Health Informatics Research Group
Current Research Projects
Evaluating the impacts of health information systems on healthcare service provision
Dr Lemai Nguyen, Lachlan Bakewell (Villa Maria Society)
Technology-enabled solutions such as health information systems (HIS) can be seen as a way to improve care quality, safety and process efficiency. This project evaluates the impact of a computerised nursing information system on service provision at an aged care provider in Victoria. The evaluation is conducted in two distinct areas, residential aged care and residential disability services. A survey and a series of interviews with the management, admin and care staff was conducted to yield a rich understanding of the staff perceptions about the system. The evaluation reveals the areas where a positive impact was perceived by the staff. Therefore it provides evidence for benefits of HIS for organisations in the aged care and disability services sector. In addition, the project also highlights important factors in improving the acceptance of HIS by the care staff.
Improving social connection for the elderly in communicate based cared care
Dr Lemai Nguyen, Professor Graeme Shanks (The University of Melbourne), Mr. Shaheen Evans (Villa Maria Society), and Dr. David Wilde
This project aims to identify the information and communication needs of aged persons and the experienced barriers and possible opportunities in adopting information and communication technologies. The outcomes of this study will contribute to improving aged care services through increased social connection between aged people, their families, friends, carers, local communities and society. This research is funded by Faculty of Business and Law ($14,392), Deakin University and received in-kind support (approximately $10,000) from the Villa Maria Society.
Maximising the Potential of Radio Frequency enhancements in Hospitals: a linear conduit.
Chandana Unnithan, Professor Ross Smith (RMIT), Bardo Fraunholz
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology is increasingly being trialled for process enhancements in hospitals worldwide. It is now widely accepted that this technology has the potential to enhance quality of care by improving workflows, reducing costs and time turnarounds. Research in the area has been mainly been proof of concept studies that are vendor driven and focusing on the gaps in RFID technology as it evolves. Academic research, particularly in Australia, is deficient in research that has focused on maximising the potential of this technology integration, in reshaping processes within hospitals, resulting in reduced errors, cost savings and better care to the health consumers.
This research project aims to build a process model for maximising the potential benefits of this RFID integration in Australian hospitals, by leveraging it for improved workflows, focusing on the end users in the hospital, who have been identified as pivotal in providing quality care. Specifically, the research question is: How can the potential of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology integration be maximised for enhancing processes within Australian hospitals?
The research uses the structured case methodology, to build the process model iteratively; with best practice recommendations based on insights gains from field investigations on site; theory induction and abstraction, so as to inform academia and practice. The lack of academically endorsed studies in this area, particularly in the hospitals, in the Australian context, makes this research pioneering and significant. INTEL Australia and St Vincent's & Mater Group of hospitals, Sydney, Australia supports this project.
Understanding information needs of patients and family carers in chronic care
Dr Lemai Nguyen and Professor Graeme Shanks (The University of Melbourne)
This is an on-going programme with an aim to understand information needs of patients with chronic illness and their family carers in a social context, and introducing technology-enabled solutions to address their needs.
Skyping and beyond in Senior Services
Dr Lemai Nguyen and Mr. Shaheen Evans (Villa Maria Society)
The project will implement an innovative ICT-enabled solution in residential aged care. Through implementing and evaluating technology up-take, the project will formulate a replicable service model in social connection and communication for widespread adoption.
Consumer healthcare activities in Virtual Worlds
Dr Lemai Nguyen and Chia Yao Lee
Many Internet-base applications offer health consumers with health education information, prevention and self-care instructions, tools and facilities to search for doctors and specialists, even to interact and exchange information with them, to exchange and share their information and experiences with other patients and carers. The emergence and uptake of virtual worlds, for example SecondLife, Cyworld, HiPiHi, opens up new opportunities to engage health consumers in health-related activities. This project specifically analyses a range of healthcare activities available and being explored in virtual worlds, develops taxonomy for classifying and understanding health consumer informatics applications in virtual worlds and suggests directions for research and development in this area.
Assessing the suitability of a new Online Dispute Resolution architecture for the settlement of Electronic Health Record disputes; an emotional intelligence and organisational security approach.
Associate Professor Andrew Stranieri (Project Leader) University of Ballarat, Dr. Emilia Bellucci Deakin University, Dr Sita Venkatraman University of Ballarat, Associate Professor Jemal Abawajy Deakin University
An electronic health record (EHR) is a virtual record of every health related event (e.g hospital admission, general practitioner visit, allergic reaction) experienced by an individual from in-utero to death. The establishment of an EHR is a national priority in most advanced nations because it will improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery by empowering health care professionals (HCP) with a full description of a patient's history.
Many commentators have forecast that the emergence of the EHR will bring with it disputes regarding access and use of information in a record. Some of the disputes will be serious and obvious breaches of privacy or security and require resolution by recourse to Courts. However, many disputes will not be so serious or involve jurisdictional issues that render legal action impractical. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) approaches that have emerged to help disputes between buyers and sellers in online markets,(e.g SquareTrade) and insurance claims (e.g SmartSettle; Cybersettle) are used by many millions of disputants each year.
However, identifying personal characteristics of disputants and the technico-legal organisational features that make ODR suitable for EHR disputes is as important as developing a new ODR architecture. There is some evidence that disputant's Emotional Intelligence (EI), (the ability to recognise and manage one's own emotions and read and deal effectively with other peoples' feelings) may influence the success of ODR for EHR disputes.
The suitability of ODR in general, and our new integrated ODR architecture, can be expected to influenced by technical, organisational and legal issues related to an EHR deployment in the real world.
This project aims to configure the resultant ODR approach for EHR disputes. This project will perform a qualitative case study analysis with the new ODR to determine the nature of the emotional intelligence influence on ODR for EHR disputes. This project aims to use a Delphi assessment to identify the security risks associated with an EHR in real world distributed health information systems in order to assess the suitability of the newly designed ODR system.
A Business Intelligence framework for Healthcare
Dr Yee Ling Boo
This project aims to design a Business Intelligence framework that is suitable for this domain. Therefore, further investigations on areas such as the understanding of the dynamic nature of healthcare, the types of business processes that could be involved, the possibilities of other technologies that could be integrated in the framework, etc.
Data Mining in Healthcare
Dr Yee ling Boo
Healthcare data is generated exponentially on daily basis. It is very important that we could perform exploratory and predictive analysis on these data and put them in valuable and useful knowledge for health care staffs. For instance, to better understand the patients, how could data mining be used in constructing the profiles of patients.
