Australian Online Public Information Systems:An Evaluative Study of an Evolving Public Health Website

Abstract

Rapid developments in ICT are extending and transforming the ways public services are delivered to citizens. The area of public healthcare has always been viewed as particularly as information intensive. This phenomenon is made more complex by rapid changes and continual increases in technological capability as well as increasing demands for new functions by users. Therefore, when conducting research in this area it is essential to take a holistic approach that integrates the latest ICT tools and processes with the needs of individuals. Q methodology is a research design that provides a foundation for the systematic study of subjectivity. The use of Q in the dynamic health context, we propose, is appropriate as a way of fostering deeper understandings of online public health phenomena. This paper reports on the results of a subjective study of the usefulness and usability of online public health information systems. The study used Q-methodology to investigate the perceptions of an Australian palliative care website with a group of available potential users of the website, which was composed of medical practitioners and students, and the general public, mostly from the computer-literate academic community. The most significant finding of this subjective study of internet-literate participants’ perceptions towards online palliative care is the recognition of four groups: interactive, superficial, medical and service.