Background: Patient experience is a crucial measure of patient-centeredness and quality care delivery. Digital health may contribute to patient experience by offering tailored and accessible avenues of care. Purpose: I explored how access to digital health, including telehealth, electronic health records, and online booking, may be associated with improved primary care experience for Ontario adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study included Ontario adults (16 years or older) who responded to waves 27 to 29 of the Health Care Experience Survey (HCES) between May 2019 and February 2020. Adults who did not see their primary care provider within the past 12 months or did not have a primary care provider were excluded. Outcomes included a summed patient experience score derived from five HCES experience-related questions and time to appointment for a health concern. Associations between outcomes and digital health interventions were tested through chi-square tests and logistic regression while adjusting for confounders and stratifying by health care utilization. Results: 3,700 participants met the inclusion criteria, where 2204 remotely communicated with their primary care provider (59.6%), 98 digitally accessed health records (2.6%), and 120 booked an appointment online (3.2%). We observed no significant associations between digital health tools and patient experience or time to appointments through chi-square tests. Participants with over three primary care visits in the past year who accessed online booking were 84% less likely to report poorer experience scores than participants without online booking access [Adjusted OR 0.16, 95% CI 0.02 – 0.56, p < 0.05]. Participants with three or fewer primary care encounters who accessed online booking, compared to the same reference group, were 72% less likely to report having a same or next day appointment with their primary care provider [Adjusted OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.08 – 0.64, p < 0.01]. Significant associations were observed between other sociodemographic factors and patient experience and access to care outcomes. Interpretation: The associations between digital health access and patient experience and access to care were inconsistent across different analyses. Despite experimental studies observing the benefits of digital health adoption in primary care, the effect is unclear in the real-world context. Furthermore, drawing conclusions on the relationship between digital health and quality care outcomes was limited due to the lack of adoption of digital health before the COVID-19 pandemic. As digital health adoption grows, future research should utilize the availability of further data to evaluate the effectiveness of digital health in Ontario primary care. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Patient outcomes such as experience and timeliness of care are frequently viewed as aims of quality health care. Although past studies indicate digital health supports quality care, the real-world effectiveness of digital health is underexplored in Ontario. This thesis aimed to explore relationships between real-world use of digital health in Ontario and primary care experience and access using survey data. This study found very few survey respondents used digital health before the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary care experience and access to care of adults who did use digital health did not differ very much from adults who did not use the technology. Some outcomes differed in adults who booked their primary care appointment online compared to those who did not; however, the study could not conclude on the relationship. Other personal factors such as age and residence area impacted the quality of primary care. This study was limited due to the lack of digital health users. Future studies should explore digital health's impact on patient outcomes beyond the pandemic.

Medical education aims at forming students’ professional identity. This includes skills and attitudes such as communication and teamwork skills. One of the thesis’ aims is to identify students’ typical difficulties with learning communication skills, and to understand how these affect their identity development. Group discussions of student-patient interviews were video-taped, and selected discussions were transcribed and analyzed. Students had difficulties in establishing trustful relationships with their patients, asking about sensitive topics, responding empathetically, and with applying formal structures to the consultation. Students’ professional identity was supported by peer students’ and teachers’ comments, which created a common language and fostered selfmonitoring abilities. Another aim was to study the relationship between students* attitude towards communication training, group learning, and their self-regulatory skills. In a survey study, established instruments were combined with a new questionnaire. Four medical schools participated – two with traditional and two with problem-based curricula – in Sweden and Germany. Statistical analyses revealed that female students were more positive towards learning communication skills than male students were. Good self-regulatory skills were related to a positive attitude towards group learning and clinical experience before academic studies. It was concluded that early clinical experience benefits students’ selfregulated learning, and promotes a positive attitude towards communication training. Awareness of typical difficulties can facilitate the acquisition of coping strategies. / Medicinsk undervisning syftar till att forma studenternas professionella identitet. Den omfattar färdigheter och inställningar, t.ex. kommunikationsfärdigheter och förmågan att arbeta i grupp. Ett av avhandlingens syften är att identifiera studenternas typiska svårigheter med att lära sig färdighet i läkar-patient kommunikation samt att förstå hur den påverkar identitetsutvecklingen. Gruppdiskussioner av student-patient intervjuer videofilmades, utvalda diskussioner transkriberades och analyserades. Studenterna berättade om svårigheter med att etablera förtroliga relationer med patienterna, att prata om känsliga ämnen, att visa empati och att använda intervjumallen. Den professionella identiten stöttas av studenternas och lärarnas kommentarer, vilka bidrar till ett gemensamt språk och förmågan till själviakttagelse. Andra syftet är att undersöka sambandet mellan studenternas inställningar till kommunikationsfärdigheter och grupparbete, samt deras förmåga till självreglerat lärande. I en enkätundersökning kombinerades befintliga instrument med ett nytt frågeformulär. Fyra medicinska fakulteter deltog: två med traditionella och två med problembaserade undervisningsmetoder, en av varje i Sverige och i Tyskland. Statistiska analyser visade att kvinnliga studenter är, jämfört med manliga, mer positiva till att träna upp kommunikativa färdigheter. Förmågan till självreglerat lärande var relaterad till en positiv inställning till gruppinlärande och till klinisk erfarenhet innan studierna påbörjas. Slutsatsen är att tidig klinisk erfarenhet fostrar självstyrt lärande och en positiv inställning till kommunikationsträning. Medvetenhet om typiska svårigheter kan underlätta för studenter att anamma strategier att hantera dessa.

Over the years, researchers have argued that user friendly and result oriented systems were not necessarily products of participatory user involvement; however there is a degree of user involvement required in the development process of any Information System. The aim of this research is to discover the level of user involvement in in-house software development process in All Nigerian Bank (ANB). We use two research methods - survey and process observation. A survey was conducted for 107 end users and 10 developers (programmers) of 5 selected in-house developed software solutions; we complement our survey with an active observation of a typical software development process. Relative to the five in-house software solutions studied in our reseach; our study reveals that user involvement in the development process on the whole for these five solutions has been 8% participative, 18% representative, 33% consultative and 41% informative. 67% of end user respondents agreed that these specific in-house developed solutions are user friendly while 62% said solutions meet business needs. This result is a clustered representation of the 5 cases as a way of exploring the “normal in-house development process” in ANB We conclude that the level of user involvement relative to business needs and user friendliness is a reflection of a number of factors which include ANB’s business strategy, organizational culture and politics; other factors include weak Nigerian labour laws, low ethical standards and high unemployment rate. / Contact Mobile PhoneNo : +2348067982450

Die Humanzentrierung stellt den Menschen in den Mittelpunkt der (Weiter-)Entwicklung von (neuen) Produkten. Der Fokus liegt jedoch hierbei hauptsächlich auf den Menschen, die das betreffende Produkt besitzen oder nutzen. Nichtnutzung und Ablehnung wird im Kontext der NutzerInnenfreundlichkeit allerdings seltener betrachtet, kann jedoch wertvollen Input für eine Produktentwicklung bieten, indem mehr als nur das Negativfeedback von Nutzenden betrachtet wird. Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit dem Thema Nichtnutzung im Kontext der Produktentwicklung und wie der Aspekt Ablehnung zukünftig eingebunden werden kann. Im Rahmen einer Fallstudie werden NutzerInnen und NichtnutzerInnen von Kaffeeautomaten über ihre Nutzung bzw. Ablehnung des Produkts befragt, um die Ergebnisse anschließend für eine umfassende Produktentwicklung aufzubereiten. Es wird untersucht inwiefern sich die Ergebnisse unterscheiden und welche davon für eine Produktentwicklung wertvoller sind. Es werden Vorschläge gemacht, wie die Ergebnisse aufbereitet werden können, zum Beispiel mithilfe der sogenannten Non-Persona, die das Konzept der Persona auf Nichtnutzung übersetzt. Abschließend werden Empfehlungen für die zukünftige Einbindung von NichtnutzerInnen in der Produktentwicklung gegeben.

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The U.S. Congress has made health information technology a central component of the national quest to improve health care delivery. The problem addressed in this study was the uncertainty among healthcare providers regarding the benefits of health care information technology adoption relative to healthcare delivery processes and outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the effectiveness of information technology as perceived by healthcare providers. The research questions were designed to investigate the relationship between health information technology and organizational effectiveness, exchange of information, organizational process, organizational productivity, and direct personal care. Sociotechnical systems theory and Donabedian's framework for health care quality evaluation were the theoretical bases for this quantitative study. Data were provided through anonymous online survey of 116 healthcare workers, and analyzed using multiple regression and Spearman's correlation coefficient. The results of the study showed a statistically significant positive correlation between organizational effectiveness, organizational exchange of information, organizational process, organizational productivity, and healthcare information technology. No statistically significant correlation existed between personal care and health information technology. These findings suggest that providers' frequent use of healthcare information technology, like telemedicine, makes patients less involved. The implications for social change include enabling healthcare providers to develop an efficient and effective way to engage with patients, in order to achieve effective patient-centered organization.

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Die Nutzung von Augmented Reality (AR) stellt eine Vielzahl von Lösungsansätzen für Herausforderungen unterschiedlicher Bereiche, z.B. der Industrie, Medizin, Unterhaltungsmedien und Bildung, zur Verfügung. Speziell werden hier die Möglichkeiten von AR in der Fertigungsindustrie, genauer bei der Abnahme elektrischer Antriebe der Siemens AG, betrachtet. Dabei werden unter anderem messbare Größen wie Drehmoment, Ankerstrom, -spannung, Drehzahl, Schwingungen, Fertigungstoleranzen etc. gemessen, aber auch nicht quantifizierbare Größen wie Sichtprüfungen von Schweißnähten und Lackierung in Betracht gezogen. Angestrebt wird eine Methode, welche es zukünftig ermöglicht, die Inbetriebnahme ortsunabhängig zu verfolgen und Inspektionen aus der Ferne durchzuführen. Die Herausforderung liegt dabei darin, eine zumindest gleichwertige, wenn nicht sogar verbesserte Erfahrung und Prüfergebnisvalidität für die Beteiligten gegenüber der vor Ort Abnahme zu erzeugen. Im Rahmen des Forschungsvorhabens wurde in interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit zwischen Ingenieur/-innen und Sozialwissenschaftler/-innen ein Demonstrator-Konzept für eine ortsunabhängige Maschinenabnahme entwickelt.

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Digital platforms and tools have already taken over a large part of human daily lives and with the latest pandemic of COVID-19 it is clear how these technological trends have just increased, in both intensity and complexity, across most of the different aspects that comprehend our everyday activities. For instance, people are staying more at home and people now socialize, consume and work with help of different digital tools, which in other words means that the homes’ original role is changing to a more multifaceted and integral function. Based on such reality, this master thesis aims to investigate how property owners of housing rentals in Stockholm could extract value from these mentioned trends and context by incorporating new alternative income streams in their current business models. Moreover, this academic inquiry also intends to investigate the financial effect that these streams incorporation could have on a property valuation in the housing rental sector of Stockholm.  This thesis project follows two different, yet subsequential, lines of research, where the first one is an interview with local industry experts that provided insights in which kind of potential new value streams that property owners could incorporate in their current business models. They also shared information regarding which kind of digital tools are needed nowadays to make the new offering to the tenants in the most effective way within the Stockholm Private Rental Sector context. The industry experts also gave estimations of the cash flows enhancements that these service incorporation could bring to the owner . This information created the foundation that was used to later interview property owners. The property owners gave information of which kind of digital tools they used today, and what their view was about incorporating the new services and contracts that the industry experts had pointed out as possible new income streams. Both sets of interviews were analyzed with help of finding themes and reviewed literature that allowed the authors of this project to move on to evaluate the financial effect on a housing rental property in Stockholm whenever the new cash flows of the filtered income streams were considered.  The thesis has reached the conclusion that an incorporation of provision of services can create value for both the tenant and the property owner, even though specific services that should be incorporated aren't pointed out. The market was, at the time this thesis was written, immature and fast moving, which makes it hard to say which services will be successful in the Swedish market. Despite this are the results pointing out that contracts as home-electricity and insurances are among the services that have the lowest barrier to implement, and have already been tried by some actors in the industry. For those actors that have started an incorporation of provision of services have already noticed new cash-flows streams, even if they today are minor. The second conclusion is that those cash-flows will in the future trigger higher property values as properties will be a more attractive asset to possess. To be able to identify the demand and extract value from it in a successful way is a user-centered approach a key aspect, as the transaction must create new value for all actors involved / Digitala plattformer och verktyg har redan tagit över en stor del av människors dagliga liv och med den senast Corona-pandemin är det tydligt hur teknologiska trender har ökat, i både intensitet och komplexitet, och påverkar de flesta människors vardagsaktiviteter. Under Corona-pandemin har människor spenderat mer tid hemma och människor har socialiserar, konsumerar och arbetar med hjälp av olika digitala verktyg, vilket innebär att hemmets originella funktion har förändrats till en mer mångfacetterad funktion i människors liv. Baserad på detta så undersöker denna masteruppsatsen hur fastighetsägare, av hyresrätter i Stockholm, kan extrahera värde från dessa nämnda trender genom att inkorporera nya intäktsströmmar i deras befintliga affärsmodell. Denna akademiska uppsats undersöker också vilken påverkan dessa nya intäktsströmmar har på fastighetsvärden i hyresrättssektorn i Stockholm.  Metoden för att nå en slutsats är uppdelad i två processer, där den första är att intervjua vad som benämns i uppsatsen som industri-experter inom ämnet proptech. Dessa bidrar med insikt kring vilka nya intäktsströmmar som möjliga att inkorporera i fastighetsägares nuvarande affärsmodell. Dom understödjer också med information kring vilka digitala verktyg som är nödvändiga för att kunna inkorporera tjänsteförmedling på ett effektivt sätt till hyresgäster i Stockholms privata hyressektor. Utöver detta så ger industri-experterna estimeringar kring vilka värden som kunde tillfalla fastighetsägarens för varje enskild tjänsteförmedling. Denna information används som ett underlag vid nästa skede av intervjuprocessen med fastighetsägarna. Fastighetsägarna bidrar med information kring vilka digitala verktyg dom använde, vid tidpunkten denna uppsats skrevs, och deras syn på att inkorporera förmedling av de tjänster och kontrakt som industri-experterna pekar ut under första intervjuprocessen. Intervjuerna analyseras med hjälp av tematisk analys och parallellt med detta analyseras litteratur, vilket skapade möjlighet att utvärdera vilka finansiella effekter som en inkorporering av tjänsteförmedling kan få på hyresrättssektorn i Stockholm.  Uppsatsen når slutsatsen att inkorporering av tjänsteförmedling kan skapa värde för både hyresgästen och fastighetsägaren, även om de specifika tjänsterna inte pekas ut. Marknaden var vid tidpunkten när denna uppsats skrevs omogen och utvecklades snabbt vilket gör det svårt att svara på vilka tjänster som kommer vara framgångsrika i en svensk marknad. Trots detta pekar resultat på att kontakt som hushållsel och hemförsäkring hade låga ingångsbarriärer i marknaden att implementera, och vissa fastighetsägare har redan påbörjat denna process. Denna inkorporering har för dessa aktörer inneburit vissa nya intäktsströmmar, som dock är väldigt begränsade. Den andra slutsatsen är att de nya intäktsströmmar i framtiden kommer utlösa högre fastighetsvärderingar då fastigheter kommer bli en attraktivare tillgång att inneha. För att kunna identifiera efterfrågan och extrahera värdet ur en tjänsteförmedlingen, på ett framgångsrikt sätt, är en användarcentrerad strategi en viktig aspekt då transaktionerna som sker mellan fastighetsägaren och hyresgästen måste vara värdeskapande för alla inblandade aktörer.