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Editorial |
Guest Editors |
Lesley Pek Wee Land, Simon K. Poon |
Abstract |
This special issue is on healthcare information systems, specifically trying to understand ICT healthcare innovations through diverse perspectives. There is a wide array of interest in this complex area and interests can span across many disciplines such as IT/IS, Public Health, Medicine, and Health Informatics. This is largely seen as an important and emerging area of research as healthcare impacts everybody, regardless of geographical and temporal boundaries. With increasingly better ICT infrastructure, and individuals and communities becoming more focused on healthy lifestyles and lifelong learning, issues related to healthcare (particularly the impact of technological advancement on it) are increasingly being researched, discussed and funded. In this issue, we picked four papers which we thought would contribute to the electronic healthcare research in the IS area. |
Keywords |
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Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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Information security and privacy in healthcare: Current state of research |
Authors |
Ajit Appari, M. Eric Johnson |
Abstract |
Information security and privacy in the healthcare sector is an issue of growing importance. The adoption of digital patient records, increased regulation, provider consolidation, and the increasing need for information exchange between patients, providers, and payers, all point towards the need for better information security. We critically survey the literature on information security and privacy in healthcare, published in information systems journals as well as many other related disciplines including health informatics, public health, law, medicine, the trade press, and industry reports. In this paper, we provide a holistic view of the recent research and suggest new areas of interest to the information systems community. |
Keywords |
Information Security, Privacy, Healthcare, Research Literature |
Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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EConsent: provenance, use and future role |
Author |
Sophie Cockcroft |
Abstract |
The use of information technology to manage patient consent is an important emerging area of research in health data management. This paper identifies literature, technological advances and current thinking on electronic consent (eConsent). Key issues for health care providers (HCP) and consumers are distilled through a content analysis of a cross section of news reports for the year June 2005 to May 2006. For the study we selected countries that are in the process of adopting shared electronic health records, and took the approach of using media analysis. The press is a professional critic as defined by Sauer and Willcocks (2007).
The topic of electronic consent (eConsent) is closely aligned with issues of information privacy and related legislation, patient rights, and national culture. Clearly, technology is central to the implementation of eConsent and there are pressing management and security issues to be addressed. This paper will make clear the relationships between these fields of study and comment on the “state of play” in integrated electronic health record systems today, outlining potential pitfalls. |
Keywords |
EConsent, Electronic Health Records, Media Analysis |
Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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E-health readiness framework from electronic health records perspective |
Authors |
JunHua Li, Lesley Pek Wee Land, Pradeep Ray, Subhagata Chattopadhyaya |
Abstract |
E-Health systems include applications of information communication technologies to promote healthcare services support, delivery and education. The success of an E-Health system is very much dependent on the success of EHR systems, as EHR forms the core of any E-Health system. Readiness assessment has been identified as an essential requirement for the success of EHR in terms of adoption rate and/or acceptance. Through a literature review of current E-Health readiness frameworks, it is observed that most studied components reflect healthcare providers’ and organisational perspectives but there is an inconsistent coverage of the evaluation components. Further, an unclear measure of readiness levels poses another problem for E-Health readiness assessment. This paper presents an E-Health readiness assessment framework by integrating components of each reviewed framework and quantifying constructs (a graph-based approach) within the new framework. |
Keywords |
E-Health, Electronic Health Records (EHR), Readiness, Assessment, Evaluation, Constructs, Quantification, Graph-based |
Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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Patient’s medication information and its special characteristics: A case study of a Finnish primary care organisation |
Authors |
Eeva Heiro, Reetta Raitoharju |
Abstract |
Despite the positive effects achieved with IT (information technology) use in the healthcare sector, IT solutions do not always increase efficiency or prevent medical errors, and the poor quality of data available is often seen as one of the reasons. The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics that ensure the quality of data. More specifically, the paper focuses on the non-technical characteristics that patient specific medication information should have, and its current situation within a Finnish primary care organization. To ensure that the development of smooth patient service chains will proceed consensually with data users, and that all the issues related to clinical work are considered, an assessment of the current process of medication information management is required. Though the case organization uses EHR (electronic health record), often the most important source of information was found to be the patient. It was found that sources of medication data do not always meet the needs of the healthcare professionals. Furthermore, the characteristics of what constitutes quality data could not always be found, which has left professionals using their knowledge to fill information gaps. |
Keywords |
Medication information, Healthcare, Data quality, Information behaviour, Case study |
Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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Performance assessment of service operations using DEA and managerial judgment: a case study |
Authors |
Chwen Sheu, Chen-Lung Yang |
Abstract |
Performance measurement of service operations has unique challenges compared to that in manufacturing operations. Using the insurance claims settlement as an example, this study discusses the complexity of conducting performance measurement for service operations. Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) is then applied to assess the relative efficiency of fourteen regional offices of a U.S. insurance company regarding its efficiency in settling insurance claims. Our research emphasis is on how a quantitative method like DEA could assist the existing measurement systems that rely heavily on managerial judgment. The results indicate that the combination of the two methods, quantitative and qualitative, produced a more reliable performance assessment. Accordingly, we discussed the value of using DEA for guiding the improvement efforts along with limitations of its use for assessing the performance of settlement operations. We concluded that DEA can and should complement but not replace existing experience-based management evaluation. |
Keywords |
Performance measurement, productivity, DEA, service operations, insurance industry |
Tentative schedule |
Vol. 6, No. 4 |
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