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Recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low worldwide although health data standards have been perceived to be an essential tool for interoperability barriers within health information systems. The relevant literature still lacks significant studies concerning the issues of the adoption process of health data standards in healthcare organisations, and in particular those in developing nation. In addressing this gap in knowledge, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia, and to develop a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption.

A multiple-case study methodology was conducted in Saudi Arabia and different data collection methods were used included semi-structured interviews with different decision makers at various levels and departments of the subject organisations, and documents analysis to identify critical factors to the adoption decision of health data standards.

The findings demonstrated a list of key factors from different aspects impacting the adoption decision of health data standards in the subject organisations. The technological factors are complexity and compatibility of health data standards, IT infrastructure, switching costs, market uncertainties, systems integration and enhancing the use of advanced systems. The main organisational factors are the lack of adequate policies and procedures and information management plan, resistance to change, data analysis and accreditation. The core environmental factors are the lack of national regulator and data exchange plan, national healthcare system and the shortage of professionals.

The results from the qualitative data were difficult to generalise to other populations. For example, the structure of the health sector varies from country to country as each health sector has its own characteristics that affect and are affected by national circumstances. In order to provide a more grounded theory resulting from a qualitative study, further examination by conducting quantitative studies is required. In addition, the TOE approach does not take into account the sociotechnical issues and further research is required in this area.

The investigation into the adoption decision of health data standards in tertiary healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia has led to the development of a technology-organisation-environment list that contains the critical factors influencing their adoption. The research outcome has addressed the gap in knowledge of the adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations. It also provides the decision maker, and in particular those in developing nations, with better understanding of the adoption process of those standards to better judge and to develop suitable strategy of adoption interventions.

Although recent studies indicated that the level of adoption of health data standards in healthcare organisations remains frustratingly low, the prior studies related to health data standards missed out on the exploration of the adoption decision of different types of health data standards in healthcare organisations and the critical factors influencing their adoption. Research on health data standards adoption based out of a developing country such as Saudi Arabia can also potentially provide several new insights on standards practices.

This paper seeks to carry out a critical study of health data standards and adoption process with a focus on Saudi Arabia.

Many developed nations have initiated programs to develop, promote, adopt and customise international health data standards to the local needs. The current status of, and future plans for, health data and related standards in developing countries are still questionable due to the absence of government actions, plans and related studies. However, the development of interoperable standards not only technically defines a method of interoperation between the different systems in a network but most importantly represents a proposal for the future of complex socio‐technical systems that is the shape of a national health information network and therefore a complex balance between different types of requirements including organisational, social and managerial aspects must be managed. This reaffirms the need for a more in‐depth study to evaluate the adoption of health information technology‐related standards at the decision‐making stage in developing countries. Based on diffusion of innovation theory and the theories surrounding the economics of standards, a case study method was applied in Saudi Arabia to study the adoption process of health data standards.

The preliminary analysis findings revealed that there are 18 factors influencing the decision‐making adoption process of acquiring certain standards.

Qualitative study methods have been employed in the present study that have shed light on the many issues that need to be addressed in this field. Studies involving other countries including advanced nations should be done for which the present results have economic, social and educational implications.

The present study and findings should help inform policy and decision makers in developing health systems with the potential creation of information and structure that can sustain future and improved systems.

This paper makes a novel contribution at both academic and practical levels since both the academics and practitioners, who are devoted to the ongoing use of health data standards, still lack a significant body of evidence with regard to the factors that influence their adoption.

The current trend in Big Data analytics and in particular health information technology is toward building sophisticated models, methods and tools for business, operational and clinical intelligence. However, the critical issue of data quality required for these models is not getting the attention it deserves. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues of data quality in the context of Big Data health care analytics.

The insights presented in this paper are the results of analytics work that was done in different organizations on a variety of health data sets. The data sets include Medicare and Medicaid claims, provider enrollment data sets from both public and private sources, electronic health records from regional health centers accessed through partnerships with health care claims processing entities under health privacy protected guidelines.

Assessment of data quality in health care has to consider: first, the entire lifecycle of health data; second, problems arising from errors and inaccuracies in the data itself; third, the source(s) and the pedigree of the data; and fourth, how the underlying purpose of data collection impact the analytic processing and knowledge expected to be derived. Automation in the form of data handling, storage, entry and processing technologies is to be viewed as a double-edged sword. At one level, automation can be a good solution, while at another level it can create a different set of data quality issues. Implementation of health care analytics with Big Data is enabled by a road map that addresses the organizational and technological aspects of data quality assurance.

The value derived from the use of analytics should be the primary determinant of data quality. Based on this premise, health care enterprises embracing Big Data should have a road map for a systematic approach to data quality. Health care data quality problems can be so very specific that organizations might have to build their own custom software or data quality rule engines.

Today, data quality issues are diagnosed and addressed in a piece-meal fashion. The authors recommend a data lifecycle approach and provide a road map, that is more appropriate with the dimensions of Big Data and fits different stages in the analytical workflow.

The move toward e-health care in various countries is envisaged to reduce the cost of provision of health care, improve the quality of care and reduce medical errors. The most significant problem is the protection of patients’ data privacy. If the patients are reluctant or refuse to participate in health care system due to lack of privacy laws and regulations, the benefit of the full-fledged e-health care system cannot be materialized. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the available e-health data privacy protection laws and the perception of the people using the e-health care facilities.

The researchers used content analysis to analyze the availability and comprehensive nature of the laws and regulations. The researchers also used survey method. Participants in the study comprised of health care professionals (n=46) and health care users (n=187) who are based in the Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The researchers applied descriptive statistics mechanisms and correlational analysis to analyze the data in the survey.

The content analysis revealed that the available health data protection laws are limited in scope. The survey results, however, showed that the respondents felt that they could trust the e-health services systems offered in the UAE as the data collected is protected, the rights are not violated. The research also revealed that there was no significance difference between the nationality and the privacy data statements. All the nationality agreed that there is protection in place for the protection of e-health data. There was no significance difference between the demographic data sets and the many data protection principles.

The findings on the users’ perception could help to evaluate the success in realizing current strategies and an action plan of benchmarking could be introduced.

Along with technology-based ecosystems, healthcare start-ups are expanding multi-fold. On the other hand, underlying uncertainties pose several challenges for these health-tech enterprises at macro-meso-micro level, influencing their business circumstances and profitability. The current study aims to comprehend the macro-, meso- and micro-level barriers that make it difficult for enterprises to set up healthcare technology start-ups. The study also observed the perceived effect of these challenges on firms' performance and cost structure over time. Using the theory of behaviour under uncertainty, the study revealed multiple systemic, sector-related, human and implementation barriers that hinder business growth and lead to uncertainties for health-tech start-ups.

Using a grounded theory approach, the study collected the views of 51 health tech start-ups in the UK using an online participants pool. The data was collected using qualitative data techniques in the form of open-ended essays, and a content analysis using thematic coding process was conducted. The questions centered around the different institutional uncertainties or barriers while setting up or running a healthcare start-up.

The study revealed several macro-, meso- and micro-level barriers these technology-based enterprises perceive in the healthcare industry. These are recognised as systemic barriers, such as lack of funding and procedural issues; sector-related barriers, such as market-related impediments; human barriers, including psychological barriers and resistance to new technology; and implementation barriers, such as operational and personnel issues.

The study used qualitative, open-ended essay techniques to collect the data. Future studies may use a mixed-methods approach to provide holistic insights. The study is conducted in a single developed country, the UK. Future work may expand these findings by comparing developed market challenges with those of emerging markets and by assessing the viewpoints of healthcare start-ups.

This research will assist the healthcare sector and government understand health tech start-up hurdles and uncertainty. Policymakers must assist start-ups and encourage entrepreneurial innovation. Regulating and enabling policies will help. The paper examines start-ups' macro, meso and micro uncertainties. Policymakers promoting sector entrepreneurship must consider these barriers while designing policy guidelines.

The study contributes to the existing literature on technology start-ups, particularly in the healthcare industry, and identifies significant barriers these start-ups face. The study synthesizes research on health-tech start-up uncertainty and bridges the gap between theory and practice by applying empirical findings.

Informatics work introduces information professionals to taxonomies and other classification systems outside the boundaries of traditional bibliographic systems. This paper aims to provide an overview of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) for informaticians and information professionals who may not have worked with the system previously.

In this paper, the author reviews the purpose, history, current use and future trends of the ICD classification system.

ICD is used globally as a standard vocabulary for medical diagnoses and, in the USA, for medical procedures in hospitals. Understanding the classification system is vital to working with clinical medical data.

The ICD classification system is not commonly used by information professionals. This paper provides a brief overview that will familiarize the information professional with the standard and its uses related to medical practice.

The purpose of this research is to identify ways in which medical record keeping systems and health information systems might be integrated effectively and sustainably. The aims include minimising the workload of busy frontline health professionals and radically improving data quality.

This is a qualitative research project, grounded in the theoretical stance that information systems are sociotechnical systems. The primary focus of this research is on real-life custom and practice. The study population consisted of participants in information systems. As is common in qualitative research, sampling was purposive rather than statistically representative.

This research suggests one unconventional conclusion. New approaches that use intermediate and hybrid technologies may have a better prospect of delivering satisfactory, realistic and affordable medium- to long-term solutions than strategies predicated on the assumption that only systems that are wholly electronic are worth considering.

This research is original in the sense that it investigated records rather than information technology systems. The findings are likely to be of applicability in other developing countries, especially those that share legacy systems with Malawi, such as Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The purpose of this research is to examine the potential of e‐health by focusing explicitly on the delivery of health care products and services. The examination of e‐health activity is guided by one broad research question, “What is the potential for constructing e‐health strategy as an innovative health technology?”. A great amount of attention has been given to e‐health activity in the present day. However important this form of e‐health is, this type of service simply does not face the same constraints that must be addressed by those actually delivering health care services.

The researchers employed a qualitative data collection technique to formulate more examples and cases to derive lessons for Jordan. Phone interviews in a random sample were conducted with corporate officers in Jordan in order to reveal the internal organizational structure and business trends, interface issues, marketing strategies, as well as comparing and contrasting the online health world to the traditional health care realm.

Internet‐related projects is a top priority for health care information technology executives in the present day, with a cautious approach toward “e‐health”, as many products have yet to mature, and that the “click and mortar” model may perhaps be the optimal strategy for e‐health in Jordan.

This paper reviews the e‐health trends to demonstrate the tremendous potential for health‐related commercial activity on the internet. However, the researcher examining the barriers facing e‐health to the Jordanian health system also pointed out almost insurmountable challenges.

Despite the apparent promise of e‐health, its instability is measured by its failure so far to systematically penetrate the organization of health care. Beyond the pragmatic negotiation of e‐health in the immediate context of clinical practice, there are wider issues about how the development/implementation of e‐health is funded, about its organization and management at the policy level; and about its potential medico‐legal risks.

It is hoped that the handful of ventures into cyber medicine appears to be coming from a few enterprising physicians who have set up medical practices on the Web.

This case study aims to present the implementation of knowledge management (KM) in the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Ministry is a very complex environment and it is suffering from information overload. The health care industry is a very intensive knowledge field where experience and tacit knowledge play an important part in delivering efficient health care to the nation.

The paper takes the form of a case study conducted by people involved in the implementation of the KM initiative at the MoH and by the observation and interviews conducted by external researchers.

The paper finds that the implementing of KM had many positive impacts on the MoH in terms of planning and decision making. Even though it is difficult to create a knowledge sharing culture in an environment under pressure involving medical and administrative staff, the initial KM initiatives implemented at the MoH of Bahrain are believed to be the start for a serious and comprehensive KM drive within the Ministry in the coming few years.

The lessons learned from this case can help other health organizations to better understand the barriers and enablers associated with implementing a KM initiative in a complex environment.

The health-care industry has multiple stakeholders, with knowledge dispersed among clinicians, experts and patients and their families. As the adoption of health-care information technologies (HITs) depends on multiple factors, this study aims to uncover the motivators for adopting them.

The study considers 391 respondents, representing the health-care sector, to evaluate the motivators for adopting HITs for better-dispersed knowledge management. The authors analyze the responses using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the actual structure of the factors, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

EFA categorized the factors into four classes: quality management; information sharing; strategic governance; and available technological infrastructure. CFA revealed that the strategic governance factor is most predictive of successfully adopting HITs that model the normative pressure of Institutional theory in health-care organizations. These results indicate that, along with considerations of finances, care quality and infrastructure, effective government involvement and policy-making are important for successful HIT adoption.

Results reveal that stakeholders’ motivating factors for HIT adoption in a developed economy like the United Arab Emirates are based on considering HITs as a knowledge management mechanism. These factors may help other nations in HIT implementation and drive valuable innovations in the health-care sector. This research presents the implications for health-care professionals and stakeholders in relation to adopting HITs and their role in knowledge flow for efficient care.

HITs offer an affordable and convenient platform for collaboration among diverse teams in the health-care sector. Apart from this, it helps in facilitating an interactive platform for knowledge creation and transfer for the benefit of users and providers.