Refactoring Legacy Software for Layer Separation

One of the main aims in the layered software architecture is to divide the code into different layers so that each layer contains related modules and serves its upper layers. Although layered software architecture is matured now; many legacy information systems do not benefit from the advantages of this architecture and their code for the process/business and data access are mostly in a single layer. In many legacy systems, due to the integration of the code in one layer, changes to the software and its maintenance are mostly difficult. In addition, the big size of a single layer causes the load concentration and turns the server into a bottleneck where all requests must be executed on it. In order to eliminate these deficiencies, this paper presents a refactoring mechanism for the automatic separation of the business and data access layers by detecting the data access code based on a series of patterns in the input code and transferring it to a new layer. For this purpose, we introduce a code scanner which detects the target points based on these patterns and hence automatically makes the changes required for the layered architecture. According to the experimental evaluation results, the performance of the system is increased for the layer separated software using the proposed approach. Furthermore, it is examined that the application of the proposed approach provides additional benefits considering the qualitative criteria such as loosely coupling and tightly coherency.

A tactical framework for EMR adoption

Hospitals and other health settings across Canada are transitioning from paper or legacy information systems to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems to improve patient care and service delivery. The literature speaks to benefits of EMR systems, but also challenges, such as adverse patient events and provider workflow interruptions. Theoretical models have been proposed to help understand the complex interaction between health information technologies and the healthcare environment, but a shortcoming is the transition from conceptual models to actual clinical settings. The health ecosystem is filled with human diversity and organizational culture considerations that cannot be separated from technical implementation strategies. This paper analyzes literature on EMR implementation and adoption to develop a tactical framework for EMR adoption. The framework consists of six categories, each with a set of seed questions to consider when leading technology adoption projects.

Information Security Threats in Patient-Centred Healthcare

Healthcare is taking an evolutionary approach towards the adoption of Patient-Centred (PC) delivery approach, which requires the flow of information between different healthcare providers to support a patient's treatment plan, so the Care Team (CT) can seamlessly and securely access relevant information held in the different discrete Legacy Information Systems (LIS). Each of these LIS deploys an organisational-driven information security policy that meets its local information sharing context needs. Nevertheless, incorporating these LIS in collaborative PC care brings multiple inconsistent policies together, which raises a number of information security threats that can block the CT access to critical information across a patient's treatment journey. Using an empirical study, this chapter identifies information security threats that can cause the issue, and defines a common collaboration-driven information security design. Finally, it identifies requirements in LIS to address the inconsistent policies in modern PC collaborative environments that would help improve the quality of care.

Information Security Threats in Patient-Centred Healthcare

Healthcare is taking an evolutionary approach towards the adoption of Patient-Centred (PC) delivery approach, which requires the flow of information between different healthcare providers to support a patient's treatment plan, so the Care Team (CT) can seamlessly and securely access relevant information held in the different discrete Legacy Information Systems (LIS). Each of these LIS deploys an organisational-driven information security policy that meets its local information sharing context needs. Nevertheless, incorporating these LIS in collaborative PC care brings multiple inconsistent policies together, which raises a number of information security threats that can block the CT access to critical information across a patient's treatment journey. Using an empirical study, this chapter identifies information security threats that can cause the issue, and defines a common collaboration-driven information security design. Finally, it identifies requirements in LIS to address the inconsistent policies in modern PC collaborative environments that would help improve the quality of care.