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This study draws on neoclassical and behavioural economics theories to provide an empirical insight into the effect of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing residential buildings in Ghana.

This study used the quantitative approach involving survey data. A sample size of 242 participants was involved in the study. Applying principal component analysis on the responses from the participants, an index for damp-proofing, cost, knowledge, and social norms was derived. After generating the indexes, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was applied to estimate the impact of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing.

The results from the OLS regression revealed that knowledge has a significant positive effect on damp-proofing while costs and social norms have significant negative effect on damp-proofing in Ghana. This study, therefore, concludes that although neoclassical economic factors such as knowledge and cost affect behaviour (damp-proofing), behavioural factors such as social norms also matter.

The outcome of this study calls for policymakers to consider putting in place measures that increase knowledge and promote the use of damp-proofing techniques during the construction of buildings. In addition, the study calls for scholars to partake in collaborative research amongst disciplines such as economics, psychology, and the construction industry in order to provide more innovative solutions, the key of which is finding innovative ways to damp proof buildings.

This study is original in its context as it draws on neoclassical and behavioural economics theories to provide an empirical insight into the effect of knowledge, costs, and social norms on damp-proofing of residential buildings in Ghana. This is an area that has received less attention in the areas of building biology and building pathology globally.

This work aims to integrate the concepts generated by a systematic literature review on patient flows in emergency departments (ED) to serve as a basis for developing a generic process model for ED.

A systematic literature review was conducted using PRISMA guidelines, considering Lean Healthcare interventions describing ED patients’ flows. The initial search found 141 articles and 18 were included in the systematic analysis. The literature analysis served as the basis for developing a generic process model for ED.

ED processes have been represented using different notations, such as value stream mapping and workflows. The main alternatives for starting events are arrival by ambulance or walk-in. The Manchester Triage Scale (MTS) was the most common protocol referred to in the literature. The most common end events are admission to a hospital, transfer to other facilities or admission to an ambulatory care system. The literature analysis allowed the development of a generic process model for emergency departments. Nevertheless, considering that several factors influence the process of an emergency department, such as pathologies, infrastructure, available teams and local regulations, modelling alternatives and challenges in each step of the process should be analysed according to the local context.

A generic business process model was developed using BPMN that can be used by practitioners and researchers to reduce the effort in the initial stages of design or improvement projects. Moreover, it’s a first step toward the development of generalizable and replicable solutions for emergency departments.

Malnutrition has a significant effect on the onset and progression of infective pathology. The malnutrition status in COVID-19 cases are not understood well. Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is a new and detailed assessment of nutrition and inflammation cases. This study aims to investigate the effect of PNI on mortality in COVID-19 patients.

In total, 334 patients (males, 142; females, 192; 64.5 ± 12.3 years of age) with COVID-19 bronchopneumonia were enrolled in this investigation. Cases were divided into two groups with respect to survival (Group 1: survivor patients, Group 2: non-survivor patients). Demographic and laboratory variables of COVID-19 cases were recorded. Laboratory parameters were calculated from blood samples taken following hospital admission. PNI was calculated according to this formula: PNI = 5 * Lymphocyte count (10⁹/L) + Albumin value (g/L).

When the patients were assessed with respect to laboratory values, leukocytes, neutrophils, CRP, ferritin, creatinine and D-Dimer parameters were significantly lower in Group 1 patients than Group 2 patients. Nevertheless, serum potassium value, lymphocyte count, calcium and albumin values were significantly higher in Group 1 cases than in Group 2 cases. PNI value was significantly lower in Group 2 cases than in Group 1 cases (39.4 ± 3.7 vs 53.1 ± 4.6).

In this retrospective study of COVID-19 cases, it can be suggested that PNI may be a significant risk factor for mortality. In conclusion of this research, high-risk patients with COVID-19 can be determined early, and suitable medical therapy can be begun in the early duration.

This systematic review aimed to identify and categorize applications using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) to support activities outside of direct healthcare provision.

A systematic electronic search was performed, and 53 studies were included after the selection process.

The results show that FHIR is being used to support (1) clinical research (i.e. clinical research based on interventional trials, data interoperability to support clinical research and advanced communication services to support clinical research), (2) public health and (3) medical education. Despite the FHIR potential to support activities outside of direct healthcare provision, some barriers were identified, namely difficulties translating the proposed applications to clinical environments or FHIR technical issues that require further developments.

This study provided a broad review of how FHIR is being applied in clinical activities outside of direct clinical care and identified three major domains, that is, clinical research, public health and medical education, being the first and most representative in terms of number of publications.

This study aims to investigate the consumer behavior toward telemedicine services in India during the COVID-19 pandemic onset. With lockdown restrictions and safety concerns in visiting brick-and-mortar clinics or hospitals during the pandemic, Telemedicine had emerged as a potent alternative for seeking redressal to health issues. Based on theory and focus interviews with the telemedicine users, the researchers proposed a model to understand the intent and actual usage of telemedicine in India.

The cross-sectional study undertaken used a questionnaire designed on a seven-point Likert scale and administered to respondents with the objective of identifying the determinants of intent and actual usage of telemedicine services. Simple random sampling was used to collect primary data. The data was cleaned and finally a sample of 405 responses complete in all respects was considered for analysis. The questionnaire comprised of 34 items and following the recommendation of Hair et al. (2016), which says the minimum sample size in structural equation modeling should be ten times the number of indicator variables, a sample size of 405 was deemed adequate.

The research paper finds that performance expectancy, attitude, credibility and self-efficacy positively impact the intention of consumers to use telemedicine services. As the effort expectancy or risk perception toward telemedicine increases the intent and actual usage of telemedicine decreases. The intention to use telemedicine emerged as a strong predictor of the actual usage of telemedicine. Intent to use telemedicine was explained 81.4% by its predictors of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, risk, credibility and self-efficacy, and actual usage was explained 79.9% by its predictors. This study also reports that telemedicine was found to be popular among chronic as well as episodic patients though the preference was skewed in favor of the episodic patients. One of the advantages of telemedicine is its availability round the clock, and the study found that 8 a. m. to 12 noon time slot as the most preferred slot for seeking telemedicine services.

Chang (2004) opined that telemedicine can fulfill the needs of all stakeholders: citizens, health-care consumers, medical doctors and health-care professionals, policymakers, and so on. Considering the promise telemedicine holds, this realm must be studied and leveraged to the full potential. The study found that patients were using telemedicine even for their day-to-day aliments. This indicates a growing popularity of telemedicine and as such an opportunity for telemedicine companies to leverage it. In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot give commercial advertisements for medicines, and the same can only be sold through a registered medical practitioner’s prescription. As such there is total dependency on the medical practitioner for the sale of medicines. Telemedicine companies offer services of home delivering medicines clubbed with medical consultation thus giving them forward integration in their business models. Using telemedicine the patients had control over the timings of the services offered, and as such the waiting time to get a consultation and subsequent treatment was reduced considerably. Best medical advice from across the globe is available to the patient at less cost. Medical practitioners also stand to benefit as they can treat a variety of cases, collaborate among the medical fraternity and give consultation safely in case of fatal contagious diseases.

This study points to a definite growing popularity of telemedicine services not only in episodic patients but also chronic patients. Telemedicine with its unique advantages holds the promise to grow exponentially in the future and is a compelling health-care segment to focus on for delivering health-care solution to the geographically distant consumers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are increasingly used for day-to-day operations in healthcare. Each has a relatively limited scope or task, and several find application in managerial and organizational processes. More and more, AI and machine learning (ML) devices have received US FDA approval in the last decade. This chapter covers the main AI applications in healthcare, with a focus on organizational AI solutions (administrative AI), the main AI developers, their investment and real-world data and case studies in healthcare and other sectors. AI can be applied in resource management and procurement, resource allocation, clinical case management, staff work shift scheduling and handling of emergencies. AI applications are becoming ubiquitous in hospital (e.g. emergency room and operating theatre) and outpatient settings (e.g. ambulatory care and dentistry clinics). Their implementation is expected to bring direct benefits for patient care and satisfaction. This chapter gives a broad definition of AI in healthcare settings, with a focus on administrative applications and their use in case study data.

This study aims to ascertain the personal characteristics of a group of successful academic entrepreneurs in a South African university enterprise and the prevalent barriers and enablers to their entrepreneurial endeavour.

The authors used a Delphi process to identify and rank the characteristics, enablers, barriers and behaviours of entrepreneurial academics, with a Nominal Group Technique applied to establish challenges they encounter managing their enterprise and to propose solutions.

Perseverance, resilience and innovation are critical personal characteristics, while collaborative networks, efficient research infrastructure and established research competence are essential for success. The university’s support for entrepreneurship is a significant enabler, with unnecessary bureaucracy and poor access to project and general enterprise funding an impediment. Successful academic entrepreneurs have strong leadership, and effective management and communication skills.

The main limitation is the small study participant group drawn from a single university enterprise, which complicates generalisability. The study supported the use of Krueger’s (2009) entrepreneurial intentions model for low- and middle-income country (LMIC) academic entrepreneur investigation but proposed the inclusion of mitigators to entrepreneurial activation to recognise contextual deficiencies and challenges.

Skills-deficient LMIC universities should extensively and directly support their entrepreneurial academics to overcome their contextual deficiencies and challenging environment.

This study contributes to addressing the paucity of academic entrepreneur research in LMIC contexts by identifying LMIC-specific factors that inhibit the entrepreneur’s movement from entrepreneurial intention to entrepreneurial action.

This paper aims to examine Holacracy as a self-management system and its implications for organizational theory. By exploring its distinctive ontology and epistemology, the paper explains how Holacracy redefines organizational structures and contributes to organizational change.

Adopting a conceptual approach, this essay draws upon existing literature to explore Holacracy’s departure from conventional organizational theories.

The paper discusses how Holacracy challenges traditional organizational concepts, defining its holarchical approach, and emphasizing dynamic hierarchies and role-based organization. It also highlights Holacracy’s focus on emergent intelligence, continuous feedback loops and structured knowledge acquisition through roles and organization spaces. By examining its unique ontology and epistemology, the paper offers insights into how Holacracy aligns with an emergent paradigm known as integral, metamodern or teal.

Further empirical research is needed to assess its practical implementation and long-term effects on organizational performance and employee well-being. Future studies could also explore challenges and limitations associated with adopting Holacracy in different organizational contexts.

Organizations considering alternative ways of working should examine Holacracy. Implementing Holacracy requires understanding its principles and may involve significant changes, with potential benefits such as increased agility and employee engagement.

Holacracy’s departure from traditional structures and approach to power can have broader social implications and contribute to more democratic and participatory cultures.

This paper is a pioneering contribution to the under-researched domain of alternative organizational models. It sheds light on the originality and distinctiveness of Holacracy, highlighting its unique approach to hierarchy, role-based organization and consciousness within organizations.

This, the first chapter of this text provides an introduction to a social world that is constructed through cultural attitudes, with a long history of the so-called ‘insane’ or deviants being excluded from society. In many cases, this was due to their behaviour resulting from an addiction issue, mental ill health or as is often the case, both. The chapter begins with an introduction to what led to the conceptualisation of this text. Once this occurs, the interplay between the ‘normal’ and the deviant, as discussed above, is played through an examination of the cultural perceptions of both mental health and addiction. In addition, to support this, a brief historical timeline of mental health, addiction and dual diagnosis is described and visually depicted. Finally, the chapter concludes with an introduction to both editors of this text who then describe what will be discussed in the chapters that follow.

As Ratnam makes clear, a cultural–historical perspective on teacher/faculty excessive entitlement is indispensable if we are to use this concept to work with, rather than undermine, education practitioners. In this chapter, a networked relational model of activity is proposed as a tool for understanding excessive entitlement from a cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) perspective, so that the transformative potential of both entitlement and the modeling of it may be harnessed. The networked relational model, which represents CHAT activity systems as a hand-draw or painted network of relationships between actors and artifacts, allows its creators, in their capacity as researchers or academics, to use it as an imaginative artifact in the Wartofskian sense. That is, by representing activity systems of academic performance as networks of interacting entities, the emergence of excessive entitlement can be traced to, and perhaps mitigated through the relationships that they represent. In this regard, the why, what, and how artifacts proposed by Engeström are taken up as useful means for enhancing the functioning of the networked relational model not just as a tool for analyses of entitlement but also a means for envisioning alternative countercultures into being.