Information system needs in health promotion: Case study of Safe Community program using requirements engineering methods

Objectives: To explore the need for information system support in health promotion programs. Methods: The international Safe Community program was used as the setting for a case study. The 14 Safe Communities active in Sweden during 2002 were invited to participate. 13 of them accepted. A questionnaire containing questions about computer usage and a critical incident technique instrument was distributed to all practitioners involved in the programs either at a municipality office or a county council (n=202). The Voice of the Customer Table method was used to transform the critical incident data into needs for information system support. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data on computer usage. Results: Sharing of management information, creating social capital for safety promotion, and injury data recording were found to be key areas that need to be further supported by computer-based information systems in safety promotion practice. 90% (111/123) of the respondents reported having access to a personal computer workstation with standard office software. The interest in using more advanced computer applications was low among the practitioners, and there was considerable need for technical user support. Conclusions: Areas where information systems can be used to make health promotion practice more efficient were identified, and patterns of computers usage were described. These results can be used to guide future information systems development projects in health and safety promotion.