Integrating Environmental Science into Information Technology Content to Generate Student Interest

In an effort to increase female student interest in computing we applied and evaluated an interdisciplinary approach at a suburban high school in eastern Los Angeles County, California. Three classes, an IB Environmental Science class, an AP Environmental Science class, and a Computer Science were surveyed to assess attitude changes toward information technology. Results indicated gender differences between the participating classes, and differences before and after the project. Although the project did not uniformly impact the attitude of female high school students, it impacted teachers who are adjusting their teaching methods, an outcome that has a long-term positive influence

Sharing behavior in emergencies: An instantiation of a utility-focused prototype of a secure mobile near-real-time content device in pre-hospital and hospital settings

The implementation of healthcare information technology largely exhibits a ‘lack of fit’ with medical practice workflow, especially when data collection devices interfere with care during emergencies. Employing the design science paradigm and interpretive theory building, we examine the credibility, utility, and sharing of near-auto generated, near-real-time content regarding motor vehicle accidents. We began constructing a mobile security information model and building a mobile prototype to study the dynamics of contents sharing in the pre-hospital and hospital settings. From our focus group interviews, we learned that the most valuable feature of the prototype was the ability to capture and transmit data, audio, photo, and video contents prior to the arrival of the patient to the hospital: contents that inform clinical decisions regarding diagnostic preparedness, triaging, and therapeutic activities. We theorize that a credible content incentivizes sharing attitude and instrumental use which influence sharing behavior. We plan further observations to refine the proposition

Improving IT Enabled Continuity of Care Across Pre- Hospital and Hospital Settings

Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are often the patients’ first contact with the health care system. These services are a collaborative effort between several organizations providing different levels of care. These services are also multi-organizational, process oriented, and information dependent. As a result, a significant challenge exists in these fastpaced environments in terms of collecting and handing-off accurate and timely patient information from one care provider to the next. Consequently, there is a significant need for technology-enabled process improvement initiatives and guiding frameworks for streamlining information hand-offs across pre-hospital and hospital settings. This multi-method study explores the current state and potential improvements of technology-enabled pre-hospital to hospital information hand-offs in the State of California (CA). A questionnaire was administered to EMS leaders across the State. Qualitative interviews and focus group discussions were then conducted on two CA county EMS systems to explore potential improvements and to construct a set of principles to guide system development to support emergency care processes. A set of design principles, guidelines, themes, and end-user needs are presented and future research directions discussed