Addressing online information needs in palliative care : an action research-inspired approach

Whereas user participation has been embraced worldwide as a means to provide better patient outcomes, the implementation of formative, action research approaches in online health information has remained under-explored. The purpose of this study is to present an action research-based methodology that allows the scoping of health information and design needs in complex, multi-user online environments. The project's four main stages were informed by an iterative, formative approach involving continuous expert and user evaluation. The study suggests that an action research-inspired formative approach can be successfully employed to generate user-participation. Moreover, sustained user-participation effectively addresses most quality issues regarding content, language, and accessibility raised in the recent literature. The paper concludes that an action research approach geared to develop online health resources deserves more attention.