The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

The historical evolution of South Africa’s health sector, dating back to the 17th century, is significantly different from that of other African countries. Throughout the four centuries of development there have been numerous advances in health policy, legislative instruments and health system progress. Against this background this dissertation critically analysed the management of records in public health care institutions in South Africa. The study did this by addressing three objectives: assess the legislative, policy and regulatory contextual framework of South Africa’s health care system; assess the effectiveness of records management within public health care institutions; and identify appropriate interventions to address the challenges facing records management in the health care system. The study used purposive sampling to identify respondents with diverse expertise in three main sectors: the public sector, the private sector as well as in academic and research institutions. Using interview research technique the study solicited data that was analysed in order to provide a composite picture in addressing the research objectives. The analysis of data revealed three overarching themes. First, there is substantial legislative and regulatory dissonance in the management of health records in the country. While there are extensive legislative, regulatory and policy instruments that could be used to manage records, many lack coherence with records management issues such as records retention. Second, understanding the complex interplay of different legal and regulatory instruments is a critical first step, but it remains the beginning of the process towards building a sophisticated implementation process. For this process to be successful, study respondents argued that records compliance would have to be the backbone of all other compliance processes. Third, while there were substantial areas of weakness in the management of records in South Africa’s public health sector, there have been a number of pockets of excellence. These include the efforts towards complying to access to information legislation by the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development as well as the successful introduction of Enterprise Content Management systems in health care institutions by the Western Cape Department of Health / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

Magistro baigiamojo darbo objektas – informacijos vadyba, žinių vadyba, Lietuvos Vyriausybinės organizacijos. Darbo tikslas – ištirti informacijos vadybą ir žinių vadybą Lietuvos Vyriausybinėse organizacijose. Darbo uždaviniai: atskleisti informacijos vadybos ir žinių vadybos sąvokas; išanalizuoti informacijos vadybos ir žinių vadybos dedamuosius; ištirti informacijos vadybos ir žinių vadybos taikymą Lietuvos Vyriausybinėse organizacijose. Naudojantis mokslinės literatūros analizės, apibendrinimo metodais prieita prie išvados, kad Lietuvos Vyriausybinėse organizacijose informacijos ir žinių vadyba yra taikoma, bet nėra tikslingai valdoma. Išskirti tam tikri padaliniai ir (ar) atskiri asmenys, atsakingi už visų informacijos ir žinių vadybos procesų ar jų dalį funkcionavimą organizacijose. Nepaisant to, kad informacijos ir žinių vadybos potenciali organizacijai suteikiama nauda Lietuvos Vyriausybinėse organizacijose nėra suvokta, tačiau jos jau dabar turi tvirtą pagrindą informacijos ir žinių vadybos vystymuisi ir klestėjimui. Šis mokslinis magistro darbas bus naudingas tiek mokslininkams, tiek praktikams, o taip pat visiems besidomintiems informacijos ir žinių vadybos tematika teoriniu bei praktiniu aspektais. / The object – information management, knowledge management, the Lithuanian governmental organizations. The main goal of this scientific Master Diploma work – to explore the information and knowledge management in the Lithuanian governmental organizations. Objectives – to uncover the definitions of information and knowledge management; to explore the components of the information and knowledge management; to examine the use of the information and knowledge management in the Lithuanian governmental organizations. Using the analysis or scientific literature and the generalization methods the information and knowledge management were examined in the Lithuanian governmental organizations. It was discovered, that the information and knowledge management are already being used in the governmental organizations, though they are not being properly managed. There are separate departments, responsible for the work of the information and knowledge management’s processes or at least part of them. Despite everything, the true value of the information and knowledge management is not yet recognized by the Lithuanian governmental organizations, though even now there is a steady foundation for the development and prosperity of the information and knowledge management. This scientific work could be useful for those interested into the theory and practices of using the information and knowledge management.

Many organisations recognise the importance of Information Management (IM) and are implementing it into the structure and culture of their organisation and the roles of their managers and employees. More and more, organisations are thinking and operating strategically - their very survival depends on information. Information is the lifeblood of an organisation. An essential part of any business strategy is consideration of how information systems strategy supports change. Experts agree that information management has become a competitive necessity for all types of companies. The organisations that will succeed in the global information environment are those that can identify the value of information. One of the biggest problems facing managers today at all levels is the problem of investing in and using technology efficiently, especially Information Technology (IT). Business intelligence enables organisations to make well informed business decisions and thus can be the source of competitive advantages. This is especially true when companies are able to extrapolate information from indicators in the external environment and make accurate forecasts about future trends or economic conditions. Business intelligence becomes a top initiative and investment priority for Chief lnformation Officers (CIOs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). This dissertation addressed the need to identify the most important information management components as a foundation for the more in-depth discussion on information management principles and best practices in broad base industries. The elements of information management that appear the most frequent in the literature study indicate that authors place high priority on the following components: • Information security • Information management governance • IT standardisation • Regulatory requirements for information management • Business intelligence • Virtual collaboration • Management of service outsourcing • Selection of service providers • Project management • Change management • Risk management • Asset management • Knowledge management • Business processes • Balanced scorecard • Benchmarking • Competitive Intelligence • Business partnering. The empirical study was conducted in six phases. The first phase consisted of establishing a framework of information management best practices in broad base industries and the second phase was to develop a preliminary measuring instrument to investigate the perceptions of the sampling population on information management best practices. Phase three consisted of a pilot study in the development of a questionnaire. Phase four was to investigate perceptions of information management best practices in broad base industries. The analysis model was developed based on the criteria evaluated using advanced statistical procedures. The five most important components of information management that were identified were Business processes, Information security, Business intelligence, Risk management, and Information management governance. The best practices for these five most important components of information management were also identified. The five highest ranking best practices were: Virus control implemented; Information management strategy aligned with business goals; Documented business processes; Risk management framework implemented; and Support and training in place. Phase five was to describe the results of the empirical study for information management best practices in broad base industries, Phase six was to compare the perception what the information management best practices are as perceived by companies from broad base industries. The most uniform perception was identified for the information management component 'Business Intelligence'. On average, it was rated almost equally by all participants. On the other hand, there is a significant difference in perception from all industry segments and the whole industry for 'Risk Management'. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

O trauma é uma das principais causas de morte no mundo. Estima-se que mais de cinco milhões de pessoas morrem anualmente por algum tipo de trauma e que outras milhões que sobrevivem aos ferimentos ficam com sequelas temporárias ou permanentes, o que implica em custos diretos e indiretos de bilhões de reais. Desta forma, o problema do trauma envolve questões de ordem epidemiológica, social, assistencial, financeira e de gestão. Uma das maneiras de minimizar este problema é avaliar as fases do atendimento por meio de programas de melhoria de qualidade. O Comitê de Trauma do Colégio Americano de Cirurgiões criou uma base de dados única de registros de traumas de diversos centros nos Estados Unidos e Canadá na base de dados única do National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). Após coletados, os dados são processados e transformados em relatórios anuais com indicadores que fornecem uma visão da situação geral do atendimento ao trauma em todo o país. Muitos países investem recursos para construir registros de trauma ou base de dados regionais, que são importantes fontes de dados para construção de indicadores de qualidade. No Brasil não existe a notificação sistemática dos pacientes traumatizados nos serviços de saúde. O presente estudo tem por finalidade desenvolver um software com módulo de notificação e vigilância epidemiológica dos traumas associado à monitorização e análise dos dados consolidados utilizando indicadores de qualidade. Para teste do software foi utilizado o banco de dados de pacientes traumatizados atendidos na Unidade de Emergência do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - Universidade de São Paulo (UE-HCFMRP/USP) no período de 2006 a 2014. No software desenvolvido há duas maneiras de inserir dados de trauma: manualmente por meio do preenchimento do formulário eletrônico de notificação ou por meio da importação direta de arquivo Excel com a mesma sequência de dados. Desta forma, os indicadores são gerados automaticamente e podem ser visualizados em gráficos e tabelas. Os resultados obtidos através do uso da ferramenta foram utilizados para analisar a situação da assistência ao trauma na região de Ribeirão Preto. A análise destes resultados também foi essencial para verificar a capacidade da ferramenta em prover informações relevantes para a gestão hospitalar. A partir da análise dos resultados obtidos, concluímos que a ferramenta pode auxiliar a avaliação da qualidade do atendimento ao trauma. Uma possibilidade de expansão do sistema é incluir novos indicadores e coletar dados de outras instituições para permitir benchmarking externo. / Trauma is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that more than five million people die annually from some sort of trauma and millions more who survive their injuries are left with temporary or permanent sequelae, which leads to billions of Reais in direct and indirect costs. Thus, the question of trauma involves epidemiological, social, healthcare, financial and management issues. One way to lessen such problems is to evaluate the phases of medical care through quality improvement programs. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma has created a unique aggregation of trauma registry data from several centers in the United States and Canada in a single database, the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). After collected, the data are processed into annual reports with indicators that provide a view of the overall situation of trauma care nationwide. Many countries invest resources on gathering trauma registries or building regional databases, which are important sources of data for generating care quality indicators. In Brazil there is no systematic notification of trauma patients in health services. The present study aims to develop a software with a trauma notification and epidemiological surveillance module associated with the monitoring and analysis of the consolidated data using care quality indicators. To test the software we used the database of trauma patients treated at the Emergency Unit of the Clinics Hospital at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School - University of São Paulo (UE HCFMRP/USP) from 2006 to 2014. There are two ways to feed the software with the trauma data: manually, by completing an electronic notification form or by directly importing an Excel file with the same data stream. The indicators are then generated automatically and can be viewed in charts and tables. The results yielded from the software were used to assess the situation of trauma healthcare in the Ribeirão Preto region. The analysis of such results was also crucial to determine the software capacity to provide relevant information for hospital management. The results analysis led us to conclude that the software can help assess the quality of trauma healthcare. A possibility of system expansion is to include new indicators and collect data from other institutions to allow external benchmarking.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Many organisations recognise the importance of Information Management (IM) and are implementing it into the structure and culture of their organisation and the roles of their managers and employees. More and more, organisations are thinking and operating strategically - their very survival depends on information. Information is the lifeblood of an organisation. An essential part of any business strategy is consideration of how information systems strategy supports change. Experts agree that information management has become a competitive necessity for all types of companies. The organisations that will succeed in the global information environment are those that can identify the value of information. One of the biggest problems facing managers today at all levels is the problem of investing in and using technology efficiently, especially Information Technology (IT). Business intelligence enables organisations to make well informed business decisions and thus can be the source of competitive advantages. This is especially true when companies are able to extrapolate information from indicators in the external environment and make accurate forecasts about future trends or economic conditions. Business intelligence becomes a top initiative and investment priority for Chief lnformation Officers (CIOs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). This dissertation addressed the need to identify the most important information management components as a foundation for the more in-depth discussion on information management principles and best practices in broad base industries. The elements of information management that appear the most frequent in the literature study indicate that authors place high priority on the following components: • Information security • Information management governance • IT standardisation • Regulatory requirements for information management • Business intelligence • Virtual collaboration • Management of service outsourcing • Selection of service providers • Project management • Change management • Risk management • Asset management • Knowledge management • Business processes • Balanced scorecard • Benchmarking • Competitive Intelligence • Business partnering. The empirical study was conducted in six phases. The first phase consisted of establishing a framework of information management best practices in broad base industries and the second phase was to develop a preliminary measuring instrument to investigate the perceptions of the sampling population on information management best practices. Phase three consisted of a pilot study in the development of a questionnaire. Phase four was to investigate perceptions of information management best practices in broad base industries. The analysis model was developed based on the criteria evaluated using advanced statistical procedures. The five most important components of information management that were identified were Business processes, Information security, Business intelligence, Risk management, and Information management governance. The best practices for these five most important components of information management were also identified. The five highest ranking best practices were: Virus control implemented; Information management strategy aligned with business goals; Documented business processes; Risk management framework implemented; and Support and training in place. Phase five was to describe the results of the empirical study for information management best practices in broad base industries, Phase six was to compare the perception what the information management best practices are as perceived by companies from broad base industries. The most uniform perception was identified for the information management component 'Business Intelligence'. On average, it was rated almost equally by all participants. On the other hand, there is a significant difference in perception from all industry segments and the whole industry for 'Risk Management'. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

The historical evolution of South Africa’s health sector, dating back to the 17th century, is significantly different from that of other African countries. Throughout the four centuries of development there have been numerous advances in health policy, legislative instruments and health system progress. Against this background this dissertation critically analysed the management of records in public health care institutions in South Africa. The study did this by addressing three objectives: assess the legislative, policy and regulatory contextual framework of South Africa’s health care system; assess the effectiveness of records management within public health care institutions; and identify appropriate interventions to address the challenges facing records management in the health care system. The study used purposive sampling to identify respondents with diverse expertise in three main sectors: the public sector, the private sector as well as in academic and research institutions. Using interview research technique the study solicited data that was analysed in order to provide a composite picture in addressing the research objectives. The analysis of data revealed three overarching themes. First, there is substantial legislative and regulatory dissonance in the management of health records in the country. While there are extensive legislative, regulatory and policy instruments that could be used to manage records, many lack coherence with records management issues such as records retention. Second, understanding the complex interplay of different legal and regulatory instruments is a critical first step, but it remains the beginning of the process towards building a sophisticated implementation process. For this process to be successful, study respondents argued that records compliance would have to be the backbone of all other compliance processes. Third, while there were substantial areas of weakness in the management of records in South Africa’s public health sector, there have been a number of pockets of excellence. These include the efforts towards complying to access to information legislation by the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development as well as the successful introduction of Enterprise Content Management systems in health care institutions by the Western Cape Department of Health / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

O trauma é uma das principais causas de morte no mundo. Estima-se que mais de cinco milhões de pessoas morrem anualmente por algum tipo de trauma e que outras milhões que sobrevivem aos ferimentos ficam com sequelas temporárias ou permanentes, o que implica em custos diretos e indiretos de bilhões de reais. Desta forma, o problema do trauma envolve questões de ordem epidemiológica, social, assistencial, financeira e de gestão. Uma das maneiras de minimizar este problema é avaliar as fases do atendimento por meio de programas de melhoria de qualidade. O Comitê de Trauma do Colégio Americano de Cirurgiões criou uma base de dados única de registros de traumas de diversos centros nos Estados Unidos e Canadá na base de dados única do National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). Após coletados, os dados são processados e transformados em relatórios anuais com indicadores que fornecem uma visão da situação geral do atendimento ao trauma em todo o país. Muitos países investem recursos para construir registros de trauma ou base de dados regionais, que são importantes fontes de dados para construção de indicadores de qualidade. No Brasil não existe a notificação sistemática dos pacientes traumatizados nos serviços de saúde. O presente estudo tem por finalidade desenvolver um software com módulo de notificação e vigilância epidemiológica dos traumas associado à monitorização e análise dos dados consolidados utilizando indicadores de qualidade. Para teste do software foi utilizado o banco de dados de pacientes traumatizados atendidos na Unidade de Emergência do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - Universidade de São Paulo (UE-HCFMRP/USP) no período de 2006 a 2014. No software desenvolvido há duas maneiras de inserir dados de trauma: manualmente por meio do preenchimento do formulário eletrônico de notificação ou por meio da importação direta de arquivo Excel com a mesma sequência de dados. Desta forma, os indicadores são gerados automaticamente e podem ser visualizados em gráficos e tabelas. Os resultados obtidos através do uso da ferramenta foram utilizados para analisar a situação da assistência ao trauma na região de Ribeirão Preto. A análise destes resultados também foi essencial para verificar a capacidade da ferramenta em prover informações relevantes para a gestão hospitalar. A partir da análise dos resultados obtidos, concluímos que a ferramenta pode auxiliar a avaliação da qualidade do atendimento ao trauma. Uma possibilidade de expansão do sistema é incluir novos indicadores e coletar dados de outras instituições para permitir benchmarking externo. / Trauma is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that more than five million people die annually from some sort of trauma and millions more who survive their injuries are left with temporary or permanent sequelae, which leads to billions of Reais in direct and indirect costs. Thus, the question of trauma involves epidemiological, social, healthcare, financial and management issues. One way to lessen such problems is to evaluate the phases of medical care through quality improvement programs. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma has created a unique aggregation of trauma registry data from several centers in the United States and Canada in a single database, the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). After collected, the data are processed into annual reports with indicators that provide a view of the overall situation of trauma care nationwide. Many countries invest resources on gathering trauma registries or building regional databases, which are important sources of data for generating care quality indicators. In Brazil there is no systematic notification of trauma patients in health services. The present study aims to develop a software with a trauma notification and epidemiological surveillance module associated with the monitoring and analysis of the consolidated data using care quality indicators. To test the software we used the database of trauma patients treated at the Emergency Unit of the Clinics Hospital at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School - University of São Paulo (UE HCFMRP/USP) from 2006 to 2014. There are two ways to feed the software with the trauma data: manually, by completing an electronic notification form or by directly importing an Excel file with the same data stream. The indicators are then generated automatically and can be viewed in charts and tables. The results yielded from the software were used to assess the situation of trauma healthcare in the Ribeirão Preto region. The analysis of such results was also crucial to determine the software capacity to provide relevant information for hospital management. The results analysis led us to conclude that the software can help assess the quality of trauma healthcare. A possibility of system expansion is to include new indicators and collect data from other institutions to allow external benchmarking.