Rural smartness: Its determinants and impacts on rural economic welfare

Mukti, I. Y., Henseler, J., Aldea, A., Govindaraju, R., & Iacob, M. E. (2022). Rural smartness: Its determinants and impacts on rural economic welfare. Electronic Markets. [Advanced online article at 9 March 2022]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-022-00526-2 ---------------------------- Funding Information: This research was carried out with the financial support of the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) with grant number S-297/LPDP.3/2019, and supported by the Office of Communication and Information of West Java Province (Diskominfo Jabar) and Jabar Digital Service (JDS), Indonesia. In addition, we gratefully thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the previous version of this manuscript.Solving urbanization problems, especially in developing countries, solely through the adoption of smartness in urban areas is insufficient as urbanization is mostly driven by the wide urban-rural economic gap. To narrow this gap, the adoption of smartness needs to be extended into rural areas. However, studies in that direction are still lacking. Therefore, we developed a theoretical model that explains the determinants of rural smartness and its subsequent consequences on rural economic welfare. We validated the model with survey data from 179 villages in West Java Province, Indonesia. The results suggest that rural smartness is determined by the interplay of organizational, environmental, and technological readiness, and has a strong positive impact on innovativeness which, in turn, improves the competitiveness of the rural business ecosystem. This model can serve as a reference for further studies of rural smartness and as the foundation for the design of information platforms supporting it.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Introducing e-health technology to routine cataract care:patient perspectives on web-based eye test for postoperative telemonitoring

Purpose:To explore cataract patients' experiences with an e-health tool for self-assessing visual function (ie, a web-based eye test), and to formulate recommendations for its successful adoption in routine cataract care.Setting:Clinics in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.Design:Mixed-methods study.Methods:22 participants were included in this study; in-depth interviews were conducted with 12. Questionnaires and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside a multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating the validity, safety and cost-effectiveness of remote care after cataract surgery (Cataract Online Refraction Evaluation, a Randomized Controlled Trial). Results were analyzed thematically.Results:Participants reported positively about performing the web-based eye test at home. 4 overarching themes were identified in the interviews. First, participants were inventive in overcoming practical barriers encountered while conducting the test. Second, participants desired a clear presentation of test results and their meaning. Third, the ability to self-monitor visual function was appreciated. Fourth, most participants preferred to keep the option to contact their eyecare professional (ECP) postoperatively, especially when experiencing symptoms. Most would be satisfied with a phone consultation or an e-consult. Participants reported positive experiences with the web-based eye test. Barriers for successful adoption were identified, including insecurity about correctly performing the test, incomplete information on how to interpret test results, and a feeling that in-hospital assessments were superior to remote assessments.Conclusions:It is recommended to focus on building trust in remote eyecare delivery and that access to the ECP be retained when medically indicated or deemed necessary by the patient.</p

Introducing e-health technology to routine cataract care: patient perspectives on web-based eye test for postoperative telemonitoring

PURPOSE: To explore cataract patients' experiences with an e-health tool for self-assessing visual function (ie, a web-based eye test), and to formulate recommendations for its successful adoption in routine cataract care. SETTING: Clinics in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. DESIGN: Mixed-methods study. METHODS: 22 participants were included in this study; in-depth interviews were conducted with 12. Questionnaires and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside a multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating the validity, safety and cost-effectiveness of remote care after cataract surgery (Cataract Online Refraction Evaluation, a Randomized Controlled Trial). Results were analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Participants reported positively about performing the web-based eye test at home. 4 overarching themes were identified in the interviews. First, participants were inventive in overcoming practical barriers encountered while conducting the test. Second, participants desired a clear presentation of test results and their meaning. Third, the ability to self-monitor visual function was appreciated. Fourth, most participants preferred to keep the option to contact their eyecare professional (ECP) postoperatively, especially when experiencing symptoms. Most would be satisfied with a phone consultation or an e-consult. Participants reported positive experiences with the web-based eye test. Barriers for successful adoption were identified, including insecurity about correctly performing the test, incomplete information on how to interpret test results, and a feeling that in-hospital assessments were superior to remote assessments. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended to focus on building trust in remote eyecare delivery and that access to the ECP be retained when medically indicated or deemed necessary by the patient

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

A systematic literature review of supply chain decision making supported by the Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics

The willingness to invest in Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics (BDA) seems not to depend on supply nor demand of technological innovations. The required sensing and communication technologies have already matured and became affordable for most organizations. Businesses on the other hand require more operational data to address the dynamic and stochastic nature of supply chains. So why should we wait for the actual implementation of tracking and monitoring devices within the supply chain itself? This paper provides an objective overview of state-of-the-art IoT developments in today’s supply chain and logistics research. The main aim is to find examples of academic literature that explain how organizations can incorporate real-time data of physically operating objects into their decision making. A systematic literature review is conducted to gain insight into the IoT’s analytical capabilities, resulting into a list of 79 cross-disciplinary publications. Most researchers integrate the newly developed measuring devices with more traditional ICT infrastructures to either visualize the current way of operating, or to better predict the system’s future state. The resulting health/condition monitoring systems seem to benefit production environments in terms of dependability and quality, while logistics operations are becoming more flexible and faster due to the stronger emphasis on prescriptive analytics (e.g., association and clustering). Further research should extend the IoT’s perception layer with more context-aware devices to promote autonomous decision making, invest in wireless communication networks to stimulate distributed data processing, bridge the gap in between predictive and prescriptive analytics by enriching the spectrum of pattern recognition models used, and validate the benefits of the monitoring systems developed

From Business Strategy to Enterprise Architecture and Back

The environment of organizations is changing more rapidly in recent years, which makes it increasingly more difficult to stay competitive. Organizations need to ensure that when they make transformations, they focus on maintaining and improving their strategic alignment. Strategic alignment is a process of continuous change which focuses on creating a synergy between the position of the organization within the competitive environment and the design of the appropriate structure to support its execution. However, while many developments have been made over the past few decades, there are still some areas which could benefit from further research. One such example is relating high-level strategic information and plans to the detailed enterprise architecture (EA) of an organization. Therefore, in this paper, we choose to explore how several of the most popular strategy techniques can be modelled with the help of concepts from the EA modeling language ArchiMate, in the context of the strategy process. Additionally, we introduce the software tool which was developed to support the modeling of these strategy techniques with the EA modeling language ArchiMate