Creating a Descriptive Research Study Project "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies"

Introduction: With the rapid transformation of the U.S. healthcare industry, today's HIM professionals and health care managers require advanced level skill sets and training that includes the basic ability to conduct healthcare research and analysis of raw data for making informed decisions.

In this course you would develop a research project on "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies".

This is a three-step project; Steps One and Two have Parts A and B:

Step One: Part A - Identifying Variables

Step One: Part B - Formulate Hypothesis

Step Two: Part A -Creating a Cover Letter

Step Two: Part B - Survey Design

Step One - Part A: Identifying the Variables

Review Chapter 17, Healthcare Data Analytics in the Oachs textbook for definitions of variables.

An independent variable is the one that can be intentionally changed to observe its effect on the dependent variable. An example of an independent variable may be age (effect of age on person's weight) or a drug (levels of insulin on a person's blood sugar).

A dependent variable is believed to change based on the change in independent variable. For example, weight might be a dependent variable that changes with person's age or various levels of insulin may affect a person's blood sugar levels.

For this assignment, use the "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies" research title to identify independent and dependent variables that would be investigated in the research survey that you will create. You should select one independent variable and one dependent variable.

Consider what types of relationships may occur between these variables. You will later create survey questions to investigate these relationships.

Note that for this assignment, you should select one variable that represents a "barrier" and one variable that represents "accepting health information technology."

Step One - Part B: Formulate The Hypothesis

o Hypothesis is something, an opinion or prediction, that can either be supported or refuted through a scientific inquiry. For example, the age has significant effect on a person's weight or has no effect; increasing the insulin levels decreases the blood sugar or has no effect.

After you have selected a research problem or topic and have identified independent and dependent variables, and have considered relationship between these variables, you will make a statement of what you predict that relationship will be.

For example, based on the literature, I believe that weight increases with age. Now I can convert this statement into a hypothesis. The null hypothesis, denoted H0, is what a researcher would actually test.

A null hypothesis is always going to support a status quo or indicate that there is no difference or no relationship which means the age is not related to age; the alternative hypothesis denoted as H1 is the age is significantly related to age either positively or negatively.

Here are some generalized ways of presenting your null (H0) and alternative (H1) hypotheses. If you are comparing categorical data,

H0: Variable A is independent of Variable B

H1: Variable A is dependent of variable B

If you are testing against a set value,

H0: = value

H1: ≠ value (or) H1: > value (or) H1: < value

If you are testing whether there is a relationship between two variables,

Null (H0): There is no statistically significant relationship between variable A and variable B.

Alternative (H1): There is a statistically significant relationship between variable A and variable B.

For this assignment, use your predicted relationship between the independent and dependent variables that you identified in step one to create a null and alternative hypothesis.

Step Two: Designing a Research Survey & Soliciting Participants

At this point, you should have devised both the variables (independent and dependent) and hypothesis as it relates to the "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies". Now let's move forward and build upon that work.

Step Two - Part A. Creating a Cover Letter

Create a one-page cover letter that discusses the following:

An overview of the topic/study [Hint Hint "Refer to the assigned topic "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies"]

State the purpose/need for the study

State the variables of the study [originally created in step one]

State the hypothesis [originally created in step two]

State your sample size and explain the reasoning behind the selected size

Discuss the expected benefits of the study

Discuss how you plan to pilot test the survey before soliciting participants

Include an official statement requesting participation in the study

Identify and explain any associated risk(s) by participating in the study. In addition, discuss your plan(s)/measure(s) to ensure the confidentiality, privacy, and security of the collected data gathered from completed surveys

State a specific deadline to complete the survey, shall not exceed sixty (60) days [state in the format of Month, Date & Year]

Share your data retention schedule and the process of discarding the collected data [provide specifics on how the data will be discarded and the time frame for completion]

Closing Remarks (along with your contact information) [Include the name and contact number of the designed person of contact, any closing notes etc.]

Step Two - Part B. Survey Design

o Having identified the variables and hypothesis in the previous steps, design a five (5) question survey as it relates to the assigned research topic "Barriers to Accepting Health Information Technologies". The survey must consist of a mix of opened-ended and closed-ended questions. Be sure to include the answer choices as well for each question.