Physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff rely on alarms from various bedside monitors and sensors to alert when there is a change in the patient's clinical status, typically when urgent intervention is necessary. These alarms are usually embedded directly within the sensor or monitor and lacks the context of the patient's medical history and…

The realm of Earth science (ES) is increasingly data-intensive. Geoinformatics research attempts to robustly smooth and accelerate the flow of data to information, information to knowledge, and knowledge to decisions and to supply necessary infrastructure and tools for advancing ES. Enabling easy access to and use of large volumes of ES data and…

Timely identification and reporting of rare infectious diseases has important economic, social and health implications. In this study, we investigate how different stakeholders in the existing reporting system influence the timeliness in identification and reporting of rare infectious diseases. Building on the vision of the information supply…

This dissertation examines the effects of safety culture, including operational climate and practices, as well as the adoption and use of information systems for delivering high quality healthcare and improved patient experience. Chapter 2 studies the influence of both general and outcome-specific hospital climate and quality practices on process…

Online social networks provide rich opportunities to interact with friends and other online community members. At the same time, the addition of emerging location-sharing technologies--which broadcast a user's location online, including who they are with and what is happening nearby--is creating new dimensions to the types of interactions…

Previous studies have examined the curricula of information systems technology (IST) programs, and some have noted a discrepancy between the stated needs of industry and the skills and attributes of graduates of 4-year programs. In addition, gaps between the 2-year curricula and the perceived needs of employers have been noted. The purpose of this…

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become necessities in today's educational arena and are used extensively to improve office productivity and institutional efficacy. As the implementation of ERP systems usually is costly and time-consuming, it is imperative for administrators to understand how end users adopt the introduced…

Micro-enterprises (businesses with one to five employees) lie at the heart of the American economy but are not well-researched. It is believed that technology adoption has the potential to spark strong growth among micro-enterprises, but current technology adoption models are tailored for large businesses and do not consider the human, social, and…

In this dissertation I investigate how changes in the availability of information influences decision making in inherently ambiguous environments. As the Internet has not only fostered connectivity, but also catalyzed information generation on an unprecedented scale, my objective is to revisit the concept of information availability and salience…

Improvements in Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and standardization of interoperability standards among heterogeneous Information System (IS) applications have brought a paradigm shift in the way an IS application could be used and delivered. Not only an IS application can be built using standardized component but also parts of it can…

Recently, malicious computer users have been compromising computers en masse and combining them to form coordinated botnets. The rise of botnets has brought the problem of home computers to the forefront of security. Home computer users commonly have insecure systems; these users do not have the knowledge, experience, and skills necessary to…

DeLone and McLean first introduced a review of information systems success (ISS) literature and proposed the information success model in 1992. The contribution of technology use and acceptance and its influence toward ISS is an area of information systems research that has received significant attention from both researchers and practitioners.…

This research study was undertaken to gain a richer understanding of the use of patient-introduced online health information during the physician/patient examination and knowledge transfer process. Utilizing qualitative data obtained from ten family physician interviews and workflow modeling using activity diagrams and task structure charts, this…

To protect and conserve the Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem services, it is important not only to understand and conserve species and ecosystems, but also to instill an understanding and appreciation for biodiversity and ecosystem services in the next generations of both scientists and citizens. Thus, this dissertation combines research into…

Application and project domain specifications are an important aspect of Information Systems (IS) development. Observations of over thirty IS projects suggest dimly perceived structural patterns in specifications that are unaccounted for in research and practice. This investigation utilizes a theory building with case studies methodology to…