Technology-enabled Environment Research Articles

A Sense of Coherence Approach to Improving Patient Experience Using Information Infrastructure Modeling: Design Science Research

BackgroundHealth care provider organizations are complex and dynamic environments. Consequently, how the physical and social environment of such organizations interact with an individual is a primary driver of an individual’s experience. Increasingly, the capabilities required for them to successfully interact with those within their care are critically dependent on the information infrastructure they have in place, which enables people, both patients and staff, to work optimally together to deliver their clinical and operational objectives.ObjectiveThis study aims to design a framework to address the challenge of how to assemble information systems in health care to support an improved sense of coherence for patients, as well as potentially innovate patients’ experiences, by connecting and orchestrating the synergy among people, processes, and systems.MethodsIt is necessary to understand the needs of health care providers and patients to address this challenge at a level relevant to information process design and technology development. This paper describes the design science research method used to combine the sense of coherence, which is a core concept within the Antonosky salutogenic approach to health and well-being, with an established information infrastructure maturity framework, demonstrating the coalescence of 2 distinct conceptual perspectives on care delivery. This paper provides an approach to defining a positive and supportive health care experience and linking this to the capabilities of an information- and technology-enabled environment.ResultsThis research delivers a methodology for describing the patient experience in a form relevant to information infrastructure design, articulating a pathway from information infrastructure to patient experience. It proposes that patient experience can be viewed pragmatically in terms of the established sense of coherence concept, with its ability to identify and guide resources to modulate a patient’s environmental stressors. This research establishes a framework for determining and optimizing the capability of a facility’s information infrastructure to support the sense of coherence defined by the experiences of its patients.ConclusionsThis groundbreaking research provides a framework for health care provider organizations to understand and assess the ability of their information infrastructure to support and improve the patient experience. The tool assists providers in defining their technology-dependent operational goals around patient experience and, consequently, in identifying the information capabilities needed to support these goals. The results demonstrate how a fundamental shift in thinking about the use of information infrastructure can transform the patient experience. This study details an approach to describing information infrastructure within an experience-oriented framework that enables the impact of technology on experience to be designed explicitly. The contribution to knowledge is a new perspective on modeling how information infrastructure can contribute to supportive health-promoting environments. Furthermore, it may significantly affect the design and deployment of future digital infrastructures in health care.

Large‐scale integration of Virtual Reality‐Enriched Tasks (VRETs) in gross anatomy curriculum during the pandemic

Anatomy has transformed from a standalone discipline to one of the fundamental pillars in an integrated medical curriculum. It is of paramount importance that anatomy is taught with an active learning approach coupled with essential clinical application to help students foster deeper understanding of the knowledge acquired. With the pilot study, VR-enriched tasks (VRETs) were written and they were positively received by the participants. Subsequently, VR technology was officially adopted as a technological learning tool in the gross anatomy curriculum. New VRETs were written to be more clinically oriented to gastrointestinal anatomy and were deployed in conjunction to dissection classes. Face-to-face teaching was still permitted at the University of Hong Kong amid the pandemic, but precautionary measures were stringently observed. Number of students allowed inside the laboratory was limited to a quarter of the usual class size, which equated to about 65 students per session. Due to the nature of VR, students had to pair up where one would put on the VR googles to perform VRETs while the other one gave instructions. Thus, 35 sets of VR devices were deployed to accommodate this class size. Similar to the pilot study, students were given an introductory demonstration and some time to familiarise with the VR interface. This was due to previous feedback on the operational difficulty to novice users. Students were asked to complete two VRETs, with a debriefing session after each VRET. At the end of the class, students were invited to complete the same 7-point Likert scale questionnaire, which aimed to investigate active learning in a technology-enabled environment. 50 students returned a completed questionnaire and 43 reported to have no prior VR experience. 5 items received an average score over 4.5, in which students somewhat agreed that VRETs piqued their curiosity; provided extra support for learning anatomy; helped with deeper understanding of anatomy; motivated them to study and improved the learning experience. Findings were consistent with those from the pilot study. Students who had prior VR experience also scored the above 5 items higher than students without prior VR experience, showing that they generally enjoyed the session more and this was supported by written feedback that stated the steep learning curve for first-time users. VRETs were considered to be good supplement to dissection especially on visualising structures that might have been accidentally removed in dissection. In the contrary, students raised concerns on how they were not receiving timely feedback for their performance and this might explain the overall lower average scores across all items. This was because in the formal VR session the instructor to student group ratio was 1 to 20 whereas in the pilot study it was 1 to 5. In the subsequent sessions, number of teachers and teaching assistants would be increased to help improve the ratio so as to improve the feedback situation. Due to the pandemic, some students attended the VR laboratory before and some after the equivalent dissection classes. Further studies would be conducted to explore the impact of the sequence of learning activity on students’ learning. IRB approval Ref: HKU/HA HKW IRB, Ref: UW 19-277.

Scaffolding for content knowledge of home language learning by collaborative online dictionaries

Dictionaries provide language learners and language users with lexical information and serve as mediating, supporting tools during language learning. Online dictionaries in the form of wikis can be assembled by dictionary users themselves. Their construction (selection of terminology and content of descriptions) in the home language class facilitates learning. During the learning process, dictionary users (university students, in this case) construct new knowledge and meaning based on their own experiences and motivations. The article is based on reflective feedback from a dictionary project undertaken in a faculty of education at a university in the Western Cape. Senior home language students were guided to collaboratively develop an online dictionary of language for specific purposes, thereby improving their communicative skills in addition to their lexical and academic subject vocabulary knowledge. Technology-enhanced language learning was mediated through a task-based language learning process. Data were generated by means of questionnaires that presented students with an opportunity to critically reflect on the use of technology as well as their own construction of knowledge by describing different scaffolding strategies in the selection of vocabulary employed during the process of wiki compilation. Positive results from the study highlight the benefits of appropriate, collaborative use of technology during language learning in a home language class. A new scaffolding model for learning content knowledge in the home language in a technology-enabled environment is proposed in the article.

Tracking Sustainability Targets with Quantitative Indicator Systems for Performance Measurement of Industrial Symbiosis in Industrial Parks

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a systematic and collective (business) approach to optimizing the use of materials and energy among cross-sectoral industries in order to initiate and exhaust extended cascading systems; it is associated with (synergistic) environmental, technical, social, and economic benefits. For monitoring and controlling the development and progress of an IS system, an indicator system must be set up to standardize and assess the IS (sustainability) performance. This study aims to present a quantitative indicator system to enable the tracking of set sustainability targets of an IS system in Industrial Parks (IPs) for goal-directed IS management. The presented guiding framework encourages IP members in IS systems to set sustainability objectives and to evaluate and track their performance over time with a quantitative indicator system. In particular, established and (partly) internationally standardized methods—such as Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), Social Network Analysis (SNA), and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)—are used in order to place the indicator system on a solid and robust foundation and to adequately meet the multi-faceted sustainability perspectives in the form of a combinatorial application for deriving suitable quantitative indicators for all three (environmental, economic, social) dimensions of sustainability. The indicator system, once embedded in an Information Technology (IT)-supported IS tool, contributes crucially to the technology-enabled environment of IS systems, driving sustainability trajectories.

Evaluating a Serious Gaming Electronic Medication Administration Record System Among Nursing Students: Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundAlthough electronic medication administration record systems have been implemented in settings where nurses work, nursing students commonly lack robust learning opportunities to practice the skills and workflow of digitalized medication administration during their formative education. As a result, nursing students’ performance in administering medication facilitated by technology is often poor. Serious gaming has been recommended as a possible intervention to improve nursing students’ performance with electronic medication administration in nursing education.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study are to examine whether the use of a gamified electronic medication administration simulator (1) improves nursing students’ attention to medication administration safety within simulated practice, (2) increases student self-efficacy and knowledge of the medication administration process, and (3) improves motivational and cognitive processing attributes related to student learning in a technology-enabled environment.MethodsThis study comprised the development of a gamified electronic medication administration record simulator and its evaluation in 2 phases. Phase 1 consists of a prospective, pragmatic randomized controlled trial with second-year baccalaureate nursing students at a Canadian university. Phase 2 consists of qualitative focus group interviews with a cross-section of nursing student participants.ResultsThe gamified medication administration simulator has been developed, and data collection is currently under way.ConclusionsIf the gamified electronic medication administration simulator is found to be effective, it could be used to support other health professional simulated education and scaled more widely in nursing education programs.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03219151; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT03219151 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6yjBROoDt)Registered Report IdentifierRR1-10.2196/9601

Dynamic SQL Knowledge As A Mechanism For Increasing Individual Absorptive Capacity

Technology continues to evolve rapidly, and organizations need to constantly evolve to keep up with the latest innovations in hardware, software, and processes to strategically select and manage technology. Underlying these firm capabilities are the employees that monitor, plan, and implement technology improvements, thereby it is critical that organizations have employees that can contribute to firm absorptive capacity and who can strategically take advantage of technology innovations. In this theoretical paper, we examine what type of curriculum MIS undergraduate programs might implement to prepare students for careers in the dynamically evolving realm of technology-infused organizations. We posit that students need to go beyond the adage of “learning how to learn”, but instead need to have the skills and the mindset to compete in a technology-enabled environment. Specifically, we examine a learning module on Dynamic SQL delivered in an advanced database course, and analyze why introducing a rigorous and complex learning module can develop and expand students’ absorptive capacity resulting in a competitive advantage when entering the workforce.

Effective Communication among Globally Distributed Software Development Teams

Global software development, an emerging software development methodology within a technology-enabled environment has recently received increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Despite the fact that the lack of effective communication is a major challenge of globally distributed teams, communication research related to the scale development is still very limited in existing literature. Considering the communication challenges and increasing need to measure the effectiveness of communication, this research is focused to develop a scale for “Effective Communication” for globally distributed software development teams. Systematic literature review is performed to identify the best practices of effective communication for the development of “Effective Communication” scale. A questionnaire survey consisting of 29 items is administered in globally distributed software development teams. Confirmatory factor analysis and statistical results depicted that the four-factor model (e.g. stakeholders' involvement, acculturation, usage of appropriate tools and technology, and information availability) is more parsimonious and an optimal model fit.

Effective Communication among Globally Distributed Software Development Teams

Global software development, an emerging software development methodology within a technology-enabled environment has recently received increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Despite ...

A Synthesis of New Perspectives on Virtual HRD

The Problem A number of new perspectives of virtual human resource development (VHRD) have been provided in this issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources ( ADHR) that warrant further discussion. As VHRD is still a nascent area of inquiry in HRD, professionals need more explanatory examples and solutions to consider for determining their own role in working with people and technology. The Solution This article offers a synthesis of key constructs of VHRD from the articles in this special issue. Also, it provides a discussion around two different modes of technology development (TD) needed by HRD professionals in the contemporary technology-enabled environment afforded by VHRD. And, the integration of TD in addition to career development, training and development, and organization development is essential to the future of HRD and is discussed herein. The Stakeholders This article targets primarily practitioners interested in VHRD interventions and processes. It encourages the reader to examine the commonalities across the articles in this issue of ADHR and also to consider the new skills required for HRD professionals when seeking to align organizational mission with all levels of the organization.

Co-destruction of value in context: Cases from retail banking

Given recent changes to financial services market structures and behaviour in the developed economies of Western Europe and North America, there has been a significant change of focus away from the needs of the bank customer to the needs of banking providers themselves. This shift in focus has been largely driven by the financial crisis and resulting market consolidation. Compounding this lack of a customer focus is the increasing emphasis within retail banks towards service automation and the ongoing de-personalisation of the bank-customer encounter.However, the specific examination of the roles to be played by staff and customers in an increasingly remote and technology-enabled environment is important, as are the issues of what represents the appropriate delivery balance between face to face and remote interaction platforms and how might this vary by customer and level of product complexity (Durkin, 2004, 2007). Implicit in understanding such issues is an appreciation of where staff

Assisted-living spaces for end-users with complex needs: A proposed implementation and delivery model

An assisted living space (ALS) is a technology-enabled environment designed to allow people with complex health or social care needs to remain, and live independently, in their own home for longer. However, many challenges remain in order to deliver usable systems acceptable to a diverse range of stakeholders, including end-users, and their families and carers, as well as health and social care services. ALSs need to support activities of daily-living while allowing end-users to maintain important social connections. They must be dynamic, flexible and adaptable living environments. In this article, we provide an overview of the technological landscape of assisted-living technology (ALT) and recent policies to promote an increased adoption of ALT in Scotland. We discuss our experiences in implementing technology-supported ALSs and emphasise key lessons. Finally, we propose an iterative and pragmatic user-centred implementation model for delivering ALSs in complex-needs scenarios. This empirical model is derived from our past ALS implementations. The proposed model allows project stakeholders to identify requirements, allocate tasks and responsibilities, and identify appropriate technological solutions for the delivery of functional ALS systems. The model is generic and makes no assumptions on needs or technology solutions, nor on the technical knowledge, skills and experience of the stakeholders involved in the ALS design process.

Data Governance and Stewardship: Designing Data Stewardship Entities and Advancing Data Access

U.S. health policy is engaged in a struggle over access to health information, in particular, the conditions under which information should be accessible for research when appropriate privacy protections and security safeguards are in place. The expanded use of health information-an inevitable step in an information age-is widely considered be essential to health system reform. Models exist for the creation of data-sharing arrangements that promote proper use of information in a safe and secure environment and with attention to ethical standards. Data stewardship is a concept with deep roots in the science and practice of data collection, sharing, and analysis. Reflecting the values of fair information practice, data stewardship denotes an approach to the management of data, particularly data that can identify individuals. The concept of a data steward is intended to convey a fiduciary (or trust) level of responsibility toward the data. Data governance is the process by which responsibilities of stewardship are conceptualized and carried out. As the concept of health information data stewardship advances in a technology-enabled environment, the question is whether legal barriers to data access and use will begin to give way. One possible answer may lie in defining the public interest in certain data uses, tying provider participation in federal health programs to the release of all-payer data to recognized data stewardship entities for aggregation and management, and enabling such entities to foster and enable the creation of knowledge through research.