Toward a framework for data quality in cloud-based health information system

This Cloud computing is a promising platform for health information systems in order to reduce costs and improve accessibility. Cloud computing represents a shift away from computing being purchased as a product to be a service delivered over the Internet to customers. Cloud computing paradigm is becoming one of the popular IT infrastructures for facilitating Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration and sharing. EHR is defined as a repository of patient data in digital form. This record is stored and exchanged securely and accessible by different levels of authorized users. Its key purpose is to support the continuity of care, and allow the exchange and integration of medical information for a patient. However, this would not be achieved without ensuring the quality of data populated in the healthcare clouds as the data quality can have a great impact on the overall effectiveness of any system. The assurance of the quality of data used in healthcare systems is a pressing need to help the continuity and quality of care. Identification of data quality dimensions in healthcare clouds is a challenging issue as data quality of cloud-based health information systems arise some issues such as the appropriateness of use, and provenance. Some research proposed frameworks of the data quality dimensions without taking into consideration the nature of cloud-based healthcare systems. In this paper, we proposed an initial framework that fits the data quality attributes. This framework reflects the main elements of the cloud-based healthcare systems and the functionality of EHR

Identity in research infrastructure and scientific communication: Report from the 1st IRISC workshop, Helsinki Sep 12-13, 2011

Motivation for the IRISC workshop came from the observation that identity and digital identification are increasingly important factors in modern scientific research, especially with the now near-ubiquitous use of the Internet as a global medium for dissemination and debate of scientific knowledge and data, and as a platform for scientific collaborations and large-scale e-science activities.

The 1 1/2 day IRISC2011 workshop sought to explore a series of interrelated topics under two main themes: i) unambiguously identifying authors/creators & attributing their scholarly works, and ii) individual identification and access management in the context of identity federations. Specific aims of the workshop included:

• Raising overall awareness of key technical and non-technical challenges, opportunities and developments.
• Facilitating a dialogue, cross-pollination of ideas, collaboration and coordination between diverse – and largely unconnected – communities.
• Identifying & discussing existing/emerging technologies, best practices and requirements for researcher identification.

This report provides background information on key identification-related concepts & projects, describes workshop proceedings and summarizes key workshop findings

Trust and obfuscation principles for quality of information in emerging pervasive environments

Non peer reviewedPostprin

Supporting Collaborative Health Tracking in the Hospital: Patients' Perspectives

The hospital setting creates a high-stakes environment where patients' lives depend on accurate tracking of health data. Despite recent work emphasizing the importance of patients' engagement in their own health care, less is known about how patients track their health and care in the hospital. Through interviews and design probes, we investigated hospitalized patients' tracking activity and analyzed our results using the stage-based personal informatics model. We used this model to understand how to support the tracking needs of hospitalized patients at each stage. In this paper, we discuss hospitalized patients' needs for collaboratively tracking their health with their care team. We suggest future extensions of the stage-based model to accommodate collaborative tracking situations, such as hospitals, where data is collected, analyzed, and acted on by multiple people. Our findings uncover new directions for HCI research and highlight ways to support patients in tracking their care and improving patient safety

Poor performance of broadleaf plantations and possible remedial silvicultural systems - a review

Peer-reviewedOver the last two decades planting of broadleaves has been part of forest policy. In addition to the provision of a range of ecosystem services, it is intended that this resource will have a direct economic stimulus through the supply of quality hardwood. A number of challenges must be met in order to achieve this objective, particularly as current observations would indicate that many first rotation broadleaf plantations comprise a relatively high proportion of poor quality stems. A literature review has been carried out on the probable causes of poor performance in broadleaf crops. Silvicultural systems to rehabilitate poor quality stands are discussed. Subsequent papers will deal with these silvicultural systems in more detail.COFOR

The broadband-enabled innovation program: a working demonstration of the effective use of technology in community-based patient care

Illustrates the practical application of technology in community-based patient care through an overview of a project that the RDNS has trialled to provide remote medicines management. Summary Background Given the socioeconomic demands of the Australian society, both now and in the future, the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) has identified the importance of exploring suitable commercial forms of telehealth technologies to enable robust and sustainable models of care for their clients. Objective The aim of this article is to illustrate the practical application of technology in community-based patient care through an overview of a project that the RDNS has trialled to provide remote medicines management. Discussion The results of this project demonstrate that technology can be successfully applied in community-based patient care to enhance the capacity of RDNS to deliver medications management for clients. It showed benefits in terms of increasing the efficiency of service delivery as well as staff and patient satisfaction. On the basis of this success, the program is being expanded and un-dergoing further evaluation to assess its impact. &nbsp

Governance in the age of social machines: the web observatory

The World Wide Web has provided unprecedented access to information; as humans and machines increasingly interact with it they provide more and more data. The challenge is how to analyse and interpret this data within the context that it was created, and to present it in a way that both researchers and practitioners can more easily make sense of. The first step is to have access to open and interoperable data sets, which Governments around the world are increasingly subscribing to. But having ‘open’ data is just the beginning and does not necessarily lead to better decision making or policy development. This is because data do not provide the answers – they need to be analysed, interpreted and understood within the context of their creation, and the business imperative of the organisation using them. The major corporate entities, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, have the capabilities to do this, but are driven by their own commercial imperatives, and their data are largely siloed and held within ‘walled gardens’ of information. All too often governments and non-profit groups lack these capabilities, and are driven by very different mandates. In addition they have far more complex community relationships, and must abide by regulatory constraints which dictate how they can use the data they hold. As such they struggle to maximise the value of this emerging ‘digital currency’ and are therefore largely beholden to commercial vendors. What has emerged is a public-private data ecosystem that has huge policy implications (including the twin challenges of privacy and security). Many within the public sector lack the skills to address these challenges because they lack the literacy required within the digital context. This project seeks to address some of these problems by bringing together a safe and secure Australian-based data platform (facilitating the sharing of data, analytics and visualisation) with policy analysis and governance expertise in order to create a collaborative working model of a ‘Government Web Observatory’. This neutral space, hosted by an Australian university, can serve as a powerful complement to existing Open Data initiatives in Australia, and enable research and education to combine to support the development of a more digitally literate public service. The project aims to explore where, and in which contexts, people, things, data and the Internet meet and result in evolving observable phenomena which can inform better government policy development and service delivery.&nbsp

Moving Image Preservation and Cultural Capital

This article examines the changing landscape of moving image archiving in the wake of recent developments in online video sharing services such as YouTube and Google Video. The most crucial change to moving image archives may not be in regard to the collections themselves, but rather the social order that sustains cultural institutions in their role as the creators and sustainers of objectified cultural capital. In the future, moving image stewardship may no longer be the exclusive province of institutions such as archives and libraries, and may soon be accomplished in part through the work of other interested individuals and organizations as they contribute to and define collections. The technologies being built and tested in the current Internet environment offer a new model for the reimagined moving image archive, which foregrounds the user in the process of creating the archive and strongly encourages the appropriation of moving images for new works. This new archetype, which in theory functions on democratic principles, considers moving images???along with most other types of cultural heritage material???to be building blocks of creative acts or public speech acts. One might argue that the latter represents a new model for creating an archive; this new democratic archive documents and facilitates social discourse.published or submitted for publicatio