Public concerns and burdens associated with face mask-wearing: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

This study attempts to identify and categorize the key concerns of wearing masks. An online survey was used to collect data from 2746 people in the United States. Results show that the mask-wearing concerns can be classified into three categories; discomfort barriers (physical discomfort and communication discomfort), external factors (overstated news about coronavirus threat, political beliefs, and absence of mask-wearing culture), and usability issues (lack of effectiveness, unnecessariness of masks in certain cases, and mask maintenance issues). The findings demonstrate that all mentioned concerns strongly shape people\u27s attitudes toward wearing masks, except for political beliefs and lack of effectiveness

The Process of Building Patient Trust in Health Information Exchange (HIE): The Impacts of Perceived Benefits, Perceived Transparency of Privacy Policy, and Familiarity

Exchange technologies such as health information exchanges (HIE) currently lack acceptance theories that consider not only cognitive beliefs that result in adoption behavior but also emotional factors that may influence adoption intention. Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the technology-adoption literature, and the trust literature, I theoretically explain and empirically test the impact that perceived benefits, perceived transparency of privacy policy, and familiarity have on cognitive trust and emotional trust in HIE. Moreover, I analyze the effect that cognitive trust and emotional trust have on individuals’ intention to opt into HIE and their willingness to disclose health information. I conducted an online survey using data from individuals who knew about HIE through experiences with providers that participated in a regional consumer-mediated HIE network. In my SEM analysis, I found empirical support for the proposed model. My findings indicate that, when patients know more about HIE benefits, HIE sharing procedures, and privacy guidelines, they feel more in control, more assured, and less at risk. The results also show that patient trust in HIE may take the forms of intentions to opt in to HIE and patients’ willingness to disclose personal health information that providers exchange through the HIE. I discuss the implications my results have for both academics and practitioners

Using Electronic Health Records to Mitigate Workplace Burnout Among Clinicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Field Study in Iran

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide in 2020. Notably, in the countries dealing with massive casualties, clinicians have worked in new conditions characterized by a heavy workload and a high risk of being infected. The issue of clinician burnout during the pandemic has attracted considerable attention in health care research. Electronic health records (EHRs) provide health care workers with several features to meet a health system\u27s clinical needs. Objective: We aim to examine how the use of EHR features affects the burnout of clinicians working in hospitals that have special wards for confirmed COVID-19 cases. Methods: Using an online survey, we collected data from 368 physicians, physician assistants, and nurses working in six hospitals that have implemented EHRs in the city of Tehran in Iran. We used logistic regression to assess the association between burnout and awareness of EHR features, EHR system usability, concerns about COVID-19, technology solutions, hospital technology interventions, hospital preparedness, and professional efficacy adjusted for demographic and practice characteristics. Results: The primary outcome of our study was self-reported burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 368 respondents, 36% (n=134) reported having at least one symptom of burnout. Participants indicated that the leading cause of EHR-related stress is inadequate training for using technology (n=159, 43%), followed by having less face-to-face time with patients (n=140, 38%). Positive perceptions about the EHR\u27s ease of use were associated with lower odds of burnout symptoms. More interventions, such as clear communication of regulations; transparency in policies, expectations, and goals regarding the use of technology in the clinical workflow; and hospital preparedness to cope with the challenges of the pandemic, were associated with lower odds of burnout. Conclusions: The use of EHR applications, hospital pandemic preparation programs, and transparent technology-related policies and procedures throughout the epidemic can be substantial mitigators of technology-based stress and clinician burnout. Hospitals will then be better positioned to devise or modify technology-related policies and procedures to support physicians\u27 and nurses\u27 well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Training programs, transparency in communications of regulations, and developing a clear channel for informing clinicians of changes in policies may help reduce burnout symptoms among physicians and nurses during a pandemic. Providing easily accessible mentorship through teleconsultation and 24-hour available information technology support may also help to mitigate the odds of burnout

Nonprofits and decisions to accept cryptocurrency donations: a qualitative study to examine potential opportunities and risks

Several studies believe that cryptocurrency is the future of money, and crypto fundraising is a new way to help nonprofit organizations (NPOs) raise funds. Recently, foundations have started to take cryptocurrency donations. Several third parties have assisted nonprofits in setting up for this type of donation to smooth the new fundraising process. In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with five managers of nonprofits that accepted crypto donations in the last seven years. The data were analyzed and coded using NVIVO to classify conceptually similar themes mentioned by the interviewees. This qualitative paper is among the first steps to discussing the pros and cons of crypto donation and explaining essential grounds that a nonprofit should consider when taking crypto donations. The results offer practical implications as understanding these factors can help NPO managers identify potential benefits and risks in the planning, developing, and using crypto donation platforms

A Value-sensitive Design Perspective of Cryptocurrencies: A Research Agenda

Cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology have begun to transform numerous industries. Although we have seen an uptrend in the types of created cryptocurrencies, it has not yet translated into mainstream adoption., In this paper, we use value-sensitive design principles to identify values among current and potential cryptocurrency adopters. Using Bitcoin as the context for this qualitative research study, we use grounded theory analytical techniques to discover manifested values among users and non-users. We develop a cryptocurrency value-sensitive design framework to summarize our results. As our main contribution, we offer a research agenda based on the cryptocurrency stakeholders’ underlying value system. This agenda can help information systems scholars apply this value-sensitive design perspective to their own cryptocurrency research

Solutions to Increase Mobile Merchant Payment Application Value, Customers’ Continued Intention to Use, and Loyalty

Unlike consumers in developing countries, it has been challenging to show how mobile payments are a more valuable payment mechanism than cash and credit cards to American consumers. Little is known about what factors will make consumers in the U.S. choose mobile payments over other payment mechanisms and competing mobile payment providers. The purpose of the current study is to develop a multi-dimensional scale for the perceived value of a mobile merchant payment application. We explain the concept and scale of usefulness by applying it to the mobile payment retail environment. By doing so, we gain insight as to which factors should make a mobile payment app valuable and competitive. We adopt a multi-method approach to achieve our research objective. First, by conducting a qualitative analysis of feedback on the mobile order and payment application on the Starbucks Idea site (mystarbucksidea.com) and systematically reviewing and coding users’ comments, we identified three key constructs associated with customers’ continued intention to use the mobile application and their loyalty of use. Namely, application utility, vendor reputation, and quality of context-based services. Based on the results that emerged from the qualitative analysis, we followed the 10-step procedure recommended by MacKenzie et al. (2011) to develop and validate conceptualization and measures for these three higher-order constructs. Next, we emailed the survey to 500 randomly chosen students enrolled in the MBA and BBA programs at a large university in the southeastern U.S. and received 450 valid responses. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our conceptual model. The result indicates that our model has adequate construct validity and reliability. Further, the path analysis result significantly supports all proposed hypotheses. For instance, the vendor reputation significantly influences user perception of the quality of context-based services. Offering context-based services significantly influences the perceived level of mobile application utility. Perceived utility not only increases customers’ continued intention to use the app but also it enhances customer loyalty of use. Our study makes several contributions to the extant literature. First, we develop and validate a conceptual model that can adequately explain why a user would be attracted to a mobile application and why the user would continue to stay with the brand. Second, by employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, we improve the validity of research findings. Third, we develop a multi-scale measuring instrument for the identified constructs that are unique to the current context (i.e., mobile payment retail environment). Finally, we expand the privacy calculus theory to the domain of mobile application

A Utility Theory Model for Individual Adoption of Bitcoin

In recent years, the growth of cryptocurrency prices, notably that of Bitcoin has garnered mainstream news coverage. However, very little is known about the factors that motivate an individual to adopt Bitcoin, though studies abound in the blockchain technology adoption and its use in various domains such as healthcare, supply chain, and finance. In the current paper, we argue that the existing, widely-used IT adoption models may not thoroughly explain the reasons (i.e., benefits, barriers, and specific factors) associated with the adoption of cryptocurrencies. We propose a research model based on UTAUT and utility theory to discover the perceived benefits, perceived risks, facilitating conditions, and social effects in the individual adoption of Bitcoin

Does Data Entry Structure Influence Sharing Health Information of Patients with Chronic Health Impairment?: An Experimental Study

The quality of the patient health information databases determines the success of health information exchange (HIE) networks. Data entry interfaces are suggested as an important factor affecting the quality of information. However, little is known about whether individuals with different diseases (mental and physical) care for the data entry structure in sharing health information. We conduct four experiments to examine the impact of different health problems (mental vs. physical) and types of data entry interfaces (structured vs. unstructured) on individuals\u27 willingness to share health information. Findings demonstrate that the disease type and degree of data entry structure significantly influence individuals\u27 perceptions of psychological risk, privacy concern, stigma, and willingness to share health information. This study suggests that the best level of structure for data entry interfaces could be designed at the point of care with respect to patients\u27 type of diseases in order to improve the success of HIE networks

The effect of knowledge sharing on technology acceptance among physicians

The healthcare sector has utilized a variety of technologies such as clinical IT to improve effectiveness of healthcare professionals and the quality of health care delivery. Having unused clinical IT appears a strict challenge for hospitals. Meanwhile, there is enough evidence to state that healthcare professionals have not fully adopted and used clinical IT. The main objective of this study is to identify factors which influence healthcare professionals’ adoption of clinical IT. This study comes up with a modified technology acceptance model (TAM) to integrate both the special characteristic of healthcare professionals and unique feature of clinical IT. This study investigates whether attitude toward knowledge determines healthcare professionals’ intention to use clinical IT. The proposed model has been developed to mainly deal with IT adoption issues among healthcare professionals in hospitals. A survey has been done to evaluate the model among 300 healthcare professionals in Malaysia. The structural equation model has been used to test the model in this context. The results reveal the significant role of perceived threat to professional autonomy, attitude toward knowledge sharing, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in shaping healthcare professionals’ intention to use clinical IT in Malaysia. The proposed model can explain 48% of the variance of physicians’ intention to accept clinical IT