Health Information Technology Commons^™

The Role Of Technology In Online Health Communities: A Study Of Information-Seeking Behavior, Leann Boyce, Ahasan Harun, Gayle Prybutok, Victor R. Prybutok

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study significantly contributes to both theory and practice by providing valuable insights into the role and value of healthcare in the context of online health communities. This study highlights the increasing dependence of patients and their families on online sources for health information and the potential of technology to support individuals with health information needs. This study develops a theoretical framework by analyzing data from a cross-sectional survey using partial least squares structural equation modeling and multi-group and importance-performance map analysis. The findings of this study identify the most beneficial technology-related issues, like ease of site navigation and interaction …

Data Science For Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship, Saikou Jawla

Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotics are widely used to treat bacterial infections, but their misuse leads to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. Antibiotic resistance leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality. Antimicrobial stewardship is an approach to measure and improve the appropriate use of antibiotics in healthcare settings. Data science has the potential to support these programs by providing insights into antibiotic prescribing patterns, identifying areas for improvement, and predicting patient outcomes. We explored the role of data science in hospital antibiotic stewardship programs, including statistical methods …

Patient Perceptions Of Trauma-Focused Telemental Health Services Using The Telehealth Satisfaction Questionnaire (Tsq), Bianca T. Villalobos, Aubrey R. Dueweke, Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo, Regan W. Stewart

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Telehealth services can address many barriers to traditional office-based mental health services. Few studies have assessed youth and caregiver perceptions of and satisfaction with trauma-focused interventions delivered via telemental health. The current study presents data collected using the Telehealth Satisfaction Questionnaire (TSQ), which was developed to measure child and caregiver satisfaction with services, comfort with the telehealth equipment, and barriers to traditional office-based services. Thirteen clinicians delivered home- and school-based Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) via videoconferencing on tablets and computers to 60 child patients (71.7% Latinx, 18.3% Black, and 10.0% non-Hispanic White). Patients and caregivers completed the TSQ at …

Comparison Of Statistical Methods For Modeling Count Data With An Application To Length Of Hospital Stay, Gustavo A. Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a key indicator of hospital care management efficiency, cost of care, and hospital planning. Therefore, understanding hospital LOS variability is always an important healthcare focus. Hospital LOS data are count data, with discrete and nonnegative values, typically right-skewed, and often exhibiting excessive zeros. Numerous studies have been conducted to model hospital LOS to identify significant predictors contributing to its variability. Many researchers have used linear regression with or without logarithmic transformation of the outcome variable LOS, or logistic regression on a dichotomized LOS. These regression methods usually violate models’ assumptions and are subject …

Real-Time Mobile Teleophthalmology For The Detection Of Eye Disease In Minorities And Low Socioeconomics At-Risk Populations, Lama A. Al-Aswad, Cansu Yuksel Elgin, Vipul Patel, Deborah Popplewell, Kalashree Gopal, Dan Gong, Zach Thomas, Devon Joiner, Cha-Kai Chu, Gladys E. Maestre

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Purpose: To examine the benefits and feasibility of a mobile, real-time, community-based, teleophthalmology program for detecting eye diseases in the New York metro area.

Design: Single site, nonrandomized, cross-sectional, teleophthalmologic study.

Methods: Participants underwent a comprehensive evaluation in a Wi-Fi-equipped teleophthalmology mobile unit. The evaluation consisted of a basic anamnesis with a questionnaire form, brief systemic evaluations and an ophthalmologic evaluation that included visual field, intraocular pressure, pachymetry, anterior segment optical coherence tomography, posterior segment optical coherence tomography, and nonmydriatic fundus photography. The results were evaluated in real-time and follow-up calls were scheduled to complete a secondary questionnaire form. Risk …

Reporting Health Data In Waiting Rooms With Mobile Technology: Patient Expectation And Confirmation, Iris Reychav, Ankur Arora, Rajiv Sabherwal, Karina Polyak, Jun Sun, Joseph Azuri

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives: Hospitals and medical staff use digital devices such as mobile phones and tablets to treat patients. Prior research has examined patient-reported outcomes, and the use of medical devices to do diagnosis and prognosis of patients, but not whether patients like using, and intend to use in future, mobile devices to self-report medical data. We address this research gap by developing a theoretical model based on the expectancy confirmation model (ECM) and testing it in an empirical study of patients using mobile technology to self-report data.

Design: This study adopts a non-interventional cross-sectional research design. Randomly-selected patients provided data via …

Significant Stakeholders: Toward An Agile Knowledge Management System In The Time Of Coronavirus Crisis, Yaojie Li, Yi Zhou, Thomas Stafford, Xuan Wang

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effective crisis response requires sophisticated knowledge management in organizations. Agile systems development capabilities for such crisis response systems are important, particularly for purposes of tailoring a crisis-oriented knowledge management system to a rapidly shifting threat landscape. We propose an architecture for achieving both of these ends in the form of an Agile Crisis Management System involving three specific stakeholders, and we discuss the steps, outcomes, and implications of such a system.

Sustaining Patient Engagement: The Role Of Health Emotion And Personality Traits In Patient Portal Continuous Use Decision, Murad Moqbel, Mohammed Sajedur Rahman, Sunyoung Cho, Barbara Hewitt

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Healthcare providers increasingly rely on technology, such as patient portals, for asynchronous communication with their patients. Even though clinicians have increasingly adopted patient portals to enhance healthcare quality and reduce cost, few patients continue to use this technology. In this paper, we investigate the effect that individuals’ health emotion and personality traits as measured using the five-factor model (FFM) have on patients’ intention to continually use patient portals through the lens of emotional dissonance theory. We collected survey data from 187 patients at a major medical center in the Midwestern United States. After we analyzed the data using structural equation …

Can Caregivers Trust Information Technology In The Care Of Their Patients? A Systematic Review, Alice Noblin, Barbara Hewitt, Murad Moqbel, Scott Sittig, Lakesha Kinnerson, Vera Rulon

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires that healthcare providers allow patients to engage in their healthcare by allowing access to their health records. Often patients need informal caregivers including family members or others to help them with their care. This paper explores whether trust is a key factor for informal caregivers’ decision to use health information technologies (HIT) including electronic health records (EHR), patient portals, mobile apps, or other devices to care for their patient. Six reviewers conducted a comprehensive search of four literature databases using terms that pertained to a caregiver and trust to …

Assessing The Use Of Student-Developed Clerkship Guides For Improving Clerkship Expectations And Experiences: An App-Based Approach., Jose Chavez, Lauren Muenchow, Matthew Hidalgo, Jiyun Lim, Jose Campo Maldonado, Lori Berry, Michael Machiorlatti

MEDI 9331 Scholarly Activities Clinical Years

Background: The transition for medical students from pre-clinical education to the clinical learning environment introduces different expectations, methods of evaluation, and new working conditions. A mobile-friendly web application with clerkship specific information was developed to assess whether clinical preparedness increased among third-year medical students at transitioning to their clinical curriculum.

Objectives: To determine whether medical students’ clinical preparedness increased as they transitioned into clinical rotations by using a mobile-friendly web application that contained information and advice shared by senior medical students that had already completely their rotations.

Methods: Third-year medical students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School …

Understanding The Intention To Use Telehealth Services In Underserved Hispanic Border Communities: Cross-Sectional Study, Suad Ghaddar, Kristina Vatcheva, Samantha G. Alvarado, Laryssa Mykyta

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Despite the United States having one of the leading health care systems in the world, underserved minority communities face significant access challenges. These communities can benefit from telehealth innovations that promise to improve health care access and, consequently, health outcomes. However, little is known about the attitudes toward telehealth in these communities, an essential first step toward effective adoption and use.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the factors that shape behavioral intention to use telehealth services in underserved Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border and examine the role of electronic health (eHealth) literacy in telehealth …

Physicians’ Perceived Threats And Electronic Medical Record Workaround, Joseph A. Manga, Nan Xiao

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electronic medical record (EMR) systems can improve patient care and their usages are mandatory in many health care organizations. Yet, some physicians engaged in workaround behaviors as a response to their negative experiences in using EMR. Leveraging protection motivation theory, we propose a theoretical framework to understand what causes physicians to use EMR systems less effectively. We posit that EMR systems’ usability and physicians’ technology capability affect their appraisal of threats associated with EMR use, which in turn influences their workaround behaviors. We conclude with some implications to research and practice, and opportunities for future research.

Mobile Personal Healthcare System For Non-Invasive, Pervasive And Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring: A Feasibility Study, Luis J. Mena, Vanessa G. Felix, Rodolfo Ostos, Armando J. Gonzalez, Rafael Martinez-Pelaez, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Gladys E. Maestre

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Background: Smartphone-based blood pressure (BP) monitor using photoplethysmogram (PPG) technology has emerged as a promising approach to empower users with self-monitoring for effective diagnosis and control ofhypertension (HT).

Objective: This study aimed to develop a mobile personal healthcare system for non-invasive, pervasive, and continuous estimation of BP level and variability to be user-friendly to elderly.

Methods: The proposed approach was integrated by a self-designed cuffless, calibration-free, wireless and wearable PPG-only sensor, and a native purposely-designed smartphone application using multilayer perceptron machine learning techniques from raw signals. We performed a pilot study with three elder adults (mean age 61.3 ± 1.5 …

Development Of Learning Objectives To Guide Enhancement Of Chronic Disease Prevention And Management Curricula In Undergraduate Medical Education, Michael Dekhtyar, Cristin Colford, Ebony Whisenant, Jill Huber, Eric Johnson, Patricia Thomas, Kate Kirley, Lauren Mazzurco, Arden D. Dingle, Valerie Terry, Senthil Rajasekaran, Laken Barkowski, Mrinalini Kulkarni-Date, David Henderson, Luann Wilkerson

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Phenomenon: Chronic disease is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. With an increase in the demand for healthcare and rising costs related to chronic care, physicians need to be better trained to address chronic disease at various stages of illness in a collaborative and cost-effective manner. Specific and measurable learning objectives are key to the design and evaluation of effective training, but there has been no consensus on chronic disease learning objectives appropriate to medical student education. Approach: Wagner’sChronic Care Model (CCM) was selected as a theoretical framework to guide development of an enhanced chronic …

Electrospinning Piezoelectric Fibers For Biocompatible Devices, Bahareh Azimi, Mario Milazzo, Andrea Lazzeri, Stefano Berrettini, M. Jasim Uddin, Zhao Qin, Markus J. Buehler, Serena Danti

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The field of nanotechnology has been gaining great success due to its potential in developing new generations of nanoscale materials with unprecedented properties and enhanced biological responses. This is particularly exciting using nanofibers, as their mechanical and topographic characteristics can approach those found in naturally occurring biological materials. Electrospinning is a key technique to manufacture ultrafine fibers and fiber meshes with multifunctional features, such as piezoelectricity, to be available on a smaller length scale, thus comparable to subcellular scale, which makes their use increasingly appealing for biomedical applications. These include biocompatible fiber-based devices as smart scaffolds, biosensors, energy harvesters, and …

Concerns Of Female Adolescents About Menarche And First Sexual Intercourse: Mixed Methods Analysis Of Social Media Questions, Nikkie Saldivar Hodgson, Elad Yom-Tov, William F. Strong, Priscilla L. Flores, Giselle N. Ricoy

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Adolescents use social media for information on medical and social aspects of maturation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the concerns and information needs of adolescents regarding menarche and first sexual intercourse.

Methods: Questions about menarche or first sexual intercourse were obtained from Yahoo Answers, a community-based social media question-and-answer website. A total of 1226 questions were analyzed. We focused on 123 question pairs made by users who asked questions on both topics and reported their ages at each. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on these question pairs.

Results: Qualitative analysis identified uncertainty as a …

Clinician Satisfaction With In-House And Cloud-Based Ehr Vendors, Massara Alazazi, Jun Sun, Nan Xiao

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the factors that affect clinician satisfaction with electronic health records (EHR) vendors that provide in-house and cloud-based solutions. The study is concerned with the organizational level of different healthcare organizations. The model combines the IS Success model and the Task Technology Fit model, to best fit the health information systems. Five research hypotheses derived from the model and are going to be empirically tested using a field survey of EHR systems characteristics and its influence on the organization’s tasks achievement and mission alignment.

Coping Strategies Among Caregivers Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Cluster Analysis, Noor Ismael, Lisa Mische Lawson, Murad Moqbel, Lauren Little

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction/Background: The variability in coping strategies among caregivers of children with ASD may contribute to broader health outcomes; however, it is unclear if specific coping strategies are related to overall strain in this population. Therefore, this study identified groups of caregivers based on coping mechanisms and investigated differences in strain among groups.

Materials & Methods: This study utilized a secondary data analysis, and included survey responses of 273 caregivers of children with ASD. Measures consisted of the COPE Inventory, and the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire. Data analyses consisted of cluster analysis to group caregiver coping strategies, and Analysis of Variance to …

Mobile Personal Health Monitoring For Automated Classification Of Electrocardiogram Signals In Elderly, Luis J. Mena, Vanessa G. Felix, Alberto Ochoa, Rodolfo Ostos, Eduardo Gonzalez, Javier Aspuru, Pablo Velarde, Gladys E. Maestre

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring is an emerging area that has received increasing attention in recent years, but still real-life validation for elderly residing in low and middle-income countries is scarce. We developed a wearable ECG monitor that is integrated with a self-designed wireless sensor for ECG signal acquisition. It is used with a native purposely designed smartphone application, based on machine learning techniques, for automated classification of captured ECG beats from aged people. When tested on 100 older adults, the monitoring system discriminated normal and abnormal ECG signals with a high degree of accuracy (97%), sensitivity (100%), and specificity (96.6%). …

Hispanic Use Of Alternative Medicine As Demonstrated In Internet Searches, Elad Yom-Tov, William F. Strong, Lupita Rodriguez Strong

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: We investigated how cultural shifts occur with respect to the use of traditional medicine for influenza-like illness (ILI) within the Latino population near the US-Mexico border.

Methods: We extracted searches of ILI treatments (modern, traditional western, and traditional Hispanic) to the Bing search engine from 5 US states near the US-Mexico border. The incidence of these searches was correlated with county-level demographic data and ILI incidence.

Results: The fraction of queries related to Hispanic medicines is correlated with the distance from the US-Mexico border (Spearman rho = -0.24), which is a slower decay than that observed in the use …

Understanding Health Information Technology Adoption: A Synthesis Of Literature From An Activity Perspective, Jun Sun, Zhe Qu

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vast body of literature on health information technology (HIT) adoption features considerably heterogeneous factors and demands for a synthesis of the knowledge in the field. This study employs text mining and network analysis techniques to identify the important concepts and their relationships in the abstracts of 979 articles of HIT adoption. Through the lens of Activity Theory, the revealed concept map of HIT adoption can be viewed as a complex activity system involving different users, technologies and tasks at both the individual level and the social level. Such a synthesis not only discloses the current knowledge domain of HIT …

Mobile Personal Health System For Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring, Luis J. Mena, Vanessa G. Felix, Rodolfo Ostos, Jesus A. Gonzalez, Armando Cervantes, Armando Ochoa, Carlos Ruiz, Roberto Ramos, Gladys E. Maestre

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The ARVmobile v1.0 is a multiplatform mobile personal health monitor (PHM) application for ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring that has the potential to aid in the acquisition and analysis of detailed profile of ABP and heart rate (HR), improve the early detection and intervention of hypertension, and detect potential abnormal BP and HR levels for timely medical feedback. The PHM system consisted of ABP sensor to detect BP and HR signals and smartphone as receiver to collect the transmitted digital data and process them to provide immediate personalized information to the user. Android and Blackberry platforms were developed to detect …

Machine Learning Approach To Extract Diagnostic And Prognostic Thresholds: Application In Prognosis Of Cardiovascular Mortality, Luis J. Mena, Eber E. Orozco, Vanessa G. Felix, Rodolfo Ostos, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Gladys E. Maestre

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Machine learning has become a powerful tool for analysing medical domains, assessing the importance of clinical parameters, and extracting medical knowledge for outcomes research. In this paper, we present a machine learning method for extracting diagnostic and prognostic thresholds, based on a symbolic classification algorithm called REMED. We evaluated the performance of our method by determining new prognostic thresholds for well-known and potential cardiovascular risk factors that are used to support medical decisions in the prognosis of fatal cardiovascular diseases. Our approach predicted 36% of cardiovascular deaths with 80% specificity and 75% general accuracy. The new method provides an innovative …

Antes: A Web-Based Acanthosis Nigricans And Other Obesity Related Information System, Chunyue Wang

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Acanthosis nigricans is a cutaneous marker associated with systemic disorders and may serve as an indicator for risk of Type 2 diabetes. Acanthosis nigricans screening can help identify children who have high insulin levels and who may be at-risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. The ANTES system is a computerization attempt for acanthosis nigricans control of the student population from elementary schools and secondary schools in Texas. A general description of the system and the medical and history background of the ANTES program is given. The technology applied to the system is demonstrated. An overview of the system operation status …