome of the medical encounter itself. The rationale behind this paper (second in a series of papers) is to delve into the current literature to ascertain the pervasiveness of long-term information retrieval/memory recall concepts within this intricate environment, including the disease states in which patient information retrieval/memory recall research has been conducted, affording an analysis of research activities in order to identify the gaps in knowledge that currently exist. A rigorous systematic process detected 49 papers that clearly consider information retrieval/memory recall events within the medical appointment. Content analysis was conducted using a Concept-Centric Matrix in conjunction with open-coding techniques, giving rise to the detection of 227 concepts, which were subsequently assembled into 63 categories. Our analysis reveals the prevalence of long-term information retrieval/memory recall concepts, and the disease states that have conducted patient information retrieval/memory recall research (within the medical appointment) reported in writings over the past 43 years. Additionally, we have advanced our conceptual model of memory recall/information retrieval within the elicitation phase of the medical appointment, which we first presented in an earlier paper . The current paper is of significance as it facilitates an augmented understanding of information retrieval/memory recall (and the importance of same to the diagnostic/decision-making process and to patient outcomes, within the medical appointment. Furthermore, the exploration serves to highlight a number of IS research opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Information retrieval
• memory recall
• patient
• medical
• appointment
• diagnosis
• decision-making

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Irish Research Council and Cystic Fibrosis Ireland (project ID: EPSPG/2017/354). The University College Cork Social Research and Ethics Committee has reviewed and approved the submission for this study (application log 2017-090).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Irish Research Council [EPSPG/2017/354]; Cystic Fibrosis Ireland [EPSPG/2017/354].