Mobile Technology Deployment Strategies for Improving the Quality of Healthcare

Ineffective deployment of mobile technology jeopardizes healthcare quality, cost control, and access, resulting in healthcare organizations losing customers and revenue. A multiple case study was conducted to explore the strategies that chief information officers (CIOs) used for the effective deployment of mobile technology in healthcare organizations. The study population consisted of 3 healthcare CIOs and 2 healthcare information technology consultants who have experience in deploying mobile technology in a healthcare organization in the United States. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was Wallace and Iyer\u27s health information technology value hierarchy. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and document reviews, followed by within-case and cross-case analyses for triangulation and data saturation. Key themes that emerged from data analysis included the application of disruptive technology in healthcare, ownership and management of mobile health equipment, and cybersecurity. The healthcare CIOs and consultants emphasized their concern about the lack of cybersecurity in mobile technology. CIOs were reluctant to deploy the bring-your-own-device strategy in their organizations. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential for healthcare CIOs to emphasize the business practice of supporting healthcare providers in using secure mobile equipment deployment strategies to provide enhanced care, safety, peace of mind, convenience, and ease of access to patients while controlling costs

A smart dynamic crowd evacuation system for exhibition centers

In this paper, we consider the problem of finding the safest evacuation route in a multi-exit exhibition center while the fire hazard spreads. We first propose a system composed of sensor nodes to collect pertinent safety data. We present a real-time dynamic evacuation system that considers the changing conditions in the risks associated with each hallway segment in terms of walking distance, heat, two major asphyxiant fire gases and congestion. Our system activates smart panels placed at major junctions of the hallways to guide evacuees towards the appropriate exit by displaying the proper escape direction. This work can pave the way towards the development of next-generation smart exhibition centers, where crowd safety is among the top priorities

2020 - The Twenty-fourth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars

The full program book from the Twenty-fourth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 16, 2020. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/sssprograms/1021/thumbnail.jp

Assessing Halal supply chain performance of skincare product through SCOR model at aesthetic clinic in Surabaya

In today's age, consumer concern for halal products and supply chains is increasing, including skin-care products. Therefore, beauty service providers must also pay attention to the quality of the cosmetic and skincare used, but also ensure implementation of halal supply chain. The aim of the study is to analyze the performance of the halal supply chain applied to skincare products used by halal-certified beauty clinics in Surabaya. This study uses a qualitative approach, and is designed as an exploratory case study-based research. The study analyzes the performance of the halal supply chain using the SCOR version 11.0 method which was then measured its suitability with the halal standard element based on MS2200:1 (2008): Islamic Consumer Goods - Part 1: Cosmetics and Personal Care - General Guideline and Indonesian Council of Ulama no.26 (2013) regarding halal standards for cosmetic products. Result of the study found that there are two supply chain activities that are not in accordance with halal standards. First, in the "make" supply chain component of the supplier. Second, at the "delivery" supply chain component carried out by the company. A key limitation of this study is that it focuses only on the case of the halal supply chain implementation performance of skin-care and cosmetic products. Future research can be done by analyzing a halal risk of the halal supply chain network, including detailed references and guidelines of halal standards.Indrianawati Usman (Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia), Li'izzah Gindia Manzil (Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia), Norlinda Mohd Rozar (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu)Includes bibliographical reference

Healthcare Group Purchasing Organizations: Who’s Really Saving? An Empirical Investigation of Hospital Characteristics That Influence Supply Expense for Healthcare GPO Members

Healthcare Group Purchasing Organizations (HGPOs) can aggregate purchasing volume and leverage this power to influence supply and service expenses for its members. However, all HGPO members do not realize corresponding value across the board, which could be due to hospital characteristics that impact organizational structure positioning some members to better leverage the resources of the HGPO. This empirical investigation is a quantitative study that examines healthcare provider characteristics associated with influencing supply expense ratio (SER%) for HGPO members that employs the Economies of Scale Theory (EST) as a conceptual framework. EST suggests that increased size and output of the HGPO, decreases the operating cost per purchase venture thereby decreasing the purchase spend for the HGPO member. Utilization of HGPO contracts is a prime example of the EST and is expected to influence supply expense for its members, legitimizing the need to investigate other factors driving SER% and the differentiation seen amongst members. Prior research has shown that certain hospital characteristics can positively or negatively influence the operations and organizational structure of the hospital warranting the focus on this factor (Armansingham et al, 2008). Using two years of supply expense data for 2162 healthcare providers in the U.S, this study investigated whether specific HGPO member characteristics such as (demographic, descriptive, utilization and service-type designation.) can influence the members SER%. This model not only adds pragmatic findings concerning influencers of hospital expense for HGPO members, it also presents a reliable and replicable model for healthcare supply chain researchers and practitioners to further determine how the effective use of HGPOs can be maximized. The strategic design and implementation of this study will provide healthcare supply chain executives, healthcare policy and reform researchers and hospital administrators with new leads of research areas aimed at decreasing the problem of rising healthcare expenditures in the U.S

Impact of Service Quality on Business Performance in Hospitality Industries: An empirical study

This research focusses on the impact of service quality on business performance in the hospitality industry in Qatar. The study basically deals with the testing of fifteen hypotheses built on the existing theoretical models. The empirical data was collected through the tourists of ten 5-star hotels in Qatar using the simple random sampling technique (n = 243). The findings have confirmed the significant interrelationship of tangibles, reliability and empathy with financial, non-financial, and operational performance of the hospitality industry. Responsiveness and assurance had significant interrelationship with non-financial performance and operational performance respectively. Based on the revelation of the study, implications have been drawn to the managers of the hospitality industry to better the specific dimensions of the service quality so that it may lead to enhanced business performance. The paper is of specific relevance to the Qatari hospitality industry as is witnessing a steady growth and there is an emphasis on the improvement in service quality for a sustainable business performance. Keywords: Service Quality, Business Performance, Hospitality Industry

Contagion dynamics in multilevel and structured populations.

Existen numerosos procesos de contagio sobre redes, como la propagación de epidemias, los rumores, la información u otros fenómenos no lineales propios de los sistemas complejos humanos. Desde la perspectiva de la modelización matemática, los procesos de contagio en poblaciones estructuradas se están volviendo cada vez más sofisticados en lo que respecta al tipo de interacciones no triviales involucradas en ellos. Los modelos han evolucionado desde los simples métodos compartimentales a modelos estructurados en los que se tienen en cuenta las heterogeneidades de la población. Además, para visualizar estas jerarquías y heterogeneidades de los sistemas complejos humanos, también consideramos la representación multicapa de las poblaciones. En esta tesis, intentamos explorar la punta del iceberg en lo que respecta a procesos de contagio sobre poblaciones basándonos en varios modelos matemáticos. Nuestro objetivo es entender la complejidad de las dinámicas de contagio en poblaciones estructuradas y multinivel.En el primer capítulo, nos centramos en presentar el desarrollo de algunas de las teorías principales que se utilizan para estudiar los sistemas complejos. El descubrimiento de las interacciones no lineales hizo que le método del reduccionismo fuese cuestionado, dado que el comportamiento general no puede describirse como una simple superposición de pequeñas escalas. La ciencia de redes busca caracterizar los sistemas complejos de diversos campos. Al mismo tiempo, la teoría de grafos proporciona las herramientas matemáticas necesarias para describir redes realistas. Discutiremos algunas de las cantidades fundamentales y las métricas más relevantes para la caracterización de la estructura de la red, así como varios ejemplos de modelos de red. Además, repasaremos brevemente los principios básicos de las redes multicapa que rompen la limitación de un solo tipo de conexión existente en las redes monocapa, estableciendo la base para explorar y generalizar estos conceptos.A continuación, estudiaremos procesos dinámicos comenzando por una breve introducción a los modelos matemáticos que se usarán durante el resto de la tesis. En el caso de la ecuación maestra, resaltaremos el rol de los procesos de Markov así como la aproximación de campo medio, sin centrarnos en sus soluciones completas. Los métodos de modelización y las reglas de actualización que se utilizan en las simulaciones numéricas también se presentan en detalle. En esta tesis, nos centraremos en el problema de la propagación de epidemias sobre redes, un tema que despierta gran interés en el campo de los procesos de propagación y contagio. Después de revisar las propiedades y los resultados teóricos de algunos de los modelos epidemiológicos típicos, con varias simplificaciones desde el punto de vista matemático, exploraremos varias medidas importantes en el campo de la epidemiología, i.e., el número reproductivo básico y la inmunidad de grupo. Después, implementaremos un modelo clásico de epidemias sobre redes multicapa para explorar el papel que juega la direccionalidad utilizando funciones generatrices. Terminaremos el capítulo 2 modelizando un tipo especial de procesos de contagio social, en particular, utilizaremos un modelo compartimental para estudiar la propagación de la corrupción. Prestaremos atención a las condiciones críticas para que surja este tipo de comportamiento desarrollando la aproximación de campo medio y comparando sus predicciones con simulaciones. Es más, extenderemos el modelo de corrupción a un sistema de dos capas en el que los flujos de contagio pueden ser diferentes en cada capa para investigar el papel que juega el solapamiento de enlaces y las correlaciones de grado entre capas en la evolución de las actividades honestas y corruptas.Resulta evidente que la complejidad de los sistemas humanos del mundo real afecta la precisión con la que se pueden predecir las epidemias y algunas propiedades específicas de los sistemas. Sin embargo, debido al desarrollo de la ciencia de datos, fuentes de datos masivas y muy informativas pueden utilizarse para enriquecer la topología de la red de forma que se acerque a los sistemas reales. En al tercera parte de esta tesis, comenzaremos describiendo los retos y las oportunidades que han surgido durante el desarrollo de la ciencia de datos. A continuación, intentaremos conseguir una imagen más realista de la estructura interna de las redes de contacto utilizando datos reales. Además, ilustraremos la importancia de utilizar una perspectiva conducida por los datos en lo que respecta a la modelización de redes a la hora de estudiar la propagación de epidemias en redes de contacto. En este caso, la variabilidad de patrones de interacción que surge de la heterogeneidad de la población, sus comportamientos sociales, etc. puede ser capturada correctamente.Bajo este mismo desarrollo teórico, consideraremos la edad de los individuos y sus patrones de interacción social para generar redes multicapa con estructura de edad para estudiar el problema de la inmunidad de grupo del SARS-CoV-2 y evaluar el impacto que tres estrategias de vacunación pueden tener a la hora de eliminar la transmisión de la panedmia. Después, para explorar la dinámica de las enfermedades que se propagan en entornos hospitalarios (HAI, por sus siglas en inglés) cuando los pacientes están recibiendo tratamiento en ellos, utilizaremos una colección de datos espacio-temporales recogida en tres hospitales de Canadá para generar las redes de interacción entre los trabajadores hospitalarios (HCWs). Nos centraremos en determinar cuantitativemente el riesgo de que las HAIs se propaguen por las diferentes unidades de un hospital y los varios grupos de HCWs, respectivamente. Calcularemos el riesgo de las unidades espaciales usando el tiempo de llegada de la enfermedad y el número de infecciones producidas en cada unidad. En el caso de los HCWs, la probabilidad de infectarse y el número de reproducción efectivo son usados como indicador del riesgo de HCWs.Concluiremos la tesis presentando nuestras conclusiones y discutiendo algunos de los restos que quedan por explorar en el futuro.<br /

Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Civilian Aviation Alternative Support Study: Report of Findings and Recommendations

Sponsored Report (for Acquisition Research Program)In response to a request by NAVAIR Aviation/Ship Integration AIR 1.2, this study performed a Civilian Contractor Workforce and Skill/Qualification Assessment for an LCS Composite Aviation Detachment. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Human Capital transformation vision mandates that the total number of personnel required to operate a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) not exceed 75. However, the projected personnel requirements for the three principal components of the LCS deployment profile, i.e., the ships crew, the aviation detachment and the Focused Mission Package detachment, combine for a significantly higher number. An indepth analysis of collected data and information indicates that employing contractor personnel to conduct or support combat missions on board LCS or any other Navy combatant is impracticable and contrary to the international laws of armed conflict. However, contact with Navy aviation civilian contractors and US Coast Guard helicopter personnel indicates that significantly fewer active duty personnel might be required to operate and support embarked aircraft within the LCS aviation operations & maintenance profiles using NAVAIRs preliminary assumptions and Sea Base concept as delineated in the LCS concept of operations.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

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