International Journal of Electronic Healthcare

Technology is major stimulus for change and is imbibed in various forms; especially in the field of medical devices and bio-medical instruments used in life and death situations. Cardiotocograph (CTG), a foetal heart rate and uterine contraction monitoring and measurement machine, is a valuable tool in the process of childbirth. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an engineering technique with the number one priority being to satisfy the customer. The aim of using QFD in this paper is to highlight the limitations and complexities of the present instrument...

Mobile health (m-health) comprises the concept of utilising mobile devices to carry out the task of viewing electronic medical records, reserving medical appointments with a patient's medical provider and electronically refilling prescriptions. This paper aims at developing a m-health system to improve usability from a user's perspective. Specifically, it first developed a m-health model by logically linking characteristics of the m-health system together based on information flows. Then, the system requirements were collected by using a developed questionnaire...

Continuous foetal monitoring of physiological signals is of particular importance for early detection of complexities related to the foetus or the mother's health. The available conventional methods of monitoring mostly perform off-line analysis and restrict the mobility of subjects within a hospital or a room. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop a foetal e-health monitoring system using mobile phones and wireless sensors for providing advanced healthcare services in the home environment. The system is tested by recording the real-time Foetal Phonocardiography (fPCG) signals from 15 subjects with different gestational periods...

This study examines internet-based interventions as a solution to improve mental health services for traumatised individuals in People's Republic of China (PR China). By reviewing the literature, the authors first summarise primary barriers to Chinese people's mental health help-seeking. Next, based on a research model, the authors discuss how the internet has been used to overcome these barriers and then introduce the current state of internet-based interventions. Finally, the authors conclude the necessity and feasibility of internet-based intervention applications in PR China, give implications for mental health services and discuss some limitations...

The introduction of the US government's Meaningful Use criteria carries with it many implications including the training curriculum of healthcare personnel. This study examines 108 health informatics degree programmes across the USA. First, the courses offered are identified and classified into generic classes. Next, these generic groupings are mapped to two important frameworks: the Learning to Manage Health Information (LMHI) academic framework; and the Meaningful Use criteria policy framework. Results suggest that while current curricula seemed acceptable in addressing Meaningful Use Stage 1 objective, there was insufficient evidence that these curricula could support Meaningful Use Stage 2 and Stage 3...

The utilisation of IS/IT could offer a substantial competitive advantage to healthcare service providers through the realisation of improved clinical, financial, and administrative outcomes. In this study, 42 journal articles were reviewed and summarised with respect to identified benefits and challenges of the development and implementation of electronic medical records, tele-health, and electronic appointment reminders. Results of this study help pave the knowledge foundation for management of the behavioural healthcare to learn how to apply state-of-the-art information technology to offer higher quality, clinically proven effective services at lower costs than those of their competitors...

This paper aims at developing electronic business solutions to increase value for the home medical equipment industry. First, an electronic strategic value chain model was developed for the home medical equipment industry. Second, electronic business solutions were mapped from this model. Third, the top 20 dominant companies in the home medical equipment industry were investigated to see the current adoption patterns of these electronic business solutions. The solutions will be beneficial to decision-makers in the information technology adoptions in the home medical equipment industry to increase the business values...

A general overview of various blood products operational effectiveness and related strategies that can be utilised by service providers (in particular, healthcare providers) is presented in the present study. In terms of the massive volumes of blood products, the North American blood centres collect more than eight million units of whole blood, which represents appropriately 50% of the US and Quebec, Canada?s volunteer donor blood supply. A case study of the quality inspection and inventory control concerns of the Central Blood Bank, located in the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh, PA, is presented...

Several researchers share the concern of healthcare information systems failing to support communication and collaboration in clinical practices. The objective of this paper is to investigate the current state of computer-supported patient information exchange and associated communication between clinicians. We report findings from a national survey on Finnish physicians? experiences with their currently used clinical information systems with regard to patient information documentation, retrieval, management and exchange-related tasks...

Electronic platforms for patient?healthcare provider communication are instrumental for enabling a new, more active patient role supporting efficient and effective healthcare delivery. However, benefit realisation from implementing such communication platforms comes after they get established as parts of healthcare information infrastructures. In this paper, drawing from information infrastructure theory, we analyse the process of establishing a durable solution and identify the socio-technical challenges it entails...

Patient nonadherence is a growing and costly problem in the healthcare system, especially for patients with chronic illness. Between 25% and 40% of patients are nonadherent to treatment, and estimated costs directly associated with patient nonadherence in the US healthcare system are $290 billion a year. Nonadherence to preventive and treatment regimens is correlated to negative consequences for patients; however, many barriers to the promotion of successful adherence remain. Some such barriers include financial constraints, physical disability, side effects, forgetfulness, age and complex multi-drug regimens...

Virtual healthcare communities aim to bring together healthcare professionals and patients, improve the quality of healthcare services and assist healthcare professionals and researchers in their everyday activities. In a secure and reliable environment, patients share their medical data with doctors, expect confidentiality and demand reliable medical consultation. Apart from a concrete policy framework, several ethical, legal and technical issues must be considered in order to build a trustful community. This research emphasises on security issues, which can arise inside a virtual healthcare community and relate to the communication and storage of data...

Correcting problems in healthcare delivery has become a top priority in the USA due to skyrocketing insurance costs and fast growth in national healthcare spending. This paper is aimed at examining how Health Information Technology (HIT) could be used to help the USA move towards efficient, safe, and meaningful healthcare. Our study is focused on healthcare needs in three areas: documentation, standardisation, and design and implementation. Urgent research issues in each area are presented. Our findings maintain that unique needs in the diverse healthcare environments must be incorporated into the convergent HIT system...

Patient-centred healthcare subscribes to the belief that the patient has strengths, values and experiences that are important in the healthcare experience and relationship between those providing care and the patient. It requires patients to have the ability to obtain and understand health information, and make appropriate health decisions. The main problem here is that though the e-health applications provide patients and consumer with access to health information, each application is still individually used and the used and produced information remains within each system...

The objective of this study was to examine the relative efficacy of two different methodologies for auditing self-funded medical claim expenses: 100-percent-of-claims auditing versus random-sampling auditing. Multiple data sets of claim errors or 'exceptions' from two Fortune-100 corporations were analysed and compared to 100 simulated audits of 300- and 400-claim random samples. Random-sample simulations failed to identify a significant number and amount of the errors that ranged from $200,000 to $750,000...

E-prescribing may help reduce medical errors. Study objectives were to determine use, perceptions, and a model of adoption regarding e-prescribing. A questionnaire was developed and sent to pharmacists in Puerto Rico. Multiple regression analyses were used to test a model of influences on adoption. 438 pharmacists responded. The overall adoption model was significant. Perceived advantages had a positive influence on adoption. Pharmacist groups demonstrating higher adoption included: male > female, chain > independent, younger > older (all p < 0...

There are many studies that have tried to evaluate some of the determining factors in smoking cessation, but with limited success. In particular, the present study deals with these concerns within the context of the current global recession and the roles of technology and social networking as moderating variables in the examination of smoking working professionals' relationships between people's background experiences with smoking, their self-reported perceptions about health, economic, and social aspects of smoking, and their perspectives on quitting...

The field of the Laboratory Diagnostics (in vitro), a sector of the field of health services, constitutes an industrial market that includes activities of research, development, production and products distribution that are designated for laboratory use. These products are defined as techno-medical products including various categories of products such as simple medicines, advanced technological systems, etc. Despite the high performance, the enlargement and the increasing trends of the field, it is not recorded the expected progress in the methods and the ways of promotion, trading and supporting of these products in the market...

Consumer health informatics is a part of medical informatics that has as first priority to analyse the interaction between Information Technology (IT) and health consumers. Consumer health informatics applications are designed to interact directly with the customer with or without the essential presence of healthcare. This field of virtual informatics tended to be developed by people other than clinical professions. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of best practices and methods for customers' health information and to describe the best interactive visual learning tools for health education...

The aim of this study is to look into the social utility of personalised electronic health using the home-based healthcare as a case study. For this purpose research was carried out based on a review of the literature, resulting in a drawing of the following conclusions: (a) the existence of personalised electronic health, customised to the needs of every patient, has emerged as a social necessity in modern societies; (b) there are multiple applications of electronic health for the needs of society (electronic health records, electronic card, telemedicine); (c) personalised home-based electronic healthcare is socially invaluable for patients in that it ensures to all of them equal access to care in their home, for health professionals in that it improves the quality and efficacy of the healthcare they provide, for the economy since it reduces the cost of care, for society in general through guaranteeing to all optimal healthcare...