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The national health information exchange (HIE) network in Israel is perhaps the world's best kept HIE secret. Few Israelis even know the network exists, yet this HIE network has broad adoption across Israel's health system, and it has facilitated many landmark studies on HIE in the biomedical literature. This case study highlights the development, implementation, and evolution of Israel's national HIE network. What began as a vision within one health maintenance organization (HMO) about 20 years ago now connects most hospitals in the country as well as many ambulatory care facilities. At its center is a focus on using a de-centralized, federated network to deliver comprehensive, virtual medical records to clinicians on demand within their electronic medical record system for use in supporting patient care. The network evolved to support COVID-19 and other national priorities. Moving forward, the Israeli national HIE network will play a critical role in supporting the nation's digital health strategy, and will focus on advanced functionalities, including common clinical terminologies and advanced analytics. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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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.
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PurposeThe paper intends to comprehend the pattern of usage of FinTech services among bank customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also examines the factors influencing the adoption of FinTech services by using the constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM) together with highlighting the issues faced in using FinTech services in Assam.Design/methodology/approachThe research is empirical in nature. Data have been collected from 1,066 prime earners of the households having a bank account.FindingsThere has been an upsurge in the use of FinTech services in the area of study. Apart from government and private service employees, businessmen, self-employed professionals, many daily-wage earners and agriculturists have also experienced an increase in their frequency of usage of FinTech services thereby making technology-based financial services an indispensable tool in enhancing access, improving inclusivity in the times of crisis and aftermath. Government support, trust, perceived usefulness (PU), attitude and social influence have a positive influence on FinTech adoption;however, perceived risks impact respondents' trust towards FinTech services thereby requiring necessary measures to evaluate organizations' preparedness to deal with cyber threats.Originality/valueThe paper provides insight into the factors impacting the adoption of FinTech services to stimulate superior connectivity infrastructure, robust security measures and maintaining financial stability with adequate supervisory and monitoring regulations to enhance trust towards FinTech services during the crisis and aftermath.
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This study examines the moderation role of innovation and infrastructure on the relationship between covid-19 crisis and healthcare performance in Jordan. The methodology of this study includes a literature review to identify relevant studies and theories related to the topic and identify gaps in the existing research. Attention is paid to human behavior and personnel interaction in the hospitals that receive Covid-19 cases. The findings of this study will be used to identify areas where improvements can be made in healthcare infrastructure and innovative practices to support healthcare performance during future crises better. This paper identifies specific innovative and most effective infrastructure supporting healthcare performance during a crisis, such as telemedicine, remote monitoring, or emergency medical service (EMS) systems. Also, the paper informs policy-making by providing insights into the impact of innovative practices and infrastructure on healthcare performance and how these factors can mitigate future crises' impact on healthcare systems. The healthcare industry needs ideas and strategies as the Covid-19 pandemic grips the world. These strategies will help the industry deal with the unstable and continuously changing environment. © 2023 WITPress. All rights reserved.
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Infrastructures play a relevant role in promoting the socio-economic development of a country, region or area. In particular, transport infrastructure endowment is important for the agrifood supply chains, which have some specifics characteristics that contribute to raising the complexity of external logistics. Italy is leader in the agrifood supply chain, but the Italian transport infrastructure endowment is more backward than its main European competitors. Given the need to pursue the resilience of agrifood systems after having experienced several adverse events, such as COVID-19 pandemic or Xylella disease in the Southern Apulia region, the present study aims at estimating the impact of transport infrastructure on the agri-food firm performances. The research was carried out using a composite set of indicators for measuring the regional endowment of transport infrastructures. Results demonstrate a positive relationship between transport infrastructure and firm performance, and strong territorial differences across Italy. Based on the findings, investment in transport infrastructure needs to be sustained in order to enhance growth in many economic sectors, including the agrifood one, which is closely related to food security. Given the significant role played by transport infrastructures towards the firms' economic performance improvements and the development of regional economies, the present study could represent a useful tool for government, policymakers and managers to activate the proper drivers of transition. © 2022 The Authors.
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Stormwater harvesting via managed aquifer recharge in retrofitted infrastructure has been posited as a method for resource augmentation in Cape Town. However, the existing guidelines on stormwater retrofits are technically inclined, occidental, and generally misaligned with the realities and socio-economic contexts of developing nations like South Africa. Water and urban practitioners from developing nations cannot just 'copy and paste' existing guidelines as different socio-economic dimensions and colonial histories typically hinder 'traditional' approaches. This paper assesses how a transdisciplinary team navigated these realities in a case study of a retrofitted pond in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. A decolonial thinking framework was applied for reflection and thematic content analysis. The framework was used to unpack how the team encountered, addressed, and learned from the challenges during the retrofit process. The research team found that the retrofit process within a context of under-resourced South African communities can be viewed as developmental work with a strong emphasis on continuous community engagement. Thus, it is suggested that in the South African context, water practitioners should consider, at the fore, interaction with local communities, including awareness of racialised histories, to ensure projects are successfully implemented and completed.
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Current studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening existing social inequalities in the field of education worldwide. In this paper, we argue that the pandemic is especially challenging for students from socially disadvantaged and educationally deprived homes, as parental engagement and resources are very important in terms of guiding and supporting students' learning processes during this school closure period. To examine how well parents were able to help their children with schoolwork during the homeschooling period in Germany, we used data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, n = 3,714) collected during the first such period in May/June 2020 when students were in Grade 7. Taking known mechanisms of inequality of educational opportunity into account, we explored the effects of parents' aspirations and cultural, social, and economic capital on their ability to help their children. Our results showed that although the majority of the examined parents were able to provide good schoolwork support, as expected, we found inequalities related to social background. Parents with low education were twice as likely as highly educated parents to be unable to provide sufficient support. In our multivariate analyses, family resources had a significant positive effect on the likelihood of a parent being able to help. Moreover, regardless of the social or cultural capital endowment of the parents, good household technical equipment was associated with a higher probability of support. Thus, ensuring that students have access to technical home equipment could be a way to promote an educationally supportive learning environment across all social groups.
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PurposeTelecommuting can reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption, prevalence and a death toll of COVID-19 among employees due to less transportation and fewer physical contacts among employees, on the one hand, and efficiently develop their use of information and communications technology, on the other hand. In this regard, the present study aims to explore antecedents and consequences of telecommuting in public organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a descriptive survey method to collect data. The statistical population includes all employees of government organizations in West Azerbaijan province in 2020, which according to the collected information, their number is equal to 63,079 employees. Based on Cochran's formula, a sample size of 686 people was obtained;stratified random sampling was used to select sampling. The process of calculating the sample volume was such that after referring to the preliminary sample and processing the collected data, the variance of the given answers was approximately 0.446. After obtaining the variance of the data, assuming a maximum acceptable error of 5% and a significance level of 0.05, the Cochran's formula calculated the sample size to be 686 people. In order to collect and measure data for the study, a standard questionnaire and the collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsFindings indicate that there is no meaningful relationship between the employees' physical job conditions or the quality of their life with telecommuting and that telecommuting does not have a significant effect on their life. However, job burnout, training and telecommuting experience have a significant positive effect on telecommuting, which in turn has a positive and significant effect on job security, job flexibility, organizational performance and overall productivity of employees.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is a cross-sectional study, and its data have been collected in a certain period of time, while longitudinal research can provide a richer result. Future research can benefit from the impact of employee isolation and telecommuter organizational commitment.Originality/valueThis study hopes to contribute to the increase of the scientific knowledge in the telecommuting field and to allow organizations to rethink the telecommuting strategies to optimize resources and costs and to improve the organization's productivity without harming the quality of life and well-being of their workers.
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Outdoor food markets represent important locations where foodborne illnesses and other infectious diseases can spread. Countries in Africa face particular challenges given the importance of these markets in food supply and low rates of access to safely managed water and sanitation. We undertook a scoping review of evidence related to disease transmission in food markets in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and identified 46 papers for data extraction and synthesis. Vendor behaviour or awareness was reported in the majority of papers and about half reported on market infrastructure. Fewer studies have been reported on regulatory environments or food contamination. Studies on water supply, sanitation and handwashing facilities focused on the presence of services and did not evaluate quality, thus conclusions cannot be drawn on service adequacy. Studies of vendor behaviour were primarily based on self-reporting and subject to bias. Most studies reported high levels of vendor awareness of the need for hygiene, but where observations were also conducted, these showed lower levels of behaviours in practice. Our findings suggest that there are limited studies on environmental hygiene in outdoor food markets and this is an area warranting further research, including into the quality of services and addressing methodological weaknesses.
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The article deals with the geospatial features of the banking infrastructure, which is a component of the financial infrastructure. Indirect financing infrastructure forms one of two groups of financial infrastructure. These patterns are characterized. The banking infrastructure is the most developed component of the financial infrastructure not only in the studied region, but also at the national and global levels. Regional factors, along with national and global trends, influence the particular development of the components of the financial network. Today, the development of the regional banking infrastructure has a great impact on the economic development of the region, as other components of the financial infrastructure are developing more slowly. Historical and geographic factors especially distinguish the Western region of Ukraine from others. The influence of historical preconditions that led to the formation of banks, which are a special type of financial and credit institutions, is assessed. This forms the basis for growth in the financial services market. Banking institutions are characterized by universality among other components of the monetary infrastructure. Banking infrastructure plays an important role in the financial sector and is pervasive in all spheres of geospace in today's globalized world. Demographic and socio-geographic factors in the regions of the Western region of Ukraine are taken into account. The impact of international experience and local government reform was assessed. The patterns of uneven development at the regional level are characterized. The unevenness of financial flows of capital and the share of investments were revealed. The impact of Covid-19 pandemic effects and quarantine restrictions on elements of the banking infrastructure has been assessed. The observation period covers 2016, 2018, and 2021. The statistics collected in 2020 are not taken into account. The main reason is that 2020 was the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and most of the departments were operating in special modes or were temporarily closed.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic in March 2020 which in effect transformed the society, economy, the politics and indeed our everyday life. Such a transformation of power geometries across all manner of spaces and their geographies disrupted the finite balance and wellbeing and continues to displace norms of equanimity, sanity, and hope amidst the catalogue of errors, blunders and inactivity. In India the first COVID-19 case was registered on January 30, 2020. The response of 29 States and 7 Union Territories of India has varied depending on their health, community, law and order and legislative infrastructure. This chapter will attempt to situate an analysis of coronavirus pandemic within the demographic transition framework of India. We examine the critical role of civil societies across the states, divergence of policies and practices relating to social distancing, contact tracing, and differential Public Health Agency infrastructures in operation across the States of India. What began as a stigma, followed by populist rhetoric quickly faded into intense struggle for survival even as oxygen, essential medicines and of course hospital beds became a premium in the most affluent parts of any given city. The grim reaper became a great leveller cutting across socially constructed boundaries of class, gender, age, caste and religion. The management of this pandemic and the established protocols for treatment remain tentative even as we learn lessons from yet another mutant strain. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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In Brazil, the Covid-19 pandemic spread across an extremely unequal and exclusory territory, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations. In order to identify how living and habitability conditions and their overlap with gender, race, and class affect the impact of Covid-19 on certain social groups, the "Ação Covid-19” research group developed the Covid-19 Protection Index (CPI) as an alternative to the Human Development Index to measure inequalities in the context of the pandemic. Our aim was to examine specific territories (states, cities, and neighborhoods) and demonstrate how the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be associated with a socially exclusory model of territorial occupation, what regions and populations would be most severely affected, and who would suffer most if measures to mitigate the spread of the pandemic were not taken (potentially increasing these populations' vulnerability). The CPI uses data from the Brazilian Institute of Geographical and Statistical Research (IBGE) to build fourteen variables classified along three dimensions: the urban surroundings of households (Urban Environment), the living standard inside households, and the human dimension. At all territorial scales, the CPI corresponded to actual Brazilian inequalities. The index was found to be negatively correlated to the number of cases and deaths at the beginning of the pandemic, giving us a good portrait of the pre-existing vulnerabilities to which populations are subject in Brazil. We also used the index as an input in a simulator developed by our research group to emulate the dynamics of the virus's spread in different neighborhoods within a city. As expected, we observed higher infection curves for low CPI territories and flatter curves for high CPI neighborhoods. Furthermore, even among lower CPI territories we found important discrepancies, as some communities were able to organize themselves to protect the community from the virus even in the absence of public intervention measures. The CPI was also juxtaposed to vaccination rates in Brazil, where we found that the vulnerabilities pointed out by the CPI were maintained, reflecting the national vaccination program's lack of prioritization of more vulnerable populations. The index was shown to be a good tool to identify vulnerable territories, and thus could be used to direct government action, pointing out those territories that should be prioritized not only in terms of the healthcare system but other interrelated matters, such as their environment, economy, demography, housing, and territorial infrastructure. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, governments established certain stringency measures, such as lockdowns and traffic light systems. However, the response to the pandemic depended on the regions' preexisting capacities and underlying conditions. This study aims to determine the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic dynamics and the underlying regional healthcare system's structure in Ecuador, using three dependent variables-the number of COVID-19 cases, the COVID-19 prevalence rate at the cantonal level, and the daily deaths resulting from COVID-19 at the provincial level-for three phases: isolation, social distancing, and contingency. Using daily COVID-19 data and cantonal (provincial) level variables, a negative binomial model and a tobit model were estimated to analyze the determinants of the number of COVID-19 cases and the prevalence rate, respectively. The results show a positive relationship between primary and secondary health centers and the number of infected people, implying that it is possible to make more diagnoses when the health infrastructure is more developed. As for COVID-19 deaths, primary health centers are associated with a low number of daily deaths whereas secondary health centers are associated with a higher number of daily deaths, implying the transfer of severe COVID-19 cases to cantons with secondary health centers. More affluent cantons had more COVID-19 cases and deaths. Stringency measures, such as the traffic light system, were effective in managing the pandemic. The geographical proximity between cantons and the nature of economic activities (essential versus non-essential) also impacted the spread of the virus.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has urged the need to set up, conduct and analyze high-quality epidemiological studies within a very short time-scale to provide timely evidence on influential factors on the pandemic, e.g. COVID-19 severity and disease course. The comprehensive research infrastructure developed to run the German National Pandemic Cohort Network within the Network University Medicine is now maintained within a generic clinical epidemiology and study platform NUKLEUS. It is operated and subsequently extended to allow efficient joint planning, execution and evaluation of clinical and clinical-epidemiological studies. We aim to provide high-quality biomedical data and biospecimens and make its results widely available to the scientific community by implementing findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability - i.e. following the FAIR guiding principles. Thus, NUKLEUS might serve as role model for FAIR and fast implementation of clinical epidemiological studies within the setting of University Medical Centers and beyond.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Medicine , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics , Universities , Epidemiologic StudiesABSTRACT
In the early months of 2020, the deadly Covid-19 disease spread rapidly around the world. In response, national and regional governments implemented a range of emergency lockdown measures, curtailing citizens' movements and greatly limiting economic activity. More recently, as restrictions begin to be loosened or lifted entirely, the use of so-called contact tracing apps has figured prominently in many jurisdictions' plans to reopen society. Critics have questioned the utility of such technologies on a number of fronts, both practical and ethical. However, little has been said about the ways in which the normative design choices of app developers, and the products that result therefrom, might contribute to ethical reflection and wider political debate. Drawing from scholarship in critical design and human-computer interaction, this paper examines the development of a QR code-based tracking app called Zwaai ('Wave' in Dutch), where its designers explicitly positioned the app as an alternative to the predominant Bluetooth and GPS-based approaches. Through analyzing these designers' choices, this paper argues that QR code infrastructures can work to surface a set of ethical-political seams, two of which are discussed here-responsibilization and networked (im)permanence-that more 'seamless' protocols like Bluetooth actively aim to bypass, and which may go otherwise unnoticed by existing ethical frameworks.