Scientists are required to disseminate the results of research to the society and companies participating in research projects. The dissemination procedure normally consists of seminars, scientific and layman journal contributions, and conferences that generally are not flexible and timely enought to capture industrial needs. In an effort to accelerate knowledge transfer and technology implementation to sustain and improve competitiveness, Jönköping University has developed a one-year online master programme in cast metals and processes in collaboration with the industry. The collaboration includes development of the curriculum, case studies, lectures and study visits. To explore the development process, we performed interviews and a survey with participating students/professionals, teachers and industrial partners. Our results show that a profound two-way knowledge transfer took place, and that course content and teaching were highly relevant to the industry. Furthermore, industry and academia engaged in new joint research collaborations. Consequently, we hypothesize that the procedure for structured knowledge transfer can be implemented in materials education at advanced level to foster engagement between university, industry and society.
Engineering education are characterized by laboratories, mathematical foundations and design tools. These pillars of engineering education do not seem to be ideal for online education as the field lags behind other fields in adopting online education. Laboratories are for instance hard to implement online due to the need of direct operation of instruments. Likewise, course materials requiring use of mathematics have traditionally not been as easy to implement as topics that require only text-based instructions (Bourne et al., 2005). Real laboratory sessions have also shown to be more motivated for engineering students than virtual simulations (Stefanovic, 2013). In spite of this, there are increasing evidence of use of blended and online learning in engineering education. For example, online self-study environment to supplement the classroom instruction in engineering courses in graphical communication (Sun et al., 2014), virtual laboratories and simulation environments (Balamuraithara & Woods, 2007; Bourne et al., 2005) and online platforms for developing learning networks for global engineering (Meikleham et al. 2015). The School of Engineering at Jönköping University, the Swedish foundry association, the research institute Swerea/SWECAST and twelve foundry industries cooperate to develop a blended learning one-year master program in product development in materials and manufacturing. As previously performed courses have been given on campus, teachers needed to take on new roles as blended learning teachers. In this paper, we present the initial results from a study that aims to investigate the perceived roles of university teachers in a blended learning materials engineering master program.
BACKGROUND: In recent years, the interest of performing research about and providing e-services for individuals with disabilities has grown significantly. However, there is a knowledge gap in the existing literature on how to stimulate the pre-requisites needed for a sustainable implementation of e-services.
AIM AND METHOD: The study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by performing semi-structured email interviews with twelve project coordinators from the EU programmes of FP6-IST and FP7-ICT.
RESULTS: The findings showed that knowledge-based and financially based resources, the complexity of the project context, ethical issues and the structural responsibility of the implementation process were key issues in creating a sustainable implementation. Furthermore, users often were not able to perceive added value from the e-services as they seldom were developed beyond prototypes within the research project.
CONCLUSION: The implementation of e-services and/or ICT based applications for individuals with disabilities face similar challenges to the challenges that have been identified when implementing IT-based innovations. Further studies should focus on how users can be involved in the choice and development of e-services they understand as effective, and how to ensure that the implementation strategy will contribute to long-term social inclusion, that is, sustainability.
Electronic medical records (EMR) have been implemented in developed countries since 1972 when the first computer-stored medical record at Wishard Memorial Hospital was designed. However, less seem to be known about EMRs in an African context. The purpose of this paper is therefore to review studies on EMRs implemented in sub-Saharan Africa and to identify benefits and challenges met. Articles available in PubMed, PMC, Scopus, JAMIA and Google were searched through JIBS online library using the search string "EMR systems in Sub-Saharan Africa". In most the papers, EMRs have been implemented in HIV/AIDS settings allowing better monitoring of patients under antiretroviral therapy (ART). EMR systems have also succeeded to increase the number of patients under ART. Moreover, EMRs have improved work processes as they have reduced patients waiting time and enhanced monitoring of medical appointments. However, EMRs have suffered lack of electricity, poor Internet connectivity and computer illiteracy. Today, HIV/AIDS care providers have benefited on the implementation of EMRs and there is a possibility to extend the implementation to other healthcare departments.
Objectives: To discuss how current research in the area of smart homes and ambient assisted living will be influenced by the use of big data. Methods: A scoping review of literature published in scientific journals and conference proceedings was performed, focusing on smart homes, ambient assisted living and big data over the years 2011-2014. Results: The health and social care market has lagged behind other markets when it comes to the introduction of innovative IT solutions and the market faces a number of challenges as the use of big data will increase. First, there is a need for a sustainable and trustful information chain where the needed information can be transferred from all producers to all consumers in a structured way. Second, there is a need for big data strategies and policies to manage the new situation where information is handled and transferred independently of the place of the expertise. Finally, there is a possibility to develop new and innovative business models for a market that supports cloud computing, social media, crowdsourcing etc. Conclusions: The interdisciplinary area of big data, smart homes and ambient assisted living is no longer only of interest for IT developers, it is also of interest for decision makers as customers make more informed choices among today's services. In the future it will be of importance to make information usable for managers and improve decision making, tailor smart home services based on big data, develop new business models, increase competition and identify policies to ensure privacy, security and liability.
Access to digital information and communication has an increasing importance in both the work of healthcare professionals and in patients’ everyday life and has transformed what we do and how we carry out activities. It changes the way in which healthcare is delivered, how information is exchanged within and between organizations and how patients and other actors access and manage information. Currently, innovation is imperative in the healthcare sector and today there is a focus on how different eHealth services can improve healthcare. With increased access to various eHealth services, there is a need to know more about the impact of eHealth innovations on healthcare.
The aim of this thesis is to acquire more knowledge about eHealth innovations in healthcare. The focus is on prerequisites to realize innovative eHealth services and eHealth services that provide patients with access to health information. The theoretical background addresses innovation, services and business models. This thesis is a compilatory work and includes five qualitative research papers. The first study is an interview study, the second is a literature review and the remaining three are case studies. The data collection consisted of interviews, surveys, workshops and secondary data collected from documents. The interview study and the case studies were performed in the Swedish eHealth setting.
The research contributes to our understanding of eHealth innovations with insights on prerequisites to realize eHealth innovations and knowledge on patient accessible information. The first study provides a classification of prerequisites that need to be considered to realize innovative eHealth services. When dealing with eHealth services, organizational and sematic interoperability are still a challenge, and they transcend organizational boundaries. This thesis provides knowledge on the recent trend of opening up electronic health records to patients. The knowledge derived from the studies on patient accessible electronic health records show that there is a discrepancy between the perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals. The thesis concludes that patients feel more involved and that the patient-professional relationship improves with patient access to electronic health records, whereas healthcare professionals have concerns about how patients will manage access to health information. This thesis also provides empirical insights on how business models can be represented in a public eHealth setting. By viewing public eHealth services as social innovations, the thesis contributes to the research on business models in a public healthcare setting by incorporating societal value into the representation of the business model.
The research in this thesis contributes to research in health informatics by discussing issues related to eHealth innovations and patient accessible information. Its practical importance lies in identifying issues that are important when discussing eHealth initiatives and the implications of giving patients online access to their electronic health record.
To analyse the impact of implementation and use of eHealth services is fraught with difficulty, and there is often a gap between expected and identified outcomes. In this paper, we identify innovation effects of an eHealth service by applying a framework that focusses on the expected coherent impacts of implementing an IT innovation and contributes to the body of knowledge on tracking innovation effects of services in eHealth. A case study examines four different care units in a government-funded health-care setting. The results show that the effects in the first two contexts of the framework, the micro level and intra-/interorganisational level, could be clearly identified with regard to the physicians and the organisation. However, effects were lacking in the virtual context when looking beyond the involvement of the stakeholders in the eHealth service. The connections between effects for societal groups and larger societal systems simply could not be made in a satisfactory manner.
Several countries develop strategies and policies to foster the use of eHealth services and stress the importance of business models to develop and implement digital services. Previous research on business models has however mostly focused on the private setting or a healthcare setting with multi-payer or market-based financial systems. In this paper, we explore the use of business models in eHealth as well as the consistency of such a model in a public healthcare setting. The study is performed through a case study of an eHealth service and to which we apply a business model framework. Data have been collected through interviews, documents and project meetings. The results show that all parts of the business model could be identified and provide an overview of the service but no clear guidance on how to reach a sustainable value in the future. It seems that, in the case of public healthcare, there is a need to add the notion of a societal value as well as issues related to future governance for the diffusion of the service to make the business model and the service sustainable.
Innovation in healthcare can be associated with social innovation and the mission to contribute to a shared value that benefits not only individuals or organizations but the society as a whole. In this paper, we present the prerequisites of stimulating a market for social innovations by studying the introduction of a national health account. The results show that there is a need to clarify if a national health account should be viewed as a public good or not, to clarify the financial responsibilities of different actors, to establish clear guidelines and to develop regulations concerning price, quality and certification of actors. The ambition to stimulate the market through a national health account is a promising start. However, the challenges have to be confronted in order for public and private actors to collaborate and build a market for social innovations such as a national health account.
Background: In spite of an increased interest in open innovation and strategies that call for an increased collaboration between different healthcare actors, there is a lack of open innovation research in public contexts.
Objective: This article presents the results of a review regarding the healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation as well as constraining factors and positive outcomes of open innovation in healthcare.
Method: The literature search focused on papers published in English between 2003 and 2014. Based on specified inclusion criteria, 18 articles were included.
Results: Results reveal that most studies focus on inbound open innovation where external knowledge is integrated with the internal knowledge base at an initial phase of the innovation process. Innovation primarily results in products and services through innovation networks. We also identified constraining factors for open innovation in healthcare, including the complex organizations of healthcare, the need to establish routines for capturing knowledge from patients and clinicians, regulations and healthcare data laws as well as the positive outcome patient empowerment.
Conclusion: The healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation is limited, and it is necessary to perform further research with a focus on how open innovation can be managed in healthcare.
Many eHealth initiatives are never implemented or merely endas pilot projects. Previous studies report that organizational,technical and human issues need to be properly taken into considerationif such initiatives are to be successful. The aim of thispaper is to explore whether previously identified challengeswithin the area have remained in the Swedish eHealth settingor whether they have changed. After interviewing experts ineHealth, we present a classification of areas of concern. Recurrenceof previously identified challenges was found, but alsonew issues were identified. The results of the study indicate thatthere is a need to consider organisational and semantic issueson both national and international levels. Legal and technicalchallenges still exist but it seems even more important tosupport eHealth initiatives financially, increase practitioners’knowledge in health informatics and manage new expectationsfrom patients.
In this study, we explore how healthcare professionals in primary care and outpatient clinics perceive the outcomes of giving patients online access to their electronic health records. The study was carried out as a case study and included a workshop, six interviews and a survey that was answered by 146 healthcare professionals. The results indicate that professionals working in primary care perceive that an increase in information-sharing with patients can increase adherence, clarify important information to the patient and allow the patient to quality-control documented information. Professionals at outpatient clinics seem less convinced about the benefits of patient accessible electronic health records and have concerns about how patients manage the information that they are given access to. However, the patient accessible electronic health record has not led to a change in documentation procedures among the majority of the professionals. While the findings can be connected to the context of outpatient clinics and primary care units, other contextual factors might influence the results and more in-depth studies are therefore needed to clarify the concerns.
With an ageing population and limited resources, ICT is often mentioned as a solution to support elderly people in maintaining an independent and healthy lifestyle. In this paper, we describe how ICT can support access to information and rationalization of work processes in a home care context. We do this by modelling the workflow and identifying the possible impact of ICT. The results show a complex process and indicate that the available resources are not used in the best possible way. The introduction of ICT could increase patient safety by reducing the risk of misplacing information about the care recipients and at the same time provide real time information about the care recipients’ needs and health at the point of care. However, to rationalize the work processes there is a need to combine ICT with a changed procedure for handling keys.
With increased patient access to data, healthcare services are experiencing change where patients are moving away from being mere passive actors towards becoming more active and involved participants. In this paper, we explore the role of patient accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) with respect to this increase in patient involvement. The study was performed as a case study and included nine interviews with patients and a survey that was responded to by 56 patients. Our results show that PAEHRs have a role in the enhancement of patient involvement because PAEHRs (i) foster a more balanced relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and (ii) increase access to information.
The more widespread implementation of electronic health records has led to new ways of providing access to healthcare information, allowing patients to view their medical notes, test results, medicines and so on. In this article, we explore how patients perceive the possibility to access their electronic health record online and whether this influences patient involvement. The study includes interviews with nine patients and a survey answered by 56 patients. Our results show that patients perceive healthcare information to be more accessible and that electronic health record accessibility improves recall, understanding and patient involvement. However, to achieve the goal of involving patients as active decision-makers in their own treatment, electronic health records need to be fully available and test results, referrals and information on drug interactions need to be offered. As patient access to electronic health records spreads, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of how documentation practices can be changed to serve healthcare professionals and patients.