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This pilot is a pre/post comparative assessment of a leadership course developed and delivered using an innovative, ontological/phenomenological model of education. Participants in the course delivered in Singapore in July of 2014 provided measures of the effectiveness of their leadership before and after the course, using a scale from 1 (least effective) to 10 (most effective). The difference in scores from pre- to post-course was the unit of measure. Of 167 participants, 72% provided pre- and post-course measures. Average scores forparticipants’ effectiveness as leaders in the domains of Relationships, Vocation, Avocation, and Self increased from pre- to post-course by 1.9, 1.86, 1.64, and 1.85 respectively (p < 0.0001). Future research of this innovative model of leadership education will include long-term follow-up.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of household food insecurity among immigrant women connected to perinatal programs offered through a community-based organization in Edmonton, and to explore their experiences in coping with food insecurity.

This study utilized a mixed methods research design. A community-based participatory research approach was used to engage health workers who were connected to immigrant women and families through the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative in Edmonton. Through the health workers a sample of 213 immigrant women connected to their perinatal programs completed the Household Food Security Survey. Following the survey, 17 women completed semi-structured interviews which were analyzed using content analysis.

The vast majority of women (94 percent (n=199)) lived in food insecure households, and 53 percent (n=112) in severely food insecure. In semi-structured interviews, women specifically described not having enough money to buy vegetables, fruit and meat, and perceiving a lack of control over foods they ate and offered to their families.

This study highlights the need for support to be provided to immigrant families for acquiring healthy food in Canada.

The mixed methods design with a decent sample of often underrepresented research participants highlights an area in need of further research and greater support.

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss Luciano Floridi’s 2019 book The Logic of Information: A Theory of Philosophy as Conceptual Design, the latest instalment in his philosophy of information (PI) tetralogy, particularly with respect to its implications for library and information studies (LIS).

Nine scholars with research interests in philosophy and LIS read and responded to the book, raising critical and heuristic questions in the spirit of scholarly dialogue. Floridi responded to these questions.

Floridi’s PI, including this latest publication, is of interest to LIS scholars, and much insight can be gained by exploring this connection. It seems also that LIS has the potential to contribute to PI’s further development in some respects.

Floridi’s PI work is technical philosophy for which many LIS scholars do not have the training or patience to engage with, yet doing so is rewarding. This suggests a role for translational work between philosophy and LIS.

The book symposium format, not yet seen in LIS, provides forum for sustained, multifaceted and generative dialogue around ideas.

The purpose is explore an approach to acquire, analyze and report data concerning an organizational change initiative that combines knowledge generation and knowledge use, and contrast that with a method where knowledge generation and use is separated. More specifically, the authors contrast a participatory group workshop with individual interviews analyzed with thematic analysis, focusing on information about the change process and its perceived practical relevance and usefulness.

Participants were managers responsible for implementing a broad organizational change aiming to improve service quality (e.g. access and equity) and reduce costs in a mental health service organization in Sweden. Individual interviews were conducted at two points, six months apart (i1: n = 15; i2: n = 18). Between the interviews, a 3.5-h participatory group workshop was conducted, during which participants (n = 15) both generated and analyzed data through a structured process that mixed individual-, small- and whole-group activities.

Both approaches elicited substantive information about the content, purpose and process of change. While the content and purpose findings were similar across the two data sources, the interviews described how to lead a change process, whereas the workshop yielded concrete information about what to do. Benefits of interviews included personal insights about leading change while the workshop provided an opportunity for collective sense-making.

When organizational stakeholders work through the change process through a participatory workshop, they may get on the same page, but require additional support to take action.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt a holistic diversity lens with the aim to enhance the understanding of the multifaceted paradigms for diversity management at the tertiary level.

This contribution takes the inspiration of existing diversity paradigms used in business settings and relates them to higher education. It then articulates them in greater depths in line with the diversity segments of the so-called higher education awareness for diversity wheel and seeks a common denominator that may be shared across disciplines by adding an eclectic and context-specific approach.

It was identified that the underlying assumptions which constitute the commonly known diversity paradigms are only partially applicable for the tertiary level. It is further suggested that in view of the highly dynamic kaleidoscope of higher education institutions, multiple, at times conflicting rationales for diversity management need to be addressed.

This paper seeks to address the paucity of studies with regard to diversity management at the tertiary level. By drawing on relevant paradigms and relating them to specific diversity segments, this study intends to make a meaningful scholarly contribution to the existing body of knowledge.

The field of implementation science has emerged as a response to the challenges experienced in translating evidence-based practice and research findings to healthcare settings. Whilst the field has grown considerably in recent years, comparatively, there is a conspicuous lack of attention paid to the work of pre-implementation, that is, how we effectively engage with organisations to support the translation of research into practice. Securing the engagement and commitment of healthcare organisations and staff is key in quality improvement and organisational research. In this paper the authors draw attention to the pre-implementation phase, that is, the development of an amenable context to support implementation research.

Drawing from examples across an interdisciplinary group of health systems researchers working across a range of healthcare organisations, the authors present a reflective narrative viewpoint. They identify the principal challenges experienced during the course of their work, describe strategies deployed to effectively mitigate these challenges and offer a series of recommendations to researchers based on their collective experiences of engaging in collaborations with healthcare organisations for research and implementation. This reflective piece will contribute to the narrative evidence base by documenting the challenges, experiences and learning emerging from the authors’ work as university researchers seeking to engage and collaborate with healthcare organisations.

The RELATE model is presented to guide researchers through six key steps and sample strategies in working to secure organisational buy-in and creating a context amenable to implementation and research. The six stages of the RELATE model are: (1) Recognising and navigating the organisation's complexity; (2) Enhancing understanding of organisational priorities and aligning intervention; (3) Leveraging common values and communicating to key individuals the value of implementation research; (4) Aligning and positioning intervention to illustrate synergies with other initiatives; (5) Building and maintaining credibility and trust in the research team; and (6) Evolving the intervention through listening and learning.

The authors hope this guidance will stimulate thinking and planning and indeed that it will encourage other research teams to reflect and share their experiences and strategies for successful engagement of organisations, thus developing a knowledge base to strengthen implementation efforts and increase efficacy in this important enterprise.

Researchers must relate to the world’s everyday reality of the healthcare managers and administrators and enable them to relate to the potential of the research world in enhancing practice if we are to succeed in bringing the evidence to practice in a timely and efficient manner. Climates receptive to implementation must be developed incrementally over time and require actors to navigate messy and potentially unfamiliar organisational contexts. In this paper, the often invisible and lamentably underreported work of how we begin to work with healthcare organisations has been addressed. The authors hope this guidance will stimulate thinking and planning and indeed that it will encourage other research teams to reflect and share their experiences and strategies for successful engagement of organisations, thus developing a knowledge base to strengthen implementation efforts and increase efficacy in this important enterprise.

The purpose of the present paper is to show that a clearly delineated digital strategy and an agile mindset is key for the successful adoption of digital innovation in society and business.

This is a case study and critical discussion.

It was seen that both the business case (Netflix) and the societal case on the level of a country (El Salvador) lack a digital strategy, which initiated the innovation problems. However, Netflix proved to have an agile reactivity, which helped them to get back on track, which was not the case for El Salvador.

This discussion is relevant because the domain of “society” and the domain of “business” are often discussed as separated worlds. However, this paper intends to show that there are some logical dynamics underlying digital transformation in the case of digital innovation that apply to both of these domains.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a robotic system for percutaneous surgery. The key component in the system, a robotic arm that can manipulate a puncture needle is presented. The mechanical design, the motion control and the force control method of the robotic arm are discussed in the paper.

The arm with an arc mechanism placed on a 3D Cartesian stage is developed as a puncture needle manipulator to locate the position of the needle tip, tune the needle’s posture and actuate the puncture motion under the visual guidance of two orthogonal X-ray images of a patient by a surgeon. A focusing method by using two laser spots is proposed to automatically move the needle tip to a surgery entry point on the skin. A dynamics model is developed to control the position of the needle mechanism and an explicit force control strategy is utilized to perform the needle insertion.

With the surgical system, a surgeon can easily perform puncture operation by taking two orthogonal real-time X-ray images as a visual feedback and accurately navigating the needle insertion. The laser-guided focusing method is efficient in placement of the needle tip. The explicit force control strategy is proved to be effective for holding constant and stable puncture force in experiments.

The robotic arm has an advantage in easy redirection of the needle because the rotation and the translation are decoupled in the mechanism. By adopting simple laser pens and a well-developed kinematics model, the system can handle the entry point, locating task automatically. The focusing method and the force control method proposed in the paper are useful for the present system and could be intuitive for similar surgical robots.

Healthcare environments are highly complex and full of variation and inefficiency. However, variation and inefficiency can be measured and improved, providing better quality care at a lower cost. This study aims to report the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in a haematology laboratory in a university hospital in Egypt.

The authors used case study research. Applying the define, measure, analyse, improve and control phases of the DMAIC methodology together with lean tools, the problem was identified, the process mapped, the causes analysed and improvements implemented.

Results show that LSS can be successfully implemented in challenging public sector healthcare settings. Management commitment, generating and implementing ideas from frontline staff, using a variety of quality tools and previous LSS training were all key to success. This is evidence that the LSS methodology is adaptable to any process, people or place.

There are no publications on LSS implementation in health care in Egypt. This study demonstrates the successful use of LSS in a university hospital (public sector) in a developing country, sharing insight into the facilitators and barriers in a real context with others in the healthcare field.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practitioners and researchers a more condensed and structured perspective on the adoption of information management systems by the health-care industry, given the spread and the increased amount of research concerning the topic.

This paper is a literature review. A Technology (What?) – Context and before adoption Analysis (When and Why?) – Implementation (How?) – Outcomes (What for?) framework is used to present the trends concerning information technology adoption in an accessible manner.

The main finding is that small or large health-care organizations should no longer focus on information systems’ adoption but should adopt a digital transformation paradigm. By considering this paradigm, management practices related to information technologies’ adoption projects should be complemented by practices related to the continuous organizational changes and readaptation of the organizational strategy, to benefit the advantages information systems can offer.

The main recommendation for health-care industry managers is to adopt specific practices to manage the digital transformation process of their organizations, as they should understand that it is no longer about adopting information technologies, but about managing the associated organizational change.

Instead of focusing on specific information systems’ adoption as other papers do, this paper provides a holistic understanding of the information technologies and management practices which are used in the field.