• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.5-15
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• 2018

Purpose - Nowadays customers have become empowered by information communication technologies. This state of customers has brought enormous pressure to bear on organizations, thus, organizations have to stay relevant, market-oriented and profitable. The insurance sector is one that is constantly challenged by its exposure to ICT and the associated need for e-services by myriad customers. With increasing competition in the health insurance environment, it is necessary for the sector to understand customer expectations and how they perceive the services offered. This study seeks to determine the role played by e-services in relation to customer satisfaction in health insurance industry in Botswana where a substantial investment has been made in the sector. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is conducted using two prominent medical aid schemes in Botswana namely BPOMAS and PULA. Subscribers of these medical schemes were the respondents whose views were sourced using both closed and open ended questionnaires. Systemic sampling technique was used to select the participants, while descriptive statistical techniques were mainly used to analyze socio-demographic data of the samples. Results - The results reveal that the level of usage of the medical insurance firm's website and email service is higher for PULA participants than for BPOMAS participants. Conclusions - The findings of this study have practical implications for managers who should understand customers' value perceptions regarding e-service quality in Botswana.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.198-217
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• 2013

This research aims to examine the behavior changes of telemedicine participants with regard to time-space reconfiguration and to address the implications of telemedicine in terms of extensibility and restrictions (ambilaterality). According to the results of this research, telemedicine can lead to behavior changes in telemedicine participants, particularly patients. However, it is difficult to anticipate the time-space reconfiguration of telemedicine participants drastically. In other words, although telemedicine minimizes patients' burden of accessibility to and utilization of medical institutions, it requires the patients to visit medical institutions at least once due to the restricted application of telemedicine related to technological problems, the characteristics of medical practice and mutual stakes among the medical institutions involved in telemedicine. And physicians (telemedicine providers as mediators between medical specialists and patients) and medical specialists (as the ultimate telemedicine providers) do not evidence considerable changes in their behaviors, except for offline meetings for information sharing and medical training. Because the present telemedicine system does not require simultaneity between physicians, patients and medical specialists. Furthermore, present telemedicine operation is absorbed into existing medical activities as a health care delivery method. These phenomena are due to 1) the interests among medical institutions and the limitation or generalization of telemedicine technologies to stimulate regional-based telemedicine operation and 2) the goal of face-to-face interactions between patients and doctors, which is to avoid misdiagnosis and side effects. Finally, medical activities related to telemedicine do not differ from general medical activities. The ambilaterality of telemedicine in terms of extensibility and the restriction of time-space reconfiguration is an unsettled problem in the ICT technologies of medical services.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.47-56
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• 2023

Physical rehabilitation consists of exercises that help individuals who have suffered injury, disease, or nervous system disorders to recover lost or impaired functions. The exercises need to be tailored to the degree and type of the patient's condition. To this end, a comprehensive rehabilitation data delivery system that connects medical institutions and local communities should be established, and an intelligent rehabilitation service technology should be developed. An intelligent rehabilitation service integrates and manages the patient's health information provided by medical institutions and the overall function evaluation information measured in the community. Based on the collected data, personalized rehabilitation services can be provided. We examine supportive policies and technological trends for rehabilitation exercise and sports. Additionally, we investigate development trends and key technologies of intelligent rehabilitation services being developed at ETRI.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.113-120
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• 2022

Information technologies in higher education are the basis for solving the tasks set by monitoring the quality of higher education. The directions of aplying information technologies which are used the most nowadays have been listed. The issues that should be addressed by monitoring the quality of higher education with the use of information technology have been listed. The functional basis for building a monitoring system is the cyclical stages: Observation; Orientation; Decision; Action. The monitoring system's considered cyclicity ensures that the concept of independent functioning of the monitoring system's subsystems is implemented.. It also ensures real-time task execution and information availability for all levels of the system's hierarchy of vertical and horizontal links, with the ability to restrict access. The educational branch uses information and computer technologies to monitor research results, which are realized in: scientific, reference, and educational output; electronic resources; state standards of education; analytical materials; materials for state reports; expert inferences on current issues of education and science; normative legal documents; state and sectoral programs; conference recommendations; informational, bibliographic, abstract, review publications; digests. The quality of Ukrainian scientists' scientific work is measured using a variety of bibliographic markers. The most common is the citation index. In order to carry out high-quality systematization of information and computer monitoring technologies, the classification has been carried out on the basis of certain features: (processual support for implementation by publishing, distributing and using the results of research work). The advantages and disadvantages of using web-based resources and services as information technology tools have been discussed. A set of indicators disclosed in the article evaluates the effectiveness of any means or method of observation and control over the object of monitoring. The use of information technology for monitoring and evaluating higher education is feasible and widespread in Ukrainian education, and it encourages the adoption of e-learning. The functional elements that stand out in the information-analytical monitoring system have been disclosed.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.95-114
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• 2023

Smart healthcare, combining ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and medical technologies, has been rapidly emerging. Accordingly, its market has also increased as interest in disease prevention, management, and diagnosis grows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, using mobile devices to support medical activities, mobile healthcare has been attracting attention as a leading service in the smart healthcare market. However, the intention to use mobile healthcare apps may vary depending on individual beliefs and attitudes. Many studies on the intention to use mobile healthcare apps have used the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), but there is a lack of studies that have been verified from the perspective of users' health beliefs. This study aims to identify the factors that affect the intention to use mobile healthcare apps based on the HBM (Health Belief Model). Furthermore, it investigates how this influencing mechanism fluctuates based on the user's mHealth literacy, the ability to find and understand health information through mobile. This study contributes to the empirical examination of the intention to use mobile healthcare apps through the HBM. It also offers insights for app providers and public health officials to increase the use of mobile healthcare apps.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.193-197
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• 2013

Healthcare is one of the most concerned fields in convergence environments. The technologies related with information communication regions are progressing continuously. These technologies in today are converged with different industries in rapidly. Therefore, in this paper, we described current trends and future of healthcare services which was converged IT technology with medical industry.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.53-61
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• 2019

Cloud BIM, which incorporates cloud computing technology and BIM technology, is increasingly used in construction. In particular, the recent trend of cloud services in IT field is to provide customized cloud services according to the characteristics of users. These changes are also linked to the cloud BIM, which is emerging in the construction industry. However, cloud BIM researches and commercial technologies that are currently underway do not reflect these trends, and they provide services through generalized management functions in construction projects. In order to solve these problems, a new type of customized cloud BIM service is needed that can provide cloud services by reflecting the characteristics of the project, customization based on the user's work, and providing the knowledge service. Therefore, this study aims to derive the system requirement function that should be preceded for implementing the customized cloud BIM service, and the target project is selected as the medical facility.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.76-76
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• 2017

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1010-1032
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• 2018

Recent advances in medical science have made people live longer, which has affected many aspects of life, such as caregiver burden, increasing cost of healthcare, increasing number of disabled and depressive disorder persons, and so on. Researchers are now focused on elderly living assistance services in smart home environments. In recent years, assisted living technologies have rapidly grown due to a faster growing aging society. Many smart devices are now interconnected within the home network environment and such a home setup supports collaborations between those devices based on the Internet of Things (IoT). One of the major challenges in providing elderly living assistance services is to consider each individual's requirements of different needs. In order to solve this, the virtualization of physical things, as well as the collaboration and composition of services provided by these physical things should be considered. In order to meet these challenges, Web of Objects (WoO) focuses on the implementation aspects of IoT to bring the assorted real world objects with the web applications. We proposed a semantic modelling technique for manual and semi-automated service composition. The aim of this work is to propose a framework to enable RESTful web services composition using semantic ontology for elderly living assistance services creation in WoO based smart home environment.