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A Study of Physicians' Serendipitous Knowledge Discovery: An Evaluation of Spark and the IF-SKD Model in a Clinical Setting

This research study is conducted to test Workman, Fiszman, Rindflesch and Nahl's information flow-serendipitous knowledge discovery (IF-SKD) model of information behavior, in a clinical care context. To date, there have been few attempts to model the serendipitous knowledge discovery of physicians. Due to the growth and complexity of the biomedical literature, as well as the increasingly specialized nature of medicine, there is a need for advanced systems that can quickly present information and assist physicians to discover new knowledge. The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Lister Hill Center for Biocommunication's Semantic MEDLINE project is focused on identifying and visualizing semantic relationships in the biomedical literature to support knowledge discovery. This project led to the development of a new information discovery system, Spark. The aim of Spark is to promote serendipitous knowledge discovery by assisting users in maximizing the use of their conceptual short-term memory to iteratively search for, engage, clarify and evaluate information presented from the biomedical literature. Using Spark, this study analyzes the IF- SKD model by capturing and analyzing physician feedback. The McCay-Peet, Toms and Kelloway's Perception of Serendipity and Serendipitous Digital Environment (SDE) questionnaires are used. Results are evaluated to determine whether Spark contributes to physicians' serendipitous knowledge discovery and the ability of the IF-SKD ability to capture physicians' information behavior in a clinical setting.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1157586
Date05 1900
CreatorsHopkins, Mark E
ContributorsZavalina, Oksana, Workman, T. Elizabeth, Southmayd, LeRoy, III, Herrington, Richard S
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatxi, 190 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Hopkins, Mark E, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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