Patient-Centered Ehealth Service Design: A Case Study in Chushang Show Chwan Hospital

Taiwan Executive Yuan promote eHealth, as one of the six emerging industries that Taiwan Executive Yuan would fully support and allocate budget. According to the World Health Organization, eHealth is the delivery and support of health care components through the use of information and communications technology. Top down to eHealth operations in one of the Taiwan Island wide Hospitals, ChuShang Show Chwan Hospital, the current trend can be as follows: patient-centric activities and processes, customized solutions, the focus of wellness, inclusion of individuals and families in the decision-making processes, and the focus of service quality. Although previous studies have discussed information and communications technology usage in eHealth, the use of information and communications technology is not the only feature of eHealth. The corresponding service features should also be taken into consideration. From the service organization’s perspective, a service must be designed with an appropriate mix of physical and non-physical components. It is important to know the critical features of a service in order to design appropriate eHealth services. Accordingly, we aim to discover the service features in eHealth that are valued by customers through a case study of ChuShang Show Chwan Hospital. We adopt the concept of symbolic adoption to do this research. We propose that the identification of service features should be differentiated based on different stages of adoption as different service features may have different focuses and utilities. Thus, in this research, we are interested in clarifying service features that have impacts on symbolic adoption, trial, and use adoption. The results can help healthcare organizations to design different strategies to take care of patients in different adoption stages

EFFECT OF KNEE TAPING ON THE KNEE KINEMATICS DURING LEVEL WALKING

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of knee taping on the knee kinematics during level walking. Fifteen healthy subjects participated in this study. Vicon Nexus motion analysis system was used. Reflective markers were placed on anatomical landmarks to compute the kinematics during level walking. Knee joint angle and range of motion were analyzed. Paired t test was used to compare the differences between no taping and knee taping. The results showed that the knee taping would increase the external rotation and decrease the internal rotation of the knee joint during level walking. Knee taping would decrease the adduction angle and the range of motion in the frontal plane during level walking compared to no taping. It is suggested that knee taping can be used for the people with ACL insufficiency to enhance the knee stability