Linking Electronic Medical Records Use to Physicians’ Performance: A Contextual Analysis

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) studies have broadly tested EMR use and outcomes, producing mixed and inconclusive results. This study carefully considers the healthcare delivery context and examines relevant mediating variables. We consider key characteristics of: (i) interdependence in healthcare delivery processes, (ii) physician autonomy, and (iii) the trend of hospital employment of physicians, and draw on theoretical perspectives in coordination, shared values, and agency to explain how the use of EMR can improve physicians’ performance. In order to examine the effects of physician employment on work practices in the hospital, we collected 583 data points from 302 hospitals in 47 states in the USA to test two models: one for employed and another for nonemployed physicians. Results show that information sharing and shared values among healthcare delivery professionals fully mediate the relationship between EMR use and physicians’ performance. Next, physician employment determines which mediating variable constitutes the pathway from EMR use to physicians’ performance. Finally, we highlight the impact of shared values between the hospital and physicians in enhancing information sharing and physicians’ performance, extending studies of these behaviors among network partners in industrial settings. Overall, our study shows that EMR use should be complemented by processual (information sharing), social (shared values), and structural (physician employment) mechanisms to yield positive effects on physicians’ performance.     

Navigating the technology-media-movements complex

Abstract

In this article we develop the notion of the technology-media-movements complex (TMMC) as a field-definition statement for ongoing inquiry into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social and political movements. We consider the definitions and boundaries of the TMMC, arguing particularly for a historically rooted conception of technological development that allows better integration of the different intellectual traditions that are currently focused on the same set of empirical phenomena. We then delineate two recurrent debates in the literature highlighting their contributions to emerging knowledge. The first debate concerns the divide between scholars who privilege media technologies, and see them as driving forces of movement dynamics, and those who privilege media practices over affordances. The second debate broadly opposes theorists who believe in the emancipatory potential of ICTs and those who highlight the ways they are used to repress social movements and grassroots mobilization. By mapping positions in these debates to the TMMC we identify and provide direction to three broad research areas which demand further consideration: (i) questions of power and agency in social movements; (ii) the relationships between, on the one hand, social movements and technology and media as politics (i.e. cyberpolitics and technopolitics), and on the other, the quotidian and ubiquitous use of digital tools in a digital age; and (iii) the significance of digital divides that cut across and beyond social movements, particularly in the way such divisions may overlay existing power relations in movements. In conclusion, we delineate six challenges for profitable further research on the TMMC.     

Navigating Ethical Challenges in Social Media: Social Work Student and Practitioner Perspectives

ABSTRACT

The portable, accessible nature of technology affords social workers opportunities to venture outside traditional service contexts by engaging in the virtual realm. This qualitative article uses two small-scale exploratory case studies to investigate the concept of ethical challenges in online peer networking and blogging by a social work student and social work practitioner. The article seeks to address the opportunities for and complexities of navigating technology and social media, while also emphasising the need for social workers to acquire a range of skills and competencies, and use well-established frameworks to engage in ethical online practice.     

浅析中国近现代回族报刊的经济功能

由于近现代回族报刊中并没有专门的经济类报刊,因而普通报刊的经济功能被开发出来,对广大回族企业和相关经济活动起到了较好的引导和规范作用。诸如《边铎》《天山》《晨熹》等一系列回族报刊的出现,其中所描述的经济行为,所解析的经济政策等相关内容不仅提供了重要的回族经济史依据,而且还在客观上也大大缓解了当时回族聚居区的经济压力,刺激了当时回族产业的新模式的生成,并促进了当地经济和社区的繁荣,从而协调了部分政治性矛盾,进而推动了一些文化问题的解决。     

梁漱溟的中国哲学观

梁漱溟一生致力于反省中国文化及其哲学、实现中国文化及其哲学的复兴,文化与哲学构成梁漱溟学术思想的两翼。人们多从文化观的视角来研究梁漱溟的思想,其实,梁漱溟在20世纪早期就系统阐发中国哲学观,论证了中国哲学在中国文化中的地位、中国哲学的更新、中国哲学的特质等重要问题。梁漱溟的中国哲学观奠定了现代新儒学的基础,对现代中国哲学的创建与发展产生了深远的历史影响。     

中国冶金史研究的前行者(二)——1974～2004年北京科技大学冶金与材料史研究所的创建与发展

北京科技大学冶金与材料史研究所是国内最早从事专业科学技术史研究的机构之一,在中国古代冶金史学术研究中做出了一系列杰出工作。文章通过对冶金与材料史研究所①的前任所长——韩汝玢教授的访谈,回溯了该所早期的发展和建设情况。      

高校数字化校园建设的研究

数字化校园是高校教育信息化的重要标志之一,文章从数字化校园的含义入手,详细论述了数字化校园建设的目的,对发展现状进行详尽分析并提出解决对策,针对数字化校园平台规划提出了概念模型、技术模型和功能模型,即由信息化编码标准、系统接口规范等构成的概念模型;由多媒体技术、数据挖掘技术构成的技术模型;由教务、学生、人事等应用系统构成的功能模型,并分析了几类安全威胁以及提出相应的解决对策,以期为数字化校园建设提供依据和指导.     

技术学的学科结构和科学定位

技术学作为以技术为研究对象的一系列学科的统称,在19世纪进入草创时期。技术学目前已经建立和有望建立的分支学科,可以区分为普通技术学、理论技术学、专门技术学、应用技术学四个学科群组。在科学知识体系中,技术学是介于数学科学、自然科学与哲学科学、社会科学之间的交叉学科门类,同技术哲学、技术史、工程学、工程技术学等学科门类均有密切的联系。     

民营经济对制度变迁的影响——基于清末至民国的近代经济史考察

经济发展与制度变迁存在互动关系。民营经济发展具有正当性,需要建立与之相适应的上层建筑,作为制度供给者的国家压抑民营经济发展会导致经济基础对上层建筑的强力反弹甚至引发政权更迭。辛亥革命、南京政府崛起、国民党在大陆统治崩溃三次制度变迁的背后,民营经济都发挥了重要作用。发展社会主义市场经济应以史为鉴、尊重规律,还原民营经济发展的正当性,破除制度约束,引导民营经济发挥良好社会作用。     

新加坡理工类大学人文素质教育刍议——以南洋理工大学为例

新加坡理工类大学人文素质教育提出的背景是基于适应新加坡社会由工业经济社会向知识经济社会转型以及大学生健康全面发展的需要,其目标在于培养学生交际能力、文化历史传承能力、创新意识、创业意识以及发展学生的个性等,其实施途径主要有课程教学和校园文化建设等。重视大学精神的培育,开设内容丰富、形式多样的人文课程,积极开展国际交流活动等,是新加坡理工类大学人文素质教育对我国高等教育的启示。