Information Technology Efforts Research Articles

How Information Technology Overcomes Deficiencies for Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Closed Innovation vs. Open Innovation

Innovation is vital for the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, SMEs face deficiencies that hinder their innovation output. This study examines how information technology (IT) helps SMEs address two salient deficiencies: technological deficiency (deficiency in internal technical knowledge and skills) and government support deficiency (deficiency in favorable government policies and incentives). Our findings suggest that SME managers can achieve greater innovation output by orienting their IT-enabled innovation efforts in an open or closed manner to address specific deficiencies. They can address technological deficiency by focusing their IT efforts on promoting innovation within the firm, that is, using IT to support closed innovation. In contrast, SMEs that face government support deficiency should give preference to IT Use for Open Innovation Activities to collaborate with external constituents such as customers and suppliers. Furthermore, because of the emergence of digital platforms (e.g., crowdsourcing), managers may be overly biased toward the use of open innovation. Our results suggest that both open and closed IT-enabled innovation have value. We exhort SME managers not to disregard either form of IT-enabled innovation but rather to tailor their approach to suit their organizational context based on specific deficiencies that their firm faces.

Analysis of Ink/Toner Savings of English and Thai Ecofonts for Sustainable Printing

The use of Ecofonts in printing can result in economic savings and lower environmental impact. However, most of the research on the use of Ecofonts focuses on Latin alphabets. Moreover, texts printed with Ecofonts can be perceived as being less legible than those printed with the original typefaces. This study (a) assesses toner use reductions in documents printed with English and Thai Ecofonts, and (b) studies the observers’ perception of texts printed either with Ecofonts or with original typefaces. To achieve this, black pixels were removed from 10 English and 13 Thai typefaces widely used in academia and other media. Visibility and legibility tests, as well as mass analyses tests, were then performed on texts printed with some such typefaces. Results from instrumental measurements and digital image analyses show that the use of Ecofonts reduces toner use of an inkjet printer by up to 28%. The study also proposes a new Ecofont typeface for the Thai language. Visual tests showed that the visual experience of text printed using this Thai Ecofont is satisfactory. Awareness of the benefits of using Ecofonts changes the users’ attitudes towards the printing quality of Ecofont. The removal of black pixels can lead to more sustainable printing, and this simple solution can be extended to other non-Latin languages as part of the global Green Information Technology efforts in South-East Asia.

HITECH to 21st century cures: clinician burden and evolving health IT policy.

Adoption and use of health information technology (IT) was identified as 1 solution to quality and safety issues that permeate the United States health care system. Implementation of health IT has accelerated across the US over the past decade, in part, as a result of legislative and regulatory requirements and incentives. However, adoption of these systems has burdened clinician users due to design, configuration, and implementation issues, resulting in poor usability, challenges to workflow integration, and cumbersome documentation requirements. The path to alleviating these clinician burdens requires a clear understanding of the intent and evolution of pertinent regulations and the context in which they exist. This article reviews the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology's efforts, documents current regulatory actions, and discusses additional policy opportunities that can further improve clinician satisfaction and effectiveness in providing health care with health IT that is an asset, not an obstacle.

Information Technology Efforts Against COVID-19: A Review of Open Source Projects

Currently, efforts have focused on dealing with the emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide Hopefully, information technology can be applied to meet the challenges related to the pandemic and biosurveillance Free and open-source software (FOSS) model has emerged as an effective tool against these challenges The main objective of this study was to determine and summarize the application of FOSS in published and released resources and materials against COVID-19 This review includes projects that were available through GitHub and SourceForge reliable web-based materials All projects were identified between January 1 and April 10, 2020 Search terms in GitHub and Source Forge were based on clinical terminologies, such as COVID-19, COVID, Covid19, and Corona Virus Inclusion or exclusion criteria were used to filter the results Finally, a screening procedure was followed to achieve the most related records We identified 46,426 records in GitHub and seven projects in Source Forge The top 40 projects were included The results show that a high percentage of FOSS projects against COVID-19 were related to visual dashboards The open dataset and analytical methods made a significant contribution to this context Previously learned lessons from FOSS have shown that the explained projects would play important roles in future epidemics by forking and joining in new projects, which formed around a specific problem

Adaptivity and adaptability as design parameters of cognitive worker assistance for enabling agile assembly systems

Assembly processes are characterized by frequent changes and a high density of information being displayed to workers. These challenges necessitate cognitive worker assistance solutions that are individually and situatively adaptable. Adaptation in digital assistance is primarily based on the type of human-technology interaction, which essentially can be deterministic, adaptive or adaptable. Hence, this paper presents a method for determining the type of adaptation appropriate for functionalities of cognitive worker assistance in series production. Adaptivity and adaptability function as design parameters concerning dialog initiatives in system interaction. While adaptivity is characterized by system-initiated changes, adaptability implies an interaction initiative of the assembly operator. Based on defined functionalities according to product- and process-specific framework conditions, scenario-based characteristics are identified and categorized. Beside different user perspectives, information technology efforts for implementing assistance systems are examined to evaluate the potential for enabling agile assembly systems.

Smart community guideline: case study on the development process of smart communities in Japan

With the increasing demand for a sustainable society, smart community—a community that focuses on both environmental, social, and information technology efforts— become one of the answers to provide a more sustainable society. Despite the urgency to develop a smart community, the definition of what requirement should be included and the guideline on how to develop a smart community is not enough. In this paper, a case study on the Japanese smart community development measures is done, and the general development process of Japanese smart community is suggested based on the measures. The study was done on five representative cases and 14 measures were collected and classified into three categories based on the development process.

E-Governance and the Nigerian tax administrative system

Nigeria like most countries who were ‘unfortunate’ to have rich deposits of natural resources has been ‘battered’ greatly by the economic paradox known as resource curse. Dependence on oil exploration and export meant that politics was played with taxation which remains the oldest and most recognized form of generating revenues for the provision of infrastructures and smooth running of the state. The global fall in crude oil prices, high rates of unemployment and agitations from the population for improved service delivery, has awakened the government to the fact that the days of treating tax revenue collection as favour to political faithful are over. This paper takes a look at the application of information technology efforts by the Nigerian government towards reinforcing revenue generation. It will analyze how the present use of information technology in Tax administrative system has helped to check hitherto exploited loopholes of the revenue administration and to make recommendations towards improvements.

The Impact of Privacy Regulation and Technology Incentives: The Case of Health Information Exchanges

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are healthcare information technology efforts designed to foster coordination of patient care across the fragmented U.S. healthcare system. Their purpose is to improve efficiency and quality of care through enhanced sharing of patient data. Across the United States, numerous states have enacted laws that provide various forms of incentives for HIEs and address growing privacy concerns associated with the sharing of patient data. We investigate the impact on the emergence of HIEs of state laws that incentivize HIE efforts and state laws that include different types of privacy requirements for sharing healthcare data, focusing on the impact of laws that include requirements for patient consent. Although we observe that privacy regulation alone can result in a decrease in planning and operational HIEs, we also find that, when coupled with incentives, privacy regulation with requirements for patient consent can actually positively impact the development of HIE efforts. Among all states with laws creating HIE incentives, only states that combined incentives with consent requirements saw a net increase in operational HIEs; HIEs in those states also reported decreased levels of privacy concern relative to HIEs in states with other legislative approaches. Our results contribute to the burgeoning literature on health information technology and the debate on the impact of privacy regulation on technology innovation. In particular, they show that the impact of privacy regulation on the success of information technology efforts is heterogeneous: both positive and negative effects can arise from regulation, depending on the specific attributes of privacy laws. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems.

Investigating the Challenges and Opportunities in Home Care to Facilitate Effective Information Technology Adoption

BackgroundAs home care utilization increases, information technology (IT) becomes a critical tool for providing quality home care. However, most home health agencies (HHAs) in the United States are in a position to adopt and leverage IT solutions in budget-constrained settings, where it is crucial to address important and pressing challenges and opportunities for achieving effectiveness in IT adoption. Objectives(1) Explore HHAs' challenges and opportunities related to delivering home care as well as performing administrative functions and conducting business, (2) learn about current IT implementation levels and activities in home care, and (3) make recommendations to facilitate efforts and initiatives designed for adopting IT in home care effectively. MethodsSemistructured interviews were conducted to elicit rich contextual information from the participants recruited from 13 local HHAs in one of the states in the United States. Established systems analysis techniques were used to ask questions during the interviews. Framework, a qualitative research method, was used to analyze the qualitative data obtained from the interviews. ResultsCoordinating clinical and administrative workflows was an important challenge. Inadequate access to patients' medical history and difficulties with medication reconciliation detracted from the quality of care. Hiring, training, scheduling, and retaining qualified personnel constituted another important challenge. Training and educating patients, caregivers, and families hold important opportunities for improving the quality of care. All except one HHA adopted electronic health records (EHR) but many continued to struggle considerably in their day-to-day functions. Health information exchange (HIE) seems to be the most needed technology. Telehealth solutions were perceived to be promising but their added value and financial viability in the long run were questioned. ConclusionsThe recommendations for effective IT adoption include keeping a quality improvement focus, keeping a holistic organizational perspective, considering potential information exchange problems, addressing education and training needs, experimentation with telehealth if resources permit, considering organization size, and reducing lengthy procedures and excessive documentation requirements. The relevant stakeholders, such as home care professionals, IT vendors, and policy makers, should consider the recommendations from this study to facilitate success in future IT efforts and initiatives in home care.

Meaningful Use and Electronic Health Records

There is rarely a day that passes when we do not see a news report about electronic health records (EHRs) and meaningful use. Of course, our professional home is in the health information technology (IT) sector, so our view may be somewhat biased. In this column, we offer a snapshot overview of EHR efforts from a national thought leader within the governmental office that is driving national health IT efforts.

Design-for-Six-Sigma for Development of a Bioprocess Quality-by-Design Framework

An initial quality-by-design (QbD) framework was assembled for biopharmaceutical product, process, and analytical development using the design-for-six-sigma (DFSS) methodology. This technique was both streamlined and efficient, which permitted development of a QbD framework with minimized team leader and member resources. DFSS also highly emphasized voice-of-the-customer, information considered crucial to development and implementation of a bioprocess QbD framework appropriate for current development needs of the organization and its regulatory environment. The bioprocess QbD final design and implementation plan was comprised of seven teams, constructed from six QbD elements plus a communication/training team. Each element's detailed design was evaluated against internal and external established best practices, the QbD charter, and design inputs. Gaps were identified and risks mitigated to assure robustness of the proposed framework. Aggregated resources and timing were estimated to obtain vital implementation sponsorship. Where possible, existing governance and information technology efforts were leveraged to minimize additional bioprocess resources required. Finally, metrics were selected to track success of pilots and eventual implementation. An initial quality-by-design (QbD) framework was assembled to guide biopharmaceutical product, process, and analytical development. QbD starts by defining the patient requirements which then are translated into required quality attributes for the product. The production process then is designed to consistently meet these quality requirements by identifying and understanding those parameters which influence them. A control strategy is developed that specifically relates each point of control to a desired quality measure. Overall, this approach results in a robust process, capable of reliably producing quality product. The bioprocess QbD framework was developed to guide implementation of the desired QbD strategy. It was comprised of seven teams, constructed from six QbD elements plus a communication/training team. Each element's detailed design was evaluated against internal and external established best practices, the charter, and design inputs. Gaps were identified and risks mitigated to assure robustness of the proposed framework. Aggregated resources and timing were estimated to obtain vital implementation sponsorship. Where possible, existing governance and information technology efforts were leveraged to minimize additional bioprocess resources required. Finally, metrics were selected to track success of pilots and eventual implementation.

Federal Health Information Technology Efforts: The Stimulus is the Buzz

Dire economic circumstances have led to tremendous potential for trans-forming the US health care system from a paper to an electronic industry. Traditionally, health care has been slow in adopting significant change. This column discusses the transformation that is poised to begin in the US health care system.

Embedded Relationships in Information Services

Information technology (IT) is increasingly used in the production of services, enabling a self serve channel that challenges the embedded relationship in services. To examine the implications of IT for embedded relationships, we undertook an interpretative case study of a remote diagnostics service in the mining industry. Our analysis suggests that the combination of IT and social efforts by the participants can support embedded relationships to a larger extent than has been shown in previous research.

Feds Release Health IT Strategic Plan

Mary Ellen Schneider is with the New York bureau of Elsevier Global Medical News. If the feds have it their way, 40% of physician offices will be using certified electronic health records by 2012. The goal is part of a strategic plan for coordinating the federal government's health IT efforts over the next years, and seeks to further progress toward President Bush's goal, set out in 2004, that the majority of Americans to have access to an electronic health record (EHR) by 2014. About 14% of physicians had adopted some form of health information technology (IT) by 2007, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which released the strategic plan. Specifically, the plan calls for removing business barriers and disincentives for adoption of EHRs and providing training and technical assistance. For example, the plan calls for increasing the health IT workforce by training more standards developers, ensuring vendors are trained in the implementation of health IT tools, and training physicians and other health care providers in informatics. It also highlights the need to address physician concerns about liability risks related to the exchange of electronic health information. In addition to issues related to adoption, the plan lays out goals for achieving patient-focused health care through electronic health record access, and enabling the use of electronic health data to benefit public health, research, and emergency preparedness. “[The plan] establishes the next generation of health IT milestones to harness the power of information technology to help transform health and care in this country,” Robert Kolodner, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, said in a statement. The goals are all positive, said Steven Waldren, MD, director of the Center for Health Information Technology at the American Academy of Family Physicians, but the plan doesn't place enough emphasis on the need to provide financial incentives to physicians for purchasing and using electronic health record systems, he said. “The real bottom line is getting the payment reform that is needed in health care today,” Dr. Waldren said. The strategic plan represents a “reasonable approach” going forward and gives a sense of how to achieve the President's objective of greater access to electronic health records, said Dan Rode, vice president of policy and government relations at the American Health Information Management Association. However, many of the items don't have specific timetables for completion but will instead be reassessed in 2010, he said, leaving a lot to be accomplished before 2014. The plan was developed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in collaboration with 12 agencies within Health and Human Services, other departments, the National Committee on Vital Statistics, and the American Health Information Community. The strategic plan is available online at www.hhs.gov/healthit.

From Santa Barbara To Washington: A Person's And A Nation's Journey Toward Portable Health Information

The Santa Barbara County Care Data Exchange recently decided to disband. Because I founded the Santa Barbara Project and went on to lead U.S. health information technology (IT) efforts, it has been suggested that federal health IT policy relied too heavily on the approach used in Santa Barbara. Concerns have been expressed that the U.S. health IT effort rests upon a weak foundation and may be unsustainable. Conversely, the lessons of Santa Barbara were evident to investigators, including myself, long before its termination. These lessons, not the original assumptions and methods used in Santa Barbara, were applied to federal policy.

Initiatives and Barriers to Adopting Health Information Technology

In recent years, US healthcare experts have increasingly agreed that the effective application of information technology (IT) can enable the industry to address its three most pressing concerns: an increase in medical errors, rising costs, and the fragmentation of care delivery. While other industries have fully adopted and capitalized on IT to optimize operational efficiencies and customer service delivery, healthcare systems in the US have generally been slow to make a full transition. Presently, one of the quickest and most efficient ways health systems can begin to benefit from IT is through the implementation of the electronic health record (EHR). This dynamic resource provides key healthcare stakeholders (patients, payers, and providers) with a comprehensive view of current and historical patient data compiled from various sources. It holds tremendous potential for better management of chronic diseases, improving outcomes, and streamlining expenses. While the EHR has been shown to generate positive results in its limited use so far, its widespread implementation faces several hurdles, most notably cost. Additionally, primary EHR users (payers and providers) often experience initial infrastructure and personnel burdens, along with potential workflow disruptions. Despite this, considerable support for the EHR as an entry point for full-scale IT adoption is mounting in the US with a number of high-level government initiatives. This article examines the current state of health IT efforts in the US, the barriers to further adoption, and how technology can be, and is being, used to meet major challenges in the US healthcare industry. Although this article exclusively examines the US healthcare system, the author believes that many of the issues and scenarios described herein are universal among healthcare systems worldwide. At the same time, the author acknowledges that, to a great degree, each nation’s healthcare system faces its own unique considerations that may or may not be reflected in or relevant to the information in this article.

Personal Records Are on the Horizon For Electronic Health Information

BALTIMORE — Personal health records may be the next step in the evolution of health information technology, but these electronic documents are raising several legal and security issues for long-term care facilities. “PHRs might in fact have the opportunity to leapfrog over things that are happening in electronic health records,” Dr. Steven Labkoff, director of business technology for Pfizer Inc., said at a meeting on long-term care health information technology. The main difference between personal health records (PHRs) and electronic health records is who owns them. Ideally, patients should own their PHRs. But it is still unclear who should control what information is entered in the document and, perhaps more important, who should be able to delete information from the record, experts said at the meeting, which was sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). An online public survey conducted in 2003 found that 71% of respondents believed that personal health records would improve the quality of health care, said Jill Burrington-Brown, practice manager for health information management products and services at AHIMA. “The time is now to accelerate the development of personal health records,” she said, citing a report from Connecting for Health, a project of the Markle Foundation to promote the adoption and use of personal health records. The Markle Foundation calls PHRs an “Internet-based set of tools that allows people to access and coordinate their lifelong health information and make appropriate parts of it available to those who need it.” PHRs also offer a comprehensive view of health information, including information people generate themselves such as symptoms and medication use, information from doctors such as diagnoses and test results, and information from their pharmacies and insurance companies. Individuals access their PHRs via the Internet, using security and privacy controls. Family members or doctors can see portions of a PHR when necessary, and emergency room staff can retrieve vital information from it in a crisis. During roundtable discussions, attendees said they thought personal health records are a potentially important component of health information technology efforts, but many also had misgivings about the security risk represented by giving seniors, some with cognitive deficits, electronic access to their health records. “Every day is a day that we work on security to make sure it is tight and concise,” said Daniel Wilt, director of information technology for Erickson Retirement Communities. Erickson has launched a pilot program that allows residents to remotely access laboratory results, physician notes, and medical histories. The system also allows them to set appointments and keep health journals. “They want their labs. That's the one thing they really want. They go to the medical center, they run back upstairs, they go to their computers, and they ask ‘It's been 20 minutes; where are my labs?’ We have to explain it takes 24 hours,” he said. While most users really like the system, administrators struggle with how much access the public should have. For example, Mr. Wilt said, should administrators allow adult children to look at records or let residents change information that they deem incorrect? By definition, personal health records need to be individually owned, said Ms. Burrington-Brown. “The individuals own the PHR in a similar way as we own money in the bank. There is some conversation in the industry about who really owns that, because of who produces it. That is a conversation that is going to be going on” for quite some time, she said. Industry groups are working on a standard format for personal health records, while groups such as the American Health Information Community and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics are developing standards to ensure interoperability and security. “We have a lot of PHR activities occurring at many levels,” she said.

AMA Urged To Make Electronic Records Policy Priority

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Professional NewsFull AccessAMA Urged To Make Electronic Records Policy PriorityMark MoranMark MoranSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:21 Jan 2005https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.40.2.00400001b The electronic health record is coming to American medicine. That's what National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., told physicians at the interim meeting of the American Medical Association House of Delegates last month in Atlanta.David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., coordinates the nation's health information technology efforts. His position was created by President Bush last year.Brailer urged delegates to make adoption of the electronic health information record the number-one member services and policy priority for the AMA.“The electronic health record is the undisputed next step,” Brailer said. “When used properly in patient care, it can be therapeutic. This observation is well founded in the scientific evidence that shows that drug-drug interaction checking, allergy checking, public health surveillance, preventive care reminders, and evidence-based decision support can systematically and reproducibly improve health status, longevity, and overall care.”Brailer cited a 2003 study from the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) showing that nationwide adoption of ambulatory computerized physician order entry alone could prevent more than 2 million adverse drug events and nearly 190,000 unnecessary hospitalizations each year.(CITL was chartered in 2002 by Boston-based, nonprofit Partners HealthCare System as a research organization to help guide the health care community in making more-informed technology investment decisions.)“This would save $44 billion in reduced medication, utilization, and other costs,” Brailer said. “These data demonstrate to me that the electronic health record is part of the therapeutic regimen and is indispensable to care delivery.”Brailer, who was named the most powerful person in health care today in a survey of health care leaders by the magazine Modern Healthcare, offered a vision of American medicine's future that will be shaped less by government policies and politics than by technological innovations that have transformed other aspects of the American economy.“The answer for health care is the same as it is for every other industry,” Brailer said. “Information, automation, and standardization can support the central role of the consumer and the professional.”As he noted in his address to AMA delegates, his office has oversight of more than $5 billion in health information spending by the federal government.“Our charge from the president is to restructure and align that spending to get the most value for the American people every year,” Brailer said. “We intend to change the marketplace so that [electronic health information products] are cheaper, less risky, interoperable, easier to use, and beneficial.”He was appointed to the new federal position by President George W. Bush last year and charged with achieving widespread deployment of electronic health information technology within 10 years.Brailer acknowledged the distance medicine still has to travel to achieve the promise of electronic technology. While the adoption of electronic health records by large health systems and large physician groups has been encouraging, and is becoming more commonplace, adoption by small physician groups and offices is much more problematic, he said.“I am worried about small physician offices that struggle to know which records to buy and to implement in order to get value for themselves and their patients,” Brailer said. “Without proper support, the electronic health record is just software in a computer, because the critically important improvements in process of care, decision making, and outcomes will not be realized.”And pioneers in the field of electronic health records are beset by the“ first mover disadvantage” typically confronting those who are the first to implement a new technology: they bear the costs, while those who adopt the technology later reap the benefits of those who have preceded them.Brailer outlined for AMA delegates several things his office is pursuing in order to level the playing field for small and large physician practices and speed the adoption of e-health records.Among these is the formation of a 14-member accreditation commission to help accredit and standardize electronic health record products. It will be the job of the commission to “inspect electronic health record products for functionality, interoperativity, and security,” Brailer said.The government has also encouraged the formation of Regional Health Information Organizations. “These will help organize physicians, purchasers, and hospitals to set their own fate, be free of regulation, and work toward adoption of electronic health records for their own local area,” Brailer said.He added that the government is working to encourage the development of a national health information network—what some have called “the medical Internet.”“The national health information network will allow secure, timely, useful exchange of health information between clinicians.” ▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Computer-supported monitoring of patient treatment response.

The use of information technology (IT) for the purpose of improving psychotherapy outcomes in the context of routine clinical practice is described. IT efforts from two research programs, one in Germany and the other in the United States, are based on evidence that not all patients who enter treatment have a positive outcome and that continuous monitoring of patient treatment response with immediate feedback to therapists can be used to increase the likelihood of success for the poorly responding client. Such monitoring and feedback can best be accomplished by IT methodologies. Suitable IT systems are described, and their strengths and limitations are highlighted. Evidence is presented that supports the positive value of such efforts for improving patient treatment response.

Computer-based data collection boosts productivity, regulatory compliance.

Computer-based data collection boosts productivity, regulatory compliance.