The chaotic nature of healthcare information systems: The need for transdisciplinary collaboration

Copyright @ 2013 EMCIS.This paper demonstrates one of the challenges of the healthcare information systems development, namely the chaotic nature of healthcare systems. Although the reliable evidence demonstrating the positive effects of health information systems on safety and quality remains inconclusive (a growing body of research revealing the unintended consequences and potentially error producing effects of health information systems’ implementation. Different arguments from the literature concerning the chaotic nature of healthcare, including but not limited to the nature of patients and disease have been presented. The requirements of new ways of systems design and the need for transdisciplinary dynamic teams within the requirements engineering phase as a start has been discussed. These arguments have been investigated in the context of an exploratory case addressing one of the advanced oncology centres in the US. This paper concludes that there is an important need to rethink healthcare information systems development method, which has to be in a dynamic ongoing manner for some major issues

Rating the Suitability of Responsible Gambling Features for Specific Game Types: A Resource for Optimizing Responsible Gambling Strategy

A Delphi based study, rated the perceived effectiveness of 45 responsible gambling (RG) features in relation to 20 distinct gambling type games. Participants were 61 raters from seven countries,including responsible gambling experts (n = 22), treatment providers (n = 19) and recovered problem gamblers (n = 20). The most highly recommended RG features could be divided into three groups 1) Player initiated tools focused on aiding player’s behaviour 2) RG features related to informed-player-choice 3) RG features focused on gaming company actions. Overall, player control over personal limits were favoured more than gaming company controlled limits, although mandatory use of such features was often recommended. The study found that recommended RG features varied considerably between game types, according to their structural characteristics. Also,online games had the possibility to provide many more RG features than traditional (offline games). The findings draw together knowledge about the effectiveness of RG features for specific game types. This should aid objective, cost-effective, evidence based decisions on which RG features toi nclude in an RG strategy, according to a specific portfolio of games. The findings of this study will be available via a web-based tool, known as the Responsible Gambling Knowledge Centre (RGKC)

Operator-based approaches to harm minimisation in gambling: summary, review and future directions

In this report we give critical consideration to the nature and effectiveness of harm minimisation in gambling. We identify gambling-related harm as both personal (e.g., health, wellbeing, relationships) and economic (e.g., financial) harm that occurs from exceeding one’s disposable income or disposable leisure time. We have elected to use the term ‘harm minimisation’ as the most appropriate term for reducing the impact of problem gambling, given its breadth in regard to the range of goals it seeks to achieve, and the range of means by which they may be achieved. The extent to which an employee can proactively identify a problem gambler in a gambling venue is uncertain. Research suggests that indicators do exist, such as sessional information (e.g., duration or frequency of play) and negative emotional responses to gambling losses. However, the practical implications of requiring employees to identify and interact with customers suspected of experiencing harm are questionable, particularly as the employees may not possess the clinical intervention skills which may be necessary. Based on emerging evidence, behavioural indicators identifiable in industryheld data, could be used to identify customers experiencing harm. A programme of research is underway in Great Britain and in other jurisdiction

A study to examine the operation and function of a virtual UK environmental specimen bank (UK-ESB). Final report

Executive Summary: 1. Environmental specimen banking is recognised internationally as an integral part of long-term environmental research and monitoring. Analysis of preserved environmental samples is often needed to detect and quantify patterns and rate of environmental change, and the emergence and progression of environmental hazards and risks. 2. National Environmental Specimen Banks have been established in several countries; they vary in scope and breadth. There are a few specialised environmental specimen holdings in the UK but no national-scale catalogue of holdings, despite an estimated annual spend of £16 million to store specimens. This lack of information results in under-exploitation of archived specimens and is a lost opportunity to facilitate world-class science and identify emerging pressures and threats on the environment. 3. An earlier project had identified key stakeholder organisations either engaged in archiving nationally important environmental specimens or who wished to utilise such specimens. These stakeholders had agreed there was a need for a national metadata catalogue of environmental specimens (subsequently termed a virtual UK-ESB). The objective of the current project was to further develop a virtual UK-ESB. Specifically, the aim was to work with stakeholders to establish the correct metadata entry fields, the search capabilities, the functionality and the nature of the hosting website of a virtual UK-ESB. 4. More than 80 stakeholder organisations that had previously expressed an interest in a UK-ESB were approached to provide feedback either electronically or by attending a stakeholder workshop. Thirty eight organisations responded. All remained interested in the UK-ESB concept and seventeen answered the survey questions. 5. Mock-ups of data entry screens, search screens and ideas around the functionality of a UK-ESB were developed by the CEH project team. These were mailed to stakeholders for feedback. Initial feedback was incorporated into the mock-ups which were then presented for discussion at a workshop comprising 15 attendees from across the specimen archiving community, CEH and the UK-EOF. 6. Workshop participants reviewed and agreed the format of 23 mandatory or optional data-entry fields for a virtual UK-ESB that, in the absence of standard for material samples and archives, were aligned with ISO19115 (geospatial metadata standard) and DublinCore (metadata standard). These fields were sub-divided into the following headings: Sample description, Categorisation, keywords and links, Storage Information and Contact information. Workshop participants also made a number of recommendations as to the format of the data entry screens and inclusion of extra fields. 7. Workshop participants reviewed options for search capabilities and made recommendations as to simple and advanced searching methods and their formats. It was also recommended that search facilities of the ESBs of other countries be examined to determine what is used, ease of use, and how they match the recommendations from the workshop. 8. Workshop participants reviewed options for functionality and agreed a detailed list of prioritised requirements. 9. Workshop participants agreed that a virtual UK-ESB should be hosted through a dedicated website that would also provide wider information, such as recently updated or added specimen holdings, most downloaded information, links to other groups, standard operating procedures, etc. 10. The next step for the development of a virtual UK-ESB is to implement the design and development ideas captured in the current report and build a test version of a virtual UK-ESB. This would be tested and refined, and could then be launched on a specifically designed website. This would need to be accompanied by a communication strategy. There is potential to link and co-brand a virtual UK-ESB with the UK-Environmental Observation Framework (UK-EOF)

The Economics of Music Production. The Narrow Paths for Record Companies to Enter the Digital Era

On the basis of an in depth analysis of the flow of revenues within the music industry and of the emerging practices, we attempt to understand the logic at play in the current evolution of the structure of the industry. We claim that the record companies used to play a role that was useful for the dynamic and for the quality of music production, and analyze whether it can be maintained despite the impossibility for them to further control the formation and distribution of revenues generated by recorded music. Two antagonistic strategies, corresponding to different segments of the market, are highlighted in this paper. One targets the mass market and relies on the recognition by the on-line distributors of the mutual dependency between them and the record companies. It also admits that this music is characterized by short commercial life cycles and that it should be marketed as a consumer product. Moreover revenues are not necessarily generated by sales, but by the value of temporally exclusive release in some channels. The second model targets the wide number of niches at the fringe of this mass market and relies on the building of communities of customers sharing common tastes and values and on the development of their loyalty. The model is commercial, but relies clearly on the cooperation among the various stakeholders that build a common safe harbor enabling specific types of music to sustainably develop. Value added services funded by ubscription have to be developed.economics of culture, cultural industries, digital business model, P2P, industrial organization.

Capitalizing on Criminal Justice

The U.S. criminal justice system “piles on.” It punishes too many for too long. Much criminal law scholarship focuses on the problem of excessive punishment. Yet for the low-level offenses that dominate state court workloads, much of the harm caused by arrests and convictions arises outside the formal criminal sentence. It stems from spiraling hidden penalties and the impact of a criminal record. The key question is not just why the state over-punishes, but rather why so many different institutions—law enforcement institutions as well as civil regulatory agencies and private actors—find it valuable to do so. This Article argues that the reach of the criminal justice system is not just the product of overly punitive laws, but also the product of institutions capitalizing on criminal law decisions for their own ends. Criminal law is meant to serve a public purpose, but in practice, key institutions create, disseminate, and rely on low-level criminal records because they offer a source of revenue or provide a cost-effective way of achieving discrete administrative objectives. These incentives drive and expand the reach of the criminal justice system, even as they work in tension with the state’s sentencing goals. This dynamic creates obvious harm. But it also benefits key actors, such as municipalities, privatized probation companies, background check providers, employers, and others who have incentives to maintain the system as it is. This Article identifies how organizational incentives lead a host of institutions to capitalize on criminal law decisions, and it argues that reform efforts must, as a central goal, recognize and respond to these incentives

Routines and representations at work - observing the architecture of conceptual design

routines, representations, artifacts, product development, workplace observation, evolutionary economics, chip manufacturing

Does Board Gender Diversity Influence Financial Performance? Evidence from Spain

In recent years, several countries have enacted guidelines and/or mandatory laws to increase the presence of women on the boards of companies. Through these regulatory interventions, the aim is to eradicate the social and labor grievances that women have traditionally experienced and which has relegated them to smaller-scale jobs. Nevertheless, and despite the advances achieved, the female representation in the boardroom remains far from the desired levels. In this context, it is now necessary to enhance the advantages of board gender diversity from both ethical and economic points of view. This article examines the relation between board gender diversity and economic results in Spain: the second country in the world to legally require gender quotas in boardrooms and historically characterized by a minimal female participation in the workforce. Based on a sample of 125 non-financial firms listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2009, our findings show that in the period analyzed the increase of the number of women on boards was over 98 %. This suggests that compulsory legislation offers an efficient framework to execute the recommendation of Spanish codes of good governance by means of the increase in the number of women in the boards of firms. Furthermore, we find that the increase in the number of women on the boards is positively related to higher economic results. Therefore, both results suggest that gender diversity in boardrooms should be incremented, mandatory laws being a key factor to do so