The mental health of healthcare workers during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was a serious concern for healthcare professionals and the mental health field. One area in West Africa where healthcare workers played a significant role during the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and 2015 was Sierra Leone. This qualitative research study was designed to explore the perceptions of Sierra Leoneans healthcare workers' mental health, how they coped, and treatment they received while providing care for Ebola virus patients. This study, with a phenomenological research approach, used purposeful sampling to recruit 10 healthcare workers to participate in semi structured, open-ended interviews. The stress theory model and a hermeneutic phenomenology conceptual framework were used as a lens of analysis to understand the views of healthcare workers who worked directly with Ebola virus patients in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The results of the analysis of the collected data produced 9 major themes. The major themes suggest that healthcare workers experienced mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety, personal thoughts and feelings such as insomnia, and suicidal ideation. Strategies for coping included using the Bible; and the detrimental impact included facing discrimination after the Ebola outbreak. Most of the healthcare workers blame the government for not providing adequate coping resources, which led to the personal consequence of hopelessness. This study may benefit mental health professionals working in an epidemic. Additionally, this study may contribute to social change by providing a deeper understanding of the mental health system and healthcare workers in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Les acteurs de la santé publique ont aujourd'hui de nombreux défis à relever relatifs à des besoins nouveaux liés, entre autres, au vieillissement de la population et à l’augmentation du nombre de maladies chroniques. Ces besoins et leurs coûts obligent à repenser la prise en charge des patients et à rationaliser leurs parcours de soins afin de les rendre plus efficients.Nos travaux de thèse ont permis les résultats principaux suivants.Dans un premier temps et après avoir présenté le système de santé en général, nous avons analysé les évolutions du système de santé, ses grands principes et ses challenges. Nous avons ensuite donné un aperçu des tendances et innovations organisationnelles en réponse à ces challenges.Dans un deuxième temps et sur une base bibliographique, nous avons présenté nos définitions du parcours (de soin, de santé, de vie), leur positionnement relatif et l’influence des challenges préalablement définis sur ces derniers.Puis, afin de modéliser les parcours, nous avons analysé les concepts introduits par les définitions précédentes et nous les avons structurés dans le cadre d'un méta-modèle. Nous avons ensuite utilisé celui-ci pour enrichir un langage de modélisation d'entreprise existant (GRAI Extended Actigram) et obtenir ainsi un langage totalement adapté à nos besoins. Ensuite, et à titre d’exemple, nous avons utilisé ce langage enrichi pour représenter les processus de soins de deux maladies (la grippe A(H1N1) et la BPCO) tout en soulignant plusieurs aspects méthodologiques : sources d'information, traduction, pour n’en citer que quelques-uns. Enfin et sur la base d'un état de l'art des services proposés par des plateformes informatiques existantes, nous avons proposé une méthodologie de définition de services à forte valeur ajoutée qui offrent une meilleure accessibilité à l'information et donc qui améliorent la dynamique et l'efficience des soins sur la base des parcours de soins modélisés. / Today, the actors of public health face many challenges related to the ever-changing needs of an aging population and the increasing number of chronic diseases.These needs and the related cost, lead to rethink the care management and rationalize the patient healthcare pathways to make them more efficient.Our thesis work has the following main results.First a general introduction of the health system is presented, followed by an analysis of the evolution of the health system, its principles and its challenges. Next, we provided an overview of trends and organizational innovations in response to these challenges.Secondly, based on a bibliographic, we presented our definitions of pathways (healthcare, health, and life), their relative positioning and their influence on the challenges mentioned above.To model the pathways, we analyzed the concepts mentioned in the preceding definitions and we structured them into a meta-model. Then we used it to enrich an existing enterprise modeling language (GRAI Extended Actigram) and thus obtain a language totally suited to our needs.The latter was used to represent the heathcare processes of two examples of diseases, influenza A (H1N1) and COPD. In the frame of this presentation, methodological aspects were discussed (information resources, translation, etc.).Finally, on the basis of a state-of-the-art of the offered services by current computer platforms, we proposed a methodology for defining value-added services providing an improved access to information and improving the dynamics and efficiency of healthcare based on the modeled healthcare processes.

The health systems of the future point to the use of pervasive computing, which aims to help users in their daily activities. Accordingly, we seek to make the systems more oriented to end-user, reducing the distance between how the user performs activities and modeling these in information to a Health s system, providing to the doctor services that meet the requirements as proactivity and the context which his activities are performed. To meet these requirements, the project ClinicSpace (which aims to assist clinicians in their clinical activities) prototyped a software architecture that is developed from the point of view of the user (doctor), oriented to clinical activities, context-aware, based on mobile and pervasive technologies, using techniques of end-user s programming. Identify the elements that act / participate in the context of clinical activities in an automated way and adapt the information from the identification process are goals of this dissertation. Thus was created a model of contextualized identification that guided the development of an architecture, resulting in the identification service to ClinicSpace. Through an XML structure and the use of tags QRCodes was possible to identify and distinguish the elements known and not known for the architecture ClinicSpace and, with the adaptation module, contextualize this information. Impact tests were performed to validate the solution and allow to improvement and refinement it to use in ClinicSpace. / Os sistemas de saúde do futuro apontam para o uso da computação pervasiva, a qual visa auxiliar o usuário em suas atividades cotidianas. Nesse sentido, busca-se deixar os sistemas mais orientados ao usuário-final, diminuindo a distância entre a forma como o usuário realiza suas atividades e a modelagem destas nos Sistemas de Informação em Saúde, disponibilizando ao médico serviços que atendam a requisitos como pró-atividade e o contexto em que as atividades são executadas. Para atender tais requisitos, o projeto ClinicSpace (que visa auxiliar o médico em suas atividades clínicas) prototipa uma arquitetura de software que é desenvolvida sob o ponto de vista do usuário (médico), orientada às atividades clínicas, consciente do contexto, baseada em tecnologias móveis e pervasivas, utilizando técnicas da programação do usuário-final. Identificar os elementos que atuam/participam do contexto das atividades clínicas de forma automatizada e adaptar as informações advindas do processo de identificação são objetivos dessa dissertação. Assim, foi criado um modelo de identificação contextualizada que orientou o desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura, originando o serviço de identificação no ClinicSpace. Através de uma estrutura XML e a utilização de tags QRCodes foi possível identificar e distinguir os elementos conhecidos e os não conhecidos pela arquitetura ClinicSpace e, com o módulo de adaptação da informação, contextualizar essas informações. Testes de impacto foram realizados, a fim de validar a solução e permitir o seu refinamento e melhoramento para uso no ClinicSpace.

Increasing number of pregnancy applications (apps) are complementing healthcare systems to educate expectants and improve their maternal well-being. Using similar kind of applications for people from multicultural background might have varied impact on their pregnancy experiences. Especially for immigrants, cultural beliefs first set in their home country, might conflict with practices followed in country of residence and information provided in digital resources. This study aimed to compare the perceptions on pregnancy app usage by first-time expectants living in Sweden from native and migrant perspectives. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews through an online platform, Zoom, and explored the users’ opinions on app’ usage. Twelve first-time expectants were recruited through snowball sampling technique using social media group. Data was then analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. The findings indicate the importance of understanding healthcare practices and social support in country of residence. Participants expressed that they developed a connection with unborn through pregnancy apps. However, app usage raised conflicts between user expectations from knowledge gained by apps and information provided by healthcare system, also exposed potential problems faced by immigrants due to different approaches followed by Swedish healthcare system. Participants using English apps expressed that they are receiving updates according to American healthcare system, while participants using Swedish apps asserted that they are getting relevant information adapted to Swedish society. The study advocates that the apps are not well-suited for migratory background users and provided possible solutions to improve existing pregnancy apps for maximum number of users to benefit.

Ces travaux s’intéressent à la coordination entre services au sein d’un hôpital. Il s’agit d’améliorer la prise en charge des patients en prenant une vision de leur parcours qui intègre toutes les unités impliquées. Nous nous sommes particulièrement intéressés au cas de la chimiothérapie ambulatoire, en partenariat avec l’hôpital Henri Mondor de Créteil. Trois questions sont traitées :1. Comment concevoir et mener un programme de changement dans un contexte multi-services à l’hôpital ?2. Comment améliorer la délivrance des chimiothérapies ambulatoires ?3. Pourquoi la planification stratégique dans les Centre Hospitalo-Universitaires donne-t-elle des résultats décevants, comparés aux contextes industriels où ces approches ont été appliquées avec succès ?Pour répondre, notre principale méthode d’investigation a été la recherche-action. Dans le cadre de projets de réorganisation à l’hôpital Henri Mondor, nous avons adapté et combiné des méthodes de recherche opérationnelle et de génie industriel pour prendre en compte les spécificités du contexte hospitalier. Nos travaux aboutissent à la proposition et à l’évaluation de méthodes de réorganisation centrées sur la coordination entre services, et sur une meilleure connaissance de l’environnement spécifique de l’hôpital, un contexte différent de ceux où s’est traditionnellement développé le génie industriel. / This dissertation addresses the challenge of coordinating hospital services. We take an integrated view on care delivery and the various units involved in a care process, with a case study in outpatient chemotherapy process at Henri Mondor hospital, Créteil, France. We tackle three research questions :1. How should a change program in a multi-department setting be designed and managed?2. How can one improve outpatient chemotherapy delivery?3. Why do strategic plans look so disconcerting and disappointing in public academic medical centers, compared to otherindustrial organizations, when similar methods are applied?Our main research method is action-research. During reorganization projects, we adapt and combine methods from operational research and industrial engineering in order to integrate hospitals’ specificities. We propose and evaluate reorganisation methods focused on interdepartmental coordination, and we contribute to a better knowledge of the specific environment of hospitals, which is quite different from the contexts in which industrial engineering traditionally developed.

This thesis was initiated by Cambio Healthcare Systems and was aimed to investigate the usage of keyboard shortcuts (KBS) in the electronic health record system COSMIC. The aim was to determine which users would benefit from learning keyboard shortcuts and understand how users can learn them effectively. The study also aimed to identify suitable techniques for users in the sensitive healthcare environment, with a focus on efficiency. Through workshops and interviews with individuals with experience of the user, it was found that most users would benefit from learning more KBS, particularly primary nurses who would save significant time. A thematic analysis revealed four themes: Benefits Everyone, Key Users, Documentation, and Visibility. Lack of awareness and a need for visualization were identified as the main issues. To address these findings, design requirements were established to meet user needs. Two design concepts, a visualizing wiki and an all-knowing search, were created as prototypes to represent potential design solutions. Evaluation with three participants showed positive results for the first concept, indicating it would be effective for teaching KBS to novice users. The second concept, while insufficient on its own, could complement the first concept and benefit users seeking quick results in COSMIC, such as medical secretaries and administrators. The study's strength lies in its preliminary stages, which provided valuable insights into user needs and identified underlying issues related to KBS in COSMIC.

The adoption of eHealth is very slow despite evidences showing its benefits. This research examines the individual, clinical, technical and organizational challenges for eHealth adoption from healthcare provider‟s perspectives. A cross-sectional study design with a quantitative paradigm was used. The study was conducted on 312 doctors and nurses randomly selected from ten hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Most respondents viewed eHealth positively with no significant differences in terms of profession or gender. Computer skill, workload, patient interaction, management support, cost and infrastructure were the main concerns. Privacy and security were not the main concerns. Knowledge of eHealth applications and utilization was low, even for evidence-based medicine and online databases. Specialists and males were better aware of eHealth applications. The study showed that eHealth acceptance was good. Increasing eHealth literacy was recommended as a cost effective means for improving access to updated information to improve the quality of healthcare. / Health Studies / M.A. Public Health (Medical Informatics)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Currently, we seek to make the systems more oriented to end-user, reducing the distance between how the user carries out its activities and modeling these in Information Systems in Health, the doctor providing adaptive and personalized forms of use, configuration and control system, based on historical usage, or a profile. To meet these requirements, the project ClinicSpace, prototyped a software architecture that is developed from the point of view of the user (doctor), led to clinical activities, context-aware, based on mobile technologies and pervasive, and uses the techniques of programming end-user. Identify the context that affects an activity within a hospital clinic, and identify ways to express your doctor interest in a particular context, linking context to their daily activities, are the goals of this dissertation. From the identification of some basic elements of context, including the patient, device and environmental resources, was created to describe this ontological domain to be associated with clinical tasks modeled by the doctor. For introduce context associated with the tasks in the architecture ClinicSpace, changed the editing interface tasks of architecture. Moreover, various departments of the subsystems involved have been re-implemented in architecture, highlighting the Access Service Task, which was re-implemented to support the loading of the ontology that describes the tasks and context, and thus provide structures computational (objects Java) to use the Interface Editing Tasks and Context used by the doctor. Load tests were conducted to identify the impact that the solution used in the architecture introduces ClinicSpace allowing refine it and refine it for use by the system. / Atualmente, busca-se deixar os sistemas mais orientados ao usuário-final, diminuindo a distância entre a forma como o usuário realiza suas atividades e a modelagem destas nos Sistemas de Informação em Saúde, disponibilizando ao médico formas adaptativas e personalizadas de utilização, configuração e controle do sistema, baseadas em um histórico de uso ou em um perfil. Para atender tais requisitos, o projeto ClinicSpace prototipa uma arquitetura de software que é desenvolvida sob o ponto de vista do usuário (médico), orientada às atividades clínicas, consciente do contexto, baseada em tecnologias móveis e pervasivas, e utiliza técnicas da programação do usuário-final. Identificar o contexto que afeta uma atividade clinica dentro de um hospital, bem como identificar formas de o médico expressar seu interesse em um determinado contexto, associando contexto às suas atividades diárias, são os objetivos desta dissertação. A partir da identificação de alguns elementos básicos de contexto, entre eles paciente, dispositivo e recursos ambientais, foi criado a descrição ontológica deste domínio para ser associado às tarefas clínicas modeladas pelo médico. Para introduzir contexto associado às tarefas na arquitetura ClinicSpace, foi alterada a interface de edição de tarefas da arquitetura. Além disso, diversos serviços dos subsistemas envolvidos foram re-implementados na arquitetura, destacando-se o Serviço de Acesso a Tarefas, o qual foi re-implementado para suportar o carregamento da ontologia que descreve as tarefas e contexto, e, assim, disponibilizar estruturas computacionais (objetos Java) para utilização pela Interface de Edição de Tarefas e Contexto utilizada pelo médico. Testes de carga foram realizados para identificar o impacto que a solução utilizada introduz na arquitetura ClinicSpace, permitindo refiná-la e melhorá-la para uso pelo sistema.

A growing number of factors, including the costs, technological advancements, an ageing population, and medical errors are leading industrialised countries to invest in research on alternative solutions to improving their health care systems and increasing patients’ life quality. Personal Health System (PHS) solutions envision the use of information and communication technologies that enable a paradigm shift from the traditional hospital-centred healthcare delivery model toward a preventive and person-centred approach. PHS offers the means to follow patient health using wearable, portable or implantable systems that offer ubiquitous, unobtrusive bio-data acquisition, allowing remote access to patient status and treatment monitoring. Electrical Bioimpedance (EBI) technology is a non-invasive, quick and relatively affordable technique that can be used for assessing and monitoring different health conditions, e.g., body composition assessments for nutrition. EBI technology combined with state-of-the-art advances in sensor and textile technology are fostering the implementation of wearable bioimpedance monitors that use functional garments for the implementation of personalised healthcare applications. This research studies the development of a portable EBI spectrometer that can use dry textile electrodes for the assessment of body composition for the purposes of clinical uses. The portable bioimpedance monitor has been developed using the latest advances in system-on-chip technology for bioimpedance spectroscopy instrumentation. The obtained portable spectrometer has been validated against commercial spectrometer that performs total body composition assessment using functional textrode garments. The development of a portable Bioimpedance spectrometer using functional garments and dry textile electrodes for body composition assessment has been shown to be a feasible option. The availability of such measurement systems bring closer the real implementation of personalised healthcare systems. / <p>QC 20130405</p>

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