Matthew W. Guah

Application service provision: a technology and working tool for healthcare organisations in the knowledge age

This papers primary purpose is to address the business issues and management concerns that arise in healthcare organisations of the knowledge age, and to explore the impact of Application Services Provision (ASP) in this vertical industry sector. It will examine the strategies that will enable healthcare organisations to better manage ASP resources, in the knowledge age, for competitive advantage. While the phenomenon of ASP is still in an embryonic stage, we draw from seminal works of IS pioneers like Markus, Porter, Checkland, Maslow and others. Their intellectual contributions, plus findings from research work at Brunel University, provide a framework for discussion. ASP delivers personal productivity software and professional support systems, assisting healthcare organisations in processing information, solving business problems, developing new products, and creating new knowledge. The need to exploit ASP capabilities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in e-business strategy is clearly defined in this paper.

Logicality of ASP in healthcare: the NHS case study

Obtaining value from information technology (IT) is important for organizations to survive and flourish in the highly competitive economy of the 21/sup st/ century. Especially when that organization is the UKs National Health Service (NHS), to whom an heavy investment - for IT improvement - of

Factors Affecting IT-Based Knowledge Management Strategy in UK Healthcare System

7 bn is being injected to cope with pressures exerted within a more demanding population with constantly evolving healthcare needs. This paper explores the emergence of primary service provision (PSP) from perspectives that span the macrolevel of national health policies, the mezzo level of local strategies and the microlevel of IT procurement. These interrelations are studied at a greater depth within case study using the NHS. PSP is used in this paper as a subset of the application provision service (ASP) business model. In healthcare, the study of technology implications cannot be removed from an understanding of the processes of conceptualising, conceiving and using such technology. The authors argue the risk of falling into the trap of technological determinism or considering the impacts as a result of rationally planned actions guiding implementation of technologies. This research has shown there are thousands of hospitals, most doing different business processes in different ways thereby presenting an impossible task of successfully implementing a complex national project consisting of electronic patient records and booking systems. This study of PSP processes does not clearly show how and by whom the meanings of PSP are created, whose interests are voiced and taken into account, what are the overriding aims expressed by ASP vendors and what ethical concerns guide these developments being spearheaded by the NHS information authority.

NHS information quality and integrity: issues arising from primary service provision

The technological development by the beginning of the 21st century is making it humanly impossible for unaided healthcare professionals to possess all the knowledge needed to deliver medical care with the efficacy and safety made possible by current scientific knowledge. Several healthcare organizations are adopting rigorous methods and technologies for KM as a potential solution to the knowledge predicament. However, awareness and understanding of such methods are not widespread with critics claiming that these technologies are not designed to be compatible with others neither are they interoperable. This paper describes an effort by the NHS for individuals, organizations and partners (commercial companies supplying services to the NHS) to demonstrate their belief in the importance of improving KM in medicine and show that this can be best achieved through collaboration and consensus. It looks at National Knowledge Service, set up to provide a range of services, through one or more open-access web sites. There is an asymmetry in most of the discussion of the field. KM, in this paper, is primarily discussed from the point of view of the user of medical knowledge. The motivation is seen to be the enhancement capabilities, and the utilization of knowledge to increase healthcare effectiveness.

Today's health care demands knowledge management strategy

Over the past few decades, the UKs National Health Service (NHS) has progressively moved away from a tethered domain thereby becoming diffused into an environment rich with remote and digital information systems components. In such an environment, the population need for healthcare information, at the point-of-care, is a prime factor in managing the NHS efficiently. However, information integrity is sometime derelict. To facilitate such tasks various strategic models have been implemented - the latest being primary service provision (PSP), a subset of the application service provision (ASP) business model. It is clear that strategic change approaches in the NHS are always going to involve internet (web services) technology, thus, there is a need to investigate certain pertinent issues regarding healthcare data quality and integrity. In this paper, the authors show how security presents serious challenges to the PSP initiative. It also explains, using the NHS case study, that the quality of health information could be affected by streamlining complex, multistage medical information processes and emphasising on cost/benefit analysis for implementation of a web services model. This paper is based mostly on secondary data from measures being taken, in this public - private collaboration initiative, involving the supporting of every aspect of patient care. The overall concern was ensuring strong attention is paid to the aspects of web services that can disengage the NHSs effort to maintain information quality and integrity, and that the traditional goal of the NHS - free for all at the point of delivery - is kept intact.

Resilience in the Gaze of Ebola: Analysis from a Developing Country

The introduction of information technology (IT) into health care organisations - over the past three decades - has posed significant challenges regularly resulting in reports of persistent underperformance and failure. At the beginning of the 21st century, technological development has made it humanly impossible for unaided healthcare professionals to possess all the knowledge needed to deliver medical care with the efficacy and safety made possible by current scientific knowledge. This paper investigates how healthcare organizations are adopting rigorous methods and technologies for knowledge management (KM) as a potential solution to the probable knowledge crisis. However, awareness and understanding of such methods are not widespread. Critics are claiming that these technologies are not designed to be compatible with others neither are they interoperable. This paper describes an effort by the National Health Service for individuals, organisations and partners (commercial companies supplying services to the NHS) to demonstrate their belief in the importance of improving KM in medicine and show that this can be best achieved through collaboration and consensus. The paper looks at National Knowledge Service which has been set up to provide a range of services to members and partners, through one or more open-access Websites

Developing a Model for Offshore Outsourcing

Many studies have looked at resilience during natural disasters and national emergencies in a number of countries but hardly any have concentrated on developing countries and the implications of these nations’ sub-standard healthcare infrastructure, culture practices and relaxed control systems. This paper examines resilience during Liberia’s recent EBOLA epidemic and identifies lessons to be learned by others including executives of Non-Governmental Organizations frequently working on disaster relief projects in developing countries. The author builds on existing bodies of work and presents arguments on why governments in developing countries dealing with disaster management and disease emergencies should encourage communities to innovate autonomously as an important pathway to resilience. While the author does not provide specific recommendations, the paper proposes an approach that can connect the concerns of those implementing resilience initiatives and vulnerable populations by harnessing their potential for innovating autonomously.