Associations Between Driving Forces to Adopt ICT and Benefits Derived from that Adoption in Medical Practices in Australia

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is today seen as a catalyst for change in the way work is carried out. Over the past decade there have been a number of studies examining both the decision-making behind ICT adoption (the driving forces for adoption) as well as the perceived benefits from that adoption. However, no studies have attempted to determine, or indeed map whether emphasis given to specific driving forces have manifested in differing perceptions of perceived benefits. The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether emphasis on particular driving forces for ICT adoption are associated with the perception of particular benefits. A study was undertaken amongst 198 Australian GPs. Results suggest that greater emphasis on improving communications gives rise to higher perceived benefits both in terms of communications and practice effectiveness, while emphasis on other drivers does not significantly alter the perception of benefits derived from adoption.

Capturing Distributed Contributions to an Informal Work Process

Beside formalized work processes, organizations also present work processes that aren’t a priori formalized and often rely heavily on tacit knowledge and experience distributed among involved actors. To develop information systems (IS) to assist such work processes is a challenging task. The traditional approaches for modeling often reveal short in emergent and informal work processes which are hardly elicited in requirements phase. In this work we’ve focus in the collaborative dimension of an informal work process to develop a IS aiming to improve the outcome of such process. Teams shared awareness was used as coordination and control mechanism for a loosely coupled collaboration model. The implementation of the proposed conceptual approach in a hospital facility is reported.

Patient Tracking in Critical Scenarios

This work describes the work-in-progress aimed at the design of a telemedicine system that is intended to give support to the physicians in critical scenarios and keep a record of the patient status within all the evacuation chain. The authors call this system a Patient Tracking System (PTS). The hardware/software platform described will integrate the services and functionalities available from the existing e-health infrastructure and provide the physicians with a decision support system in remote and hard-to-reach areas. The main goal is building a simple network hierarchy relying on two kinds of mobile devices: 1) a low-power Medical Information Carrier (MIC), and 2) an MDA (Medical Digital Assistant). A MIC is a device intended to hold personal medical information that may be accessed by a physician through a specialized terminal (the MDA) and, when suitably programmed, may emit a beacon signal to allow patient tracking along the evacuation chain. It is anticipated that our design will contribute to improve the efficiency in the use of communication resources in telemedicine. In a more general way, this project should enhance our understanding of the limitations that hardware and software impose on the operation in critical scenarios.

Online Advice, Guidance and Counseling for Problem Gamblers

Clinicians cannot afford to ignore the Internet. Psychological advice, help and treatment for addicts are no exceptions with both counseling and psychotherapy entering the computer age. The chapter overviews the main issues in the area and approaches the discussion acknowledging that online therapy has to be incorporated within the overall framework of the need for clinical assistance. The chapter also provides brief overviews of some websites as illustrative examples of what types of online help and therapy are available. The chapter makes particular reference to online help for problem gamblers and overviews the only study to date that evaluates the effectiveness of an online help and guidance service for a particular type of addiction (i.e., problem gambling).

E-Health Applications in Ophthalmic Diseases

E-ophthalmology can be defined as the use of information and telecommunications technologies (ICT) to provide or support a group of activities related to ophthalmic care. E-ophthalmology-based models of assistance can be useful resources to compensate for the increased demand for medical care foreseeable in the near future due to aging of the population and lack of medical specialists. The authors present in detail the models proposed for three important health problems in ophthalmology as screening for diabetic retinopathy and follow-up of glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Furthermore, the main advantages of these models and the technologic requirements needed for their implementation are described. Finally, future trends in e-ophthalmology are also addressed.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Technologies

Communication is a dynamic process that creates and conveys a mutual understanding between two or more people. Since this process is complex and not easily taught, there exist many communication disorders ranging from a physical limitation, such as ALS, to a cognitive language disorder, such as autism. Augmentative and alternative communication systems (AACs) help people with communication disorders by providing them substituted means for communicating. These systems range from non-technical solutions, such as a paper-based PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), to elaborate technical solutions, such as a plasma picture communication table. Due to the increased attention to AACs, the Worldwide Health Organization (WHO) provides a framework to evaluate effectiveness. Using this framework as a basis, the authors identified barriers and support factors for AAC effectiveness and subsequently best practices for AAC designs. They conclude with a case study of adapting a paper-based picture-based communication system to mobile devices using open-source software development for use by children with severe autism.

Healthcare Process Development with BPMN

The importance of the analysis, modelling and management of a business process is not restricted to a specific enterprise sector. In the field of health management, as a result of the nature of the service offered, health institutions’ processes are also the basis for decision making which is focused on achieving their objective of providing quality medical assistance. In this work, the authors shall present the application of business process modelling to the processes of a health sector institution, using the BPMN standard notation. The objective of this work is to show the experience obtained in the creation of the conceptual models of certain hospital processes which can be used as a basis for others in collaboration with hospitals in order to model their processes using BPMN. Hospital processes are highly complex, and their graphical visualization facilitates their management and improvement by means of the understanding and detection of possible failures.

Adoption of Wearable Systems in Modern Patient Telemonitoring Systems

The adoption of wearable systems in modern patient telemonitoring systems has been considered as a medical challenge towards the established medical practices, aiming at the highest level of quality of life. The current state-of-the-art technologies in wearable computing, wireless telemedical platforms and wireless sensors allow easy and unobtrusive electronic measurement of several vital signals and health conditions regardless the time and the place the patients need a condition monitoring. Certain major milestones to consider in the process of adopting wearable systems, besides the enabling technologies, are the affordability that depends on financial criteria, the adaptability of the overall healthcare sector to the innovative technologies and the conformance of the medical staff to the lifelong learning for vocational training. These aspects are discussed in this chapter, along with the description of the wearable systems capabilities and reference to their latest popular applications and future trends.

Exploring Personal Healthcare with the Help of Two Large European Framework Programs for Healthcare

Personal healthcare enables prevention and early diagnosis in daily life and is centered on the patient. There is a need for a new personal healthcare paradigm in the treatment of chronic diseases. This will be achieved by new technologies that are currently explored (e.g., in European Research projects such as MyHeart and HeartCycle). These projects develop technologies and application concepts for the (self-)management of chronic diseases in patients’ homes with special emphasis on usability and ease-of-use (e.g., wearable sensors and processing units that can even be integrated into the patient’s clothes). These technologies allow empowering patients, fostering self-management and therefore reducing cost, and improving patients’ quality of life.

E-Therapy

Nowadays, information and communication technologies (ICT) are being used in the mental health field to improve the quality of the services provided. Several studies refer both advantages and disadvantages for these practices. E-therapy appears as a new way to help people in their life and existing relationships, and there is proven evidence that online therapy helps, for instance, to reduce depression symptoms. It is also seen as a complement of the technological and traditional techniques, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the therapeutic process. As a matter of fact, some people tend to be more comfortable with the computer than in face-to-face therapy. Besides patients and physicians, other direct players could be found in this domain, namely, families and caregivers. All players will be directly affected by the use of existing services and thus, a correct assessment of the effectiveness of e-therapy solutions and studies is required. eSchi is a multimedia portal that enables an e-therapy setting for schizophrenia patients. Currently under development, the system is described and future trends in the area are depicted.