by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on August 12th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
We are planning to launch again our survey to Physicians, Nurses and Pharmacists with the collaboration of their Professional Associations of Barcelona. Therefore, we are redesigning the questionnaires and checking our multivariate analysis. Following the published paper entitled “The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice”, we have send to a peer-review journal another paper focused on Nurses. Below you can find the main figures:
Table 5 revealed that cluster one (4.58%) is composed of those nurses who make greater use of ICT and the Internet for access to clinical and scientific information. The nurses within this cluster are also more likely to use ICT as a resource for publishing and international contact on national and international information. This first profile represents those nurses who place high emphasis on ICT in that it forms an integral part of their practice. This group is thus referred to as representing ‘Integrated nurses’. In other words, ICT and the Internet has become an important tool to be used in the delivery of care for the ‘integrated nurse’.
Cluster two (95.42%) is characterised by a distinctive set of features. The second profile represents those nurses who place less emphasis on ICT so that it is used to support their daily work only when required. This group are consequently labelled ‘Non-integrated nurses’.
Statistical analysis of the relationship between the two profiles (see Table 6 of the presentation) revealed that ‘Integrated nurses’ are more likely than ‘Non-integrated nurses’ to carry out research activities, to consider the Internet is ‘very useful’ to their nursing practice and to recommend that their patients use online health information. ‘Non-integrated nurses’ are more likely than ‘integrated nurses’ to be only engaged in delivering nursing care and to believe that patients use of online information will have little impact on their treatment their or understanding of their condition.
Finally, it was found that all the variables included have a significance explanatory power regarding the integration of ICT within nursing practice (see Table 7). It was observed that an ‘emphasis on international information’, performance ‘research activities’ and ‘the perception that health information available on the Internet’ was relevant to nursing played a positive and significance role in the probability of being an ‘Integrated nurse’.
Acknowledgements
The research reported is part of a broad study supported by Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia Health Department) and directed by Prof. Manuel Castells. Survey launched is a result of a collaboration between the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at Open University of Catalonia and the Nurses Association of Barcelona (Col·legi Oficial de Infermeres de Barcelona).
Lupiáñez-Villanueva, F., Hardey, M., Torrent, J., & Ficapal, P. (2010). The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice. Int J Med Inform, 79(7), 478–491.
To identify doctors’ utilization of ICT; to develop and characterise a typology of doctors’ utilization of ICT and to identify factors that can enhance or inhibit the use of these technologies within medical practice.
METHODS:
An online survey of the 16,531 members of the Physicians Association of Barcelona who had a registered email account in 2006 was carried out. Factor analysis, cluster analysis and binomial logit model were undertaken.
RESULTS:
Multivariate statistics analysis of the 2199 responses obtained revealed two profiles of adoption of ICT. The first profile (38.61% of respondents) represents those doctors who place high emphasis on ICT within their practice. This group is thus referred to as ‘integrated doctors’. The second profile (61.39% of respondents) represents those doctors who make less use of ICT so are consequently labelled ‘non-integrated doctors’. From the statistical modelling, it was observed that an emphasis on international information; emphasis on ICT for research and medical practice; emphasis on information systems to consult and prescribe; undertaking teaching/research activities; a belief that the use of the Internet improved communication with patients and practice in both public and private health organizations play a positive and significant role in the probability of being an ‘integrated doctor’.
CONCLUSIONS:
The integration of ICT within medical practice cannot be adequately understood and appreciated without examining how doctors are making use of ICT within their own practice, organizational contexts and the opportunities and constraints afforded by institutional, professional and patient expectations and demands.
Lupiáñez-Villanueva, F., Hardey, M., Torrent, J., & Ficapal, P. (2010). The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice. Int J Med Inform, 79(7), 478–491.
I also had the opportunity to tweet some of the sessions. On one hand, it was a wonderful opportunity for networking and for watching in action how policy-makers, practicioners (specially Hospital managers and IT managers) and the ICT Health industry work together. On the other hand, there was a lack of analytical/empirical presentations so it was remarked by most of the participants that more research is needed. Furthermore, there are many eHealth, mHealth, Health 2.0,…. Health has been always related to technology so probably it is time to delete all the letters and just talk about HEALTH. Nowadays, HEALTH could not be understood without Information and Communication Technologies and these technologies could not be understood without economic, organization, social and cultural changes.
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on February 2nd, 2010 | 12 Comments »
I’m delighted to present my book: Health and the Network Society published by Ariel now available at the book stores. I perfectly know that it would not become a best-seller but I hope it could contribute just a little to foster new debates and further research on ICT and Health.Health systems are embedded within technological, economic, social and cultural changes of our current social structure: the network society. This book is based on empirical research about the transition of the Catalan health system towards the network society. The results show how the interaction between the technological, economic, organizational, social and cultural dimensions are facilitating the emergence of new profiles of citizens, patients and healthcare professionals. The determinants that shape these new profiles allow us to identify the inhibitors and drivers of Industrial healthcare systems towards the Network healthcare systems.
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on November 29th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I have collected all the presentations in the same post to summarise the information. Thank you very much indeed to all the participants for these inspiring and wonderful days. I would like also to express my gratitude to Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) for its support.
Workshop: Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition 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: 26th and 27th November Place: Meeting room -1A , UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3,
08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)
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)
Digital technologies and the Internet are increasingly changing how people understand their health, how health care is organised and delivered to patients and opening up new scientific approaches and innovations. For example, health care records are being digitised and made available though various devices to users in most nations with a centralised health care system. Developments in genetics, imaging technologies, cloning and stem cell research are changing how health is understood and the treatments available to individuals. Such changes in the organisation of health and medical knowledge are increasingly engaging with the public through information that is made available on the Internet.
The Internet is now a vast repository of information about health and well-being. Supported by Web 2.0 resources, the Internet has increasingly included information about health, illness and lifestyles provided by individuals. As more of the public become connected through computers and mobile devices new opportunities are created for the publication of health information and advice. However, the diversity of health information raises questions about quality and the impact incorrect or poor information may have on individuals. There is already evidence that the doctor-patient relationship is changing in the face of developments in Information and Communications Technologies. In addition, while people are the advice people may choose to follow may not necessarily result in health behaviours. For example, men defined as obese may share information available on the Internet to remain ‘big and fat’ despite medical advice to the contrary.
The desire to provide a seamless inter-agency service built around the needs of individual people (and more broadly clients and patients of national health and welfare services) is a common aspiration in most countries with a centralised welfare system. Developments in Telecare have seen the growth of ‘smart homes’ that enable people to live safely at home through various monitoring and intervention systems. Such monitoring devices are also being used by people in pursuit of healthy bodies through exercise. The iPod or iPhone can, for example, be used to monitor running and other physical activity. These technologies raise questions to do with the privacy and ownership of information. In other words information technology has become both directly and indirectly part of everyday life for many people and those who play a part in their lives.
In this broad context, the aim of this workshop is seeking to understand how, for whom and to what extend changes in the material conditions of health information and communication is transforming the generation of medical knowledge, the conception of health and the demand and provision of healthcare delivery.
To reach this aim, the workshop is organized in discussion sessions where social researchers will present their recent research results, methodologies and experiences with enough time for rich interaction among the participants.
Michael Hardey - Consuming professions: user-review websites and health services
Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva and Michael Hardey - Health professionals, the Internet and Internet informed patients
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch
15:00 – 16:00 Conclusions of the workshop
Thanks indeed to the participants, to IN3 for the support and to Laura Vidal for her wonderful organization work. See also information available at IN3.
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
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on June 11th, 2009 | No Comments »
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:
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on April 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Most of the times when I read my RSS feeds I’m susprised by the amounts of post that are based on slogans, beliefs, wishes… but sometimes I’m surprised by the quality of some reflection. I would like to share Vince Kuraitis post entitled EHR 2.0: Thinking Outside the Cat Box. This post presents a number of innovative ways to conceptualize EHR 2.0:
* EHR as Platform + Applications
* EHR as Clinical Groupware
* EHR Integrated with PHR
* EHR as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
* EHR as a “Publish-Discover” Search Engine
* EHR + Disease Management Services = Care Coordination
* DRT-Enabled EHR
These innovative ways to conceptualize EHR 2.0 and Vince Kuraitis description perfectly fix with “A decade of ICT development in health care”. We may not forget that innovation is based on research not just in slogans, beliefs or wishes.
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on March 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »
Lately I haven’t posted because I have been developing my thesis site to spread the results of the research. The site is in Spanish and the discussion will be in Spanish too. Here goes the video of my presentation (it’s also in Spanish if somebody likes to subtitle it, will be very welcome).
I’m sorry but I do not have enough time to translate the whole document, but I have started to write some papers in English so soon I’ll be sharing some parts of them for a kind of peer review taking into account the restrictions of the Journals.
"The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission"
