Suhaila Samsuri

Towards implementing a privacy policy: an observation on existing practices in hospital information system

In order to safeguard the confidentiality and sensitivity of personal health information belongs to individual, a privacy law is needed to be in place. There are numerous cases of unauthorised intrusions of personal health information occurred but no legal action can be exerted due to the absence of a privacy act in Malaysia. Therefore, a preliminary observation has been conducted to review the current privacy implementations in management of personal health information at Malaysian government hospitals. Analysis was conducted based on OECD Fair Information Practices Guideline which has been the benchmark of most of the privacy and data protection legislation in the world. Interviews were conducted with key personnel in medical informatics and legal expertise using Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) technique as guidance. The findings of the observation were then compared with the existing health information privacy acts. Then, recommendations were made to include those findings in the proposed privacy law or policy in Malaysia.

Protecting Personal Medical Information: Asian Perspectives

In order to tackle the issue of privacy concern over the personal information management system, this paper begins with the gathering of views on information privacy and how culture has influenced among several Asian countries including India, Thailand, Japan, China and Malaysia. In accordance to the culture dimension theory of Hofstede, it attempts to reveal the perception and concern of several Asian countries towards the privacy of their personal medical information. The previous studies found that Asian communities have a distinctive concept in perceiving the value of information privacy, which is completely unique from the description set by western countries. The findings are considered as valuable and usable in designing the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) system in hospital information system (HIS) with the incorporation of privacy preservation elements.

Personal medical information management: the information privacy culture of Asian countries

Asian communities have a distinctive concept in perceiving the value of information privacy, which is completely unique from the description set by western countries. This paper gathers the definition and the theory of information privacy culture. Based on the culture dimension theory of Hofstede, it attempts to reveal the perception and concern of Asian countries towards the privacy of its personal information. A survey was conducted in one of the public universities in Malaysia in order to gauge the ‘power distance’ and ‘collectivistic’ culture characteristic in the public perception towards their personal medical information privacy. The result unveils its support for both theories, despite the increasing trend in privacy appreciation among the post-graduate and professionals in Malaysia. In addition, the result also shows a notable increase in the public privacy concern especially over the management of their personal medical information (PMI) in the hospital information system (HIS). The findings should be considered as valuable in designing the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) system in HIS with the incorporation of privacy preservation elements.

Adopting a Knowledge Management Concept in Securing the Privacy of Electronic Medical Record Systems

As the enhancement of Information Technology (IT) in various management fields escalates, the realization of knowledge management (KM) concept is considered as significant. This concept can be applied in considering information privacy as a component in designing a computerized system. Consequently, this paper proposes the adoption of explicit and tacit knowledge concepts in identifying the privacy of information components in order to construct a secured electronic medical record (EMR) system. A preliminary investigation involving interviews with a selected group of hospital information system (HIS) developers has been conducted earlier on. The findings of this study revealed four important components to be factored in any privacy preservation framework for HIS. They are namely, legislation, ethical, technology and cultural. By applying the KM concept into these four components, it can further derive more systematic guidelines in order to achieve the privacy preservation of information. Nevertheless, further research must be developed as to yield a more inclusive guideline in designing an EMR system that is reliable, specifically in addressing the need of securing patient’s personal medical information privacy.

Acceptance and Use of Information and Communication Technology by Academicians: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the world scenario including business and economies. There are new opportunities and challenges for every country to produce knowledge oriented citizens. Driven by these changes, numerous higher education institutions around the world are integrating and adopting latest ICT tools to deliver quality education. However, the Effectiveness of a new technologies introduced in educational institution depends on acceptance and utilization by academicians in the academic institutions. Thus realizing the importance of ICT availability and adoption in developed countries, this research is aimed to understand and assess the ICT adoption in Pakistan. This study also focuses on fundamental literature to investigate the critical success factors and propose a model for ICT adoption by academicians of higher education institutions in Pakistan. The contribution of this research improves the quality of education system in developing countries by effectively utilizing ICT in higher education institutions.

Online Shopping Satisfaction in Malaysia: A Framework for Security, Trust and Cybercrime

Customer satisfaction plays very important role in online shopping. There is always a drought on what actually drives the customer satisfaction in online shopping. Many studies have been done to understand the customer satisfaction in online shopping, however, as of now, there is no study found that have exactly define the user satisfaction through trust and security. These are the two factors that have been identified as a major barrier in customers satisfaction in online shopping, especially in the business to consumer B2C e-commerce mode. We also consider the cybercrime as another major barrier to achieve the customer satisfaction in online shopping. Although numerous studies have been conducted which related to the area, there is no satisfactory solution for trust and security in online shopping has been attained, therefore, in order to address this issue, we proposed a research framework that emphasize on trust and security mechanisms to achieve customers satisfaction. We also show the negative impact of cybercrime on customer trust and satisfaction. In this paper we present the framework that has been designed based on five essential current issues to achieve customer satisfaction in online shopping, which directly impacted the customers trust. The essential current issues namely are financial security, personal security, system security, privacy and cybercrime.