Issues in developing e-health systems: an Australian case study

Over the last few years, perceptions of the importance of eHealth have increased rapidly, together with the use of IS&T in the delivery of health and social services. Although “e” approaches to health and social services have much potential, they are not panaceas, and the use of new technologies in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of such systems cannot be considered in isolation from their wider context. eHealth systems remain complex socio-organisational systems and, as we will argue and illustrate through this case study, require that a balanced approach to feasibility and desirability analysis be taken.

The case study in this paper describes a feasibility study into the potential effectiveness of a smartdevice-based electronic data collection and payment system which was proposed for the provision of disability services. A key finding of the study was that the most significant impediment to such a system was the highly diffused, fragmented, interlocking organisational structure of the social service administration itself. Rather than raise issues specific to the implementation or diffusion of new technologies in designing e-health services, it raised issues associated with decision making and control in such an environment, and with the design of the underlying organisational system: for service provision, the level of detail required in the service data, and the locus of decision-making power among the stakeholders.

In our account we illustrate the existence of multiple, incommensurate but valid perceptions of the human service provision problem, and discuss the implications for developers or managers of information systems in the arena of e-health or governance. We examine this environment from sociological and information systems perspectives, and confirm the usefulness of socio-organisational approaches in understanding such contexts.

Developing international perspectives and prospects for architecture students

The architecture community is both challenged and rewarded by a multitude of dynamic phenomena related to professional practice of architecture in the 21 st century, not least of which are globalisation and intemationalisation. The implications for architectural education are profound and confronting, in terms of providing a relevant platform for graduates prepared for a professional climate tempered by the impacts of these phenomena, and for a sustainable professional future. Architecture
students, who pursue the challenge of working either in an office overseas or a local multinational office for professional experience and self-development, enrich the offices and the projects and open up wider opportunities for future prospects for themselves. This paper presents an initial evaluation of two educational initiatives developed and implemented at Deakin University. School of Architecture and Building, which respond to current tertiary education objectives for internationalisation in relation to increasing international experiences for students. developing international perspectives and increasing prospects for their future. The outcome of the paper is to identify common learning experiences of students which correspond to the aims of the programs and to review them against selected education and strategic policies on internationalisation. The paper also discusses how these learning experiences translate into desirable graduate attributes that might help secure the success of the profession in a global arena.

Understanding what microfinance institutions need to address to aid poverty alleviation, social inclusion and human development

Poverty, in its most basic form can be defined as a deprivation of well-being. It is an issue that has been evident in society for centuries and a concern for government policy makers and more recently for non-government organizations (NGOs). In this paper, we consider how management approaches to resolving the dilemma of poverty can be advanced by drawing on two major areas in the development arena associated with poverty, namely, ‘social exclusion’ and ‘the human development paradigm’. We put forward the argument that for groups of people where social disintegration has already occurred, only structural interventions coupled with a social development mechanism will achieve the desired effect. One method for achieving this is through the use of microfinance programs which provide a broad range of financial services to the poor and low-income households as well as to micro-enterprises. This paper contributes to both management practice and theory by developing a theoretical model that microfinance institutions need to do to aid both ‘human development’ and ‘social inclusion’ processes for the socially excluded and poor.

Strategic decision-making and emotions

Senior management decisions play a critical role not only in organizational performance but also in the competitiveness of Australia in the international arena. In this conceptual paper, I present a multi-level model of affect in strategic decision-making to understand the impact that emotions have on senior managements' decision-making processes. The aim of the model is to extent on current theory (specifically Affective Events Theory) to minimize the negative impact of emotions on decision-making to produce high quality decisions and, consequently, more effective and competitive organizations. Hypotheses, practical implications and future research opportunities are also discussed.

Roles of MFI support of ICTs to aid socio-economic development

Today there is a consensus on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development and ICTs are widely recognized as vital tools to promote various social goals. These collections of technologies ICTs have also enabled and smoothed an avenue for monumental tran formation in the process of socio-economic development in developing countries. In this paper, we discuss two major areas in the development arena associated with socio-economic development in South Asia, namely, the role of Microfinance in expansion of ICT in the region and its effects on development and poverty alleviatiori. We put forward the argument that through the intervention of microfinance, ICT can both directly and indirectly impact on growth and the way in which the adoption of ICT can be distributed to the poor.

Beyond the silo effect : the challenges of collaboration

Women entering the maternity arena in Australia and other Western regimes have suffered incidentally from what is known as the' silo effect'. This refers to a clash between the training regimes of the 'old' professionalism and the 'new' professionalism. Under the 'old' professionalism, hierarchies were erected between medicine and the so-called semi-professions such as nursing and social work (Tully and Mortlock 2004) resulting in what Degeling et al (1998; 2000) have documented as oppositional modes of decision-making, styles of working, roles and accountabilities. Within the last decade, a 'new professionalism' has emerged in many Western regimes, including Canada, NZ, the UK and The Netherlands. (Romanow Report 2002; Street, Gannon and Holt 1991; Victorian Department of Human Services, Australia 2004) depicted by a flatter more egalitarian structure of multidisciplinarity .. An example in Australia is the Future Directions in Maternity Care document released in mid 2004 by the Bracks Victorian Labor government. In Australia, the move towards the 'new professionalism' can be attributed to a confluence of macro economic factors including the swing away from hospital-based training and towards university-based training for nurses and midwives, the ripple effects of three decades of feminism, the professionalisation of midwifery, the attrition of midwives from the workforce, the rise of health consumerism from the late 1980s and the crippling costs of professional indemnity health insurance for obstetricians leading to a crisis in recruitment.

Mapping the Australian archaic: reflections on black medea

Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea is explicit about what is, and what is not, its project: the chorus implores the audience not to read the narrative of its infanticidal heroine as one that demonises black women. Instead, the play affirms that its narrative can be understood differently and in a way that has a wider social significance. Taking my cue from the claim that the story is somehow ‘about everyone,’ I would like to begin unravelling the play’s relevance to contemporary contentions of Australian and indeed ‘Unaustralian’ subjectivity, particularly in relation to the discourses that seek to construct ‘Australian’ identity through an appeal to antiquity and what I describe as ‘the archaic.’ It seems to me that Black Medea presents an opportunity for thinking about the ways in which the discourses of aboriginal and classical antiquity operate to inform contemporary, contesting definitions of Australian identity. Regardless of whether these discourses of antiquity are claimed as ‘Australian’ or abjected as Other or ‘Unaustralian’ – and they have been used in both ways – they remain, I argue, formative to current conceptions of Australian identity and are positioned in the economy of discourses that comprise that arena. As will be seen, the mixed reception or ambivalence with which these complementary discourses of antiquity are treated in Australian culture gives Black Medea the potential to be situated among them in subversive and questioning ways, and in ways that may highlight the reasons for their ambivalent status.

Graduate nurses communication with health professionals when managing patients medications

Aim and objectives. The aim was to examine how graduate nurses communicated with other health professionals about their medication management activities in the acute care context. The objectives were to determine the types of information communicated about patients' medications and the communication processes used during interactions with other nurses, doctors and pharmacists.

Background. Graduate nurses are challenged with enormous responsibilities and their competence is constantly tested in an ever-changing arena. One of their responsibilities involves communicating with other health professionals about patients' medications.

Design. A qualitative exploratory research design was used for this study.

Methods. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit information from 12 graduate nurses with university degrees employed in a metropolitan public hospital, in Melbourne, Australia. Graduate nurses were observed once for two hours and interviewed on the same day of the observation at a mutually convenient time. The purpose of these interviews was to clarify activities observed and to obtain further information.

Results. The results highlighted how work dynamics of the clinical setting had an impact on the ability of graduate nurses to communicate effectively with other nurses, doctors and pharmacists. These work dynamics included the availability of doctors and the structure of ward rounds. The results also demonstrated the value graduate nurses placed on communicating particular information such as evaluating the effect of medication changes and organizing discharge medication.

Conclusions. Graduate nurses were effective in communicating about medication management activities when they initiated or were prepared for such interactions. When graduate nurses were not prepared, such as during impromptu ward rounds, they did not participate effectively and important information was not communicated.

Relevance to clinical practice. It is important to understand how collegial communication facilitates accurate exchange of information and effective decision-making to achieve optimal health care outcomes for patients.

A cross-continental examination and comparison of descriptive criteria in marketing journals-AMJ, EJM and JM

The objective is to perform a cross-continental examination and comparison of non-traditional descriptive criteria in a selection of leading academic journals in marketing. The sample of journals is restricted to the examination and comparison of three academic journals in marketing. The journal sample consists of the Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), the European Journal of Marketing (EJM) and the Journal of Marketing (JM). Empirical research manuscripts dominate in the selected marketing journals. In addition, in the selected journals regular issues dominate in favour of special issues. The descriptive criteria examined and compared in AMJ, EJM and JM are based upon the content analysis of 811 manuscripts published during a six-year period, namely 2000-2005. Manuscripts of types other than empirical research, such as general reviews, literature reviews, conceptual papers, commentaries and book reviews are less likely to get published. Special issues or special sections are less frequent in these journals. This may lead to the situation that specialized journals in sub-areas of marketing may provide better and more comprehensive leading edge coverage and knowledge. The insights provided are in particular valuable for those scholars that do not usually get involved in academic publishing and consequently have a limited understanding and experience of the publication arena of manuscripts in leading academic journals. These insights also will be informative for more experienced academic publishers as they highlight certain characteristics of these journals that enlighten one as to the journals that one should target for publication and the difficulty, just on a numbers basis alone, of getting published in one of these three journals. The principal contribution of this research is the examination and comparison of descriptive criteria in AMJ, EJM and JM – a cross-continental sample of journals and criteria that have not been explored or reported previously in literature.

Marketing artertainment : are museums jumping on the bandwagon

The purpose of this paper is to argue that greater awareness of the traditions and innovations in marketing language, as exemplified in museum marketing, leads to enhanced ability to understand branding as a strategic tool. Successful art galleries can be thought of as branding “artertainment", actively engaged in bringing the art world and popular culture together in a competitive aesthetic arena. This paper sees branding straddling culture and linguistic criticism to look at its complex underpinnings in verbal and linguistic processes that link to larger socio-cultural issues on how brands work. It generates novel concepts and develops theory for marketers.

A proposed cyber-terroism SCADA risk framework concept for Australia

Terrorist groups are in theory currently using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to orchestrate their conventional attacks. More recently, terrorists have been developing a new form of capability within the cyber arena to coordinate cyber based attacks. This paper examines a proposed cyber-terrorism SCADA risk framework concept. The paper proposes a conceptual framework which is designed to measure and protect the threat of cyber-terrorism against SCADA systems within Australia. The findings and results of a focus group will be examined to help validate the framework concept.

Gendered (s)explorations among same-sex attracted young people in Australia

This paper seeks to import a more complex understanding of gendered subjectivity into discussions of young people and homosexuality, and is based on an Australian national survey (n=749) of same-sex attracted youth (SSAY) aged between 14 and 21. Results revealed significant gender differences with regard to patterns of sexual attraction, behaviour and identity labels among participants. For the young men in the study, there was more congruence between feelings of gender a-typicality, same-sex attractions and same-sex behaviours. Overall, young women displayed more fluidity with regard to their sexual feelings, behaviours and identities. Young women were more likely to be engaged in private explorations of lesbianism, concurrent with participation in heterosexual sex and relationships. Young women were also grappling with more limited and emotionally risky opportunities for sex with other girls who were already known to them as friends. The invisibility of lesbianism as an identity or practice led to confusion about what feelings meant for the future in the arena of lived experience. The paper concludes that more research is needed into the impact of gender on the development of young people's experiences of homosexuality, particularly the manner in which invisibility and lack of social acceptance of a full spectrum of sexual diversity may disadvantage young women's emotional health and well-being.

Undoing men's privilege and advancing gender equality in public sector institutions

Discrimination against women in public sector organisations has been the focus of considerable research in recent years. While much of this literature acknowledges the structural basis of gender inequality, strategies for change are often focused on anti-discrimination policies, equal employment opportunities and diversity management. Discriminatory behaviour is often individualised in these interventions and the larger systems of dominance and subordination are ignored. The flipside of gender discrimination, we argue, is the privileging of men. The lack of critical interrogation of men's privilege allows men to reinforce their dominance. In this paper we offer an account of gender inequalities and injustices in public sector institutions in terms of privilege. The paper draws on critical scholarship on men and masculinities and an emergent scholarship on men's involvement in the gender relations of workplaces and organisations, to offer both a general account of privilege and an application of this framework to the arena of public sector institutions and workplaces in general.

Civic responsibility among Australian adolescents: testing two competing models

The development of civic responsibilitv is considered to be an important
component of healthy adolescent development. However, the study of its
development has been relatively neglected and few studies have attempted to ground understanding of its development in a theoretical framework. The present study operationalized civic responsibility as attitudes and behaviors relating to political and community issues that are beneficial to society and compared two theoretical causal models, the social development model (SDM) and a coping-competency model for their predictive value. Gender differences were also assessed. A total of 500 subjects, drawn from a longitudinal study (the Australian Temperament Project), participated in the study, using questionnaire and interview data. Approximately 1 in 5 adolescents actively engaged in behaviors reflecting community civic responsibility and less than 1 in 10 actively participated in the political arena. However, positive levels of social awareness were evident.

An agent-based intelligent system for information gathering from world wide web environment

To use the vast amount of information efficiently and effectively from Web sites is very important for making informed decisions. There are, however, still many problems that need to be overcome in the information gathering research arena to enable the delivery of relevant information required by users. In this paper, an information gathering system is develop by means of multiple agents to solve those problems. We employed some ideas of Gaia's methodology and an open agent architecture to analyze and design the system. The system consists of a query preprocessing agent, information retrieval agent, information filtering agent, and information management agent. The filtering agent is trained with categorized documents and can provide users with the necessary information. The experimental results show that all agents in the system can work cooperatively to retrieve relevant information from the World Wide Web environment.