Interoperability in Healthcare

With the advancement of technology, patient information has been being computerized in order to facilitate the work of healthcare professionals and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. However, there are many heterogeneous information systems that need to communicate, sharing information and making it available when and where it is needed. To respond to this requirement the Agency for Integration, Diffusion, and Archiving of medical information (AIDA) was created, a multi-agent and service-based platform that ensures interoperability among healthcare information systems. In order to improve the performance of the platform, beyond the SWOT analysis performed, a system to prevent failures that may occur in the platform database and also in machines where the agents are executed was created. The system has been implemented in the Centro Hospitalar do Porto (one of the major Portuguese hospitals), and it is now possible to define critical workload periods of AIDA, improving high availability and load balancing. This is explored in this chapter.

What E-Mental Health Can Offer to Saudi Arabia Using an Example of Australian E-Mental Health

Mental health have become a very influential topic around the world due to the increase of mental health issues that have been reported through national research and surveys. Many studies have been done along the years around the barriers in regards to seeking help in deferent countries and communities. This research aims to look closely into these barriers targeting issues and potential solutions, specifically for Saudi Arabia. Recently, the use of e-mental health services have proven to be an effective method to improve is barriers to mental health treatment. However, this chapter addresses the application and suitably of e-mental health programs for Saudi Arabia mental health services. To do so, a case study of Australian e-mental health services was selected to assist with the investigations.

Unobtrusive Smart Environments for Independent Living and the Role of Mixed Methods in Elderly Healthcare Delivery

In this chapter the authors describe a novel approach to healthcare delivery for the elderly as adopted by USEFIL, a research project which uses unobtrusive, multi-parametric sensor data collection to support seniors. The system is based on everyday devices such as an in-mirror camera, smart TV, wrist-mountable personal communicator and a tablet computer strategically distributed around the house. It exploits sensor data fusion, intelligent decision support for carers, remote alerting, secure data communications and storage. A combined quantitative and qualitative knowledgebase was established and analysed, target groups were established among elderly prospective users and scenarios were built around each group. Use cases have been prioritised according to quantitative functional and non-functional criteria. Our research findings suggest that an unobtrusive system such as USEFIL could potentially make a significant difference in the quality of life of elderly people, improve the focus of provided healthcare and support their daily independent living activities.

Knowledge Sharing for Healthcare and Medicine in Developing Countries

Knowledge sharing has always been used as a platform for cross-pollination of ideas and innovations in a bid to improve and enhance performance thereby increasing competitiveness and responsiveness both in organizations and individual levels. Healthcare systems are not an exception. However, for knowledge sharing to take place there is need for certain factors to be noted and addressed such as the individual, organizational and technological. Further, knowledge sharing goes hand in hand with knowledge management and must become part of the strategic fabric of organizations. This chapter focuses on knowledge sharing by health professionals in healthcare and medicine in developing countries. The chapter covers knowledge management and its link with knowledge sharing; the various methods of knowledge sharing in healthcare; factors that make knowledge sharing an important strategic move for healthcare organizations; and factors and issues that affect or determine knowledge sharing behavior. Finally, a literature search for examples of knowledge sharing in developing or low and middle-income countries was conducted and the results are presented. The chapter shows that developing countries have recognized the value of knowledge sharing in healthcare systems and there are tangible signs that this is going to shape cross-pollination of ideas and innovations in the health systems in the foreseeable future.

Why Do Patients Protest? Collective Action Processes in People With Chronic Illnesses

Despite the relevance of the topic, an exhaustive psychosocial reflection on the processes that may facilitate patients' protest is still missing. The chapter provides a theoretical and empirical overview of psychosocial pathways for patients' collective action. Five core factors are reviewed: perceived injustice, group efficacy, group identification, moral convictions and social embeddedness. Each of them provides a different explanation of collective action processes and is examined for its potential impact among patients. The chapter closes suggesting some core elements for a theoretical explanation of patients' collective action and its relationship with patient engagement. Practical and theoretical implications of patients' collective action are discussed to identify new directions for future research and interventions.

Missing Link of the Health Information Exchange Loop

Since 2004, the services of the Florida Health Information Exchange (HIE) have grown, and in 2011, the state contracted with Harris Corporation to provide some basic services to the Florida health care industry and provide functional improvements to the expanding state-wide HIE. The endeavors of this public-private partnership continue to the present day; however, as HIE services have expanded, challenges continue to be encountered. Ultimately, successful exchange of medical data requires patient engagement and “buy-in.” The purpose of this article will consider why patient engagement is important for HIE success, offer recommendations to improve both patient and provider interest, and consider the importance of online patient portals to increase the effectiveness of health record keeping and the sharing of vital patient medical information needed by caregivers and their patients.

Management of Tacit Knowledge and the Issue of Empowerment of Patients and Stakeholders in the Health Care Sector

There is a growing literature on health and health care dedicated to empowerment of patients; but there is still a gap in the literature to conceptualize knowledge, to extend the discussion of the empowerment of the patients to the stakeholders. The discussion is at the level of managerial processes of empowerment and knowledge management related to health care. The present chapter starts with a review on empowerment, especially focused on the health sector. The following sections will develop a critical analysis of empowerment, mainly around the concept of tacit knowledge (Polanyi) and knowledge management. One key variable is the proximity of the actors involved in the empowerment process. This key variable is very much related to the tacitness issue of knowledge production and flows. The chapter extends the discussion of the empowerment of the patients to that of the stakeholders and the general debate about health literacy. A model is briefly described for the purpose of illustrating the learning process in a knowledge management implemented in health care.

The Power of Words

The concept of patient engagement is attracting growing attention from scholars working on doctor-patient interactions. It refers to the condition in which patients are fully aware of their medical condition and willing to be active both in the relationship with their caregivers and towards the health care institutions. However, the operative steps necessary to achieve patient engagement have not yet been fully described. This chapter focuses on the communicative dimension of engagement. Communication is shown to be a pivotal means to improve patient self-efficacy and commitment, both fundamental components of engagement. In particular, the authors take a closer look at the process of decision making in chronic care settings, and propose a normative model to analyze and evaluate the quality of decision making in consultations. It is argued that the model can also be used as a blueprint to create training materials for clinicians.

Integrated Smart TV-Based Personal E-Health System

This paper discusses the design and experimental implementation of an integrated system for the delivery of health related services, based on different technologies and devices. The idea is to create a unique point of access for the user, towards both a cloud-based remote service for the consultation of medical reports, and a personal local service that allows to collect and display data from biomedical sensors, to manage user's reminders for medicines, and to monitor the patient's dietary habits. The proposed system employs suitable technologies to simplify the user interaction, such as Near Field Communications enabled devices, and a smart TV equipment. By this way, it is possible to effectively deliver telehealth services also to users who may be less familiar with technological equipments, such as older adults, or people living in rural communities. The experimental implementation proves the feasibility of the proposed service, and the possibility to gain users' adherence and compliance, through proper design criteria.

Effect of Mobile Phone SMS on M-Health

This chapter is engaged in identifying consumer perceptions regarding short message service (SMS) of the mobile phone as an alternative service delivery channel for Mobile-health (M-health) and studying the cultural impact of this change. In this connection, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was used as the theoretical base to perceive consumer perceptions about M-health. The authors have performed an empirical study of diabetic patients in Bangladesh and Canada. Path analysis was conducted on the results of both samples. Analysis results confirmed that the UTAUT model fits quite nicely in predicting consumer perceptions of M-health-driven mobile technology. It also acknowledged that differences in cultural traits have an impact on consumer behavior.