Nurse Practitioner Access to Genetics Health Literature

University Of Wisconsin Madison, Madison WI

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This training proposal describes a research plan which tests the application of a computer science solution to a clinical problem encountered by nurse practitioners (NPs). As our understanding of genetics health increases, NPs will need to provide care and create health promotion regimens mindful of each client's genetic profile. Access to the rapidly developing genetics health literature is critical for this practice model, but may be difficult, because existing search methods lead to many irrelevant results, and may retrieve the proper result only when precise keywords are used. The NP searching for information that would guide her practice may be forced to make a decision with less than complete or current information. This proposal outlines three studies, which investigate how the semantic web concepts of linking related ideas and terms can improve NPs' access to the genetics health literature. Study 1 explores NPs' genetics health information needs. Study 2 tests the applicability of existing ontologies (terminologies coupled with machine-readable statements about the meanings and relationships of the terms) to nursing. Study 3 tests a prototype intelligent agent employing ontology to retrieve literature relevant to NPs' genetics health information needs. [unreadable] [unreadable]