Web-based Disease Management: A Design Science Approach to Chronic Disease Management

This research-in-progress presents a difficult healthcare problem, namely how to reduce the costs associated with chronic diseases. A comprehensive Web-based disease management system is proposed as a potential solution to help patients with chronic disease more effectively self-manage their disorders. A proposed research agenda is presented using a design science research approach. Theories capable of informing the design of the proposed solution are discussed including social learning theory and the theory of planned behavior. Design parameters are described and potential design ideas are presented

Health Information Systems Affordances: How the Materiality of Information Technology Enables and Constrains the Work Practices of Clinicians

The IT artifact is at the core of the information systems (IS) discipline and yet most IS research does not directly theorize the IT artifact or its nomological network (Benbasat and Zmud 2003; Orlikowski and Iacono 2001). This research seeks to answer a repeated call for more direct engagement with the IT artifact and its nomological net with affordance theory adopted as the basis for this theoretical work. An exploratory case study was conducted to answer the research question, how do the material properties of health information systems enable and constrain the work practices of clinicians? The study was conducted at a large urban acute care hospital in the Midwestern United States with registered nurses working on inpatient care units as the clinicians of interest. Through interviews with nurses and other clinical stakeholders and the observation of nurse’s work practices on three patient care units in the hospital, theoretical insights were developed on the nature of affordances for information systems research. IS affordances are defined in this study as relationships between abilities of an individual and features of an information systems within the context of the environment in which they function. The concepts of an affordance range and an affordance threshold are proposed as theoretical constructs in the nomological network of affordances that help to explain the use of information systems as a function of the difficulty of acting on IS affordances. The relationship between affordances and constraints is theorized and linked to the affordance range and threshold with the assertion that constraints are closely associated with the difficulties experienced by users in acting on IS affordances. The challenge of studying IS affordances in all their complexity is discussed with the suggestion that researchers take the user’s perspective of affordances to alleviate the need for repeated decomposition. Finally, the role of information systems in facilitating social interaction is emphasized through the concept of affordances for sociality. The contribution of this research to the IS field is a more nuanced understanding of the nature of the IT artifact and its relationship to the users of that technology

Undulated One

This piece was created at a live event titled, Design Studio Live: Fashion and Art. This event was a performance that was held during the First Friday Art Trail, Charles Adams Studio Project Galleries, Lubbock, Texas. The concept was to meld fashion and art by bringing several artists and fashion designers together in one space. There they created individual and collaborative pieces throughout the evening. Over 1500 visitors wandered in and out of the gallery observing, interacting, and perceiving the design process. The audience included undergraduate and graduate art students, fashion students, the general population, artists, and academics. The concept of the dress involves a hand printed textile collaboration with printmaking artist, Chad Plunket and use of innovative and sustainable draping practices

Loan Counseling for Graduate and Professional Students

This report provides an overview of existing literature that examines loan counseling and financial literacy for graduate and professional students, and includes actionable recommendations for stakeholders to better support students in making optimal financial decisions about their loans and other aspects of their personal finances. The report was authored by Patricia Steele, Ph.D., and Chad Anderson with Higher Ed Insight

mHealth in Developing Countries: Progress Toward Global Health Equity

Global health equity is an elusive goal as developing countries lag behind the developed world in most health outcomes. The growth of mobile networks and mobile phone adoption across the developing world in recent years could lead to effective mHealth programs to reduce those inequities. To understand how this can best be accomplished, we analyze review studies of mHealth initiatives in developing countries and present our findings through a SWOT analysis. The strengths (improved health outcomes, improved treatment quality and adherence), weaknesses (difficult to scale, technical challenges), opportunities (improving equitable health access, enhancing disease control), and threats (mobile technology limitations, cultural variations) of mHealth initiatives in developing countries are discussed. Recommendations to improve mHealth initiatives in developing countries include empowering more women with leadership and technology skills, applying more theory to inform the development and evaluation of mHealth projects, and provisioning more financial support for those initiatives

Journal Self-Citation VI: Forced Journal Self-Citation – Common, Appropriate, Ethical?

Forced journal self-citation, as defined in this paper, has serious implications for the IS field. We introduce a statistical perspective on how common the practice is, discuss whether it is appropriate or not, and evaluate its ethicality. We find that journal self-citations do influence journal impact factors, a measure of journal quality and a tool for many schools in their promotion and tenure process. We suggest that forced self-citations are not considered appropriate by community standards nor are they ethical in terms of the greatest good. We therefore propose that impact factors be disseminated both with and without self-citations to make the practice of forced self-citation more transparent to the IS community. An example of the proposal is shown

A Framework for Evaluating the Tension between Sharing and Protecting Health Information

Health information exchange (HIE) is expected to improve the quality and cost of healthcare but sustained use of HIE by providers has been difficult to achieve. A number of factors play a role in that process including concern for the security and privacy of the exchanged information. This tension between the expected benefits of HIE resulting from collaboration and information sharing on the one hand, and the potential security risks inherent in the exchange process on the other hand, is not well understood. We propose an information security control theory to explain this tension. We evaluate this theory through a case study of the iterative development of the information security policy for an HIE in the western United States. We find that the theory offers a good framework through which to understand the information security policy development process