DEVELOPING ONLINE SUPPORT FOR CLINICAL INFORMATION-SYSTEM DEVELOPERS - THE FAQ APPROACH

Objective: We investigate a knowledge-based help system for developers of an integrated clinical information system (CIS). The first objecti ve in the study was to determine the system's ability to answer users' questions effectively. User performance and behavior were studied. Th e second objective was to evaluate the effect of using questions and a nswers to augment or replace traditional program documentation. Design : A comparative study of user and system effectiveness using a collect ion of 47 veritable questions regarding the CIS, solicited from variou s CIS developers, is conducted. Most questions were concerning the cli nical data model and acquiring the data. Measurements: Answers using c urrent documentation known by users were compared to answers found usi ng the help system. Answers existing within traditional documentation were compared to answers existing within question-answer exchanges (Q- A's). Results: The support system augmented 39% of users' answers to t est questions. Though the Q-A's were less than 5% of the total documen tation collected, these files contained answers to nearly 50% of the q uestions in the test group. The rest of the documentation contained ab out 75% of the answers. Conclusions: A knowledge-based help system bui lt by collecting questions and answers can be a viable alternative to large documentation files, providing the questions and answers can be collected effectively. (C) 1998 Academic Press.