Social communication in older age: Lessons from people with aphasia

Lessons on social communication in older age are drawn from the stories and qualitative case reports of three older people who have aphasia following stroke. Descriptive accounts of participant responses to qualitative interviews and stimulated recall of natural conversations, together with information from a social network diary, provide evidence of aspects of social communication relevant to the older person with aphasia. The perspectives of individuals and common themes relating to social communication with family and friends, the experience of aphasia, and living with aphasia in older age are presented. The prominence of conversations and the role of storytelling and of humor within the daily social communication of older people are illuminated. Key words: aphasia, older people, social communication

An investigation into commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships

This paper reports an investigation into the antecedents of commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships. The authors draw the antecedents from extant literature and posit that commitment is related to trust (integrity and reliability), communication quality, conflict, and similarity (social, ethnic, and economic). It is further argued that trust mediates the effects of communication, conflict, and similarity on commitment. As an extension, the authors examine the moderating effects of normative contracts (an implicit understanding of roles and responsibilities) on the construct interrelationships. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from approximately 150 industrial marketing relationships sampled from overseas Chinese firms. The results generally support the authors' framework; however, the mediating hypotheses are not supported. There is evidence of systematic differences in the effects of the studied antecedents on commitment and trust. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis provides evidence of significant moderating effects due to contracting mode. The study provides new insights into the theory and practice of industrial marketing. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Perceptions of mental health service delivery among staff and Indigenous consumers: it's still about communication

Objective: A needs analysis was undertaken to determine the quality and effectiveness of mental health services to Indigenous consumers within a health district of Southern Queensland. The study focussed on identifying gaps in the service provision for Indigenous consumers. Tools and methodologies were developed to achieve this. Method: Data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires to the target populations: district health service staff and Indigenous consumers. Questionnaires were developed through consultation with the community and the Steering Committee in order to achieve culturally appropriate wording. Of prime importance was the adaptation of questionnaire language so it would be fully understood by Indigenous consumers. Both questionnaires were designed to provide a balanced perspective of current mental health service needs for Indigenous people within the mental health service. Results: Results suggest that existing mental health services do not adequately meet the needs of Indigenous people. Conclusions: Recommendations arising from this study indicate a need for better communication and genuine partnerships between the mental health service and Indigenous people that reflect respect of cultural heritage and recognises the importance of including Indigenous people in the design and management of mental health services. Attention to the recommendations from this study will help ensure a culturally appropriate and effective mental health service for Indigenous consumers.

Interactive health communication in preventive medicine - Internet-based strategies in teaching and research

Interactive health communication using Internet technologies is expanding the range and flexibility of intervention and teaching options available in preventive medicine and the health sciences. Advantages of interactive health communication include the enhanced convenience, novelty, and appeal of computer-mediated communication; its flexibility and interactivity; and automated processing. We outline some of these fundamental aspects of computer-mediated communication as it applies to preventive medicine. Further, a number of key pathways of information technology evolution are creating new opportunities for the delivery of professional education in preventive medicine and other health domains, as well as for delivering automated, self-instructional health behavior-change programs through the Internet. We briefly describe several of these key evolutionary pathways, We describe some examples from work we have done in Australia. These demonstrate how we have creatively responded to the challenges of these new information environments, and how they may be pursued in the education of preventive medicine and other health care practitioners and in the development and delivery of health behavior change programs through the Internet. Innovative and thoughtful applications of this new technology can increase the consistency, reliability, and quality of information delivered.

The impact of staff empowerment and communication style on customer evaluations: The special case of service failure

Empowering front-line staff to deal with service failures has been proposed as a method of recovering from service breakdown and ensuring greater customer satisfaction. However, no empirical study has investigated consumer responses to empowerment strategies. This research investigates the effect on customer satisfaction and service quality of two employee characteristics: the degree to which the employee is empowered (full, limited, and none), and the employee's communication style (accommodative - informal and personal, and underaccommodative-formal and impersonal). These employee characteristics are studied within the context of service failures. Subjects were shown videotaped service scenarios, and asked to complete satisfaction and service quality ratings. Results revealed that the fully empowered employee produced more customer satisfaction than the other conditions, but only when the service provider used an accommodating style of communication. Fully empowered and nonempowered employees were not judged differently when an underaccommodating style of communication was adopted. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Credibility and staff conduct make or break bank customer service quality

Service quality is assessed by customers along the dimensions of staff conduct, credibility, communication, and access to teller services. Credibility and staff conduct emerge as the highest loading first-order factors. This highlights the significance of rectifying mistakes while keeping customers informed, and employing branch staff that are responsive and civilized in their conduct. Discovery of a valid second-order factor, namely, overall customer service quality, underscores the importance of providing quality service across all its dimensions. For example, if the bank fails to rectify mistakes and keep customers informed but excels in all other dimensions, its overall customer service quality can still be rated poorly.

A feasibility study of email communication between the patient's family and the specialist burns team

We investigated whether the parents of burns patients could capture suitable clinical images with a digital camera and add the necessary text information to enable the paediatric burns team to provide follow-up care via email. Four families were involved in the study, each of whom sent regular email consultations for six months. The results were very encouraging. The burns team felt confident that the clinical information in 30 of the 32 email messages (94%) they received was accurate, although in I I of these 30 cases (37%) they stated that there was room for improvement (the quality was nonetheless adequate for clinical decision making). The study also showed that low-resolution images (average size 37 kByte) were satisfactory for diagnosis. Families were able to participate in the service without intensive training and support. The user survey showed that all four families found it easy and convenient to take the digital photographs and to participate in the study. The results suggest that the technique has potential as a low-cost telemedicine service in burns follow-up, and that it requires only modest investment in equipment, training and support.

Data quality initiatives - striving for continuous improvements

Although managers consider accurate, timely, and relevant information as critical to the quality of their decisions, evidence of large variations in data quality abounds. Over a period of twelve months, the action research project reported herein attempted to investigate and track data quality initiatives undertaken by the participating organisation. The investigation focused on two types of errors: transaction input errors and processing errors. Whenever the action research initiative identified non-trivial errors, the participating organisation introduced actions to correct the errors and prevent similar errors in the future. Data quality metrics were taken quarterly to measure improvements resulting from the activities undertaken during the action research project. The action research project results indicated that for a mission-critical database to ensure and maintain data quality, commitment to continuous data quality improvement is necessary. Also, communication among all stakeholders is required to ensure common understanding of data quality improvement goals. The action research project found that to further substantially improve data quality, structural changes within the organisation and to the information systems are sometimes necessary. The major goal of the action research study is to increase the level of data quality awareness within all organisations and to motivate them to examine the importance of achieving and maintaining high-quality data.

A synchronous multimedia annotation system for secure collaboratories

In this paper, we describe the Vannotea system - an application designed to enable collaborating groups to discuss and annotate collections of high quality images, video, audio or 3D objects. The system has been designed specifically to capture and share scholarly discourse and annotations about multimedia research data by teams of trusted colleagues within a research or academic environment. As such, it provides: authenticated access to a web browser search interface for discovering and retrieving media objects; a media replay window that can incorporate a variety of embedded plug-ins to render different scientific media formats; an annotation authoring, editing, searching and browsing tool; and session logging and replay capabilities. Annotations are personal remarks, interpretations, questions or references that can be attached to whole files, segments or regions. Vannotea enables annotations to be attached either synchronously (using jabber message passing and audio/video conferencing) or asynchronously and stand-alone. The annotations are stored on an Annotea server, extended for multimedia content. Their access, retrieval and re-use is controlled via Shibboleth identity management and XACML access policies.

Quality of Reporting of Observational Longitudinal Research

Observational longitudinal research is particularly useful for assessing etiology and prognosis and for providing evidence for clinical decision making. However, there are no structured reporting requirements for studies of this design to assist authors, editors, and readers. The authors developed and tested a checklist of criteria related to threats to the internal and external validity of observational longitudinal studies. The checklist criteria concerned recruitment, data collection, biases, and data analysis and descriptive issues relevant to study rationale, study population, and generalizability. Two raters independently assessed 49 randomly selected articles describing stroke research published from 1999 to 2003 in six journals: American Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Stroke, Annals of Neurology, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. On average, 17 of the 33 checklist criteria were reported. Criteria describing the study design were better reported than those related to internal validity. No relation was found between study type (etiologic or prognostic) or word count and quality of reporting. A flow diagram for summarizing participant flow through a study was developed. Editors and authors should consider using a checklist and flow diagram when reporting on observational longitudinal research.