Exploring the Social Dynamics of Implementing Self-Managed Web-Based Wellness Tools

Author(s):  
Rennie Naidoo

According to proponents of consumer-driven healthcare, the Web continues to offer huge opportunities to empower consumers to take individual ownership over their healthcare. Consequently many healthcare insurance service providers are integrating elements of Wellness into their product and service design and are making these available through Web-based portals. Based on a longitudinal case study of an e-Wellness implementation at a multinational consumer-driven healthcare insurance firm, key concepts from structuration theory are used to explore and analyse the social dynamics involved in the implementation of these contemporary forms of healthcare service encounters. This case study reports that in this particular context, face-to-face consultations continue to prevail over the use of virtual diagnosis and treatment by a computer-meditated virtual stress therapist and dietician practitioner. The author proposes the use of social frameworks to analyse and better understand the intricacies involved in implementing Wellness innovations.

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Lene Pettersen

<p>This article addresses knowledge professionals’ experiences of being in and using social enterprise media, which is characterized by a social, people-centric, dynamic and non-hierarchical information architecture. Rather than studying the social enterprise media from a typical STS-perspective in terms of ‘scripts’, ‘antiprogram’, or as ‘configuring design processes based on the user’, the paper direct its analytical lens to the users’ experiences, practices and routines when they are making sense of the virtual space in social enterprise media. As theoretical framework, unexplored corners of structuration theory where Giddens (1979, 1984) discusses spatiality (place) and temporality (time), where Giddens is inspired by the philosopher Wittgenstein (1972), the micro-sociologist Goffman (1959), and the time-geographer Hägerstrand (1975, 1978) are employed. With this approach, dynamic social processes are included in our studies of technology. Qualitative insights from a comprehensive and longitudinal case study of a multinational organization with entities in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East were used in order to get an in-depth understanding of how people experienced using virtual and social architectural spaces. The findings show that the social architecture and people-centric model in the virtual space in social enterprise media does not provide an intuitive spatial sense, nor does it provide logics that correspond with known and familiar logics or established communication and interaction practices among employees. Key features in social enterprise media (e.g., transparency) collide with how space is constructed in the physical world and with the logics at play in offline conversations and social interactions (e.g. turn-taking in conversations or the opportunity to withdraw from conversations).  </p>


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ivanov ◽  
Dianne Cyr

Electronic brainstorming systems have been shown to lead to more ideas, yet unsupported face-to-face brainstorming is still widely preferred. This paper proposes a graphical user interface for a web-based system for design problem-solving or other intellective tasks involving convergent and divergent thinking. Referring to the literature on group support systems and information and knowledge visualization, the study extends features of concept mapping and synthesizes these into a prototype called the Concept Plot (CP). Based on an advertising design task, the paper shows how the CP can be collaboratively constructed in two directions, as text and pictures are uploaded onto nodes, and these nodes scaled up or down as users click to evaluate ideas. The expectation is that this integrated visualization would diminish information overload, while enhancing the social dynamics of the process. Also presented is the pilot deployment of a Flash prototype. The results were inconclusive, yet promising that a study with more participants might demonstrate the functional and affective benefits of the CP.


Author(s):  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Shuyang Li ◽  
Yichuan Wang

AbstractThe smart transportation system (STS) leverages ubiquitous and networked computing to improve the efficiency of urban mobility. Whilst existing IS work has explored various factors influencing STS development, there is a lack of consideration of how value can be created for building a more sustainable STS. Drawing upon the value co-creation theory and stakeholder theory, we seek to understand the socio-technical shaping of the STS ecosystem and how government, firms and citizens collaboratively create sustainable value for designing and implementing STS initiatives. To reach this aim, we carry out a longitudinal case study over 2016–2018 in Shijiazhuang, China. We offer both theoretical and practical explanations on (i) key value facets with regard to sustainable STS design and implementation; and (ii) a holistic view of iterative value co-creation process pushed by key stakeholders. This study makes particular contributions to the IS, marketing and transportation literature by offering a critical understanding of the social dynamics for shaping a big data-driven STS ecosystem.


Author(s):  
Rennie Naidoo

Healthcare insurance firms are experimenting with integrating self-managed healthcare elements into their product and service design and making these available through transnational healthcare information systems (THISs). The purpose of this article is to analyze this technology using a socio-technical theoretical lens. Drawing from a longitudinal case study, this paper unravels some of the design controversies presented by a self-managed nutrition technology, designed by a South African healthcare insurance firm for the local and UK market. Using key concepts (inscription, translation, enrollment, delegation, and displacement) from actor-network theory, this paper reveals why, in this context, the traditional face-to-face dietetic practice could not be completely entrusted to a THIS. The results demonstrate that firms are sometimes better off resorting to traditional channels for complex and high contact healthcare interventions. Practitioners need to be aware of potentially ‘tricky' socio-technical entanglements when designing a novel THIS and future researchers must account for the increasing complexity involved in operating these technologies in different national healthcare contexts. Guidelines are offered for firms contemplating off-shoring self-managed healthcare technology developments.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Déry ◽  
Angel Ruiz ◽  
François Routhier ◽  
Marie-Pierre Gagnon ◽  
André Côté ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Queueing patients on waiting lists is a common practice to manage access to rehabilitation services. To increase fairness and equity in access, a strategy emerging from the literature is patient prioritization. The goal is for patients with the greatest needs to be treated first and for patient wait times to be determined objectively on the basis of explicit criteria. Selecting criteria, however, is a complex task because it is important to simultaneously consider the objectives of all stakeholders. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare service users’ and service providers’ perspectives regarding patient prioritization criteria in two rehabilitation programs. METHODS We conducted a multiple case study in two rehabilitation programs at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale in Quebec City (Canada), i.e. a driving evaluation program (DEP) and a compression garment manufacturing program (CGMP). We sent a web-based survey asking two groups (patients and providers) of informed stakeholders to individually produce a set of criteria. We then conducted an inductive thematic analysis where each group’s individual answers were coded and combined in a single set of criteria. RESULTS Stakeholders from the DEP identified a total of 22 criteria to prioritize patients while those from the CGMP listed 27 criteria. Providers shared 76% of the criteria mentioned by patients. Some criteria, such as age, occupation, functional level, pain, absence of caregiver, and time since referral, were considered important by both stakeholders in both programs. CONCLUSIONS Patients and providers tended to have similar opinions about a majority of the criteria to prioritize patients in waitlists. Nonetheless, our study confirms that patients and providers base their choices on different types of knowledge and values, which explains some of the differences observed. Taking into consideration the opinions of all stakeholders concerning prioritization criteria is an important part of the decision-making process, based on a multiple constituency approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Land ◽  
Michele M. Dornisch

Recent interest in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has prompted educators to incorporate communication tools into their courses. This article reports findings of students' use of two Web-based discussion forums across two semesters to supplement face-to- face instruction. By tracking the discussions, we discovered that when students initiated reflection and integration of perspectives, they did so through concessions and oppositions to the postings of their peers. Findings point to the importance of explicit scaffolding of conversations to encourage student sharing and evaluation of perspectives.


2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Talen

Research on neighborhoods is dominated by a focus on the social aspects of neighborhood life. The ability of neighborhoods to function as service providers is a critical and understudied aspect of neighborhood research. This paper offers a methodological contribution of the analysis of neighborhoods as service providers. Provision of services is defined in terms of accessibility, or the spatial proximities between residents and the facilities. Because the focus is on neighborhoods, access is defined on the basis of the pedestrian rather than the automobile. In addition, the needs of the neighborhood population are considered. A case study of Portland, Oregon, is used to demonstrate how an evaluation of pedestrian access could be conducted at the neighborhood scale.


Author(s):  
Lilia Cheniti Belcadhi ◽  
Sonia Ayachi Ghannouchi

Active Learning improves student attitudes and develops thinking and writing skills. It is increasingly recommended as a teaching method to improve learning. In this paper the authors are interested in the transformation of a face-to-face active course into a web-based active course. An instructional design approach based on meta-models for transforming active-based courses into online courses is proposed. This approach provides a detailed description of meta-models and processes of instructional design for active e-courses as well as the main involved actors. In order to evaluate and validate the proposed meta-models a case study has been carried out. It concerned the transformation of an entrepreneurship active course into an online version and its deployment. The proposed instructional design process constitutes the kernel of an authoring tool for the design of an active e-course, which permits to support the instructional designer in the production of active e-courses.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1479-1505
Author(s):  
Svetlana M. King ◽  
Laurence Owens

African students from refugee backgrounds constitute a special group in Australian schools because of their complex lives and previous schooling and life experiences that are unlike most of their non-refugee peers. This chapter draws upon findings from a collaborative, longitudinal case study that sought to understand the education and career pathways of African students from refugee backgrounds from the perspectives of African youth, educators, service providers, and South Australian African community leaders and elders. Qualitative analysis revealed six key influences that shape these pathways: previous schooling; English language skills; Australian schooling challenges and support; family support, academic achievement; and post-school preparation. This chapter presents the case study of a single student that, although unique in its circumstances, is representative of key findings from the larger study. Implications for educational practice are then described with a view to facilitating educational participation and success amongst this particular group of young people.


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