Application of Lifetime Electronic Health Records: Are we ready yet?

Integrated care concepts can help to diminish demographic challenges. Therefore, the use of eHealth solutions is recognised as an efficient approach. Lifetime electronic health records (LEHRs) are expected to increase continuity, effectiveness, efficiency and thus quality of the care process. With respect to these benefits, an overarching implementation of LEHRs is desirable but non-existent. Hence, the aim of the article is to analyse the current LEHR implementation readiness of EU member states to derive implications for further LEHR research and development. Therefore, a case study on Denmark, Germany and Italy was conducted. The analysis shows that all countries fulfil the technical requirements but Denmark has great experiences and willingness to implement advanced eHealth measures like LEHRs. First Italian pilot projects are quite promising as well. The article paves the way for LEHR implementation and there with for integrated care

Healthcare interoperability through intelligent agent technology

With technological advances, the amount of data and the information systems in healthcare units has been increasing exponentially. The accessibility and availability of patients’ clinical information are a constant need. The Agency for Integration, Diffusion and Archive of Medical Information (AIDA) was developed to fulfill this need and it was implemented at the Centro Hospitalar do Porto (CHP), revealing a highly successful, ensuring interoperability among CHP healthcare information systems. This paper presents a new AIDA module, which aims to monitor the activity of its agents. It revealed its usefulness, providing to the user the functionalities and the necessary data for it to make a complete monitoring of the activities of each AIDA agent. It was still considered an efficient system, since it does not compromise the resources of the machine where it was implemented. In addition, this module increases AIDA functionality and efficiency

Towards Secure Interoperability of EHR among Healthcare Organizations in Palestine

Technological development in the e-health field helps to facilitate and enhance healthcare, and improve treatment quality. Different public and private healthcare facilities in Palestine employ different health information systems; consequently, sharing health information has become more challenging and complex. In this paper, the researchers firstly investigate the current status of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in Palestine and the readiness of the various healthcare centers to foster the interoperability of EHRs. Secondly, the researchers propose a secure framework that might be used to deploy interoperability among healthcare centers. The mixed method approach was used to achieve the objectives of the research. Interviews were conducted with IT managers, and questionnaires were distributed to 331 out of 2350 personnel employed in five Palestinian hospitals. The findings of quantitative and qualitative studies show that there is no electronic exchange of EHRs between private and public healthcare facilities, and they highlight the necessity of putting interoperability into practice to enhance the quality of healthcare in Palestine and keep up with global advancements in health technology. Based on these findings, the researchers propose a technical framework for interoperability in Palestine using UXP/ X-Road, to securely and effectively share EHRs among healthcare centers

Managing as Designing: Transforming Digital Healthcare Interoperability

Digital healthcare transformations promise improved overall quality healthcare and patient continued care among others. However, quality healthcare and continued patient care can be hampered by various challenges including insufficient collaboration among healthcare centers, and limited data exchanges between health information systems (HIS). Such challenges can be overcome through collaborative digital healthcare initiatives in which, HIS are designed with data exchange capabilities that enable healthcare centers to easily exchange patient information across boundaries. However, several existing initiatives are carried out in isolation, and there is limited practical knowledge on how to collaboratively manage and design HIS’ interoperability. Consequently, this study investigated a managing as designing (MaD) approach taken by a successful HIS interoperability initiative in Sweden. Data was collected mainly through interviews with key informants within the implementation team. Based on study findings, a MaD HIS-interoperability conceptual framework that can guide the management and design of future HIS’ interoperability was developed

An Implementation Process of Interoperability: A Case-Study of Health Information Systems (HIS)

Several advances have been made towards health information systems (HIS) use and implementations. However, these advances have not been matched by equal advances in HIS interoperability implementations. Current challenges in this domain are partly due to lack of implementation knowledge hence resulting into a number of failed HIS interoperability implementations. To gain substantive implementation knowledge on HIS interoperability projects, we have carried out interviews through an interpretive case-study approach to investigate a successful HIS interoperability project. Through this approach we propose an initial set of HIS interoperability implementation best practices comprising of these key processes: discovering interoperability need, projecting outcome, managing change and adopting an appropriate interoperability strategy which together depict a contingence management relationship. We conclude that this initial set of best practices contributes substantive knowledge that can guide future HIS interoperability implementations

An Empirical Study on Personal Health Records System based on Individual and Environmental Features

To promote the adoption of PHR system, understanding the factors that affect patients’ adoption of PHR system is of necessity. Based on previous research, this paper tries to develop a model to explore those elements that influence the behavior intentions of patients from the perspective of consumers. It is assumed that individual features and environmental features affect individuals’ attitudes to PHR. Data from 265 participants’ response to questionnaire was collected. The SPSS and partial least squares (PLS) technique was adopted to examine the casual relationships this paper hypothesized. The results show that affordability and coercive pressure have the significant effect on individuals’ attitude towards PHR. Therefore, suggestion regarding what developers, institutions and government should do to improve the adoption rate of PHR was raised

Assessing the Determinants of Cloud Computing Services for Utilizing Health Information Systems: A Case Study

Health information systems refer to the utilization of IT-related systems to capture, store, manage, or transmit information related to the health of individuals or the activities within the health sector. Utilizing cloud services in the healthcare sector is a flexible solution to improve the performance of an organization as it can provide numerous features such as self-service, ubiquitous network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and pay-per-use pattern. A preliminary study was conducted in the Iraqi public healthcare sector to obtain preliminary data acquisition about the current situation of IT and to determine the key factors associated with the utilization of cloud computing to foster current health information systems. During the study, a total of 30 technicians and physicians from four hospitals in Iraq were invited for interview in which the researcher directed questions in a semi-structured form. The findings of the investigation concluded the key determinant factors; these include factors related to the environmental structure such as software, hardware, cost, network, and training. Other factors that were found related to the system such as compatibility, complexity, data security and privacy. These two aspects were found to influence personal factors related to the behavioural control and confirmation to utilize cloud computing services in this sector

La interoperabilidad de los sistemas, tendencia, realidad o necesidad para el sistema de salud

La interoperabilidad de los sistemas es un concepto que se ha utilizado en diversas empresas o instituciones a lo largo de los países y continentes, esto con la intención de optimizar su desempeño, ya que esta permite la unificación de información, con tendencia a una mayor veracidad y fácil extracción de datos precisos, propendiendo la creación de bases de datos estructuradas, las cuales son muy moldeables, de fácil manejo y de fácil acceso para los diversos actores con intereses en la misma. La interoperabilidad de los sistemas de información a tenido gran acogida en diversas empresa, ya que permite una mejor comunicación entre las diversas partes de la misma o entre diversas empresas de un mismo conglomerado, y además, facilita y mejora la creación de informes de avances o de partes especificas del negocio, ofreciendo mejores herramientas para la toma de decisiones a todo nivel. Por estas y otras muchas razones organizaciones a nivel mundial de renombre, como las naciones unidas y la organización mundial de la salud han decidido crear iniciativas para moldear y ajustar esta iniciativa a los diversos sistemas de salud, colocando todas sus bondades y beneficios al servicio de la comunidad