Special Issue JOMS – Journal of Medical Systems, 2016 on Agent-Empowered HealthCare Systems

The Agent-Empowered HealthCare Systems Special Issue includes a selection of papers that provide discussion on the most recent and innovative work regarding the study and application of agent-based technology to healthcare.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Maintaining places of social inclusion : Ebola and the emergency department

We introduce the concept of places of social inclusion—institutions endowed by a society or a community with material resources, meaning, and values at geographic sites where citizens can access services for specific needs—as taken-for-granted, essential, and inherently precarious. Based on our study of an emergency department that was disrupted by the threat of the Ebola virus in 2014, we develop a process model to explain how a place of social inclusion can be maintained by custodians. We show how these custodians—in our fieldsite, doctors and nurses—experience and engage in institutional work to manage different levels of tension between the value of inclusion and the reality of finite resources, as well as tension between inclusion and the desire for safety. We also demonstrate how the interplay of custodians’ emotions is integral to maintaining the place of social inclusion. The primary contribution of our study is to shine light on places of social inclusion as important institutions in democratic society. We also reveal the theoretical and practical importance of places as institutions, deepen understanding of custodians and custodianship as a form of institutional work, and offer new insight into the dynamic processes that connect emotions and institutional work

Pop-up Maktivism: A Case Study of Organizational, Pharmaceutical, and Biohacker Narratives

abstract: The biohacker movement is an important and modern form of activism. This study broadly examines how positive-activist-oriented biohackers emerge, organize, and respond to social crises. Despite growing public awareness, few studies have examined biohacking's influence on prevailing notions of organizing and medicine in-context. Therefore, this study examines biohacking in the context of the 2016 EpiPen price-gouging crisis, and explores how biohackers communicatively attempted to constitute counter-narratives and counter-logics about medical access and price through do-it-yourself (DIY) medical device alternatives. Discourse tracing and critical case study analysis are useful methodological frameworks for mapping the historical discursive and material logics that led to the EpiPen pricing crisis, including the medicalization of allergy, the advancement of drug-device combination technologies, and role of public health policy, and pharmaceutical marketing tactics. Findings suggest two new interpretations for how non-traditional forms of organizing facilitate new modes of resistance in times of institutional crisis. First, the study considers the concept of "pop-up maktivism" to conceptualize activism as a type of connective activity rather than collective organizing. Second, findings illustrate how activities such as participation and co-production can function as meaningful forms of institutional resistance within dominant discourses. This study proposes “mirrored materiality” to describe how biohackers deploy certain dominant logics to contest others. Lastly, implications for contributions to the conceptual frameworks of biopower, sociomateriality, and alternative organizing are discussed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Communication 201

A Hybrid Modelling Framework for Real-time Decision-support for Urgent and Emergency Healthcare

In healthcare, opportunities to use real-time data to support quick and effective decision-making are expanding rapidly, as data increases in volume, velocity and variety. In parallel, the need for short-term decision-support to improve system resilience is increasingly relevant, with the recent COVID-19 crisis underlining the pressure that our healthcare services are under to deliver safe, effective, quality care in the face of rapidly-shifting parameters. A real-time hybrid model (HM) which combines real-time data, predictions, and simulation, has the potential to support short-term decision-making in healthcare. Considering decision-making as a consequence of situation awareness focuses the HM on what information is needed where, when, how, and by whom with a view toward sustained implementation. However the articulation between real-time decision-support tools and a sociotechnical approach to their development and implementation is currently lacking in the literature. Having identified the need for a conceptual framework to support the development of real-time HMs for short-term decision-support, this research proposed and tested the Integrated Hybrid Analytics Framework (IHAF) through an examination of the stages of a Design Science methodology and insights from the literature examining decision-making in dynamic, sociotechnical systems, data analytics, and simulation. Informed by IHAF, a HM was developed using real-time Emergency Department data, time-series forecasting, and discrete-event simulation. The application started with patient questionnaires to support problem definition and to act as a formative evaluation, and was subsequently evaluated using staff interviews. Evaluation of the application found multiple examples where the objectives of people or sub-systems are not aligned, resulting in inefficiencies and other quality problems, which are characteristic of complex adaptive sociotechnical systems. Synthesis of the literature, the formative evaluation, and the final evaluation found significant themes which can act as antecedents or evaluation criteria for future real-time HM studies in sociotechnical systems, in particular in healthcare. The generic utility of IHAF is emphasised for supporting future applications in similar domains

Communication Research into the Digital Society:Fundamental Insights from the Amsterdam School of Communication Research

Media and communication have become ubiquitous in today’s societies and affect all aspects of life. On an individual level, they impact how we learn about the world, how we entertain ourselves, and how we interact with others. On an organisational level, the interactions between media and organisations, such as political parties, NGOs, businesses and brands, shape organisations’ reputation, legitimacy, trust and (financial) performance, as well as individuals’ consumer, political, social and health behaviours. At the societal level, media and communication are crucial for shaping public opinion on current issues such as climate change, sustainability, diversity, and well-being. Media challenges are widespread and include mis- and disinformation, the negative impact of algorithms on our information diets, challenges to our privacy, cyberbullying, media addiction, and unwanted persuasion, among many others. All this makes the study of media and communication crucial. This book provides a broad overview of the ways in which people create, use, and experience their media environment, and the role of media and communication for individuals, organisations, and society. The chapters in the book were written by researchers from the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. ASCoR is today the largest research institute of its kind in Europe and has developed over the past 25 years into one of the best communications research institutes in the world

Equity and Inclusion for Leaders in the School District: Exploring Gender

There are increasing expectations that educational leaders attend to social justice. However, little attention is paid to their own experience of equity and inclusion, and there is an ongoing omission of gender from organizational discourse. This problem of practice identifies the lack of attention to the experience and implications of gender for leaders in a school district. The organizational improvement plan aims to prioritize gender on the organization’s agenda, bridge the gap between representation and equity and inclusion, and create a gender-inclusive leadership climate. Feminist frames for change establish the underlying change strategy and Lewin’s change model structures the change process, outlining the goals of each phase and the roles and responsibilities of senior leaders, school leaders, and human resources leaders. Transformative and inclusive leadership approaches and a model of climate for inclusion inform solutions and approach. Based on an evaluation of impact, readiness, success factors, and driving and restraining forces, gender-based analysis of human resource practices is selected for development of a change implementation plan. An intersectional, non-binary approach is incorporated, and psychological safety and meaningful participation are emphasized throughout the change process. The change plan is strengthened by corresponding communication, knowledge mobilization, and monitoring and evaluation plans that facilitate individual and social learning, reflection, and collective action

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges

"The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Societal grand challenges have moved from a marginal concern to a mainstream issue within the field of organization and management studies. Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges unpacks how diverse forms of organizing help tackle - or reinforce - grand challenges, while emphasizing the need for researchers to expand their methodological repertoire and reflect upon scholarly practices. This edited collection offers an organizational perspective on societal grand challenges in three sections: Diverse Forms of Organizing and Societal Grand Challenges; Scholarship and Societal Grand Challenges; Reflections and Outlook. The articles offer empirical and conceptual work that focus on a wide variety of regions including Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, and engage with multiple grand challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, decent work, hunger, inequality, and poverty. Drawing on varied theoretical lenses, the authors take stock of recent developments in the literature, present an overview of the current thinking, and set a foundation for future research on grand challenges in organization and management studies. The articles provide inspiration, insights, and instruments for developing timely and relevant knowledge to engage with the pressing societal grand challenges of our time.

A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study On Voluntary Reporting Of Professional Groups In U.S. Commercial Aviation

Aviation safety culture research does not exist regarding the specific factors that either promote or discourage voluntary safety reporting among different frontline groups in U.S. Part 121 operations. Moreover, while safety culture has been shown to vary across workgroups, cross-sectional research across multiple aviation organizations regarding voluntary reporting is lacking. To address this gap in the literature, an exploratory study was conducted utilizing a sequential, confirmatory mixed methods approach. A 28-item survey was distributed to air traffic controllers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, and pilots. The instrument quantitatively assessed organizational safety values, reporting friction, previous reporting experience, just culture, and voluntary reporting propensity utilizing structural equation modeling/path analysis and natural language processing. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with subject matter experts from each professional group to explore factors that encourage or discourage voluntary reporting among frontline workers. Results indicated a consistent lack of feedback, limited mediation of just culture, and positive attitudes towards reporting ease. Pilots and dispatchers generally had more favorable views towards reporting and trust than did air traffic controllers and maintenance technicians. Findings of this study will help the aviation industry to identify inconsistencies in reporting culture across frontline groups and prevent asymmetric information conditions in safety management systems, given the industry’s push towards data fusion and need for a holistic view of the safety hazard environment from all employees

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges

"The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Societal grand challenges have moved from a marginal concern to a mainstream issue within the field of organization and management studies. Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges unpacks how diverse forms of organizing help tackle - or reinforce - grand challenges, while emphasizing the need for researchers to expand their methodological repertoire and reflect upon scholarly practices. This edited collection offers an organizational perspective on societal grand challenges in three sections: Diverse Forms of Organizing and Societal Grand Challenges; Scholarship and Societal Grand Challenges; Reflections and Outlook. The articles offer empirical and conceptual work that focus on a wide variety of regions including Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, and engage with multiple grand challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, decent work, hunger, inequality, and poverty. Drawing on varied theoretical lenses, the authors take stock of recent developments in the literature, present an overview of the current thinking, and set a foundation for future research on grand challenges in organization and management studies. The articles provide inspiration, insights, and instruments for developing timely and relevant knowledge to engage with the pressing societal grand challenges of our time.