Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Upgrading chronic care : exploring challenges in rheumatology care management.

Introduction: The literature on chronic care describes a gap between what patients need and what healthcare provides. In rheumatoid arthritis, major medical advances have taken place in recent years which have made it possible to successfully treat more patients. However, these advances have led to organizational challenges in the man-agement of healthcare delivery. Aim: To explore the challenges in rheumatology care management by studying users’ perceptions of the Feed Forward System (FFS) principles (Study I), simulation model-ing as a tool for chronic care improvement (Study II and Study IV), and a way to test new chronic care processes (Study III). Method: Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to explore the chal-lenges faced by providers and their patients at Swedish rheumatology clinics. Methods include interviews, a focus group discussion, questionnaires, a meta-analysis, and simu-lation modeling. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Findings: Patients became more involved in and informed about their own care when they used the FFS. Providers said that it offered an overview of past treatments and their effects, as well as support for treatment decisions (Study I). Simulation modeling provided a way to test the effects of moving from time-centric to need-centric processes in rheumatology care (Study III). Simulation modeling was also shown to support healthcare improvement by visualizing the effects of planned changes, communicating these changes to management, and engaging providers to explore and test innovative solutions (Study II and IV). Discussion: Feed Forward Systems and simulation modeling represent an upgrade of how to manage the challenges inherent to rheumatology care. FFS encourage patient empowerment, self-management, and shared decision making, as well as support learn-ing for patients and providers alike. Simulation modeling helps manage complex prob-lems and facilitates learning for providers and managers. This is enabled through the shared features of FFS and simulation modeling: (1) the transformation of data into knowledge, (2) a mutual communication platform for multiple stakeholder involve-ment, (3) provision of real time feedback that enables action in clinical practice, and (4) self-correction that generates learning opportunities. Conclusion: The introduction of FFS and simulation modeling has implications at the clinical level and the patient level of rheumatology care. Upgrading chronic care where it is delivered, at both levels, can contribute to improvements in care management – changing the healthcare system from within

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Business Intelligence systems development in hospitals using an Agile Project Management approach

"Measure to manage" is a widely used expression to demonstrate that good governance must necessarily go through obtaining good data and information. These will allow managers to know the past and the momentum of the business and also to predict, estimate and take the best-informed decisions. The greater the complexity of the business, the greater this need. Healthcare units, specifically hospitals, are organizations that, due to their function and diversity of areas, are considered one of the most complex. In this context, projects for the development of business intelligence solutions, with huge impact and scope, undergo the need for continuous improvement and incremental evolution. Agile methods, by their nature and principles, are suitable to fulfil this need. The purpose of this dissertation is to support future research towards better models with agile tools to develop business intelligence system in hospitals and, manly, to understand how can Agile methodology improve a Business Intelligence System Implementation. This will be done mainly through bibliographical research on the covered topics, namely, Hospitals, Business Intelligence, Agile and Project Management. The expect results will be some clear practical guidelines, that any IT Project Manager could use for an efficient Business Intelligence System implementation using an Agile methodology. This will be done with the presentation of two use cases, from implementations in two hospitals in Portugal, where the Agile proposed model could be used to improve the outcomes of the projects. For that a deep analysis of the various phases of Business Intelligence development was carried out on the basis of information obtained in the literature and on the basis of information obtained in the practical development of Business Intelligence implementation projects. In the end it can be seen that the application of Agile can bring enormous benefits to the development of this kind of project, as, in addition to the advantages listed and widely known about Agile, it can help intensively to bring together and involve all the stakeholders of a project in a common goal of success and effectiveness

Synthesis maps: Systemic design pedagogy, narrative, and intervention

This paper presents a framework and process for a visual language that is developing as a systemic visual method, and to integrate and outline aspects of this synthetic map formulation as the “synthesis map” both with reference to contributing authors, but also as a comparison to design principles and the method of visual design language. In this way the technique’s purpose as an emergent and creative tool ‐ method can be illustrated, in contrast to the approaches of infographics, and other visual map making associated with design ideation, and design schema representation. Synthesis maps integrate evidence and expertise in a visual narrative for knowledge translation and communicatio

The remodelling of patient care pathway for e-health

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The interdependencies within the health care system are seldom taken into account prior to implementation of e-health projects, and there tends to be little change management as part of the plan. Our proposal offers a systems analysis model that gives e-health a framework to consider and manage the introduction, changes and outcomes. This research describes the use of a modified Patient Care Pathway as a method to design and implement e-health projects, presenting as a case study the pre-implementation phase of a teleradiology project in rural Thailand. The proposal is that a modified version of Patient Care Pathways can be used as a prospective design model for e-health services. The method adopts systems engineering principles and applies a ―whole systems approach‖ thereby providing a much richer schematic representation of the patient care pathway illustrating both the patient‘s journey through the system and also the information flow. Our method was applied to the design of a new teleradiology service that was to be established in Thailand, to connect GP‘s in a rural hospital to the radiology department in a tertiary hospital with a further connection to a specialist radiologist in a medical school in Bangkok. By comparing the pre-implementation Patient Care Pathway with the proposed pathway using the teleradiology, a systems analysis model was developed to identify critical points in the system and identify and anticipate how the system would support the changes in clinical practices. The method produced a valuable framework to better understand and thereby manage the implications of change prior to implementation of an e-health project

Designing a Modeling Language for Customer Journeys: Lessons Learned from User Involvement

Although numerous methods have been formalized for handling the technical aspects of developing domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs), user needs and usability aspects are often addressed in ad hoc manners and late in the development process. Working in this context, this paper presents the development of the customer journey modeling language (CJML), a DSML for modeling service processes from the end-user's perspective. CJML targets a wide and heterogeneous group of users, making it especially challenging regarding usability. This paper describes how an industry-relevant DSML was systematically improved by using a variety of user-centered design techniques in close collaboration with the target group and how their feedback was used to refine and evolve the syntax and semantics of CJML. We also suggest how a service-providing organization may benefit from adopting CJML as a unifying language for documentation purposes, compliance analysis, and service innovation. Finally, we generalize the experience gained into lessons learned and methodological guidelines.acceptedVersio

Towards a method and a guiding tool for conducting process mining projects

Due to the increased use of information systems by organizations, information on the execution of processes is recorded. This enables using process mining as a tool for improving process performance. Process mining allows gaining insights regarding actual processes by extracting and processing data from existing systems. Many projects have been conducted for process discovery, conformance checking, etc. Despite of the existence of general methods for data analysis, there’s a lack of specific methods to support process mining projects. Thus, completions of such projects are often dependent on expertise of the analysts. This paper presents a detailed method for conducting process mining projects and a tool for supporting its execution and retaining the outcomes of each step. A case is analysed for evaluating them. Organizations seeking process performance improvement can get benefit from a method that states how process mining techniques can be used in process mining projects