The mediating role of organizational reputation and trust in the intention to use wearable health devices : cross-country study

BACKGROUND : The use of consumer wearable health devices for fitness tracking has seen an upward trend across the globe. Previous studies have shown that trust is an important factor in the adoption and use of new technologies. However, little is known about the influence of organizational reputation and trust on the intention to use wearable health devices. OBJECTIVE : This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of organizational reputation and trust in the intention to use wearable health devices and to examine the extent to which the country of residence influenced the effect of organizational reputation on consumers’ trust in and intention to use wearable health devices. METHODS : We conducted a cross-country survey with participants from Kenya and South Africa using a Google Forms questionnaire derived from previously validated items. A series of mediation regression analyses were carried out using the PROCESS macro with the bootstrap CI procedure. A one-way, between-group multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was also used to determine the key factors that distinguish Kenyans and South Africans in their intention to use wearable health devices. RESULTS : A total of 232 questionnaire responses were collected. The results revealed that organizational reputation significantly mediates the relationship between trust propensity and trust, with an indirect effect of 0.22 (95% CI 0.143-0.309). Organizational reputation also plays a significant direct role in the intention to use a wearable health device, with a direct effect of 0.32 (95% CI 0.175-0.483). This role is regardless of participants’ country of residence. Furthermore, there is a significant mediating effect of trust on the relationship between trust propensity and the intention to use a wearable health device, with an indirect effect of 0.26 (95% CI 0.172-0.349); between perceived security and the intention to use a wearable health device, with an indirect effect of 0.36 (95% CI 0.255-0.461); and between perceived privacy and the intention to use a wearable health device, with an indirect effect of 0.42 (95% CI 0.282-0.557). The MANOVA test shows statistically significant differences in all variables for both groups, with the exception of organizational reputation where there is no significant difference between the two cohorts. CONCLUSIONS : Organizational reputation has a significant direct influence on participants’ trust in and the intention to use a wearable health device irrespective of their country of residence. Even in the presence of perceived security and perceived privacy, trust has a significant mediating effect on the intention to use a wearable health device.Multimedia Appendix 1 Research model.Multimedia Appendix 2 Research instrument.Multimedia Appendix 3 Mediating role of organizational reputation in the relationship between trust propensity and trust, with regression coefficients, indirect effects, and bootstrapped CI.Multimedia Appendix 4 Mediating role of trust in the relationship between trust propensity and intention to use wearable health devices, with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped CI.Multimedia Appendix 5 Mediating role of trust in the relationship between organization reputation and intention to use wearable health devices, with regression coefficients, indirect effects, and bootstrapped CI.Multimedia Appendix 6 Mediating role of trust in the relationship between perceived security and intention to use wearable health devices, with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped CI.Multimedia Appendix 7 Mediating role of trust in the relationship between perceived privacy and intention to use wearable health devices, with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped CI.The Department of Informatics and the University of Pretoria.http://mhealth.jmir.orgam2020Informatic

A systematic literature review on cybersecurity threats to healthcare data and mitigation strategies

The incidence of cyberattacks on healthcare institutions has seen a steady increase over the years, with a massive increase of 42% in 2020. More specifically, INTERPOL reported a substantial increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare institutions at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. This increase can be attributed to the rise in the adoption of digital technologies, such as the Medical Internet of Things (MIoT), to support healthcare services. The sensitive nature of healthcare data and the volume of data handled by healthcare institutions make them attractive to cybercriminals. When compared to financial data, healthcare data has more value on the dark web. Because a cyberattack on healthcare data could have far-reaching consequences, healthcare institutions should have effective strategies to safeguard unauthorized access. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) that investigated the strategies that can be used to mitigate cybersecurity threats to healthcare data. Forty-one research papers retrieved from three databases were analyzed based on specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. Synthesis of the sources yielded three main themes, namely, (i) emerging technology trends that contribute to cybersecurity vulnerability in the healthcare sector, (ii) current cybersecurity challenges in the healthcare sector, and (iii) cybersecurity countermeasures and mitigation strategies. The research results showed that a holistic approach that incorporates people, technology and adherence to regulations is required to mitigate cybersecurity threats in the healthcare sector. The study has implications for policymakers, vendors/designers of healthcare technologies, and healthcare institution managers.https://easychair.org/publications/EPiC/Computingam2024InformaticsSDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructur

A process for developing an e-health standards selection method artefact using design science research

The use of design science research (DSR) as a paradigm of choice among information systems (IS) researchers is growing. While there is an apparent increase in the number of DSR artefacts of the method form, very few research publications provide details of the process followed to create such method artefacts in and of itself. Even rarer is the use of the DSR paradigm in e-health research. In this paper, we present the process followed to develop a DSR method artefact, called the standards selection method for e-health interoperability (SMeHI). SMeHI is a generic method that guides the selection of e-health standards to support interoperability between healthcare IS. The development of the method was motivated by the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) call in 2014 for guidance to lower and middle income countries, many of which are African countries, on how to decide on standards to adopt at national level.The National Research Foundation and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.http://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=JDR2018-06-01hj2018Informatic

Influence of health social networks on healthcare : a systematic literature review

Proceedings of 43rd Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists.Chronic diseases account for 71% of mortality across the globe. Health systems in both developed and developing countries are constrained in their ability to deal with the increasing incidence of chronic diseases due to the global shortage of healthcare professionals. Consequently, health social network sites (HSNs) are increasingly being used by patients and caregivers to search for health information and provide social support to one another. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) aimed at exploring the benefits and drawbacks of HSNs. Thirty-four research papers retrieved from five electronic databases were analyzed using specific inclusion/exclusion and quality assessment criteria. The results showed that all the 34 papers included in the SLR were published by authors from developed countries. Using thematic analysis, the benefits identified were classified broadly as (i) provision of health information and (ii) social support. The drawbacks include the dissemination of health misinformation, feeling of marginalization by healthcare professionals and concerns over privacy and confidentiality of health information. The research results highlight a need for studies that focus on the use of HSNs by researchers from developing countries and create a unique opportunity for African researchers to leverage the continuing growth in the number of active social media users to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in the continent.http://www.easychair.org/publications/EPiC/Computingam2023Informatic

Analyzing digital practices in indigenous communities: a Foucauldian sociotechnical demarginalizing method

Paper delivered at AfriCHI 2023, November 27–December 01, 2023, East London, South Africa.Responsible Human-Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D) and Information System (IS) researchers have called for demarginalizing methods for decolonizing digital practices in marginalized indigenous communities. This paper offers an adaptation of the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) as a demarginalizing method to assess and theorize what discursive resources participants, within a marginalized indigenous community, appropriate to make sense of digital technologies. Our proposed method integrates Foucauldian discourse perspectives with critical sociotechnical discursive constructions. The augmented Foucauldian Sociotechnical Demarginalizing Method (FSDM), using critical discourse analysis, can initiate dialog among scholars and inform digital appropriateness and digital sustainability in marginalized communities. Practitioners can also use the proposed method to interrogate how digital development discourses can improve their sustainability goals. We invite researchers who examine their empirical material obtained from indigenous communities to use the proposed FSDM.hj2024InformaticsNon

The current state of measuring return on investment in user experience design

Incorporating user experience (UX) design into system development processes can give an organisation a competitive advantage over its rivals. Embedding UX design into system development processes requires investment in skilled professionals, who in turn, follow a methodical process to make UX design an integral part of the organisation. Despite the value that can be added by UX design, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) in UX design remains a perennial challenge because of the difficulty associated with explicitly linking UX design with good ROI, to the exclusion of other system development processes. This paper reports on the emerging perspectives on measuring ROI in UX design in a selection of South African organisations. Interviews were conducted with 33 UX professionals from four organisations to get insight into how ROI in UX design is measured in their respective organisations. The results showed that some participants were aware of the metrics that could be used to measure ROI in UX design. However, none of the four organisations were specifically calculating ROI in UX. Rather, ROI was being calculated on an entire project.http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.zaInformatic

Using eye tracking as a tool to teach informatics students the importance of user centered design

In this article the authors describe how they incorporate eye tracking in a human-computer interaction (HCI) course that forms part of a postgraduate Informatics degree. The focus is on an eye tracking assignment that involves student groups performing usability evaluation studies for real world clients. Over the past three years the authors have observed how this experience positively affected students’ attitude towards usability and user experience (UX) evaluation. They therefore believe that eye tracking is a powerful tool to convince students of the importance of user centered design. To investigate the soundness of their informal observations, the authors conducted a survey amongst 2016 HCI students and analysed student course evaluation results from 2014 to 2016. The findings confirm that students regard the eye tracking assignment as a mind altering experience and that it is potentially an effective tool for convincing future IT professionals of the importance of usability, UX and user centered design.https://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-information-communication-technology/1082am2018Informatic

A Review of Interoperability Standards in E-health and Imperatives for their Adoption in Africa

The ability of healthcare information systems to share and exchange information (interoperate) is essential to facilitate the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services. Although standardization is considered key to addressing the fragmentation currently challenging the healthcare environment, e-health standardization can be difficult for many reasons, one of which is making sense of the e-health interoperability standards landscape. Specifically aimed at the African health informatics community, this paper aims to provide an overview of e-health interoperability and the significance of standardization in its achievement. We conducted a literature study of e-health standards, their development, and the degree of participation by African countries in the process. We also provide a review of a selection of prominent e-health interoperability standards that have been widely adopted especially by developed countries, look at some of the factors that affect their adoption in Africa, and provide an overview of ongoing global initiatives to address the identified barriers. Although the paper is specifically aimed at the African community, its findings would be equally applicable to many other developing countries

KMS as a sustainability strategy during a pandemic

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data used to perform supply chain simulation was obtained from the three authenticated websites namely, Statistics South Africa, National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the Department of Health COVID-19 official site. The websites are listed below; Population data: Statistics South Africa: https://www.statssa.gov.za/ accessed 5 June 2023. COVID-19 Statistical data: National Institute of Communicable Diseases: https://www.nicd.ac. za/wp-content/uploads/2021/ accessed 5 June 2023. Department of Health COVID-19 website: https://sacoronavirus.co.za/covid-19-daily-cases/ accessed 26 February 2023.The 21st century world never anticipated a scenario in which it would be thrown into disarray by a fast-spreading viral disease, during which governments hastily had to enforce curfews by imposing travel and social gathering restrictions in order to contain it. The coronavirus disease of 2019 disrupted global supply chains and economies and caused death in every part of the world. Health departments and hospitals became the centres of attention as healthcare workers battled to save the lives of the infected. Governments struggled to calm citizens as the spread of incorrect and, sometimes, malicious information dominated all social media channels. The absence of established knowledge-sharing strategies and channels, knowledge about the disease or how to deal with the pandemic exacerbated the situation. This study investigates knowledge management systems as a sustainability strategy during a pandemic from three perspectives: understanding the disease, sourcing the required drugs and communicating with the citizens during a pandemic. The researchers adopted a survey research strategy for the study. The study makes an essential contribution to the value of KMS and the need to adopt them in the healthcare sector, particularly when faced with pandemics such as COVID-19.The South African Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the South African Medical Research Council.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainabilityam2024InformaticsNon

The role of social media in health misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic : bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms to seek information continues to increase. Social media platforms can be used to disseminate important information to people worldwide instantaneously. However, their viral nature also makes it easy to share misinformation, disinformation, unverified information, and fake news. The unprecedented reliance on social media platforms to seek information during the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by increased incidents of misinformation and disinformation. Consequently, there was an increase in the number of scientific publications related to the role of social media in disseminating health misinformation and disinformation at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health misinformation and disinformation, especially in periods of global public health disasters, can lead to the erosion of trust in policy makers at best and fatal consequences at worst. OBJECTIVE: This paper reports a bibliometric analysis aimed at investigating the evolution of research publications related to the role of social media as a driver of health misinformation and disinformation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this study aimed to identify the top trending keywords, niche topics, authors, and publishers for publishing papers related to the current research, as well as the global collaboration between authors on topics related to the role of social media in health misinformation and disinformation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The Scopus database was accessed on June 8, 2023, using a combination of Medical Subject Heading and author-defined terms to create the following search phrases that targeted the title, abstract, and keyword fields: (“Health*” OR “Medical”) AND (“Misinformation” OR “Disinformation” OR “Fake News”) AND (“Social media” OR “Twitter” OR “Facebook” OR “YouTube” OR “WhatsApp” OR “Instagram” OR “TikTok”) AND (“Pandemic*” OR “Corona*” OR “Covid*”). A total of 943 research papers published between 2020 and June 2023 were analyzed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation), VOSviewer (Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University), and the Biblioshiny package in Bibliometrix (K-Synth Srl) for RStudio (Posit, PBC). RESULTS: The highest number of publications was from 2022 (387/943, 41%). Most publications (725/943, 76.9%) were articles. JMIR published the most research papers (54/943, 5.7%). Authors from the United States collaborated the most, with 311 coauthored research papers. The keywords “Covid-19,” “social media,” and “misinformation” were the top 3 trending keywords, whereas “learning systems,” “learning models,” and “learning algorithms” were revealed as the niche topics on the role of social media in health misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: Collaborations between authors can increase their productivity and citation counts. Niche topics such as “learning systems,” “learning models,” and “learning algorithms” could be exploited by researchers in future studies to analyze the influence of social media on health misinformation and disinformation during periods of global public health emergencies.The South African Department of Science and Innovation and the South African Medical Research Council under the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa Joint Application Form 2020/33.https://infodemiology.jmir.org/InformaticsSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-beingSDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institution