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The purpose of this study is to provide current state of knowledge on how the COVID-19 emergency situation necessitated the behaviour influencing use and acceptance of telehealth. This study interlinks the health belief model (HBM) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to highlight the challenges and opportunities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the public health sector.

This study used three online databases (Emerald publishing, Science Direct and Taylor and Francis) that enabled the authors to access electronic journal articles. Search strategy was used to extract articles based on the relevance of this study.

The key findings from this study suggested that the COVID-19 emergency forced health-care workers and their patients to rapidly use and rely on telehealth to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmissions. The key benefits of telehealth use highlighted an expansive cost effective and convenient access to health-care services irrespective of geographical local and levels of physical impairment. Moreover, telehealth inhibited in person human interaction, which was perceived as impersonal and not ideal for new patient consultations. The barriers outweighed the benefits; as a result, it is unlikely that there will be a wide use of telehealth beyond the COVID-19 emergency situation.

The research findings are limited to discussions drawn from available secondary data. The criteria within telehealth for policymakers to note the technology acceptance and use for both health-care and outpatient stakeholders and their health seeking behaviour. Health-care sectors (private and public) and government need to understand enablers of effective telehealth in policymaking to ease the barriers during an emergency situation like a pandemic.

This study contributes to the emerging literature on how COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and accelerated telehealth by extending both the UTAUT and HBM theories. This study is expected to contribute and expand literature on telehealth during emergency situations, given the novice nature of COVID-19 and limited literature surrounding it.

This study aims to analyze government hotline text data and generating forecasts could enable the effective detection of public demands and help government departments explore, mitigate and resolve social problems.

In this study, social problems were determined and analyzed by using the time attributes of government hotline data. Social public events with periodicity were quantitatively analyzed via the Prophet model. The Prophet model is decided after running a comparison study with other widely applied time series models. The validation of modeling and forecast was conducted for social events such as travel and educational services, human resources and public health.

The results show that the Prophet algorithm could generate relatively the best performance. Besides, the four types of social events showed obvious trends with periodicities and holidays and have strong interpretable results.

The research could help government departments pay attention to time dependency and periodicity features of the hotline data and be aware of early warnings of social events following periodicity and holidays, enabling them to rationally allocate resources to handle upcoming social events and problems and better promoting the role of the big data structure of government hotline data sets in urban governance innovations.

The aim of this paper is to describe and detail a new workforce initiative developed by a third sector organisation: the Multi-Modality Practitioner (MMP) approach, in the provision of support for individuals and families presenting in the community with multiple and varied needs.

This paper presents a case study on a third sector organisation’s pioneering workforce initiative – the MMP approach.

The MMP approach has been developed as an alternative to existing approaches designed to address “single issues”, providing those working in the fields of health and social care and beyond, with a range of technically eclectic interventions from different modalities and approaches, to enable them to appropriately meet the needs of individuals and families presenting with multiple needs.

This case study is limited to providing a rationale for the development of the MMP approach and a description. It does not include any formal analysis as a future evaluative paper will report on an independent theory-based examination of the MMP approach via Theory of Change and Contribution Analysis methodologies.

This case study describes the innovative role that the MMP approach as a workforce innovation plays in meeting multiple needs in the community when deployed as either a stand-alone approach, or one that can be integrated with existing community-based services including, but not limited to, mental health, employability, addiction, housing, homelessness, public health and child and family services.

The MMP approach constitutes a disruptive, pionneering, client-centred, workplace innovation that is trauma-informed, relational, strengths-based and continuity of care focused, capable of supporting individuals and families with multiple needs, negating onward referral and with potential to reduce demand on public services. It also provides those working in a range of health and social care roles with the opportunity to expand their therapeutic repertoire through high-quality, multi-skilled training in evidence-based and societally important, technically eclectic interventions drawn from a range of modalities.

Pluralistic practice and multimodal theories have been in existence for over two decades, the MMP approach however, whilst sharing some of these concepts and philosophies, differs in that it provides those trained in the approach with a ‘toolkit’ of interventions that are technically eclectic, drawn from a range of modalities and approaches and aimed at meeting multiple needs in a pragmatic and accessible manner. Furthermore, the Diploma in Multi-Modality Practice is the first training course of its kind available at postgraduate level.

Effective use of data across public health organisations (PHOs) is essential for the provision of health services. While health technology and data use in clinical practice have been investigated, interactions with data in non-clinical practice have been largely neglected. The purpose of this paper is to consider what constitutes data, and how people in non-clinical roles in a PHO interact with data in their practice.

This mixed methods study involved a qualitative exploration of how employees of a large PHO interact with data in their non-clinical work roles. A quantitative survey was administered to complement insights gained through qualitative investigation.

Organisational boundaries emerged as a defining issue in interactions with data. The results explain how data work happens through observing, spanning and shifting of boundaries. The paper identifies five key issues that shape data work in relation to boundaries. Boundary objects and processes are considered, as well as the roles of boundary spanners and shifters.

The study was conducted in a large Australian PHO, which is not completely representative of the unique contexts of similar organisations. The study has implications for research in information and organisational studies, opening fields of inquiry for further investigation.

Effective systems-wide data use can improve health service efficiencies and outcomes. There are also implications for the provision of services by other health and public sectors.

The study contributes to closing a significant research gap in understanding interactions with data in the workplace, particularly in non-clinical roles in health. Research analysis connects concepts of knowledge boundaries, boundary spanning and boundary objects with insights into information behaviours in the health workplace. Boundary processes emerge as an important concept to understand interactions with data. The result is a novel typology of interactions with data in relation to organisational boundaries.

The paper aims to investigate the practices facilitating the transformation of healthcare services, understanding the resulting outcomes in terms of well-being and uplifting changes. a systematic literature review (SLR) focusing on analyzing the healthcare sector under the transformative service research (TSR) theoretical domain is conducted to achieve this goal.

Employing a structured SLR developed based on the PRISMA protocol (Pickering and Byrne, 2014; Pickering et al., 2015) and using Scopus and WoS databases, the study identifies and analyzes 49 papers published between 2021 and 2022. Content analysis is used to classify and analyze the papers.

The SLR reveals four transformative practices (how) within the healthcare sector under the TSR domain, each linked to specific well-being outcomes (what). The analysis shows that both practices and outcomes are mainly patient-related. An integrative framework for transformative healthcare service is presented and critically examined to identify research gaps and define the trajectory for the future development of TSR in healthcare. In addition, managerial implications are provided to guide practitioners.

This research is among the first to analyze TSR literature in the context of healthcare. The study critically examines the TSR’s impact on the sector’s transformation, providing insights for future research and offering a roadmap for healthcare practitioners to facilitate uplifting changes.

This paper aims to identify the key issues that healthcare knowledge-intensive organizations (KIPOs) should focus on to define themselves as socioenvironmentally and governance responsible for integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) logic into their business strategy. At the same time, this provides an understanding of how healthcare KIPOs contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

Taking a cue from the model developed by the World Economic Forum, an “ESG Processing Map” was constructed to identify qualitative disclosures that a healthcare company should consider when implementing sustainability logic. The aspects investigated were processed, considering national and international standards, frameworks and disclosures. The social network analysis technique was used to systemize and combine the outcomes of these processes and analyze their consistency with sustainable development.

Through the “ESG Processing Map,” 13 areas of action and 27 topics specific to the health sector were defined on which to intervene in sustainability in order to concretely help HCOs to place specific corrective and improvement actions over time concerning socioenvironmental and governance aspects.

The paper provides contribute, on the one hand, to enriching and updating the academic literature on ESG logic in a still underexplored field and, on the other hand, to provide these types of organizations with a “compass” to guide and orient their business strategies towards sustainability.

The study aims to have adults discuss experiences, practices needs and feelings related to health management, diet and food security.

A total of 22 immigrants were recruited from the Open School of Immigrants in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, to participate in focus group discussions. The discussions were audio recorded and thematically analyzed. Three major themes were developed: pathways to health care, nutrition management and experiences related to food shortages.

Most of the participants identified internet as the most commonly used way to obtain health advice; they also stated that unexpected ill-health is usually accompanied by feelings of fear, anxiety and loneliness. Immigrants, who had visited a public hospital in Greece, identified the language barrier as the most challenging issue, followed by the long waiting lists. Fear and anxiety of hospital visits was an important factor in their decision to vaccinate against COVID-19. Lack of time, high cost of healthy food and lack of knowledge were the most common obstacles to a healthy diet. One in two immigrants reported that they have faced food insecurity issues in the past. Stress, psychological distress and irritation were reported, due to food shortages, especially during the first few years of arriving in Greece. The exclusion of some foods, reduced portion sizes and buying cheaper foods were among the coping strategies to address food shortages.

The study offers an insight into immigrant’s experiences, practices and feelings about managing health issues and could be useful for health-care practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate user satisfaction with digital health solutions by identifying and prioritizing different service attributes on the basis of their impact on improving user satisfaction.

Through a literature review and interviews with health professionals and patients, 20 attributes of digital health services provided in Italy have been identified. User satisfaction with these attributes has been evaluated by adopting the Kano model’s continuous and discrete analyses.

The findings reveal the essential attributes of digital health services that meet users' expectations, identify the attributes that users appreciate or dislike having and highlight unexpected attributes that lead to a significant boost in satisfaction when provided.

This study demonstrates the efficacy of the Kano model in assessing the nonlinear correlation between user satisfaction and the quality of digital health services, thus contributing to fill a gap in the literature in this area. The main limitation of this work is the use of a non-probabilistic sampling method.

This research suggests healthcare institutions and organizations consider user preferences when designing digital health solutions to increase their satisfaction. The results indicate different effects on user satisfaction and dissatisfaction for different categories of attributes in the Italian context.

Previous works studied customer satisfaction with digital health, assuming a linear relationship with service quality, or investigated consumer adoption intentions focusing on the technological factors. This work advances available knowledge by analyzing the nonlinear relationship between digital health attributes and users’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response model, this study aims to explore the impact of soft aspects of service quality on revisit intention through the mechanism of perceived empathy.

For the examination of the hypothesized relationships, the study adopts structural equation modelling to analyse the data of 562 respondents (i.e. 281 family members and 281 inpatients).

The empirical results suggest that service quality increased family member empathy perception, which, in turn, improved inpatients’ revisit intentions.

Past studies have focused on the roles of overall service quality. The authors have extended the literature by examining the specific but important aspect of service quality and its effects on emotional response. Importantly, the study explains that the affective reactions of a patient’s family, fastened with perceived empathy, have a central role in influencing the patients’ subsequent reactions. Moreover, the prior studies collected the data either from hospital employees or patients. However, in the present study, the authors used a unique sample (family members as well as patients) to have a deeper understanding. Thus, the study enhances the literature on the stimuli-response (i.e. service quality – revisit intentions) relationship in the context of service marketing in general and health care in specific. Important academic and managerial contributions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

A direct correlation exists between waste disposal, disease spread and public health. This article systematically reviewed healthcare waste and its implication for public health. This review identified and described the associations and impact of waste disposal on public health.

This paper systematically reviewed the literature on waste disposal and its implications for public health by searching Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. Of a total of 1,583 studies, 59 articles were selected and reviewed.

The review revealed the spread of infectious diseases and environmental degradation as the most typical implications of improper waste disposal to public health. The impact of waste includes infectious diseases such as cholera, Hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, and bacteremia, and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife.

Infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, bacteremia and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife are some of the public impacts of improper waste disposal.

Healthcare industry waste is a significant waste that can harm the environment and public health if not properly collected, stored, treated, managed and disposed of. There is a need for knowledge and skills applicable to proper healthcare waste disposal and management. Policies must be developed to implement appropriate waste management to prevent public health threats.