Consumer Adoption of Health Information Systems

At nearly 18 percent of the country\u27s GDP, the U.S. healthcare industry continues to wrestle with growing cost and a quality of care that does not match the increased spending. The dominant focus to date has been on promoting Health IT (HIT) system implementation and digitizing health records at the provider\u27s end, with scant attention to the role of the patient in the healthcare process. The source of inefficiency in the healthcare system is not only on account of shortcomings at the provider\u27s end but also due to non-compliance (such as failing to adhere to medication advice and follow-up visits) at the patient\u27s end. Because of this two-fold inefficiency, recent focus has been on engaging the patient to jointly work with the physicians in managing their health and wellness. There are several health related IT applications (popularly called as health apps) and online health communities directly targeted at the consumer for aiding self-management of one\u27s health and wellness. However, widespread adoption and usage of these systems by consumers is yet to happen, which underscores the need for a systematic study to identify the factors that drive consumer adoption and usage of these HIT systems. This dissertation focuses on the mechanisms underlying consumer adoption and usage of HIT systems through three essays. Together the three essays advance our knowledge of the factors that underlie consumer adoption and usage of HIT systems and the interventions through which adoption and usage of these systems can be further enhanced. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed. Future research that builds on the findings of this dissertation research will not only advance theory but also significantly impact policies that guide IT driven consumer health and wellness initiatives

Best Practices for Constitutional Government Under the South Korean Framework of Democratic Experimentalism

South Korea has been one of the most successful newborn republics since 1948, and yet, since the new millennium, it has been embroiled in a controversy over the issues of constitutionalism and successful government, with the public expressing concerns about transparency, democracy, and competitiveness. Of particular concern is the public\u27s perception of constitutional government. The purpose of this study was to better understand the elements of governmental success and best practices for constitutionalism in the country\u27s framework of democratic experimentalism. Three prongs of inquiry rooted in the democratic experimentalist tradition (lessons learned from private governance, national institutions, and new concepts of rights) were examined. Dorf and Sabel\u27s theory of constitution of democratic experimentalism was used to help answer the research question, which was, how democratic experimentalism supports constitutional government in South Korea. Data were collected through interviews with 16 legal/government professionals under the age of 40, and then coded and thematically analyzed. Findings identified 9 identified key themes as vital for the success of constitutional government in South Korea. Results suggest that constitutionalism and democratic experimentation need to be considered together when seeking to understand the South Korean constitutional government. Implications for positive social change include helping future investigators to better interpret the Korean constitutional system and supporting decision makers and public servants in making better informed decisions to further more democratic and transparent government

Enhancing curriculum design and delivery with OER

This paper reports on the key findings from the EVOL-OER project which aims to develop a deeper understanding of the reuse of open educational resources (OERs) by academics in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper builds on the JISC OER Impact study by exploring and expanding on the Ratified quadrant of the study’s landscape of reuse framework (White & Manton, 2011). This paper puts forward a different four-quadrant diagram called ‘OER-enhanced curriculum’ to illustrate different approaches adopted by academics to embedding OER into curriculum design and delivery. Key issues in relation to motivation and challenges in reusing OER are discussed

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Imperfections:Studies in Mistakes, Flaws, and Failures

In recent years, the trend to present the notion of imperfection in a positive rather than negative light has resonated across a range of social and creative disciplines and a wealth of world regions. This open access book synthesizes the swiftly growing critical scholarship on mistakes, glitches, and other aesthetics and logics of imperfection into the first transdisciplinary, transnational framework of imperfection studies. With this framework, the editors offer scholars and students across various disciplines tools to craft more historically grounded and critically informed conceptualizations of the imperfect

Imperfections

This open access book synthesizes the swiftly growing critical scholarship on mistakes, glitches, and other aesthetics and logics of imperfection into the first transdisciplinary, transnational framework of imperfection studies. In recent years, the trend to present the notion of imperfection as a plus rather than a problem has resonated across a range of social and creative disciplines and a wealth of world localities. As digital tools allow media users to share ever more suave selfies and success stories, psychologists promote 'the gifts of imperfections' and point to perfectionism as a catalyst for rising depression and burnout complaints and suicide rates among millennials. As sound technologies increasingly permit musicians to 'smoothen' their work, composers increasingly praise glitches, noise, and cracks. As genetic engineering upgrades with swift speed, philosophers, marketeers, and physicians plea 'against perfection' and supermarkets successfully advertise 'perfectly imperfect' vegetables. Meanwhile, cultural analysts point at skewed perspectives, blurry images, and other 'deliberate imperfections' in new and historical cinema, painting, photography, music, and literature. While these and other experts applaud imperfection, scholars in fields ranging from disability studies to tourism critically interrogate a trend to fetishize imperfection and poverty. They rightfully warn against projecting privileged (and, often, emphatically western-biased) feel-good stories onto the less privileged, the distorted, and the frail. The editors unite the different strands in imperfection thinking across various disciplines tools. In fourteen chapters by experts from different world localities, they offer scholars and students more historically grounded and more critically informed conceptualizations of the imperfect. This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Barack Obama’s Rhetoric of Hope for Racial Reconciliation: An Examination of American Mainstream Media’s Framing of That Message

This study explored Barack Obama’s rhetorical message for racial reconciliation and the framing of that message by the American mainstream news media. The study investigated Obama’s messages in texts and sound-bites of the news media—The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The research included Obama’s speeches on three major occasions from 2008 to 2014—(1) “a more perfect union” speech on March 18, 2008, in Philadelphia; (2) Washington speech on August 28, 2013, on the 50th anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech; and (3) LBJ Library speech on April 10, 2014, on the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The main goal of this research was to uncover the frames and tones of the news media that might reflect change or no-change in critical race relations and socio-economic conditions of African-Americans in the “Age of Obama,” viewed as a post-racial era by the legacy media. The study used Critical Race Theory to analyze the idealistic and realistic issues of race relations. The media frames included three themes—(i) Obama’s relation with his pastor and friend Jeremiah Wright, (ii) the political tone, and (iii) the perception of civic and economic programs of Obama toward African-Americans. All six media outlets framed Obama as being at fault for his relationship with Wright. In the tone frame, the conservative media outlets judged Obama as a “bargainer,” and as “scandalous.” The liberal outlets looked at Obama somewhat as a conciliator. For civic and economic improvements for African Americans, the conservative outlets put emphasis on cohesive conditions of partnership by Obama. Fox News asked African-Americans to gain “plentiful” skills to get jobs. The media reinforced the myth of the dawn of a ”post-racial” era, a hypothetical period in which discrimination did not exist. The ”Age of Obama” became the sign of ”racial reconciliation.” The study helps expand a national dialogue between the public and the media about race. The researcher proposed a theoretical framework—Critical Race and Class Theory (CR&CT) in order to explain phenomena