Background Research in Health Information Governance

Introduction:

A 2014 benchmarking white paper produced by Cohasset associates on behalf of AHIMA called for the adoption of information governance practices in healthcare. The paper delivered authoritative and current benchmarks on information life cycle practices in healthcare, noting specifically the need for:
“(A)ctions to respond to today’s information governance challenges”
A number of these challenges have revolved around managing and protecting enterprise information in healthcare environments. Protecting enterprise information has recently taken on a more strategic approach to its management, given that a good number of organizations now use cloud data storage. The need to meet data protection and privacy legislation further elevates pressure to meet compliance requirements by these firms. Healthcare organizations are no exception to these realities. 
Managing the challenges presented by enterprise information is a constant battle. Some of the obvious challenges include:
Managing privacy, confidentiality and security of health information
Ensuring that quality information through its life cycle is efficiently and effectively managed between its various forms – paper and electronic
Managing the design and capture of information 
Information design and capture requires appropriate information infrastructure and technology acquisition in standardized environments
Ensuring that decisions are based on quality information
Ensuring that trained personnel are available to help capture, store, analyze, pull and present information and deliver to the right people, at the right time and in the right formats
Besides challenges with enterprise information management, information governance is also sometimes flawed due to:
The lack of policies and procedures to effect the much needed change for governance practices.
The lack of strategy to institute governance practices, as well as maintain and sustain such efforts.
Having in place the right personnel to keep information governance practices going is also a battle.

References
[1] Kloss, L. (2015). Implementing Health Information Governance. Lessons from the Field. Chicago: American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). ISBN-13: 978-1-58426-087-5.
[2] Cohasset Associates & AHIMA (2014). Information Governance in Healthcare. A call to Adopt Information Governance Practices. Benchmarking White Paper, 38 pp.

Purpose :
To develop a good study background including study needs and setting
To formulate research question(s) or research problem(s)
Justify study significance and rationale
Establish limitations of the study

Writing the Study Background:
Writing the study background paper presents you with the opportunity to dig deeper (research) into the gap(s) that you identified as lacking in the healthcare field as it relates to “information governance”, and crafting potential solutions, or creating avenues for further research in this area.
So what does a good study background look like?
The study background combines elements of a typical study introduction, including crafting the research problem(s)/question(s), and providing justification for the study within appropriate scope/study limitations. 
Study Introduction: The purpose of the study introduction is to demonstrate the value of your research through creativity and originality. You will be providing a short description of what you intend to research and establishing what area of research your work belongs. In other words, it provides the study’s context. In this case, the need to fix or consider fixing the gap that you have identified in “healthcare information governance”. The key question that you try to answer here is: 
*So what? 
Your introduction should set the tone, sparking interest in the subject and drawing the reader to wanting to know more about your topic.

The Research Problem(s)/Question(s): There is no point conducting research if you are not trying to solve a problem or frame an environment that could lead to solving the problem. Sometimes, you may simply be updating the extant literature in the field, and subsequently creating a potential boulevard for future researchers to navigate. Other times, in the case of applied research, your results could help to develop new policies, or strategies that are applicable to a particular issue or industry.

Your research problem or question addresses the specific issue(s) that you are trying to resolve. For example, you may ask questions such as:
*To what extent is enterprise information management a key to successful information governance in healthcare?
*What is the best approach to protecting healthcare information assets held in cloud based systems?
*To what extent is policy development a critical requirement for effective information governance in healthcare?

Justification of the study: Your study’s justification proves why it is important to research this issue and address the problem or question you had initially posed. Although you are not conducting a literature review at this point, it is absolutely fine to reference previous research in this area, or point to issues in the industry that may be addressed through this research. At this point, you are highlighting the potential contributions of your research. A good study justification should answer the following questions:
*Who cares?
*To what extent do the findings of the study make a difference?
*Why are the results important to the field, hence justifying why it’s important to conduct the research?
*What are the implications of not conducting the research and finding answers to the research questions?

Scope/Study Limitations: It is important that you appropriately scope your research within the limitations of your capability, allotted time frames or specifications that you have little or no control over. You will not be able to research all aspects of your study, no matter how fascinating the topic might be. Studying too wide a research topic is impractical, but could spur the beginning of future research. Therefore, your study’s limitations sets the boundaries.

**In a 2-3 page paper, respond to the following questions:

Conduct further research on the gap(s) that you identified in week 1 when you researched the current gaps of information governance in healthcare
Write a background study in accordance with guidelines provided for Writing a Good Study Background
Ensure that your paper addresses all the areas identified in the Writing a Good Study Background guideline (which is above)
Compose your paper in Microsoft Word. Include your name, the assignment name, the course and section number, and the date. Cite ALL sources according to APA format.

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