Proceedings of the 21st IEEE Conference on Business Informatics, 2019
Online behavioral advertising, on websites and in online applications, requires companies to make... more Online behavioral advertising, on websites and in online applications, requires companies to make intricate trade-offs between promises of increased revenue and potential risks for alienation of consumers. To guide companies in making such trade-offs, we answer the research question: How do consumers perceive online behavioral advertising? We consolidate our findings in a process model linking consumer awareness of and knowledge about online behavioral advertising with their attitude towards online behavioral advertising, which shows that consumer perceptions of online behavioral advertising are not stable; instead, they constantly evolve, triggered by confrontations with online behavioral advertising. For consumers, online behavioral advertising is a feature until they get annoyed and it becomes a nuisance. This is a tight rope walk for providers of websites and online applications. Consumers want personalized content, but they do not want content that is too personal. Companies should aim to arouse positive consumer attitudes by creating added value and should revise their online behavioral advertising practices before consumer attitudes shift.
Datenschutzkommunikation wird nur dann funktionieren, wenn die Informa-tionsbedürfnisse der Verbr... more Datenschutzkommunikation wird nur dann funktionieren, wenn die Informa-tionsbedürfnisse der Verbraucher, die weder statisch noch einheitlich sind, adressiert werden. Ein vielversprechender, praktisch realisierbarer Ansatz ist es, die Kommunikation an Verbraucherarchetypen anzupassen. Diese Studie identifiziert die verschiedenen Archetypen basierend auf einer Webumfrage. Die identifizierten Archetypen liefern eine solide Grundlage für die Verwirkli-chung funktionierender Datenschutzkommunikation. Dieser Beitrag erscheint unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 3.0 Deutschland | CC BY 3.0 DE Kurzform |
Health management in smart homes has advanced during the last years. With proactive health manage... more Health management in smart homes has advanced during the last years. With proactive health management in such environments further progress for health prevention and care is to be expected. Challenges for proactive health management in three areas are summarized and briefly discussed: pattern recognition and machine learning, information privacy and user-oriented design, and sensor-enhanced health information systems architectures.
A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate challenges of health I... more A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate challenges of health IT development by serving as a central hub for healthcare applications and stakeholders. We introduce establishment process of as well as information and services provided by the German HTI to encourage putting the inclusion of HTI features in health IT projects under consideration and to offer an insight into one of the largest health IT projects in the world.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users... more Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users in health-and medical-related issues. However, users' privacy concerns impede users' willingness to share information. This reduces the potential benefits (e.g., chronic disease management, medical intervention support, or medication management) that can be gained from mHealth apps. Our research aims to identify useful privacy policy content that can address users' privacy concerns before, during, and after the use of mHealth apps. By consolidating privacy concerns and requirements from extant standards, research, and guidelines, we develop a privacy content catalogue containing 121 potentially useful privacy policy content aspects. After analyzing privacy policy content of 600 widely-used iOS and Android mHealth apps, we identify an insufficient status quo of extant privacy policies provided on the current mHealth app market. As next steps, we will implement a Real-Time Delphi study and conduct focus groups to evaluate and revise our content catalogue. With our research, we aim to improve the utility of mHealth app privacy policies for app users, and assist app providers in providing privacy policies addressing users' concerns.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patien... more Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patient information leaflets for their pharmaceuticals. However, the quality of written information on pharmaceuticals leaves room for improvement. To mend insufficiencies of patient information leaflets, an alternative approach for provision of information on pharmaceuticals is illustrated. We present the design and architecture of a web application that provides information in patient information leaflets as well as supplementary services. With a web application supplementary services that cannot as easily be realised with patient information leaflets can be offered. An open-source framework with a robust architecture for rapid application development serves as a foundation of the web application. In combination with the proposed design and architecture, this leads to an extensible, reliable, scalable, customisable and patient-friendly web application with high availability.
Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presente... more Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presented to them. Additionally, detailed explanation of medication use and further implications are too complex and expensive to be carried out by medical professionals whenever they are prescribing medication. An alternative approach to transform medical information in an easier understandable form could save cost for medical service providers and help to increase patients' adherence. We present a requirements framework for medical information translation systems. Furthermore, concept, architecture, and actual implementation of a web application leveraging crowdsourcing are illustrated. To demonstrate that the crowdsourcing approach is suitable to improve comprehensibility of medical information, a proof-ofconcept experiment is conducted.
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages most suitable for a specific application domain. T... more Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages most suitable for a specific application domain. They abandon generality to increase expressiveness and ease of use. DSLs are an useful alternative to general-purpose languages, but their appropriateness and profitableness should be carefully considered. In this paper the utilisation of DSL knowledge to improve digital preservation practices is elaborated, which leads to the following results: A DSL for emulator development reduces implementation effort and increases comprehensibility and durability. The DSL XML provides format standardisation for information stored in plain text. A DSL especially for the domain digital preservation is not practicable and digital preservation is better supported by the right mix of DSLs. The results are particularly interesting from a knowledge-management perspective since gathered knowledge should be preserved.
Health information technology can have positive impacts on healthcare delivery and is utilised fo... more Health information technology can have positive impacts on healthcare delivery and is utilised for various applications. Patient-centred services are a special kind of health information technology and are designed to cater the needs of patients. They manage personal medical information and utilise such information to offer personalised, advantageous services as well as information for patients. Due to the sensitivity of medical information and the gravity of possible consequences, if medical information falls into the wrong hands, patient-centred services need to employ security measures to ensure the privacy of patients. The German Nationwide Health Information Technology Infrastructure (HTI), which is currently being established, could serve as a fit and proper foundation for securely offering patient-centred services. In this paper, we illustrate the past developments and current status of the HTI introduction with a focus on security aspects related to patient-centred services. We depict how security features of the HTI can be applied to improve secure provision of patient-centred services. Furthermore, we present additional security measures that should be implemented by providers of patient-centred services.
(C)2015 by Tobias Dehling and Ali Sunyaev. The 10.1136_amiajnl-2013-002605 dataset of the article... more (C)2015 by Tobias Dehling and Ali Sunyaev. The 10.1136_amiajnl-2013-002605 dataset of the article "Sunyaev, A., Dehling, T., Taylor, P. L. & Mandl, K. D. Availability and Quality of Mobile Health App Privacy Policies. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (2014). doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2013-002605" is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (international): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Privacy policies are notices posted by providers and intended to inform users about privacy pract... more Privacy policies are notices posted by providers and intended to inform users about privacy practices. However, extant research shows that privacy policies are often of poor quality and do not address users’ concerns. In this paper, we design and develop PPC – a privacy policy content assessment instrument to support assessments of whether offered privacy policy content provides comprehensive information addressing users’ privacy concerns. PPC is developed based on extant research, standards, and guidelines. Application of PPC to 62 privacy policies of mHealth apps available in iOS and Android demonstrates utility of PPC and suitability of PPC as assessment instrument for privacy policy content. Contributions of our research are twofold: For research, we conduct improvement design science research contributing to design theory on assessment of privacy policy content. For practice, potential applications of PPC are support in privacy policy development and identification of deficienc...
ABSTRACT Background: Patients’ failure to take medication as prescribed – poor medication adheren... more ABSTRACT Background: Patients’ failure to take medication as prescribed – poor medication adherence – is a well-known issue. Health information technology (IT) presents itself as a promising approach to tackle poor medication adherence. Objectives: To deepen the understanding of what features health IT offers and how these address poor medication adherence, we examine existing health IT targeting medication adherence. Methods: Building on extant literature, we follow a systematic approach for taxonomy development in information systems to build a taxonomy of health IT focusing on medication adherence. Results: Health IT offers various promising ways to address poor medication adherence. Overall, we map 16 different types of health IT offerings on 7 different dimensions. The principal results are that health IT should be developed in a patient-centered way because medication adherence is predominantly a matter of the patient and that mobile technologies are a seminal driver for health IT offerings focusing on medication adherence. Finally, the taxonomy identifies the core impacts of health IT on medication adherence. Conclusion: The taxonomy establishes an overview of current health IT offerings targeting medication adherence, offers insights into untapped potential for health IT, and yields valuable insights for health policy and technology. Future efforts must, however, address how to continuously motivate patients and how to better integrate and combine health IT offerings to unfold the full potential of health IT for addressing poor medication adherence.
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2015
Mobile health (mHealth) customers shopping for applications (apps) should be aware of app privacy... more Mobile health (mHealth) customers shopping for applications (apps) should be aware of app privacy practices so they can make informed decisions about purchase and use. We sought to assess the availability, scope, and transparency of mHealth app privacy policies on iOS and Android. Over 35 000 mHealth apps are available for iOS and Android. Of the 600 most commonly used apps, only 183 (30.5%) had privacy policies. Average policy length was 1755 (SD 1301) words with a reading grade level of 16 (SD 2.9). Two thirds (66.1%) of privacy policies did not specifically address the app itself. Our findings show that currently mHealth developers often fail to provide app privacy policies. The privacy policies that are available do not make information privacy practices transparent to users, require college-level literacy, and are often not focused on the app itself. Further research is warranted to address why privacy policies are often absent, opaque, or irrelevant, and to find a remedy.
Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presente... more Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presented to them. Additionally, detailed explanation of medication use and further implications are too complex and expensive to be carried out by medical professionals whenever they are prescribing medication. An alternative approach to transform medical information in an easier understandable form could save cost for medical service providers and help to increase patients' adherence. We present a requirements framework for medical information translation systems. Furthermore, concept, architecture, and actual implementation of a web application leveraging crowdsourcing are illustrated. To demonstrate that the crowdsourcing approach is suitable to improve comprehensibility of medical information, a proof-ofconcept experiment is conducted.
Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users... more Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users in health-and medical-related issues. However, users' privacy concerns impede users' willingness to share information. This reduces the potential benefits (e.g., chronic disease management, medical intervention support, or medication management) that can be gained from mHealth apps. Our research aims to identify useful privacy policy content that can address users' privacy concerns before, during, and after the use of mHealth apps. By consolidating privacy concerns and requirements from extant standards, research, and guidelines, we develop a privacy content catalogue containing 121 potentially useful privacy policy content aspects. After analyzing privacy policy content of 600 widely-used iOS and Android mHealth apps, we identify an insufficient status quo of extant privacy policies provided on the current mHealth app market. As next steps, we will implement a Real-Time Delphi study and conduct focus groups to evaluate and revise our content catalogue. With our research, we aim to improve the utility of mHealth app privacy policies for app users, and assist app providers in providing privacy policies addressing users' concerns.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patien... more Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patient information leaflets for their pharmaceuticals. However, the quality of written information on pharmaceuticals leaves room for improvement. To mend insufficiencies of patient information leaflets, an alternative approach for provision of information on pharmaceuticals is illustrated. We present the design and architecture of a web application that provides information in patient information leaflets as well as supplementary services. With a web application supplementary services that cannot as easily be realised with patient information leaflets can be offered. An open-source framework with a robust architecture for rapid application development serves as a foundation of the web application. In combination with the proposed design and architecture, this leads to an extensible, reliable, scalable, customisable and patient-friendly web application with high availability.
A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate software engineering c... more A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate software engineering challenges in health care by serving as a central hub for health care applications and stakeholders. We shortly introduce establishment process of as well as information and services provided by the German HTI to encourage putting the inclusion of HTI features in health IT software engineering projects under consideration and to offer an insight into one of the largest health IT projects in the world.
Proceedings of the 21st IEEE Conference on Business Informatics, 2019
Online behavioral advertising, on websites and in online applications, requires companies to make... more Online behavioral advertising, on websites and in online applications, requires companies to make intricate trade-offs between promises of increased revenue and potential risks for alienation of consumers. To guide companies in making such trade-offs, we answer the research question: How do consumers perceive online behavioral advertising? We consolidate our findings in a process model linking consumer awareness of and knowledge about online behavioral advertising with their attitude towards online behavioral advertising, which shows that consumer perceptions of online behavioral advertising are not stable; instead, they constantly evolve, triggered by confrontations with online behavioral advertising. For consumers, online behavioral advertising is a feature until they get annoyed and it becomes a nuisance. This is a tight rope walk for providers of websites and online applications. Consumers want personalized content, but they do not want content that is too personal. Companies should aim to arouse positive consumer attitudes by creating added value and should revise their online behavioral advertising practices before consumer attitudes shift.
Datenschutzkommunikation wird nur dann funktionieren, wenn die Informa-tionsbedürfnisse der Verbr... more Datenschutzkommunikation wird nur dann funktionieren, wenn die Informa-tionsbedürfnisse der Verbraucher, die weder statisch noch einheitlich sind, adressiert werden. Ein vielversprechender, praktisch realisierbarer Ansatz ist es, die Kommunikation an Verbraucherarchetypen anzupassen. Diese Studie identifiziert die verschiedenen Archetypen basierend auf einer Webumfrage. Die identifizierten Archetypen liefern eine solide Grundlage für die Verwirkli-chung funktionierender Datenschutzkommunikation. Dieser Beitrag erscheint unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 3.0 Deutschland | CC BY 3.0 DE Kurzform |
Health management in smart homes has advanced during the last years. With proactive health manage... more Health management in smart homes has advanced during the last years. With proactive health management in such environments further progress for health prevention and care is to be expected. Challenges for proactive health management in three areas are summarized and briefly discussed: pattern recognition and machine learning, information privacy and user-oriented design, and sensor-enhanced health information systems architectures.
A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate challenges of health I... more A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate challenges of health IT development by serving as a central hub for healthcare applications and stakeholders. We introduce establishment process of as well as information and services provided by the German HTI to encourage putting the inclusion of HTI features in health IT projects under consideration and to offer an insight into one of the largest health IT projects in the world.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users... more Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users in health-and medical-related issues. However, users' privacy concerns impede users' willingness to share information. This reduces the potential benefits (e.g., chronic disease management, medical intervention support, or medication management) that can be gained from mHealth apps. Our research aims to identify useful privacy policy content that can address users' privacy concerns before, during, and after the use of mHealth apps. By consolidating privacy concerns and requirements from extant standards, research, and guidelines, we develop a privacy content catalogue containing 121 potentially useful privacy policy content aspects. After analyzing privacy policy content of 600 widely-used iOS and Android mHealth apps, we identify an insufficient status quo of extant privacy policies provided on the current mHealth app market. As next steps, we will implement a Real-Time Delphi study and conduct focus groups to evaluate and revise our content catalogue. With our research, we aim to improve the utility of mHealth app privacy policies for app users, and assist app providers in providing privacy policies addressing users' concerns.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patien... more Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patient information leaflets for their pharmaceuticals. However, the quality of written information on pharmaceuticals leaves room for improvement. To mend insufficiencies of patient information leaflets, an alternative approach for provision of information on pharmaceuticals is illustrated. We present the design and architecture of a web application that provides information in patient information leaflets as well as supplementary services. With a web application supplementary services that cannot as easily be realised with patient information leaflets can be offered. An open-source framework with a robust architecture for rapid application development serves as a foundation of the web application. In combination with the proposed design and architecture, this leads to an extensible, reliable, scalable, customisable and patient-friendly web application with high availability.
Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presente... more Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presented to them. Additionally, detailed explanation of medication use and further implications are too complex and expensive to be carried out by medical professionals whenever they are prescribing medication. An alternative approach to transform medical information in an easier understandable form could save cost for medical service providers and help to increase patients' adherence. We present a requirements framework for medical information translation systems. Furthermore, concept, architecture, and actual implementation of a web application leveraging crowdsourcing are illustrated. To demonstrate that the crowdsourcing approach is suitable to improve comprehensibility of medical information, a proof-ofconcept experiment is conducted.
Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages most suitable for a specific application domain. T... more Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages most suitable for a specific application domain. They abandon generality to increase expressiveness and ease of use. DSLs are an useful alternative to general-purpose languages, but their appropriateness and profitableness should be carefully considered. In this paper the utilisation of DSL knowledge to improve digital preservation practices is elaborated, which leads to the following results: A DSL for emulator development reduces implementation effort and increases comprehensibility and durability. The DSL XML provides format standardisation for information stored in plain text. A DSL especially for the domain digital preservation is not practicable and digital preservation is better supported by the right mix of DSLs. The results are particularly interesting from a knowledge-management perspective since gathered knowledge should be preserved.
Health information technology can have positive impacts on healthcare delivery and is utilised fo... more Health information technology can have positive impacts on healthcare delivery and is utilised for various applications. Patient-centred services are a special kind of health information technology and are designed to cater the needs of patients. They manage personal medical information and utilise such information to offer personalised, advantageous services as well as information for patients. Due to the sensitivity of medical information and the gravity of possible consequences, if medical information falls into the wrong hands, patient-centred services need to employ security measures to ensure the privacy of patients. The German Nationwide Health Information Technology Infrastructure (HTI), which is currently being established, could serve as a fit and proper foundation for securely offering patient-centred services. In this paper, we illustrate the past developments and current status of the HTI introduction with a focus on security aspects related to patient-centred services. We depict how security features of the HTI can be applied to improve secure provision of patient-centred services. Furthermore, we present additional security measures that should be implemented by providers of patient-centred services.
(C)2015 by Tobias Dehling and Ali Sunyaev. The 10.1136_amiajnl-2013-002605 dataset of the article... more (C)2015 by Tobias Dehling and Ali Sunyaev. The 10.1136_amiajnl-2013-002605 dataset of the article "Sunyaev, A., Dehling, T., Taylor, P. L. & Mandl, K. D. Availability and Quality of Mobile Health App Privacy Policies. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (2014). doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2013-002605" is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (international): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Privacy policies are notices posted by providers and intended to inform users about privacy pract... more Privacy policies are notices posted by providers and intended to inform users about privacy practices. However, extant research shows that privacy policies are often of poor quality and do not address users’ concerns. In this paper, we design and develop PPC – a privacy policy content assessment instrument to support assessments of whether offered privacy policy content provides comprehensive information addressing users’ privacy concerns. PPC is developed based on extant research, standards, and guidelines. Application of PPC to 62 privacy policies of mHealth apps available in iOS and Android demonstrates utility of PPC and suitability of PPC as assessment instrument for privacy policy content. Contributions of our research are twofold: For research, we conduct improvement design science research contributing to design theory on assessment of privacy policy content. For practice, potential applications of PPC are support in privacy policy development and identification of deficienc...
ABSTRACT Background: Patients’ failure to take medication as prescribed – poor medication adheren... more ABSTRACT Background: Patients’ failure to take medication as prescribed – poor medication adherence – is a well-known issue. Health information technology (IT) presents itself as a promising approach to tackle poor medication adherence. Objectives: To deepen the understanding of what features health IT offers and how these address poor medication adherence, we examine existing health IT targeting medication adherence. Methods: Building on extant literature, we follow a systematic approach for taxonomy development in information systems to build a taxonomy of health IT focusing on medication adherence. Results: Health IT offers various promising ways to address poor medication adherence. Overall, we map 16 different types of health IT offerings on 7 different dimensions. The principal results are that health IT should be developed in a patient-centered way because medication adherence is predominantly a matter of the patient and that mobile technologies are a seminal driver for health IT offerings focusing on medication adherence. Finally, the taxonomy identifies the core impacts of health IT on medication adherence. Conclusion: The taxonomy establishes an overview of current health IT offerings targeting medication adherence, offers insights into untapped potential for health IT, and yields valuable insights for health policy and technology. Future efforts must, however, address how to continuously motivate patients and how to better integrate and combine health IT offerings to unfold the full potential of health IT for addressing poor medication adherence.
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2015
Mobile health (mHealth) customers shopping for applications (apps) should be aware of app privacy... more Mobile health (mHealth) customers shopping for applications (apps) should be aware of app privacy practices so they can make informed decisions about purchase and use. We sought to assess the availability, scope, and transparency of mHealth app privacy policies on iOS and Android. Over 35 000 mHealth apps are available for iOS and Android. Of the 600 most commonly used apps, only 183 (30.5%) had privacy policies. Average policy length was 1755 (SD 1301) words with a reading grade level of 16 (SD 2.9). Two thirds (66.1%) of privacy policies did not specifically address the app itself. Our findings show that currently mHealth developers often fail to provide app privacy policies. The privacy policies that are available do not make information privacy practices transparent to users, require college-level literacy, and are often not focused on the app itself. Further research is warranted to address why privacy policies are often absent, opaque, or irrelevant, and to find a remedy.
Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presente... more Many patients have difficulties with comprehending written and spoken health information presented to them. Additionally, detailed explanation of medication use and further implications are too complex and expensive to be carried out by medical professionals whenever they are prescribing medication. An alternative approach to transform medical information in an easier understandable form could save cost for medical service providers and help to increase patients' adherence. We present a requirements framework for medical information translation systems. Furthermore, concept, architecture, and actual implementation of a web application leveraging crowdsourcing are illustrated. To demonstrate that the crowdsourcing approach is suitable to improve comprehensibility of medical information, a proof-ofconcept experiment is conducted.
Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users... more Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) can offer a variety of functionality to support users in health-and medical-related issues. However, users' privacy concerns impede users' willingness to share information. This reduces the potential benefits (e.g., chronic disease management, medical intervention support, or medication management) that can be gained from mHealth apps. Our research aims to identify useful privacy policy content that can address users' privacy concerns before, during, and after the use of mHealth apps. By consolidating privacy concerns and requirements from extant standards, research, and guidelines, we develop a privacy content catalogue containing 121 potentially useful privacy policy content aspects. After analyzing privacy policy content of 600 widely-used iOS and Android mHealth apps, we identify an insufficient status quo of extant privacy policies provided on the current mHealth app market. As next steps, we will implement a Real-Time Delphi study and conduct focus groups to evaluate and revise our content catalogue. With our research, we aim to improve the utility of mHealth app privacy policies for app users, and assist app providers in providing privacy policies addressing users' concerns.
Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has... more Enhancing information provision in patient information leaflets for medication with health IT has the potential to improve lacking medication compliance. Following the design science research paradigm, a web application (ePill -electronic patient information leaflet) providing information on pharmaceuticals and supplementary services while avoiding drawbacks of patient information leaflets was created. Mixed methods are employed for artifact evaluation and refinement in subsequent design cycles. ePill can mend the prevalent problem of medication compliance by alleviating the process of gaining knowledge about medication one is taking. A special focus is on the tradeoff between offered functionality and information security and privacy concerns. Building on foundations of information systems research as well as medical sciences, this research is on the verge of both domains. This paper examines the theoretical background, presents completed design cycles, including creation, design as well as results of qualitative evaluations, and discusses the planned quantitative ePill evaluation in progress.
Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patien... more Patients benefit from information on pharmaceuticals and most patients are willing to read patient information leaflets for their pharmaceuticals. However, the quality of written information on pharmaceuticals leaves room for improvement. To mend insufficiencies of patient information leaflets, an alternative approach for provision of information on pharmaceuticals is illustrated. We present the design and architecture of a web application that provides information in patient information leaflets as well as supplementary services. With a web application supplementary services that cannot as easily be realised with patient information leaflets can be offered. An open-source framework with a robust architecture for rapid application development serves as a foundation of the web application. In combination with the proposed design and architecture, this leads to an extensible, reliable, scalable, customisable and patient-friendly web application with high availability.
A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate software engineering c... more A central health information technology infrastructure (HTI) can alleviate software engineering challenges in health care by serving as a central hub for health care applications and stakeholders. We shortly introduce establishment process of as well as information and services provided by the German HTI to encourage putting the inclusion of HTI features in health IT software engineering projects under consideration and to offer an insight into one of the largest health IT projects in the world.
Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2021), 2021
Patient-centered health care information systems (PHSs) on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks promise de... more Patient-centered health care information systems (PHSs) on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks promise decentralization benefits. P2P PHSs, such as decentralized personal health records or interoperable Covid-19 proximity trackers, can enhance data sovereignty and resilience to single points of failure, but the openness of P2P networks introduces new security issues. We propose a novel, simple, and secure mutual authentication protocol that supports offline access, leverages independent and stateless encryption services, and enables patients and medical professionals to establish secure connections when using P2P PHSs. Our protocol includes a virtual smart card (software-based) feature to ease integration of authentication features of emerging national health-IT infrastructures. The security evaluation shows that our protocol resists most online and of-fline threats while exhibiting performance comparable to traditional, albeit less secure, password-based au-thentication methods. Our protocol serves as foundation for the design and implementation of P2P PHSs that will make use of P2P PHSs more secure and trustworthy.
Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019), 2019
With the rapidly rising number of mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps), it is unfeasible t... more With the rapidly rising number of mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps), it is unfeasible to manually review mHealth apps for information privacy risks. One salient information privacy risk of mHealth apps are confidentiality breaches. We explore whether and how static code analysis is a feasible technology for app review automation. Evaluation of our research prototype shows that, on average, our prototype detected one breach of confidentiality risk more than human reviewers. Contributions are the demonstration that static code analysis is a feasible technology for detection of confidentiality breaches in mHealth apps, the derivation of eight generic design patterns for confidentiality breach risk assessments, and the identification of architectural challenges that need to be resolved for widespread dissemination of breach of confidentiality risk assessment tools. In terms of effectiveness, humans still outperform computers. However, we build a foundation for leveraging computation power to scale up breach of confidentiality risk assessments.
Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019), 2019
Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that challenges existing business models and theorie... more Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that challenges existing business models and theories by shifting the trust from institutions towards algorithms. However, the number of successfully developed blockchain-based systems remains low. This points towards a research gap between blockchain applications and technical blockchain characteristics. We answer the research question: What application areas fit blockchains with what technical characteristics? We develop a taxonomy, which comprises six blockchain application areas that are classified across eight technical dimensions. We demonstrate the utility of the taxonomy on ninety-nine blockchain-based systems. We contribute to the scientific literature by delimiting blockchain application areas, identifying new technical dimensions, and linking application and technical knowledge on blockchain to guide development of blockchain-based systems. For practitioners, we present an overview of current blockchain-based systems.
—Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) has become a key driver for future heal... more —Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) has become a key driver for future health-enabling and ambient assisted living technologies. These future health-enabling living environments proactively anticipate the inhabitants' needs and adapt their behaviour accordingly. They further continuously monitor the behaviour of the inhabitants and may call in support in suspicious cases. In this article, we present an architectural blueprint for such a proactive living environment and highlight the corresponding challenges for research in the field. Afterwards, we present a simulation as experimental platform for learning the daily routine of inhabitants of a flat-sharing community of senior citizens. The experimental evaluation highlights that probably unusual behaviour of persons can be detected using a probabilistic approach, which may serve as an indicator for external support.
Health care is a domain characterized by low and slow adoption of IS compared to other domains, s... more Health care is a domain characterized by low and slow adoption of IS compared to other domains, such as manufacturing or avionics. It seems to be promising to transfer existing (design) knowledge and solutions from these domains to the HIS context to increase effectiveness of HIS by, for example, improving usability of HIS and accessibility to assistive technology. Inattention to usability and accessibility of HIS will result in ineffective use of HIS, user dissatisfaction with HIS, the emergence of workarounds, and, ultimately, in a potentially decreased quality of care. One concept in IS research that can address these challenges is user assistance. With our research, we aim to enable users to better understand the functional capabilities of HIS, to effectively master their tasks using HIS, and, ultimately, to increase their performance.
In an information systems context, information privacy communication will only work if informatio... more In an information systems context, information privacy communication will only work if information systems meet the information needs of their users. Since the needs are neither static nor uniform , a promising approach avoiding inadequacies of ignoring differences in users' information needs and more practical than dedicated attention to each individual user is to target information privacy communication to user archetypes. To identify such archetypes, we conduct a survey eliciting users' information needs and apply hierarchical clustering to derive a hierarchical model of user archetypes with respect to their information privacy information needs. We identify a total of 13 archetypes on two hierarchy levels. In contrast to extant research on information privacy user archetypes focusing on information privacy attitudes, the identified information privacy user archetypes are based on information system characteristics desired by users as elicited through our survey. Thus, they yield clear input for enhancing information system design with respect to information privacy. Our research highlights differences and similarities between archetypes and enriches it with an interpretatively derived characterization of the different archetypes. The resulting archetype hierarchy serves as foundation for future research aiming to improve communication of information privacy practices.
While the mobile application (app) market, including mobile health (mHealth) apps, is flourishing... more While the mobile application (app) market, including mobile health (mHealth) apps, is flourishing, communication and assessment of information privacy risks of app use has, in contrast, found only cursory attention. Neither research nor practice offers any useful and widely accepted tools facilitating communication and assessment of information privacy risks. We conduct a feasibility study and develop a prototypical instantiation of an information privacy risk index for mHealth apps. The developed information privacy risk index offers more detailed information than privacy seals without suffering from the information overload and inconsistent structure of privacy policies. In addition, the information privacy risk index allows for seamless comparison of information privacy risk factors between apps. Our research adds to the transparency debate in the information privacy domain by illustrating an alternative approach to communication of information privacy risks and investigating a promising approach to enable users to compare information privacy risks between apps.
Patients use various sources to obtain information on pharmaceutical drugs they take. Mobile heal... more Patients use various sources to obtain information on pharmaceutical drugs they take. Mobile health care applications (apps) providing drug information to users are increasingly made available and of increasing importance for the health care domain. However, apps usually only offer functionality that medical professionals or developers consider useful for patients, although their expectations are not likely to meet patient expectations. In our mixed methods study, we identify 33 features patients expect in apps for drug information provision with interviews and empirically assess their perceived importance in an online survey. Results indicate that patients desire personalization features for provided information but not for the app interface. This work contributes to research and practice by identifying and empirically ranking drug information provision features patients find important. We furthermore establish a foundation for future research on effective mobile drug information provision and provide insights for practice on development of patient-centered mobile health apps.
Information Technology for Peace and Security, Mar 13, 2019
The rapid evolution of information technologies in the past decades gave information systems an i... more The rapid evolution of information technologies in the past decades gave information systems an increasingly central role in society. Some of these information systems are now so critical that their disruption or unintended consequences can have detrimental effects on vital societal functions. This chapter clarifies the concept of critical information infrastructures. After a brief introduction to salient characteristics and main functions of critical information infrastructures, the chapter discusses threats and risks critical information infrastructures are confronted with and presents approaches to master these challenges. Recent attacks and disruptions of critical information infrastructures, such as Cambridge Analytica, WannaCry, the Mirai Botnet, and Microsoft Tay, are presented for illustrative purposes. Critical information infrastructures often linger unnoticed and their vital role in society remains unheeded. This chapter provides the foundations required to understand and protect critical information infrastructures so that they can be appropriately managed before adverse consequences manifest.
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Papers by Tobias Dehling