Ernest Jordan

Top Management Support: Mantra or Necessity?

This research provides evidence that top management support is the most important critical success factor for project success and is not simply one of many factors. The finding is justified in the context of the project management literature and the IS factor research on project success. There are implications for practice because it appears that the conventional technical and project management advice has less impact on project success than previously thought. Boards and top managers may have to personally accept that they have more influence on whether a project succeeds or fails. 2008 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.

Information strategy: alignment with organization structure

Abstract An investigation has been carried out to examine the relationship between an organizations structure and the information systems that support its operations. Twenty-five business units in an international bank were categorized in terms of their organizational structure and information systems. Close, but not perfect, association was found between organization structure and hypothesized generic information systems characteristics.

Group Support Systems: Barriers to Adoption in a Cross-Cultural Setting

AbstractThis paper develops a model to explain how Group Support Systems (GSS) may be received in different cultural settings - national and organisational. The model is supported by the views of Information Systems professionals regarding the suitability of GSS in those different cultural settings. A detailed investigation into the suitability of adopting GSS in organisations in Hong Kong is undertaken with three cases presented here. We argue for greater sensitivity when attempts are made to transfer technology from one culture to another, as well as the need to develop indigenous solutions that do fit with cultural norms. We also believe that studies documenting the organisational use of GSS - successful and unsuccessful - are essential.

A successful practical application of Coverage with Evidence Development in Australia: Medical Services Advisory Committee interim funding and the PillCam® Capsule Endoscopy Register

BACKGROUND In August 2002, an application for the listing on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) of PillCam Capsule Endoscopy (formally M2A) as a diagnostic procedure for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) was made to the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC). As a result of this application, in May 2004 PillCam Capsule Endoscopy was approved with interim funding until April 2007. This funding was conditional on the collection of Australian data on the long-term safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of capsule endoscopy. METHODS A review was conducted of how the data were collected, the methodological difficulties associated with the collection and analysis of the data, and the outcomes of the data. RESULTS The PillCam Capsule Endoscopy Register ran from 2004 to 2007 and amassed data on 4,099 patients forming the largest database on PillCam in the world. Based on these data, in November 2007, MSAC recommended that full public funding be supported under the current MBS Item Number 11820 as capsule endoscopy is as safe as and more effective than comparable diagnostic tests. It is the preferred choice of patients and has the potential to reduce the number and cost of previous investigations. CONCLUSIONS This form of CED proved to be ideally suited to PillCam Capsule Endoscopy. The PillCam Capsule Endoscopy Register provided data that made it possible to validate assumptions used in the economic modeling in the assessment carried out for MSAC in response to the application for funding. DISCUSSION The use of interim funding requires both risk and cost sharing among the key players: industry, government, the medical profession, and the hospitals. Although the characteristics of PillCam Capsule Endoscopy proved to be suited to data collection, this may not be the case with other emerging health technologies. If interim funding coupled with data collection is to become an effective mechanism for bridging the evidence gap, work needs to be carried out by health technology assessment agencies to provide guidance on the design of registers so that they cater for the unique characteristics of individual procedures.

Review of a decision by the Medical Services Advisory Committee based on health technology assessment of an emerging technology: The case for remotely assisted radical prostatectomy

OBJECTIVES In April 1998, the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) was established by the Australian federal government. Since that time, all new medical procedures must be evaluated for safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness as a condition of the surgeon receiving public funding by means of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). Over these first 8 years, a significant number of applications for the public funding of new procedures have been given negative recommendations by the MSAC based on insufficient clinical evidence or lack of cost-effectiveness. In August 2006, after almost 2 years of processing, the MSAC made the decision to fund the new procedure, laparoscopic remotely assisted radical prostatectomy (LRARP). However, they stated that there was still uncertainty about the comparative cost-effectiveness. METHODS An observational study using provisional cost-utility data for LRARP based on a combination of costs taken from consecutive patients at the Epworth Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and utilities from the prospectively collected data on all patients undergoing surgery for prostate cancer over a 4-year period at the Vattikuti Urology Institute, Michigan, United States. RESULTS The incremental cost for LRARP compared with the open surgery alternative is A

A model for the study of user adoption behaviours of mobile commerce

2,264 or A

Understanding the continued usage of business e-learning courses in HK corporations

24,457 per quality-adjusted life-year, well below the range accepted by the Australian pharmaceutical equivalent of the MSAC (the PBAC) of A

IT contingency planning: management roles

42,000 and A

Improvisation as Strategy: Building an Information Technology Capability

76,000. This figure does not take into account additional benefits such as reduced time away from employment, reduced blood loss, reduced possibility of infection, and reduced scarring. CONCLUSIONS This case study of LRARP demonstrates that there is sufficient crude evidence to show that this new procedure is likely to be superior to the existing procedure in terms of safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. The decision to allow MBS funding was correct and will allow for the collection of additional evidence, on both economic and clinical outcomes.

Utilizing Enterprise Resource Planning in Decision-Making Processes

With strong computing power and efficient data networks, new mobile phones are sophisticated enough for smoothly surfing the internet and conducting electronic commerce as on the desktop computers, there should have significant opportunities and growth of mobile commerce. However, the user acceptance of m-commerce is below expectation (Harris et al., 2005). Researches of the user acceptance of m-commerce have proven the positive user adoption determinants based on the user acceptance models of information systems (IS), but only few explore the negative adoption factors. This paper extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model for the study of the negative emotion and behaviour that affects the user acceptance of m-commerce. The extended UTAUT model aims to help m-commerce service providers to understand both the positive and negative factors that can significantly explain user adoption intention and use behaviour so that they can adjust their strategies for providing successful m-commerce services. It also provides an extended base for further research on the user acceptance models of new IS.