“Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition Workshop”

Supported by: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)

Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)

Data: 27th November

Place: UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)

Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva and Michael Hardey - Health professionals, the Internet and Internet informed patients

The practice of medicine and health care has been increasingly influence by and made use of the Internet as a source of information, communication and social interaction. This paper examines how doctors, nurses and community pharmacists use the Internet and how this shapes their interaction with patients. It is based on data from surveys of doctors, nurses and pharmacists working within the Catalan National Health Care System (CNHS) that were carried out during 2006. The consequent data provides an extensive and detailed quantitative database that is amenable to multivariate statistical analysis. This analysis is described and from it the manner in which the different health professions engage with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet is identified.  It is suggested that the Internet should now be understood as part of mundane work and that professionals have recognised that it can be an important source of information and support for patients. There appears to be a cumulative effect whereby the more engaged with ICTs practitioners become the more likely they recognise and respond to patients who want to discuss and use resources and information from the Internet.

UPDATE

Following Ismael Peña advises I have drawn new graphics that represents the relationship between people living with chronic disease and the Internet in Catalonia. It looks like the inverse care law could be also applied to these citizens.

I have started to explore and analyse the relationship between people who live with chronic disease and the Internet in Catalonia based on Internet, Health and Society. Analysis of the uses of Internet related to health in Catalonia and all the inputs gathered during my period as a visiting researcher at Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) in the Department of Sociology at University of York.

I would like to share some of the preliminary figures, it is just a working in progress to a multivariate statistical analysis.

Of course any comments or suggestions will be very welcome.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to attend the defence of Ismael Peña‘ thesis Measuring digital development for policy-making: models, stages, characteristics and causes, “which deals about the digital economy and whether governments should help in its development for it might have a positive impact on the real economy and on the society at large”.

Dissertation supervisor: Tim Kelly

Composition of the committee:

President: Tim Unwin (University of London)
Secretary: Joan Torrent Sellens (UOC)
Members: Robin Mansell (London School of Economics)
Bruno Lanvin (INSEAD)
Laura Sartori (Università di Bologna)

Substitutes:
Gustavo Cardoso (Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa)
Rosa Borge Bravo (UOC)

CONGRATULATIONS Dr. Peña-López. I’m proud to work with you in the same research group I2TIC.

I would like to disseminate a paper entitled Knowledge, networks and economic activity: an analysis of the effects of the network on the knowledge-based economy written by Joan Torrent, director of ICTs Interdisciplinary Research Group (i2TIC), brand new research group I belong to.

This paper contextualises the disruptive change of the transition to a knowledge-based economy and discusses the social sciences postulations with regards to this phenomenon. Once the general context is explained, the article focuses on the microeconomic foundations, understanding knowledge as an input and as a commodity. Finally, after discussing the microeconomics of knowledge, the paper tackles network externalities and their  impact on economic functions and market structure.

Abstract

The progressive consolidation of a knowledge-based economy has caused network effects to become a focal point of analysis into the changes in behaviour evinced by economic agents. This article analyses the changes in production and demand for knowledge commodities arising from network externalities. The analysis reveals two distinct patterns of behaviour in knowledge-based economic activity. Observable knowledge commodities are governed by the effect of direct and indirect network externalities. Also, their demand curve and business strategy depend on new-user entry (marginal value) and the relative size of the network. However, tacit knowledge commodities are governed by learning network externalities and their demand curve and business strategies are dependent on the value generated by the addition of the goods themselves to the network (intrinsic value).

This paper could help towards a better understanding of  health care systems within the network society.

I’m glad to share my slides presented on World Internet Project 2009 - Macau entitled Health and the Internet: Autonomy of the User. The presentation is based on a paper written by Rita Espanha and myself for the book “World Wide Internet. Changing Societies, Economies and Cultures” edited by Gustavo Cardoso, Angus Cheong and Jeffrey Cole.

I’m delighted with the great atmosphere of the conference due to the different research perspectives that have been presented by researchers around the world. Twitter #wip200. Finally, thanks Rita for the opportunity to work together. This presentation and the book chapter are just the begining.

I’m so excited about World Internet Project 2009 Macao (July 8 - 10) where I’m presenting a paper done with Dra. Rita Espanha entitled Health and the Internet: Autonomy of the User.

Abstract:

Information access and distribution are growing and the ways in which this information and knowledge democratisation occurs are many, scattered and diverse. Individual health, and its daily management, never involved as much information as nowadays.

The aims of this paper are: to identify and characterise the role of daily information and communication practices for health individual management in Portugal and to identify and characterise some trends on a global scale of the Internet use for health purpose.

Considering all Internet activities within WIP database 2007, cluster analysis was carried out to define an e-readiness index to the Network Society. Citizens who have more probability to be in worse health status due to their age are those who have also more probability to be less e-readiness or even dropped out of the Internet.

Parallel to the “informed patient” concept, we must consider also in our approaches the “generation divide” and the “e-readiness divide” concepts associated with health.

The World Internet Project (WIP) is a major, international, collaborative project looking at the social, political and economic impact of the Internet and other new technologies. Conceived as the study of the Internet that should have been conducted of television in its early days, the WIP believes that the Internet’s influence will ultimately be far greater than television. Whereas television has mostly been about entertainment, the Internet has the potential to transform how the world plays, works and learns… +info

I’m working on the presentation but after the meeting it will be uploaded. Finally I would like to thank Imma Tubella, Carlos Tabernero and specially Joan Torrent, colleagues from Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at Open University of Catalonia, for their support to travel to Macao.

I have finished to check the proof of my article entitled Opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 within the health care systems: an empirical exploration for Informatics for Health and Social Care (An International Journal of Informatics in Health Care).

Here goes the abstract:

The Internet has become one of the main drivers of e-health. Whilst its impact and potential is being analysed, the Web 2.0 phenomenon has reached the health field and has emerged as a buzzword that people use to describe a wide range of online activities and applications. The aims of this article are: to explore the opportunities and challenges of the Web 2.0 within the health care system and to identify the gap between the potential of these online activities and applications and the empirical data. The analysis is based on: online surveys to physicians, nurses, pharmacist and patient support groups; static web shot analysis of 1240 web pages and exploration of the most popular Web 2.0 initiatives. The empirical results contrast with the Web 2.0 trends identified. Whereas the main characteristic of the Web 2.0 is the opportunity for social interaction, the health care system at large could currently be characterised by: a lack of interactive communication technologies available on the Internet; a lack of professional production of health care information on the Internet, and a lack of interaction between these professionals and patients on the Internet. These results reveal a scenario away from 2.0 trends.

The article has been done with Miquel Angel Mayer and Joan Torrent, colleagues from Interdisciplinary Research Group on ICTs (i2TIC), and will be published on September 2009.

On 23rd June I had the pleasure to present some of the results of our research in the Brown Bag Seminar Series at Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) in the Department of Sociology at University of York where I’m as a visiting researcher.

I have to thanks all the people who were there for their questions and comments. Special thanks to Michael Hardey who helps me to improve the statistics labels. Now we have to keep working on some papers using these analysis.

From “Disconnected Citizen to “Networked Citizen”

From “Utilized ICT physicians” to “Integrated ICT Physicians”

Of course, any comment or suggestion will be very welcomed indeed

I just want to share my presentation “Healthcare system 2.0: from industrial healthcare to network healthcare”. It could be also entitled “From information to interaction, from citizen to networked citizen, from physicians to networked physicianas… Healthcare in transition to Network Society”. I have to congratulate  Kroniker, Sanidad 2.0 and Healthcare Department of Euskadi, specially Dr. Rafael Bengoa, for their wonderful job as organizers and support of the conference.

My presentation was based on a research carried out in Catalonia. Our analysis suggests a transition from industrial healthcare system to network healthcare systems with clear gaps and divides:

• From plane and low quality health web pages (more than 50% of the 1240 web pages analysed) to interactive health websites (just 5% of them)
• From excluded citizens who do not have access to ICT, do not use the Internet and do not care about them, to network citizens, who have access to many ICT devices and use the Internet to read/write, share ideas and socialize.
• From traditional physicians (70%) to network physicians (30%), who use Hospital Information System intensively, who use the Internet to spread information, to search national and international research information, to communicate with patients and healthcare professionals to sum up the Internet is embedded on their work routines as interactive space.

As you have already noticed the presentation is in Spanish. I have translated the last two slides. The first one summarizes the drivers of this transition from citizens and healthcare professionals point of view:

The second one is  a framework for policy-makers to manage this change developed by Ismal Peña, another member of Interdisciplinary Research Group on ICTs (i2TIC), based on Measuring digital development for policy-making: Models, stages, characteristics and causes. The role of the government

We have to keep working into this framework to adapt it better to healthcare system. Although I think It perfectly fixes within the healthcare system.