A data warehouse is a single data store, where data from multiple data sources is integrated for online business analytical processing (OLAP) of an entire organisation. The rationale being single and integrated is to ensure a consistent view of the organisational business performance independent from different angels of business perspectives. Due to its wide coverage of subjects, data warehouse design is a highly complex, lengthy and error-prone process. Furthermore, the business analytical tasks change over time, which results in changes in the requirements for the OLAP systems. Thus, data warehouse and OLAP systems are rather dynamic and the design process is continuous. In this thesis, we propose a method that is integrated, formal and application-tailored to overcome the complexity problem, deal with the system dynamics, improve the quality of the system and the chance of success. Our method comprises three important parts: the general ASMs method with types, the application tailored design framework for data warehouse and OLAP, and the schema integration method with a set of provably correct refinement rules. By using the ASM method, we are able to model both data and operations in a uniform conceptual framework, which enables us to design an integrated approach for data warehouse and OLAP design. The freedom given by the ASM method allows us to model the system at an abstract level that is easy to understand for both users and designers. More specifically, the language allows us to use the terms from the user domain not biased by the terms used in computer systems. The pseudo-code like transition rules, which gives the simplest form of operational semantics in ASMs, give the closeness to programming languages for designers to understand. Furthermore, these rules are rooted in mathematics to assist in improving the quality of the system design. By extending the ASMs with types, the modelling language is tailored for data warehouse with the terms that are well developed for data-intensive applications, which makes it easy to model the schema evolution as refinements in the dynamic data warehouse design. By providing the application-tailored design framework, we break down the design complexity by business processes (also called subjects in data warehousing) and design concerns. By designing the data warehouse by subjects, our method resembles Kimball's "bottom-up" approach. However, with the schema integration method, our method resolves the stovepipe issue of the approach. By building up a data warehouse iteratively in an integrated framework, our method not only results in an integrated data warehouse, but also resolves the issues of complexity and delayed ROI (Return On Investment) in Inmon's "top-down" approach. By dealing with the user change requests in the same way as new subjects, and modelling data and operations explicitly in a three-tier architecture, namely the data sources, the data warehouse and the OLAP (online Analytical Processing), our method facilitates dynamic design with system integrity. By introducing a notion of refinement specific to schema evolution, namely schema refinement, for capturing the notion of schema dominance in schema integration, we are able to build a set of correctness-proven refinement rules. By providing the set of refinement rules, we simplify the designers's work in correctness design verification. Nevertheless, we do not aim for a complete set due to the fact that there are many different ways for schema integration, and neither a prescribed way of integration to allow designer favored design. Furthermore, given its °exibility in the process, our method can be extended for new emerging design issues easily.

Syftet med denna studie är att utreda begreppen big data och analytics. Utifrån vetenskapliga teorier om begreppen undersöks hur konsultföretag uppfattar och använder sig av big data och analytics. För att skapa en nyanserad bild har även en organisation inom vården undersökts för att få kunskap om hur de kan dra nytta av big data och analytics. Ett antal viktiga svårigheter och framgångsfaktorer kopplade till båda begreppen presenteras. De svårigheterna kopplas sedan ihop med en framgångsfaktor som anses kunna bidra till att lösa det problemet. De mest relevanta framgångsfaktorer som identifierats är att högkvalitativ data finns tillgänglig men även kunskap och kompetens kring hur man hanterar data. Slutligen tydliggörs begreppens innebörd där man kan se att big data oftast beskrivs ur dimensionerna volym, variation och hastighet och att analytics i de flesta fall syftar till att deskriptiv och preventiv analys genomförs. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the concepts of big data and analytics. The concepts are explored based on scientific theories and interviews with consulting firms. A healthcare organization has also been interviewed to get a richer understanding of how big data and analytics can be used to gain insights and how an organisation can benefit from them. A number of important difficulties and sucess facors connected to the concepts are presented. These difficulties are then linked to a sucess factor that is considered to solve the problem. The most relevant success factors identified are the avaliability of high quality data and knowledge and expertise on how to handle the data. Finally the concepts are clarified and one can see that big data is usually described from the dimensions volume, variety and velocity and analytics is usually described as descriptive and preventive analysis.

Often, design problems are strongly coupled and their concurrent resolution by interacting (though decentralized) stakeholders is required. The ensuing interactions are characterized predominantly by degree of interdependence and level of cooperation. Since tradeoffs, made within and among sub-systems, inherently contribute to system level performance, bridging the associated gaps is crucial. With this in mind, effective collaboration, centered on continued communication, concise coordination, and non-biased achievement of system level objectives, is becoming increasingly important. Thus far, research in distributed and decentralized decision-making has focused primarily on conflict resolution. Game theoretic protocols and negotiation tactics have been used extensively as a means of making the required tradeoffs, often in a manner that emphasizes the maximization of stakeholder payoff over system level performance. More importantly, virtually all of the currently instantiated mechanisms are based upon the a priori assumption of the existence of solutions that are acceptable to all interacting parties. No explicit consideration has been given thus far to ensuring the convergence of stakeholder design activities leading up to the coupled decision and the associated determination of values for uncoupled and coupled design parameters. Consequently, unnecessary and costly iteration is almost certain to result from mismatched and potentially irreconcilable objectives. In this dissertation, an alternative coordination mechanism, centered on sharing key pieces of information throughout the process of determining a solution to a coupled system is presented. Specifically, the focus is on (1) establishing and assessing collaborative design spaces, (2) identifying and exploring regions of acceptable performance, and (3) preserving stakeholder dominion over design sub-system resolution throughout the duration of a given design process. The fundamental goal is to establish a consistent framework for agile collaboration that more accurately represents the mechanics underlying product development and supports interacting stakeholders in achieving their respective objectives in light of system level priorities. This aim is accomplished via improved resource management and design space exploration, augmented awareness of system level implications emanating from sub-system decisions, and increased modularity of decentralized design processes. Stakeholder synergy in design processes is enhanced via stakeholder focalization, based on the systematic communication of decision-critical information content.

A growing body of evidence shows that globalization and advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have prompted a revolution in the way work is produced. One of the most notable changes is the establishment of the alternative workplace arrangement (AWA), in which workers have more freedom in their work hours and workplaces. Just as all organizations are not good candidates for AWA adoption, all work types, all employees and all levels of facilities supports are not good candidates for AWA adoption. The main problem is that facility managers have no established tools to assess their readiness for AWA adoption or to select among the possible choices regarding which AWA type is most appropriate considering their organizations' business reasons or objectives of adoption and the current readiness levels. This dissertation resulted in the development of readiness level assessment indicators (RLAI), which measure the initial readiness of high-tech companies for adopting AWAs and the ANN based decision model, which allows facility managers to predict not only an appropriate AWA type, but also an anticipated satisfaction level considering the objectives and the current readiness level. This research has identified significant factors and relative attributes for facility managers to consider when measuring their organization's readiness for AWA adoption. Robust predictive performance of the ANN model shows that the main factors or key determinants have been correctly identified in RLAI and can be used to predict an appropriate AWA type as well as a high-tech company's satisfaction level regarding the AWA adoption.

In the US transportation system, environmental justice (EJ) issues are regulated by a variety of laws to ensure that all have fair treatment with respect to implementation of policies. If State Departments of Transportation adhere to all regulations properly but unconsciously, then an underlying negative impact on a community may still exist as a result of a newly implemented project. Since the implementation of High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are fairly new, and since there have been numerous concerns from the public about their discriminatory nature, a decision support system is needed to identify potential EJ violations and issues when implementing a new or converted HOT lane. No prior model exists. The goal of this research is to assist state's Department of Transportation (DOT) in the early stages of the development of an HOT lane by developing a Potential Environmental Justice Violation Model that will help state agencies predict potential EJ violations before additional resources are invested into a project. By developing a model, this study identifies and classifies characteristic drivers of potential EJ violations related to communities' economic, social, or health and safety status. The Potential Environmental Justice Violation Model (PEJVM) allows state DOTs employees to define and evaluate the distribution of impacts in the relevant categories. The model provides a method for transforming complex qualitative and quantitative data about a project into a user-friendly format where the results can then be visualized using a spider radar diagram to determine the level of impact of each identified variable. The PEJVM was validated using two previous anonymous HOT case studies and demonstrated using the Interstate 85 Case Study in Atlanta, Georgia. This model offers a uniform method of identifying potential environmental justice violations when implementing a HOT lane. The model will also help inform state agencies of potential violations early in the planning stages of HOT lane projects so that the agency can solve any potential EJ issues before additional resources are invested.

The diagnostic imaging (DI) literature identifies that unnecessary examinations are occurring. However, there is a gap in the research literature: little is known about how physicians order DI examinations and what efforts need to be undertaken to reduce the number of inappropriate orders made by physicians. Such research is needed in order to promote patient safety and improve utilization of limited health care resources Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how physicians order DI services, and what efforts could be made to reduce inappropriate DI ordering. Participants: 12 English speaking, non-radiologist physicians (general practitioners and specialists) participated in this study. Methods: Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with participants. Data from these interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results: DI ordering practices (both appropriate and inappropriate) emerged as the dominant theme in this research, specifically in the context of prevalence, decision-making, information support, contributing factors, and solutions. Particularly, the majority of participants felt that DI is overused in the medical field and identified contacting physicians (colleagues, specialists, or radiologists) and consulting the literature (using UpToDate® or Google Scholar) as their top methods of information support used in challenging clinical scenarios. Meanwhile, participants suggested factors that contribute to inappropriate ordering: patient demand, legal liability, and duplicate ordering. The majority of participants believed education could reduce inappropriate ordering. Participants also identified increasing communication about requisitions and restricting DI ordering authority as potential solutions to reduce inappropriate ordering. Conclusion: From the interviews, ordering (both appropriate and inappropriate ordering) emerged as the overarching theme. Findings were compared and contrasted to the current literature. Overall, this study revealed how human factors, such as patient demand, influence how a physician orders DI. As well, the majority of participants relied on the patient to recall patient DI history; however, literature suggests this method is unreliable. This study also offers unique insight into the physician’s perspective of what would be effective for reducing inappropriate ordering. These findings contribute to the field of health informatics as any technology developed to reduce inappropriate ordering (such as a clinical decision support system) needs to consider these human factors to support user acceptance. Through findings from this study, further research gaps emerged that can guide future research. / Graduate

The thesis begins by examining the evolution of human performance modeling from the initial stimulus-response methods introduced during the industrial revolution to model factory worker productivity, continues with a discussion of the information processing model where human cognition was modeled as a series of actions carried out in a predefined order, and ends with the concept of cognitive control whereby cognition is not considered a context-free mental process but modeled as an individual's ability to maintain control under varying contexts and to counter the effects of disturbances. The results from a preliminary evaluation conducted to determine if CCMs could be measured and if they provided any additional insight cognitive work are presented, and reveal that CCMs could be measured and the self-assessed CCM varied as predicted. A design process is developed which utilizes the CCMs as representing specific patterns of activity, thus specifying the design requirements. Following this design process, a prototype is created and evaluated using a controlled experiment to examine the effectiveness of the CWSS. The experiment examines performance, workload, and patterns of activity, and has several interesting findings. The first is that performance was independent of the almost all of the predictors and covariates including participant's Self-assessed CCM, with the exception of CCM transitions. As in the preliminary study, participants who reported transitioning between CCMs also reported decreased performance, increased frustration and actually performed worse. Second, perceived performance varied linearly with a participant's self-assessed CCM, but not with the actual performance. Third, participants report lower levels of effort when using a CWSS DM that matched their operational CCM. Finally, the design process successfully created a CWSS with DMs which support strategic and tactical CCMs. Unfortunately, no specific performance improvements were found for cases where the participant's CCM matched the DM as hypothesized, calling into question the effectiveness of creating different design modes for performance improvement. This thesis presents two methods for measuring CCMs: one direct single scale and one indirect composite scale. The measurements correlate highly. Both have a high degree of face validity and user acceptance. In the end, the composite measure may be a more robust measure of CCM because it provides a greater degree of diagnosticity by specifically inquiring after different aspects of CCM and is less susceptible to an individual's interpretation of the relative importance of the multiple dimensions of CCMs included in the definitions.

Health care providers internationally are facing challenges surrounding the delivery of high quality, cost effective services. The use of integrated electronic information systems is seen by many people working in the health sector as a way to address some of the associated issues. In New Zealand the primary health care sector has been restructured to follow a population based care model and provides services through not-for-profit Primary Health Organisations (PHOs). PHOs, together with their District Health Boards (DHBs), contributing service providers, and local communities, are responsible for the care of their enrolled populations. The Ministry of Health (MoH) is streamlining information sharing in this environment through improvements to computer based information systems (IS). By providing health professionals with improved access to required information within an appropriate time frame, services can be targeted efficiently and effectively and patient health outcomes potentially improved. However, the adoption of IS in health care has been slower than in other industries. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of health care professionals’ attitudes to, and use of, available IS is currently needed to contribute to the development of appropriate systems. This research employs a multiple case study strategy to establish the usage of IS by three New Zealand PHOs and their member primary health care providers (PHPs), with a focus on the role of IS in clinical decision support (CDS). A mixed method approach including semi-structured interviews and postal surveys was used in the study. Firstly, the research develops and applies a survey tool based on an adaptation of an existing framework, for the study of IT sophistication in the organisations. This provides the foundation for an in-depth study of the use of computerised CDS (eCDS) in the PHO environment. Secondly, a conceptual model of eCDS utilisation is presented, illustrating the variation of eCDS use by member general practitioner (GP) practices within individual organisations. Thirdly, five areas of importance for improving eCDS utilisation within PHO’s are identified, contributing information of use to organisations, practitioners, planners, and systems developers. Lastly, the research provides a structure for the study of the domain of eCDS in PHOs by presenting a research approach and information specific for the area.

Medication is vital in treating chronic disease. Increasing use of medication, however, can lead to (potentially preventable) medication-related adverse events. Medication management offers a means of addressing such adverse events and pharmacists have an important role in this solution, especially in terms of reviews of patient medication. Improved availability and sharing of patient-related information are critical factors in medication management, so that providing access to this information becomes a major factor in effective medication reviews. Although clinical decision support tools can significantly assist doctors in accessing relevant point-of-care information for greater patient safety, it has proven difficult to ensure the availability and appropriate structure of patient-related information for such support tools. These information access and input problems are further exacerbated by a lack of existing research into suitable decision support solutions for pharmacists. This research project explored the suitability of an essential information model to support an electronic document solution to support clinical documentation and allow effective communication between pharmacists and doctors for medication reviews. The project investigated whether this approach could improve safety, quality and efficiency in the medication review process; as well as more generally identifying factors influencing development and uptake of document-based support tools in the Health sector. The project used a qualitative Design Research approach and iterated through three scenarios. The first, information-rich, hospital scenario developed an information model of essential medication management components, which underpinned the development of a digital document prototype implemented using XForms technology. In the second scenario, accredited pharmacists evaluated the digital document to enable refinement of the information model and its associated digital document for the broader community context. The third scenario involved field studies which evaluated the digital document (and thus the underlying information model) within the community, assessing its contribution to quality, safety and efficiency throughout the medication review process. The investigation identified a number of themes which guided design and development of the prototype; and which appeared likely to have a broader impact on successful uptake of decision support tools. Missing information proved to be a constant and serious problem for health professionals although, in this project, it also became a way of determining the value of an information element and thus its inclusion in the information model. Conversation played a significant role in the hospital environment to help supply pharmacists information needs. Information granularity, the language of health professionals; and their time constraints were major factors influencing design. Health professionals extensive use of their personal knowledge also suggested decision support tools in this sector should be systems for experts rather than expert systems, i.e. the decision support tool and its users personal knowledge should complement one another. The results of this proof-of-concept project suggest practice improvement in medication management is possible, with perceived improvements in safety, quality and efficiency of the medication management process. These benefits, however, now need to be affirmed in larger field studies. The contributions of this research are two-fold: firstly, it is possible to develop a model of essential medication-related information which is succinct, relevant and can be understood and shared by health professionals in conjunction with the individuals personal knowledge. Secondly, a document metaphor is a natural fit with health professionals for representing and communicating information. Expressing this metaphor as digital document overcomes the main problems of paper-based documents sharing and communication; and the dynamic properties of digital documents assist in decision-making.

O presente trabalho apresenta, primeiramente, o desenvolvimento e aplicação de uma Ferramenta de Apoio à Decisão (FAD), seguindo os conceitos de Sistemas de Informação (SI), para facilitar o acesso e visualização de informações técnicas estratégicas, e que possa compor um Sistema de Apoio à Decisão (SAD) que englobe o portfólio de informações necessárias para o planejamento da priorização de obras de investimento e expansão das redes de distribuição de energia. A FAD proposta realiza o tratamento de um grupo de dados relativos a incidência de interrupções de energia da rede de distribuição de uma concessionária do setor elétrico, de forma a disponibilizar as informações depuradas para auxílio na tomada assertiva de decisão para aplicação de recursos para execução de ações de manutenção em rede de distribuição. Em seguida, exibe a inclusão de uma função de análise, no aplicativo desenvolvido como Ferramenta de Apoio à Decisão (FAD), baseada na priorização multicriterial AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). A aplicação do método AHP indica as estações avançadas da concessionária que possuem prioridade para a aplicação de recursos que visam à execução de ações de manutenção em rede de distribuição para a melhoria nos indicadores de continuidades do fornecimento de energia. / This paper first introduces the development and application of a Decision Support Tool (FAD), following the concepts of Information Systems (IS), to facilitate the availability and visualization of strategic techniques information, and can compose a Decision Support System (DSS) that encompasses the entire portfolio of information needed for planning the prioritization of investment works and expansion of power distribution networks. The proposed FAD performs the treatment of a group of data on the incidence of power outages in the distribution of the electric utility industry network in order to provide information to aid in purified assertive decision making for application of resources for execution maintenance actions in the distribution network. Then displays the inclusion of an analysis function, the application developed as a Tool for Decision Support (FAD), multicriteria prioritization based on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). The application of AHP method indicates the advanced utility stations that have priority for use of funds aimed at the implementation of maintenance actions in the distribution network to improve the indicators of continuity of power supply.