OBJECTIVES: 1. Describe the Information Assessment Method (IAM) 2. Articulate why our changing knowledge infrastructure needs a validated tool like IAM 3. Assess how IAM was used to explore connections between the push and pull of clinical information
The Information Assessment Method (or IAM) is a comprehensive and systematic tool, validated for the assessment of electronic knowledge resources as used by physicians, nurses and pharmacists. IAM consists of a checklist of questions linked to specific objects of electronic information, allowing health professionals to rate and describe the impact of this information on them or their practice. In the field of research utilization, IAM builds upon the shift away from a focus on obstacles to uptake and towards one of examining the acquisition, cognitive impact and application of knowledge in daily clinical practice. Two mixed methods studies recently used IAM, and these will be presented.