Resource management is at the heart of many diverse science and engineering research areas. Although the general notion of what constitutes a resource entity seems similar in different research areas, their types, characteristics, and constraints governing their behavior are vastly different depending on the particular domain of research and the nature of the research itself. Often research related to resource modeling and management focus on largely homogeneous resources in a relatively simplified model of the real world. The problem becomes much more challenging to deal with when working with a complex real life domain with many heterogeneous resource types and intricate constraints. In this dissertation, we have looked at the modeling and management of resource instances and tried to develop a better sense of what makes them different from other objects in a system. As part of this work, We formally define the general resource management problem, identify its major sub problem areas and their associated complexities, and look at the problem in the context of a particularly complex and dynamic environment, namely the emergency department (ED) of a hospital. We propose an approach to the problem and some of its complexities by presenting an overall unifying view, as well as tools and methods for dealing with, this pervasive, yet surprisingly under examined, type of entity, i.e. resources. We have discovered that one of the discerning characteristics of resource instances in complex and dynamic environments seem to be their dynamic capability profile that may changes depending on system context. This, in turn, often results in complex substitutability relationship amongst resource instances. We have identified four major sub-problem areas that can provide a holistic view of any resource management service. These separate, yet interconnected, areas of concerns include resource modeling, resource request specification, resource constraint management, and resource allocation. Resource modeling involves capturing of resource characteristics and their potentially dynamic behavior. Request definitions describe how resource users specify requirements for resources in a particular domain. In most domains, there are constraints that need to be satisfied while serving resources to fulfill specific requests. The fourth area of concerns, the allocation of resources, is a complex component with multiple subcomponents that closely interact with each other. In this thesis, we have described an architecture for a exible resource management service based on the above described separation of concerns. We have proposed some simple, yet effective, techniques for modeling resource instances, specifying resource requests, specifying and managing resource constraints, and allocating resource instances to meet a resource demand characterized by a continuous stream of requests. Using our proposed design, we have developed ROMEO, a resource management service and customized it to serve a task coordination framework based on Little-JIL process definition language. Our work then concentrated on evaluating the effectiveness of ROMEO in supporting simulations and executions of complex processes. For this evaluation purpose, we developed a simulation infrastructure named JSim on top of Juliette, Little-JIL's execution environment. We ran a variety of simulations of patient care processes in EDs using our ROMEO-JSim infrastructure. We also used ROMEO to support the actual execution (rather than just the simulation) of a large mediation process. A central premise, hypothesized and explored in this thesis, is a novel way of thinking about resource instances in dynamic domains, namely defining them with a set of guarded capabilities, some of which may be dependent on the execution state of the system. This has led us to think about how to represent execution states of a running system and what types of system state information might be important for representing the guard functions on the capabilities of a resource instance that define the resource instance's ability to satisfy a request at a given execution state of the system. We have also identified a small set of common types of attributes of resource instances that seem able to support specification of a large variety of resource instances in complex domains. We believe that our research supports our hypothesis that specifying resource instances as having sets of guarded capabilities provides a useful abstraction for modeling many of the complex dynamic behaviors of resource instances in such domains as hospital EDs.

<p> US asthma prevalence increased by five million in the last decade and health care spending for the disease increased from $53 billion to $56 billion. Children are more likely than adults to have an asthma attack and its estimated that 1-in-10 youth has asthma. Despite initiatives to promote adherence to practice guidelines, childhood asthma emergency room) visits, and hospitalizations remain steady while the number of asthma deaths have increased over a 17-year period. Preliminary studies find the majority of adolescents prefer smartphones as a means of education and guidance. A modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) survey was comprised of 15 statements that explored providers&rsquo; acceptance of smartphone applications (apps) as an adjunct strategy for management of asthma among adolescents in the outpatient setting. Current insight in adolescent asthma demonstrates multifaceted disparities in care stemming from biological and developmental transitions unique to adolescents. The quantitative, descriptive design of the project assessed two factors integral to the TAM related to provider acceptance and perception: 1) Perceived use (PU), and 2) Perceived ease of use (PEU). The survey sample consisted of 18 providers. Overwhelmingly, the majority of providers surveyed favored use of a smartphone app for adolescent asthma and believed apps had the potential to improve the quality of adolescent asthma management. Most participants agreed; smartphone apps might help accomplish benchmarks for adolescent asthma management. Numerous studies demonstrate adolescents&rsquo; preference for technological interventions for self-management of their asthma symptoms. The survey results reinforce the willingness of providers to accept asthma smartphone apps as a potential adjunct management strategy for adolescent asthma. Additional studies involving providers are required to further explore provider attitudes of acceptance and rejection relating to smartphone apps for chronic health conditions. </p>

<p>Objectives: First, to identify the core Electronic Health Records (EHR) functionalities available to physicians who work in private and public health care facilities in Trinidad and Tobago and the extent to which physicians are using each function. Second, to understand the rate of adoption of Electronic Health Records in private and public hospitals/clinics, and finally, to identify the barriers to adoption of Electronic Health Records in private and public hospitals/clinics in Trinidad and Tobago. Background: The two largest public hospitals in Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain General Hospital and San Fernando General Hospital, utilized paper medical records. In Trinidad and Tobago, there is little known about the EHR functions available and being used, adoption rates, and barriers to adoption of EHR in the private and public sectors. Method: Electronic Health Records (n = 130) questionnaires were sent to number of health care practices in the private and public facilities in the five regions of Trinidad and Tobago, in order to understand availability and use of EHR, adoption rates, and barriers to the use of EHR. Results: The most commonly available function for the private and public physicians was Health Information and Data with respective scores of 58% and 29%. Sixty-three percent of the private physicians who adopted EHR reported using the Result Management and Order Management functions. The public physicians who had adopted EHR reported they were not utilizing the Decision Support, Result Management, and Order Management functions. There was no statistical difference between private and public physicians for the available and used functions. A total of 53 private and 19 public physicians responded to the survey (55% response rate). Thirteen (25%) private physicians reported adopting EHR and 2(11%) public physician reported adoption of EHR. Private and public physicians cited start-up cost and technical limitations of systems as the barriers to their practices' adoption of EHR. Conclusion: Findings showed the same availability and use of core functionalities, as well as adoption rate among the private and public facilities, and slightly fewer barriers in the private practices. A larger sample is merited to understand if there is any statistically significant difference between the two groups.

<p> Providing healthcare to the ever-rising elderly population has become a severe challenge and a top priority. Emerging innovations in healthcare, such as remote health monitoring technologies, promise to provide a better quality of care and reduce the cost of healthcare. However, many elderly people reject healthcare innovations. This lack of adoption constitutes a big practical problem because it keeps the elderly from benefiting from technology advances. The phenomenon is even more pronounced among elderly women, who represent the majority of the elderly population. </p><p> A plethora of studies in the field of technology adoption resulted in sound, but highly generalized theories that are too parsimonious to provide practical insight into the phenomenon of elderly healthcare technology adoption (EHTA). There is a call to arms for novel approaches that facilitate the creation of models that expand technology adoption theories to the specifics of EHTA. This dissertation is a response to this call to arms, and it contributes to modeling practice in the EHTA field. It uses fuzzy cognitive mapping to design a novel mixed-methods modeling approach. Since elderly women constitute the majority of the elderly population, this dissertation treats elderly women&rsquo;s health technology adoption (EWHTA) as the case-in-point.</p><p>