All that Glitters is not Gold : Six Steps before Selecting and Prioritizing e-Health Services

Since the market for e-health applications is constantly growing, it is getting an ever more complex endeavor to select and prioritize the right service offering given a particular situation. In examining the extant literature, it was revealed that little emphasis is actually placed on how to analyze contextual or environmental factors prior to the selection and prioritization of e-health services. With this paper, we therefore propose a formative framework consisting of six fundamental yet very pragmatic steps that may support decision makers in identifying the most important contextual pre-requisites that e-health services need to fulfill in order to be considered as effective for their environment to be implemented

A review of Smart Contract Blockchain Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis: Challenges and Motivations

A smart contract is a digital program of transaction protocol (rules of contract) based on the consensus architecture of blockchain. Smart contracts with Blockchain are modern technologies that have gained enormous attention in scientific and practical applications. A smart contract is the central aspect of a blockchain that facilitates blockchain as a platform outside the cryptocurrency spectrum. The development of blockchain technology, with a focus on smart contracts, has advanced significantly in recent years. However research on the smart contract idea has weaknesses in the implementation sectors based on a decentralized network that shares an identical state. This paper extensively reviews smart contracts based on multi criteria analysis challenges and motivations. Therefore, implementing blockchain in multi-criteria research is required to increase the efficiency of interaction between users via supporting information exchange with high trust. Implementing blockchain in the multi-criteria analysis is necessary to increase the efficiency of interaction between users via supporting information exchange and with high confidence, detecting malfunctioning, helping users with performance issues, reaching a consensus, deploying distributed solutions and allocating plans, tasks and joint missions. The smart contract with decision-making performance, planning and execution improves the implementation based on efficiency, sustainability and management. Furthermore the uncertainty and supply chain performance lead to improved users confidence in offering new solutions in exchange for problems in smart contacts. Evaluation includes code analysis and performance while development performance can be under development.Comment: Revie

Exploring the facilitators and barriers towards implementation of electronic prescribing, dispensing, and administration of medicines in hospitals in Ireland.

Limited data exist on the facilitators and barriers to implementing electronic systems for medicines management in hospitals. Whilst numerous studies advocate system use in improved patient safety and efficiency within the health service, their rate of adoption in practice has been slow. The aim of this doctoral research was to explore this under-researched area in three phases. Phase one: - Phase one focused on critically appraising and synthesising the available evidence on healthcare professionals perceptions, attitudes, and views of the facilitators and barriers to implementing electronic prescribing, electronic dispensing, and/or electronic administration of medicines in the hospital setting. The review protocol was registered with the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and conducted according to best practice. Key facilitators included systems improved patient safety and provided better access to patients drug records and that team leadership and hardware/software availability and reliability were essential for successful implementation. Key barriers consisted of hardware and network problems, altered work practices, and weakened interpersonal communication between healthcare professionals and with patients. Phase two: - This phase employed a qualitative phenomenological design to gain original insight into the perceptions of local key stakeholders towards the facilitators and barriers to implementing prescribing, robotic pharmacy systems, and automated medication storage and retrieval systems in public hospitals in Ireland using Normalization Process Theory as a theoretical framework. Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in three public hospitals in Ireland with 23 consenting participants: nine nurses; four pharmacists; two pharmacy technicians; six doctors; and two hospital Information Technology managers. Enhanced patient safety and efficiency in healthcare delivery emerged as key facilitators to system implementation, as well as the need to have clinical champions and a multidisciplinary implementation team to promote engagement and cognitive participation. Key barriers included inadequate training and organisational support, and the need for ease and confidence in system use to achieve collective action. Phase three: - A similar qualitative methodology was employed in phase three of this research in order to explore the perceptions of national key stakeholders and eHealth leads towards the facilitators and barriers to system implementation. Sixteen consenting invitees participated: eight hospital leads, four government leads, two regulatory leads, and two academics. Key facilitators included enhanced patient safety, workflow efficiencies, improvements in governance, and financial gains. Perceived barriers included the introduction of new drug errors, loss of patient contact, initial time inefficiencies, and issues with the complexity of integration and standardisation of work processes. Overall, adequate technology, stakeholder involvement, and organisational leadership and support are required at a national and local level to drive the eHealth agenda forward. Testing at scale, contingency plans, and ongoing evaluations will assist in determining success or otherwise of system implementation. This research has generated novel findings with many potentially transferable themes identified which extend the evidence base. This will assist organisations to better plan for implementation of medication-related eHealth systems

Analysis on Barriers to Development of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Health Sector of Pakistan: Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach

Introduction: In the recent years, public-private partnership (PPP) has become one of the most commonly used mechanisms with regards to providing healthcare services in various countries, and the ventures have gone successful. Despite of many accomplishments, still there are many challenges to development of PPP projects in the health care sector of Pakistan. Purpose: Current research was conducted to identify the most critical barriers in public-private partnerships in health sector of Pakistan using the Analytic hierarchy process technique. Methods: Based on the literature review and responses of interviewees, AHP model was developed. The model was developed with five main criteria barriers and twenty-one sub-criteria barriers. All the barriers were analyzed through pairwise comparisons to calculate relative weights and rankings as per experts’ evaluations. Results: A total of fourteen participants’ responses were analyzed and their relative weights were calculated. The criteria ranking was evaluated from the most influential to the least influential as follows: governance and regulatory barriers (w=0.4633), financial barriers (w=0.2465), socio-cultural barriers (w=0.1534), political barriers (w=0.0898), and technical and legal barriers (w=0.0471). Conclusion: Based on the results, it is concluded that decision-makers/policy-makers may consider the most influential barriers and their ranking while formulating the policies to develop PPPs in the healthcare sector Pakistan. After, eliminating the critical barriers, the policies and strategies may become more effective and efficient.open석

A conceptual IT governance framework to guide the development of interoperable health information systems

In light of changing health needs, health information systems are presented with a plethora of challenges. For instance, the rise of COVID-19 in the past year has led to the discourse on the strength of current health systems to support health needs and the readiness for the National Health Insurance in South Africa. In addition to operating in resource-constrained environments, the lack of synchrony between health information systems across health facilities led to the fragmentation of health information and diminished access to quality healthcare. This research, following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) process, developed an IT governance conceptual framework (HISIG-CF), to inform the interoperability of health information systems. The HISIG-CF is developed from literature and qualitative data collected using an expert reviews method from practitioners in the healthcare sector who evaluated the constructs of the HISIG-CF. Thematic analysis and hermeneutics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results revealed a need for more guidance to inform interoperability interventions and strengthen current health information systems. The contribution of this study is the HISIG-CF which is deemed relevant and potentially fit-for-purpose to improve health information systems interoperability within the healthcare sector in South Africa.Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Department of Information Systems, 202

A conceptual IT governance framework to guide the development of interoperable health information systems

In light of changing health needs, health information systems are presented with a plethora of challenges. For instance, the rise of COVID-19 in the past year has led to the discourse on the strength of current health systems to support health needs and the readiness for the National Health Insurance in South Africa. In addition to operating in resource-constrained environments, the lack of synchrony between health information systems across health facilities led to the fragmentation of health information and diminished access to quality healthcare. This research, following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) process, developed an IT governance conceptual framework (HISIG-CF), to inform the interoperability of health information systems. The HISIG-CF is developed from literature and qualitative data collected using an expert reviews method from practitioners in the healthcare sector who evaluated the constructs of the HISIG-CF. Thematic analysis and hermeneutics were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results revealed a need for more guidance to inform interoperability interventions and strengthen current health information systems. The contribution of this study is the HISIG-CF which is deemed relevant and potentially fit-for-purpose to improve health information systems interoperability within the healthcare sector in South Africa.Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Commerce, Department of Information Systems, 202