Exploring Factors Influencing Big Data and Analytics Adoption in Healthcare Management

Demand for improvement in healthcare management in the areas of quality, cost, and patient care has been on the upsurge because of technology. Incessant application and new technological development to manage healthcare data significantly led to leveraging on the use of big data and analytics (BDA). The application of the capabilities from BDA has provided healthcare institutions with the ability to make critical and timely decisions for patients and data management. Adopting BDA by healthcare institutions hinges on some factors necessitating its application. This study aims to identify and review what influences healthcare institutions towards the use of business intelligence and analytics. With the use of a systematic review of 25 articles, the study identified nine dominant factors driving healthcare institutions to BDA adoption. Factors such as patient management, quality decision making, disease management, data management, and promoting healthcare efficiencies were among the highly ranked factors influencing BDA adoption.

AHP, a Reliable Method for Quality Decision Making: A Case Study in Business

Decision making is a significant responsibility for business managers, their decisions impacting business performance. Managers are therefore interested in acquiring and implementing reliable methods for making decisions both now and in the future. Currently, in the countries in the Albanian-speaking regions of the Western Balkans, intuitive decision-making methods predominate. In order to find appropriate methods for assessing and prioritizing goals, new approaches to decision making should be adopted. Various methods have been developed for multi-criteria decision making. One of these is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method—a method which should receive more attention than it has up to now. We would like to show that the AHP method could be of great use in decision making. Through a case study, this paper explores the AHP, a method with three levels in which the identification of decision-making criteria is based on the perceptions of managers and consumers. The paper’s findings offer an important guide for managers to improve decision making and enhance performance in competitive markets.

FUNCTIONS OF ALGORITHMIC THINKING IN THE PROCESS OF DEMONSTRATING CHESS SKILLS

Technological upgrades, progressive scientific and technical developments are a direct reflection of the challenges of the 21st century, the overcoming of which implies a review of the content of education and the results obtained from it, aimed at developing a creative, self-planning, results’ predicting personalities. The acquisition of the mentioned qualities is ensured by the introduction of a chess game in the educational process, the purpose of which is not only to learn chess, but also to develop cognitive, emotional qualities at young age (Karapetyan & Misakyan, 2020), action prediction, thinking quality, decision-making quality, performing analytical actions (Kasparov, 2007).

Exploring Major Factors Affecting Virtual Team Performance

Increasing global operations of companies and advances in communication technologies in the last two decades have led companies to create virtual team, in which employees work more productively and cost-effectively from different locations. This situation required virtual team leaders to have a different perspective and management approach than the leaders who manage teams in the usual offices. Performance management is one of the vital tasks of virtual team leaders and is a multidimensional research topic for researchers interested in virtual team management. Knowing the determinants of performance will be useful in quality decision-making, problem-solving, and many other managerial processes. This research aims to explore major factors affecting virtual team performance by using a systematic literature review methodology that includes more than one hundred scientific articles. Findings of this study suggest that these factors are leadership, communication, collaboration, cohesion, commitment, conflict, interpersonal relations, knowledge sharing, feedback, trust, diversity, recognition, and empowerment.

The eARTISTS Media and Information Literacy Model for Managing Access to Quality Information

Information is necessary for eliminating uncertainty and facilitating decision-making. Quality of decisions depends upon the quality of information available to the stakeholders. But to manage access to quality information, information seekers have to depend upon different sources of information, media, and other information providers. Unfortunately, the commercial media is controlled by corporate tycoons, governments, politicians and various non-government organisations (NGOs). These information providers have some motive behind the stories flashed by them. Hence, media and information literacy (MIL) skills are necessary for ascertaining truth behind the story. Earlier, information literacy and media literacy were used as separate concepts but now UNESCO is using (MIL) as a composite concept, appreciating the symbiosis between media and information. This article gives an overview of a few MIL related developments and describes the e-ARTISTS MIL Model developed by Jagtar Singh and Alton Grizzle. Differentiating the e-ARTISTS Model from the Big6 Model and the Empowering 8 Model of Information Literacy, it justifies the need for e-ARTISTS MIL Model for managing timely access to quality information for facilitating quality decision-making.

Media and Information Literacy

Paul G. Zurkowski was the first to introduce the term information literacy in 1974 to describe the techniques and skills necessary for utilizing “a wide range of information tools and primary sources”. It also included the ability to measure information value to “mold information to [meet] needs” and to create solutions to problems.1-2 Since then, media literacy and information literacy has gained a base in advanced countries. But UNESCO is now promoting the composite concept of media and information literacy (MIL). To promote MIL and MIL research, it has founded the MIL Alliance and the Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID UniTwin) to enable people to use information critically, ethically and legally in quality decision-making. Other useful initiatives of UNESCO include “MIL MOOC; Media and Information Literacy: Critical-thinking, Creativity, Literacy, Intercultural, Citizenship, Knowledge and Sustainability (MIL CLICKS); MIL Policy and Strategy Guidelines; MIL Curriculum for Teachers; MIL Indicators; MIL Framework; and MIL Week Feature Conference and Youth Agenda Forum. The International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) has its programme entitled 'Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE)' and developed the MIL Guidelines. IFLA/FAIFE' programme is committed to ensure freedom of access to information and freedom of expression to empower people to realize their “right to be.”3 There are many models and standards to promote information literacy and MIL but MIL is not yet effectively imbedded in the developing countries. Hence, to sensitize the stakeholders about the concept and practice of MIL in India, this theme issue of the DESIDOC Journal of Information Technology (DJLIT) has been planned.

Disaster Management and Mitigation Instruments Used in Brazil in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The seriousness and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic required high quality decision-making and quick, positive actions by different levels of government in Brazil and in other countries. The question is: How did the Brazilian government respond to the crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic? We explored the theoretical context of the pandemic by using the Sendai framework, to analyze the quantitative aspects of the disease. The analysis was performed as an analytical, descriptive, and systematic study, using bibliographic research covering the period from Jan. 2020 to Apr. 2021. We used the process-tracing method. Brazil reported the first case of COVID-19 in South America, on Feb. 26. Since then, there has been an accelerated spread of the disease in South America. The Brazilian government’s responses to the pandemic were characterized by intergovernmental incoordination, caused by the lack of leadership from the federal government, resulting in increased losses in human lives.

Strenghtening Critical Health Literacy for Health Information Appraisal. An Approach from Argumentation Theory

The overload of health information has been a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health authorities play a primary role in managing this information. However, individuals have to apply critical health literacy to evaluate it. The objective of this paper is to identify targets for strengthening critical health literacy by focusing on the field of argumentation theory. This paper is based on the textual analysis of instances of health information through the lens of argumentation theory. The results show that critical health literacy benefits from: (1) understanding the concept of argument and the supporting reasons, (2) identifying the main argument schemes, and (3) the knowledge and use of the main critical questions to check the soundness of arguments. This study operationalizes the main aspects of critical health literacy. It calls for specific educational and training initiatives in the field. Moreover, it argues in favor of broadening the current educational curricula to empower individuals to engage in informed and quality decision making. Strenghtening individuals' critical health literacy involves interventions to empower in argument evaluation. For this purpose, argumentation theory has analytical and normative frameworks that can be adapted within a lay-audience education concept.