Does Poor Governance Compromise Value Delivery of ICT Deployments

Organisations continue to make significant investments in enabling business via Information Technology (IT). To ensure a return on investment in IT and the relevance and value of tech deployment, there is a need for a broader accountability focus on strategic technology initiatives alongside a structured and evaluative approach to the effective governance of IT. Ongoing changes in tech development and emerging technologies have broadened the role of IT as an enabler. Moreover, businesses and communities expect to see value from tech deployment in shorter time spans. The emergence of the C forced organisations in all sectors to deploy technology to minimise contact and implement lockdown regulations. However, some organisations were challenged with a lack of preparedness of employees and infrastructure needs to cope with tech deployment in a short time. Overall, the fast-paced developments of emerging technologies alongside the pandemic signals a need for effective IT or technology deployment governance. Systems, processes, standards, and best practice frameworks have been developed to facilitate effective IT governance throughout the last decade. However, a large number of IT initiatives fail to deliver. This chapter, motivated by recent developments (including the emerging tech and COVID-19), discusses the role of effective IT governance in successful IT deployment. Overall, the systematic literature review followed by the analysis of several failed IT deployment cases studies demonstrated a strong connection between failed tech adoption projects and poor governance practices. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Introduction to health information exchange

To support health care and public health in managing the array of information available about patients and populations, health systems have adopted a variety of information and communications technologies (ICT). Examples include electronic health record systems that document patient symptoms, diseases, and medications as well as health care processes. Yet, many ICT systems operate as islands unto themselves, unable to connect or share information with other ICT systems. Such fragmentation of data and information is an impediment to achieving the goal of efficient, coordinated health care delivery. It was further a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic when information was rapidly needed yet challenging to access. Health information exchange (HIE) seeks to address the challenges of connecting disparate ICT systems, enabling information to be available when and where it is needed by clinicians, administrators, and public health authorities. This chapter robustly defines HIE, including its core components and various forms. This chapter further discusses the role of HIE in supporting care delivery and public health. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Post-pandemic pedagogy: Emergency remote teaching impact on students with functional diversity.

The Covid-19 outbreak caused transition from face-to-face teaching to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). Due to the hastily and disorganized implementation of ERT considerable difficulties were caused for all the students. Aim of the present study was to investigate (i) parents' views of students with functional diversity regarding ERT during the Covid-19 pandemic and (ii) how their children's functional diversity affected participation in ERT. ERT proved to be an even greater challenge for those students, who faced various learning, psychological and technical problems that further hindered the learning process. In the current research, the views of 12 parents of students with functional diversity were collected with semi-structured interviews. A Modern Greek dataset of qualitative humanistic-linguistic data was created. A novel type of data analysis, combining qualitative descriptive analysis by hand and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based linguistic analysis was performed on the interview text. Results revealed (i) how those students responded to ERT, (ii) the way that their functional diversity affected their attendance on the online courses and (iii) how their parents evaluate the educational dimension of ERT along with any changes noticed in their children's psychological and emotional state. Parents' evaluations disclosed the overall negative impact of ERT on their children and presented their suggestions for meeting their children's special needs in case of ERT appliance in the future. The current research is considered significant as it investigates ERT impact on K-12 students with functional diversity during the Covid-19 pandemic, based on authentic humanistic data. Our research contributes on (i) the creation of this kind of dataset, as this particular group of students is hard to come by and their collection constitutes a significant contribution and (ii) the two-fold way data analysis methodology, which is novel, combining linguistic and qualitative processes (semantic and sentiment analysis), providing important findings.

The dawn of digital public health in Europe: Implications for public health policy and practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital health technologies and the role of effective surveillance systems. While recent events have accelerated progress towards the expansion of digital public health (DPH), there remains significant untapped potential in harnessing, leveraging, and repurposing digital technologies for public health. There is a particularly growing need for comprehensive action to prepare citizens for DPH, to regulate and effectively evaluate DPH, and adopt DPH strategies as part of health policy and services to optimise health systems improvement. As representatives of the European Public Health Association's (EUPHA) Digital Health Section, we reflect on the current state of DPH, share our understanding at the European level, and determine how the application of DPH has developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also discuss the opportunities, challenges, and implications of the increasing digitalisation of public health in Europe.

Internet access and its role on educational inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates the determinants of Internet access and its effect on educational inequality in OECD countries during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. The spatial panel data model is used to include the neighborhood in the model relating to educational inequality. The findings from the study reveal that despite the increase in Internet access during the Covid-19 period, the response to the pandemic has caused education inequalities. Furthermore, economic development indicators are effective in increasing Internet access and reducing educational inequality. Finally, the study shows that, as improvements in income levels can increase Internet access, which results in a reduction in educational inequality.

The impact of COVID-19 on the hotel supply chain management

The COVID-19 virus pandemic appeared to be a low-probability, high-impact event that has caused significant disruptions in supply chains worldwide. The hotel industry has been one of the most severely affected, with all participants in the supply chain suffering from the crisis. This paper aims to analyze if, and to what extent, hotels in the Republic of Serbia have faced difficulties in supply chain management (SCM) due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, with special reference to the difficulties in introducing information and communications technologies (ICTs) for SCM. Empirical research was conducted in May, 2021 involving managers from 40 hotel companies categorised as 4- and 5–star. The study results reveal that majority of hotel companies have experienced difficulties in SCM and implementation of ICTs for SCM due to the pandemic, while the intensity of difficulties is not found to be correlated with hotel size, category and affiliation.

Tracking COVID-19 by Tracking Infectious Trajectories.

Nowadays, the coronavirus pandemic has and is still causing large numbers of deaths and infected people. Although governments all over the world have taken severe measurements to slow down the virus spreading (e.g., travel restrictions, suspending all sportive, social, and economic activities, quarantines, social distancing, etc.), a lot of persons have died and a lot more are still in danger. Indeed, a recently conducted study [1] has reported that 79% of the confirmed infections in China were caused by undocumented patients who had no symptoms. In the same context, in numerous other countries, since coronavirus takes several days before the emergence of symptoms, it has also been reported that the known number of infections is not representative of the real number of infected people (the actual number is expected to be much higher). That is to say, asymptomatic patients are the main factor behind the large quick spreading of coronavirus and are also the major reason that caused governments to lose control over this critical situation. To contribute to remedying this global pandemic, in this article, we propose an IoT investigation system that was specifically designed to spot both undocumented patients and infectious places. The goal is to help the authorities to disinfect high-contamination sites and confine persons even if they have no apparent symptoms. The proposed system also allows determining all persons who had close contact with infected or suspected patients. Consequently, rapid isolation of suspicious cases and more efficient control over any pandemic propagation can be achieved.

Cognitive Outcomes During COVID-19 Confinement Among Older People and Their Caregivers Using Technologies for Dementia: Protocol for an Observational Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to worldwide implementation of unprecedented restrictions to control its rapid spread and mitigate its impact. The Spanish government has enforced social distancing, quarantine, and home confinement measures. Such restrictions on activities of daily life and separation from loved ones may lead to social isolation and loneliness with health-related consequences among community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia and their caregivers. Additionally, inadequate access to health care and social support services may aggravate chronic conditions. Home-based technological interventions have emerged for combating social isolation and loneliness, while simultaneously preventing the risk of virus exposure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this cohort study is to explore, analyze, and determine the impact of social isolation on (1) cognition, quality of life, mood, technophilia, and perceived stress among community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia and on the caregiver burden; (2) access to and utilization of health and social care services; and (3) cognitive, social, and entertainment-related uses of information and communication technologies. METHODS: This study will be conducted in Málaga (Andalucía, Spain). In total 200 dyads, consisting of a person with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia and his/her informal caregiver, will be contacted by telephone. Potential respondents will be participants of the following clinical trials: support, monitoring, and reminder technology for mild dementia (n=100) and television-based assistive integrated service to support European adults living with mild dementia or mild cognitive impairment (n=100). RESULTS: As of May 2021, a total of 153 participants have been enrolled and assessed during COVID-19 confinement, of whom 67 have been assessed at 6 months of enrollment. Changes in the mean values of the variables will be analyzed relative to baseline findings of previous studies with those during and after confinement, using repeated-measures analysis of variance or the nonparametric Friedman test, as appropriate. The performance of multivariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to introduce potential covariates will also be considered. Values of 95% CI will be used. CONCLUSIONS: If our hypothesis is accepted, these findings will demonstrate the negative impact of social isolation owing to COVID-19 confinement on cognition, quality of life, mood, and perceived stress among community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia, the impact on technophilia, caregiver burden, the access to and utilization of health and social care services, and the cognitive, social, and entertainment-related use of information and communication technologies during and after COVID-19 confinement. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04385797; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04385797. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/26431.