GRID COMPUTING FOR COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

This paper describes the methodology and results of a literature review targeting the distinct interpretations of the Grid Computing paradigm within the context of Collaborative Networks. The review is based on the analysis of contributions published in selected scientific journals between 2002 and today. The analysis was performed taking into account the assumptions, scopes and solutions provided to approach the challenges for SMEs’ collaborative networks. The research questions driving this literature review have been the following: (1) How is the concept of Grid Computing associated with the concept of Collaborative Network? (2) How the Grid computing supports Collaborative Networks? (3) What are the business implications in Grid supported Collaborative Networks

FROM IMPROVISATION TO STANDARDIZATION FOR ACHIEVING A BETTER QUALITY OF CARE: A COUNTERINTUITIVE INTERPRETATION OF DISEASE MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATION ON HELTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

In this paper the main assumption and components of the Disease Management approach and programmes are discussed and interpreted on the basis on the classical theory of J.D. Thompson. Such interpretation would allow to highlight a counter-intuitive aspect of the approach: in a sector usually considered as the prototype of the intensive technology, the DM promises to shift to mediating technologies introducing a tighter, standard regulation allowing not only cost-cuttings, but also higher quality perceived by patients. These considerations will be instrumental to discuss the implication of Disease Management strategies in action in respect with the functional aspects of Healthcare Information Systems. Adopting the classification of the core capabilities of an EHR-S provided by Tang, the specific features of DM-S, suitable to properly exploit the ICT to support DM programs, will be highlighted. Some consideration on the current stage of the IGEA project, i.e. the sole nationwide Disease Management program being conducting in Italy, will conclude the paper

Lumir: The EHR-S In The Basilicata Region

The Lucania – Medici in Rete (LuMiR) project aims to support the changing environment in the Italian National Health Systems, embodying a shift from organisation-centric to patient-centric healthcare service delivery in the Basilicata Region. The project main objective is to foster collaborative, cross-organizational and patient-centric healthcare processes, with a suite of shared e-services supporting the interoperability of active stakeholders’ IT applications and the exchange of patient related clinical information. In the paper the LuMiR project approach and its aim to overcome some limitations of the EHR-S national recommendation are discussed. The methodology adopted in the design and development of the LuMiR system to comply with institutional constraints and to better support a gradual change in the daily working practice of healthcare professionals is described, together with details on the LuMiR system architecture and remarks on the interventions scheduled to cope with possible hindrances for the large scale adoption of the LuMiR system itself

IPICT - An Explanatory Scheme About The Innovation Phenomena Towards Integrated Care Enhanced By Digital Technologies

The introduction of innovative models of care, especially in the management of chronic diseases and other long-term conditions, responds to an urgent need of economic sustainability of the health and social system, while maintaining or increasing the level of quality of the system. In this context it is crucial to assure the proper co-evolution of organizational models and technological solutions. This paper presents an explanatory scheme about Innovation Phenomena towards Integrated Care enhanced by digital Technologies (IPICT), developed in the context of the European project STOPandGO: organisational and informational integration may be achieved both vertically among care settings and horizontally between healthcare and social care. Full integration may be the final goal of a long process made by a progressive local deployment of several initiatives, possibly coherent with regional or national plans. Within each initiative, innovation has not to be necessarily present in each individual activity or in each technological component, but it may be triggered by the appropriate combination of activities and technologies according a suitable model of care. The proposed scheme identifies six layers, ranging from a technological approach on enabling infrastructures in Layers L1 and L2, to a perspective on organizational models co-designed with technological solutions in Layers L3 and L4, up to the comprehensive vision of the overall (regional) strategies on Integrated Care in Layers L5 and L6. In particular, Layer L4 regards the measures able to “reify the innovation” in the models of care deployed within the initiatives of Layer L5. The list of L4 measures worked out by STOPandGO project was tested on the production of a coherent set of local tenders to improve the health and well-being of citizens across hetero-geneous organisational/clinical circumstances

The LITIS Conceptual Framework: Measuring eHealth Readiness and Adoption dynamics across the Healthcare Organizations

The Italian Federation of Healthcare Trusts and Municipalities promoted a national initiative, named LITIS, on the levels of technological innovation in healthcare, to assist its members in the governance of the eHealth phenomenon. The result is a toolkit (i) to compare the policies among HealthCare Organizations (HCOs) within a jurisdiction; (ii) to help negotiate and monitor the balanced evolution of eHealth solutions within and across the HCOs, and (iii) to facilitate the collaboration among HCOs to face common topics. The primary achievement is a Conceptual Framework, spanning over the complete spectrum of the support to care and administrative processes, assuming two perspectives: the Functions F (services for citizens, social/ healthcare professionals, managers, administrative staff) and the Enabling Components C (prerequisites to deploy the Functions and handle the change). The framework entails a taxonomy of indicators to assess the eHealth readiness and adoption in the HCOs: at first the raw data – from a survey that involved nearly two thirds of the Italian HCOs—were transformed to yield a lower layer of 145 micro-indicators, then the micro-indicators were aggregated at an intermediate layer for two different purposes, either as 36 topics or as 12 sectors; the upmost layer was made of 3 macro-area indexes and a global index, named “ICLI”. The ontological structure behind the framework allows to adapt the set of microindicators to the context of any particular jurisdiction. The global index was used to classify each HCO into one out of five “Classes of Innovation” of increasing functional completeness. The lessons learned on presentation and interpretation of results are described

An e-Service-based Framework for Inter-Administration Cooperation

In order to provide electronic service delivery, several activities involving different public agencies need to be related and carried out in coordinated manner, thus resulting in a cooperative process. Currently, e-Service technologies seems to offer the enabling infrastructure for supporting cooperative process enactment, even at inter-country level. In this position paper, we outline the architecture we are proposing in the EU-PUBLI.com project, in which orchestration of e-Services constitutes the basis for provision of e-Government services. We discuss how such an architecture could support a form, although simple, of management of the cooperative process knowledge