Measuring the Immeasurable? the Intangible Benefits of Digital Information

The benefits of digital information are mostly viewed as intangible, meaning that they can be hard to measure. This lack of measurements makes the benefits difficult to compare and communicate, creating problems for e.g. decision-making and the strategic development of specific digital information. Therefore, I conducted a literature review to find out how the combination of intangible benefits and measurements are dealt with in the information systems field. I found that we measure the intangible benefits of information systems or information technology. Here, the measurement method is divided into input, rule, and output. The input consists of predetermined individual benefits, areas of predetermined benefits, or interpreted benefits from respondents. The rule follows an accepted theory or contextual adjusted rules, and the output (benefit) can be seen as either financial or non-financial. The avenue for further research focuses on the digital information as the primary resource, not information systems or information technology

A Communication-model for Intangible Benefits of Digital Information

The communication of the intangible benefits to different stakeholders is important at the development of organizational resources, in this study digital information, and could be described as a boundary-spanning activity. In this study we build on Ahlin’s model (2014) and illustrates categorization of intangible benefits of digital information by using Carlile’s (2002; 2004) efficient boundary objects, the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Qualitative empirical pictures from three cases are illustrated by questions, derived from the efficient boundary objects. The illustrations show that this is an accessible path forward and that the illustrations can be changed to further research with the goal to practical test the communication model

High expression of cyclin D1 is associated to high proliferation rate and increased risk of mortality in women with ER-positive but not in ER-negative breast cancers

Cyclin D1 has a central role in cell cycle control and is an important component of estrogen regulation of cell cycle progression. We have previously shown that high cyclin D expression is related to aggressive features of ER-positive but not ER-negative breast cancer. The aims of the present study were to validate this differential ER-related effect and furthermore explore the relationship between cyclin D overexpression and CCND1 gene amplification status in a node-negative breast cancer case-control study. Immunohistochemical nuclear expression of cyclin D1 (n = 364) and amplification of the gene CCND1 by fluorescent in situ hybridization (n = 255) was performed on tissue microarray sections from patients with T1-2N0M0 breast cancer. Patients given adjuvant chemotherapy were excluded. The primary event was defined as breast cancer death. Breast cancer-specific survival was analyzed in univariate and multivariable models using conditional logistic regression. Expression of cyclin D1 above the median (61.7%) in ER breast cancer was associated with an increased risk for breast cancer death (OR 3.2 95% CI 1.5-6.8) also when adjusted for tumor size and grade (OR 3.1). No significant prognostic impact of cyclin D1 expression was found among ER-negative cases. Cyclin D1 overexpression was significantly associated to high expression of the proliferation markers cyclins A (rho 0.19, p = 0.006) and B (rho 0.18, p = 0.003) in ER-positive tumors, but not in ER-negative cases. There was a significant association between CCND1 amplification and cyclin D1 expression (p = 0.003), but CCND1 amplification was not statistically significantly prognostic (HR 1.4, 95% CI 0.4-4.4). We confirmed our previous observation that high cyclin D1 expression is associated to high proliferation and a threefold higher risk of death from breast cancer in ER-positive breast cancer.Peer reviewe

A Preparatory Study for a Randomized Controlled Trial of Dietary Fiber Intake During Adult Pelvic Radiotherapy

Background: Patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy are often advised to omit fiber-rich foods from their diet to reduce the adverse effects of treatment. Scientific evidence supporting this recommendation is lacking, and recent studies on animals and humans have suggested that there is a beneficial effect of dietary fiber for the alleviation of symptoms. Randomized controlled studies on dietary fiber intake during pelvic radiotherapy of sufficient size and duration are needed. As preparation for such a large-scale study, we evaluated the feasibility, compliance, participation rate, and logistics and report our findings here in this preparatory study. Methods: In this preparatory study of a fiber intervention trial, Swedish gynecological cancer patients scheduled for radiotherapy were recruited between January 2019 and August 2020. During the intervention, the participants filled out questionnaires and used an application. They also consumed a fiber supplement at first in powder form, later in capsules. Blood- and fecal samples were collected. The study is registered in clinicaltrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04534075?cond=fidura&draw=2&rank=1). Results: Among 136 approached patients, 57 started the study and the participation rate for primary outcomes was 63% (third blood sample) and 65% (third questionnaire). Barely half of the participants provided fecal samples. Providing concise and relevant information to the patients at the right time was crucial in getting them to participate and stay in the study. The most common reasons for declining participation or dropping out were the expected burden of radiotherapy or acute side effects. Tailoring the ambition level to each patient concerning the collection of data beyond the primary endpoints was an important strategy to keep the dropout rate at an acceptable level. Using capsules rather than psyllium in powder form made it much easier to document intake and to create a control group. During the course of the preparatory study, we improved the logistics and for the last 12 participants included, the participation rate was 100% for the earliest primary outcome. Conclusion: A variety of adjustments in this preparatory study resulted in an improved participation rate, which allowed us to set a final protocol and proceed with the main study

Service-oriented Architecture - An Emergence of a Service-oriented Architecture from a Business Perspective

This qualitative study analyzes service-oriented architecture (SOA) from a business perspective. The business is divided into different decision levels for clarification of the liability limits for the affected actors. The study of SOA covers the areas from development to implementation. The work has been conducted in order to contribute to a business perspective for how a SOA affects an entire organization, as published literature is more technically oriented. During the discussion and analysis of the empirical material did three reoccurring concepts emerge; ownership, communication and competence. These concepts were therefore discussed and analyzed within each decision level, and its adherent SOA-domains. The conclusions are presented by the three reoccurring concepts: • The ownership of a service needs to be clearly defined, and connected on both a strategic and operational level both for business and IT processes. This will create a balance between the actor groups’ interests. • Communication is essential and needs to be adjusted according to the level of the recipient. The linguistics needs to be adapted and clear within the level, as to facilitate discussions within dynamic formations, i.e. with representatives from different areas and with different backgrounds. • The study indicates that the competence at the strategic level needs to increase, since this level sets the foundation for the possibility to implement services, in the form of budget and alignment. Alignment means to facilitate and demand that the business and IT must cooperate to be able to reach the target and thus achieve the benefit from a SOA. The practical conclusions from this study are; communication is important in creating interfaces between decision levels and between different business areas. To develop services and manage interfaces for existing and parallel activities it has emerged that an iterative work flow is preferable, i.e. it is crucial to begin and then develop gradually. The implementation of a SOA needs to be structured practically by a project-model, which should be one the organization already is familiar with. Three areas for future research have crystallized during the study. Firstly, good benefitcalculation models for services do not exist; the current models have too few dimensions to cover an all different perspectives of entire organization. Secondly, is to explore deeper within the area of communication between IT and the business. The final area covers the verification of this study’s practical contribution, i.e. empirically investigate if the content of the decision-levels are coherent with an actual implementation of a SOA

The Demonstration of a Tool for Self-Estimating Digital Competence

This study presents the results from a demonstration of a tool for self-estimation of digital competence for nurses and assistant nurses. The data was gathered from twelve participants working as leaders of older care homes. The results show that digital competence is of importance in health and social care, that the dimension of motivation is of utmost importance and that the presentation of the survey results should be flexible

Benefits of Digital Technical Information

In our daily work life, we use a wealth of information, including a category of information produced as a part of products and their life-cycle phases, named digital technical information (DTI). Manufacturing organizations focus more often on the product than on DTI, because DTI’s impact seems almost invisible, despite its crucial role to the product and its life-cycle phases, development, production, maintenance, and destruction. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to describe DTI’s benefits and the research questions: “What are the benefits of the DTI?” and “What are the perceptions of how to measure benefits of DTI?” The thesis contains five studies related to identifying and measuring DTI’s benefits. The empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews and group interviews within five organizations and a survey among manufacturing organizations in Sweden. I used three characteristics of the DTI and two pairs of previously known benefit categories to analyse the benefits. The analysis shows that the benefits are recognized in the particular product’s life cycle phase where the DTI is published. However, the DTI continues to offer benefits in the product’s other life cycle phases. In relationship to the product, the benefits evolve from supporting an individual product to supporting more general product lines or all products and a more complex product is said to increase DTI’s benefits. DTI’s structure adds benefits as synthesized or aggregated DTI, where the DTI is synthesized or aggregated automatically or manually. The categorization predetermined benefits related to the change are less numerous than the emerging benefits. The predetermined benefits are strategic by nature, and the emerging ones are mainly used to achieve operational goals.  Measuring DTI’s benefits is of importance for a formal comparison of its development and is of special interest for managers. Perceptions from the initial stages on how to measure show that to establish common interpretations among the stakeholders of the measurement process is of importance, especially when it comes to what is viewed as a benefit. The benefits are viewed as intangible by the respondents, which creates difficulties when one is evaluating, using conventional measurement methods. The only perceived way to measure is when DTI reduces co-worker’s workload and efficiency is achieved.  The thesis’s contribution to academia consists of the analysis of DTI’s benefits, showing details of the relationships between the DTI and its benefits. For practice, the contributions focus on the systematic evaluation process, which can be used for further development of the DTI and comparison of the evolvement of the DTI itself and relating to other resources. One proposal for future research is to use the analysed benefits and compare various approaches to digitizing DTI, e.g. Industry 4.0. Another proposal is to list, in detail, various ways on how to measure DTI’s benefits and their usefulness. The latter can positively impact on any intangible benefits due to the general approach we have established of how to measure those benefits.Digital Teknikinformation (DTI) används ofta i arbetslivet och beskrivs som information som produceras för att stödja en produkt i dess livscykelfaser, utveckling, produktion, underhåll och destruktion. Tillverkande organisationer fokuserar oftare på produkten än på DTI och dess roll är nästan osynlig, trots sin avgörande roll för produkten i dess livscykelfaser. Därför är syftet med denna avhandling att beskriva nyttan med DTI. Forskningsfrågorna är: "Vilka är nyttorna med DTI?" och "Vad är uppfattningarna om hur nyttorna av DTI kan mätas?” Avhandlingen innehåller fem studier relaterade till att identifiera och mäta DTI:s nyttor. Det empiriska materialet är baserat på semistrukturerade individuella- och grupp-intervjuer hos fem tillverkande organisationer och en enkätundersökning bland tillverkande organisationer i Sverige. Resultaten visar att DTI skapar nyttor inom respektive organisation. Nyttorna har analyserats i förhållande till tre av DTI:s egenskaper och två välkända nyttokategorier. De flesta av nyttorna anses uppstå i produktens livscykelfas där DTI publiceras, samt ett antal nyttor i andra av produktens livscykelfaser. I förhållande till produkten utvecklas nyttorna från att stödja en enskild produkt till produktlinjer eller organisationens alla produkter. DTI:s struktur supportar aggregerad och återanvänd DTI, vilket t.ex. ger upphov till nyttor baserat på statistik. Av nyttokategorierna fördefinierade och framväxande nyttor ses de fördefinierade används för att nå strategiska mål. De framväxande nyttorna var fler till antalet och stödjer organisationens operativa mål. Beslutsfattare har användning för mätningar av DTI:s nyttor, speciellt för kommunikation och jämförelse av, bl.a., DTI:s utveckling. Studierna visar att gemensamma tolkningar är viktigt vid mätningar, t ex av vad som betraktas som nytta. De identifierade nyttorna betraktas ofta som omätbara av respondenterna, vilket medför svårigheter när det kommer till att genomföra mätningar. Den föreslagna mätmetoden blir därför att mäta de nyttor som skapar effektivitet, t ex när DTI kan minska mänskligt arbete. Avhandlingen bidrar till akademin genom att synliggöra detaljer om DTI:s nyttor via den gjorda analysen. Dessa detaljer visas genom relationen mellan DTI och dess nyttor. Avhandlingens praktiska bidrag är underlag till utvärdering av DTI:s nyttor, vilket kan användas för styrning och vidareutveckling av DTI. Ett förslag på framtida forskning är att använda de analyserade nyttorna för jämförelse vid olika ansatser till digitalisering, t ex Industri 4.0. Ett annat förslag är att undersöka detaljer i mätmetoder av DTI:s xviii nyttor och dess användbarhet. Detta förslag kan ge ytterligare underlag för mätning av de så kallade omätbara nyttorna. Disputationen kommer även att sändas digitalt. Avhandlingen är en monografi med inslag av en sammaläggningsavhandling då material från sju papers och licentiatavhandlingen är inkluderade.The Doctoral thesis is a monograph with elements of a comprehensive summary where material from seven papers and the licentiate thesis are included.</p