INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) IN THE SERVICES OF HEALTHCARE SECTOR IN EUROPE

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) consists of all technical means used to handle information and aid communication, including both computer and network hardware as well as necessary software. Information and Communication Technologies tools and services are used in many sectors like development, education, e-services, policy, health and medicine and so one. This paper links the ICTs tools and services for health. ICTs has the potential to impact almost every aspect of the health sector. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have an important role in service engineering, improving medical knowledge and practice, and defining new fields of research.eHealth, healthcare sector, telemedicine services, health portals, health information networks, digital health infrastructure

Information and Communication Technologies and Informal Scholarly Communication: A Review of the Social Oriented Research

This article reviews and analyzes findings from research on computer mediated informal scholarly communication. Ten empirical research papers, which show the effects and influences of information & communication technologies (ICTs), or the effects of social contexts on ICTs use in informal scholarly communication, were analyzed and compared. Types of ICTs covered in those studies include e-mails, collaboratories, and electronic forums. The review shows that most of the empirical studies examined the ICTs use effects or consequences. Only a few studies examined the social shaping of ICTs and ICT uses in informal scholarly communication. Based on comparisons of the empirical findings this article summarizes the ICT use effects/consequences as identified in the studies into seven categories and discusses their implications

ICT and Lean Management: Will They Ever Get Along?

In companies, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) accelerate the speed with which information is exchanged between employees, facilitate the processing of data and improve the quality of intra-company communication. As such, ICTs are powerful management support tools and can help to boost firms' performance. However, there is no consensus as to the way in which they should be used. The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion on the various ways that ICTs are used in companies. Its empirical analysis is based on observations of the paradoxical practices and reasoning that dominate the lean manufacturing approach. Although the lean manufacturing approach considers that ICTs are useful to a degree for carrying out certain tasks, it emphasises the inefficiencies that can result from an inappropriate use of these technologies.Use; Information and Communication Technology; Lean Management; Information Systems; Toyota Production System

How ICTs Raise Manufacturing Performance: Firm-level Evidence in Southeast Asia.

This paper examines the effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on business performance, using firm-level data obtained through a questionnaire survey in four ASEAN countries (Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam). Sources of information and new technologies exchanged via ICTs by firms are also explored to investigate the mechanism behind ICT adoption. Empirical results verify that the introduction of ICT to reorganize business processes is significantly correlated with business performance, in particular the development of export markets and improvement of production management. ICTs facilitate access to information and technologies accumulated in in-house departments and joint-venture (JV) affiliates of the respondent firms. There are considerable differences between multinational companies (MNCs)/JVs and local firms. MNCs/JVs make use of information and technologies obtainable via ICTs from their own R&D departments, JVs established with local partners and foreign-owned suppliers/customers to improve factory management, mostly for product quality improvement and production cost reduction. In contrast, local firms interconnect their own R&D departments via ICTs to enhance their business performance in broader areas than MNCs/JVs, including the development of export markets.

Information and communication technologies for the poor:

This brief is based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications, ed. Maximo Torero and Joachim von Braun (Johns Hopkins University Press and IFPRI, 2006) "The variety of views about ICTs reveals that their role in development is unclear, especially without convincing evidence of their impact—and little research has been conducted on the direct and indirect links between ICTs and poverty reduction. A new book, Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press for IFPRI, addresses several pressing questions surrounding ICTs. How do ICTs affect economic development in low-income countries? How do they affect poor people in these countries and in rural areas in particular? What policies and programs facilitate their potential to enhance development and the inclusion of poor constituents? The book presents researchers' findings related to five critical questions. (1) What link exists between ICT growth and economic growth? (2) Do weak institutions block effective use of ICTs? (3) Have ICTs been adapted to low-income countries, and have they had an impact on SMEs? (4) Does household access to ICTs remain constrained? (5) Can ICTs play a role in providing pro-poor public goods and services?" from TextICT, Information technology, Poverty reduction, Development, Telecommunications, Economic development Developing countries, rural areas, Institutions,

Augmenting primary teaching and learning science through ICT

This study explored how information communication technologies (ICTs) in primary classrooms can enhance the teaching and learning of science. By building on teachers’ and students’ prior knowledge and experience with ICTs, we investigated how ICT use can structure activities to offer enhanced opportunities for active participation in science. The project generated examples of how ICTs can support subject-relevant ways of exploring and communicating science, and evaluating what has been learnt. The major implications from the key finding, found in the Summary report are that; ICTs amplify science learning if teachers unpack the scientific ideas to identify specific pedagogical strategies that exploit the opportunities of each ICT. Visually recorded data present instant, immediate and context-rich information that teachers and students can use as a repository for evaluation, analysis and communication. For ICT-supported activities to meet the needs of diverse learners, students and teachers need “sandpit” time to develop competencies to participate in various tasks. Teachers who use ICTs require support tailored to the specific pedagogical, content and technology needs of the topic they are teaching

Measuring the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the classroom

In 2003, the ICT Curriculum Integration Performance Measurement Instrument was developed from an extensive review of the contemporary international and Australian research pertaining to the definition and measurement of ICT curriculum integration in classrooms (Proctor, Watson, & Finger, 2003). The 45-item instrument that resulted was based on theories and methodologies identified by the literature review. This paper describes psychometric results from a large-scale evaluation of the instrument subsequently conducted, as recommended by Proctor, Watson and Finger (2003). The resultant 20-item, two-factor instrument, now called Learning With ICTs: Measuring ICT Use in the Curriculum is both statistically and theoretically robust. This paper should be read in association with the original paper published in Computers in the Schools (Proctor, Watson & Finger, 2003) that described in detail the theoretical framework underpinning the development of the instrument

Challenges Associated with the Use of ICT Facilites in Public Library of Nigeria

This article is on challenges associated with the use of ICT facilities in public library of Nigeria. Public libraries presently are incorporating information communication technology facilities into her services. Many Nigerian public libraries which out- dated have been able to procure information communication technologies to its services. State public libraries that have tried to incorporate ICTs are Edo, Delta and Anambra public library. The paper discusses challenges associated with the use of ICTs facilities in public library, policies regulating information technology, impact of information technology on library services. The researchers proffer solutions to problems of ICTs in public libraries in Nigeria. Keywords: Information communication technologies, Public library, Library services, and Librarians

Post-disaster Information Infrastructure: The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Government reports and members of the media blame information systems as the culprit of what has been characterized as faulty responses to disasters such as Virginia Tech and Hurricane Katrina. In the process they propose information and communication technologies (ICTs) as solutions to disaster response. Calls for new ICTs following recent American disasters reveal a poor understanding of the socially situated nature of ICTs. Disaster-related research does not expound a sophisticated understanding of ICTs either. As a consequence, information systems are seen as an unproblematic means of informing the right people with the right information at the right time. In my dissertation, I will challenge these simplistic notions of information systems as solutions to disaster response by proposing two case studies of ???information environments??? from the period following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I will introduce an analytical framework from the social studies of information which situates information systems in the social environment. The theoretical construct, the ???information environment,??? is meant to overcome the limitations of studying ICTs from a purely technical perspective