Authors:
Kon Shing Kenneth Chung
and
Liaquat Hossain
Affiliation:
School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney, Australia
Keyword(s):
ICT use, social network structure, individual performance, process of care, general practitioners.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Coordination in Multi-Agent Systems
;
Data Engineering
;
Databases and Information Systems Integration
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Group Decision Support Systems
;
Health Information Systems
;
Human Factors
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Knowledge Management
;
Ontologies and the Semantic Web
;
Organisational Issues on Systems Integration
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
Research in sociology of information and technology use highlight the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) for supporting networks among professional peers. This paper explores the effects of different types and patterns of ICT usage for supporting professional networks. In this study, we ask—how can different types ICT help support professional networks? What are the implications of patterns of ICT usage on supporting professional networks? Given an association between ICT types, usage, network structure for supporting professional networks, what are its implications on performance? In our study, we apply the theory of structural holes and its underlying assumptions (i.e., efficiency and effectiveness) to develop a theoretical framework and propositions for exploring interlock between types and patterns of ICT usage, network structure, and professional support networks for measuring the performance of effective clinical care. Empirical evidence from Australia
n rural general practitioners’ data show that both network structure and Internet-enabled ICT use play a crucial role when it comes to performance in the medical consultation.
(More)