Journal of Health Information Management
Year:2020 | Volume:17 | Issue:4 (74)|Papers Count:8

Introduction: About 330 BC, Aristotle states that “ All men, by nature, desire to know” ; 1 but despite the high value of information and regarding the innate human need for knowledge, some avoid exposure and acquisition of information. Information avoidance is a set of selective behaviors and actions intended to stop, limit, and delay the search, the encounter, the processing, and the use of information. 2 Individuals sometimes avoid information about their illness or condition, which is called health information avoidance. Ignoring information threatens individuals' health. In this respect, health researchers refer to health information avoidance as a counterproductive behavior. 3, 4 Individuals with certain diseases, such as cancers, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and diabetes avoid medical information for a variety of reasons, including an unwillingness to change their normal routine, unpleasant feelings such as fear and anxiety, as well as stress, and may be screened for testing, and even refuse to visit a doctor. Besides, sometimes information forces a person to do unwanted actions and even change beliefs and opinions. Therefore, individuals choose information avoidance as a defensive and coping strategy. At a time when the world is suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disease, health care system, education and information services face various challenges; 5 and one of those challenges is how individuals interact with information. On the other hand, in domestic research, more attention has been paid to information needs, information seeking, and use of information. Information avoidance, as one of the important aspects of information behavior, has been less considered compared to other ones. An evidence confirming this claim is searching related words such as avoiding health information” , “ health information avoidance” , “ health information ignorance” , “ health information anxiety” , “ health information phobia” , and so on in July 2020 through Persian articles available in Scientific Information Database (SID), Magiran and IranMedex databases, which led to no significant outcome. Understanding the health avoidance information, as an inevitable part of health information management, is especially important because it can affect many areas of health communication like public health campaigns, patient education, provider-patient communication, and even social support.

Introduction: One of the most effective ways to improve the management of asthma in primary care is using guidelines in the patient management process; but due to lack of time, their use is very limited. One way to solve this problem is mechanized guideline in a form of decision-support system that requires computer-interpreted guideline (CIG). In this study, a CIG was developed for asthma management in primary care. Methods: This qualitative study was performed using mini-Delphi method uses a workflow-based approach to develop a CIG. The workflows and data components were extracted through Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) language and Enterprise Architecture (EA) software. Afterwards, they were confirmed through an expert panel of five asthma specialists. Results: The developed CIG included three major workflows, four sub-workflows, and 21 data components. Main workflows included treatment, drug interaction, and follow-up time. Sub-workflows were related to treatment workflow that were developed based on the patient visit number and age. Conclusion: Because the accuracy of this workflow was confirmed by asthma specialists, it is expected that the design of this CIG will lead to development of a cost-effective software for the management of asthma and better detection of drug interactions.

Introduction: The retention of health human resources in the deprived areas is a global challenge, especially in countries with high geographic dispersion. This study endeavored to identify incentive policies for the retention of physicians and nurses in deprived areas of Iran. Methods: The study was conducted in two stages of review and qualitative. In the review stage, health system policies and interventions for the retention of physicians and nurses in deprived areas of Iran were identified. The list compiled to announce the opinion and complete the policies and interventions of the health system for the retention of physicians and nurses in the deprived areas was provided to 18 experts in the field of health human resources. In the second stage, these policies were prioritized by 44 experts using an electronic questionnaire. Data obtained from the responses were described using frequency, percentage, and mean. The compiled list was approved using the opinions of 18 experts in the field of health human resources. Second, these policies were prioritized through an electronic questionnaire by 44 experts. The data were described through frequency, percentage, and mean. Results: Following the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian health system designed and implemented eight policies, including 40 interventions, for the retention of physicians and nurses in deprived areas. Prioritization findings indicated that the Law of Service of Physicians and Paramedics, Family Physician Program, Instructions on how to distribute medical graduates, and the health transformation plan have greater and longer-term impact on retention of physicians; and the Law of Service for Physicians and Paramedics, the Law on Promoting Clinical Staff Productivity, and the health transformation plan had longer-term effects on retention of nurses. Conclusion: Although policies have been effective in attracting and retaining physicians and nurses in deprived areas, they face challenges and failures. Therefore, it seems necessary for policymakers to review the overall incentive policies, and take serious action to address program challenges by creating cross-sectional coordination, sustainable funding and cost management, and awareness of physicians, nurses and patients' preferences as well as aligning policies with their services and demands.

Introduction: Attracting and retaining medical tourists, as well as converting users of medical tourism services into loyal tourists, is of great importance. Situation analysis can boost the capabilities of the medical tourism industry and retain the medical tourist; therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between medical tourists' satisfaction with the intention to return through trust in medical tourism destinations. Methods: In this descriptive-survey, study population was medical tourists referring to hospitals and medical centers in Mashhad City, Iran, of which 384 individuals were surveyed using the available method and a questionnaire. The content and construct validity were confirmed, and the reliability was computed as 0. 953 through Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling. Results: The study of the relationship between research variables indicated that the satisfaction of medical tourists was significantly related to trust in staff and in the hospital. Besides, the effect trust in staff and in the hospital on the intention of medical tourists to return was confirmed. Conclusion: Three factors of medical tourist satisfaction, trust in staff, and trust in hospital trust play a major role in the return of medical tourists, among which staff trust has the greatest impact on increasing the intention of medical tourists to return to hospitals.

Introduction: Herbal medicines are important in providing community health, both in terms of treatment and in preventing diseases. However, there has not yet been a slight change in the marketing channel and the distribution of herbal medicines in the country. In view of this, this study endeavored to identify the problems of herbal medicines marketing channel from the perspective of manufacturers. Methods: The population of this qualitative research were herbal medicine companies in Tehran and Qom provinces, Iran, from which 15 producers were selected as the sample using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Exploratory interviews were conducted with 15 chief executive officer (CEOs) and marketing and sales managers of herbal medicine companies, and the problems were identified and analyzed using framework content analysis method. Results: The problems of herbal medicine marketing channel were as destroying the product brand with inappropriate advertisements and discounts, topics related to visitors and orders, customer relationship management, scientific visit, relationships between distributors, speed, quality and quantity of distribution, termination of cooperation and distribution contracts, time and type of settlement, product returns, so on. Conclusion: To solve the marketing channel problems of the herbal medicine, we need to consider all marketing tactics with a systematic view, as these problems may interact.

Introduction: Meta-textuality can provide effective medium for facilitating information retrieval and machine learning. This study explored the strengths of two types of meta-texts (i. e., reviewers' comments and citation contexts) in correct classification and recognition of their related texts and main sections at abstract level. Methods: In this descriptive study with quantitative content analysis method, 846 randomized controlled trials were assessed; and their reviewers' comments and citation contexts were extracted from Cochrane reviews and Colil databases. Thirty seed documents were randomly selected as queries, and their abstract similarities to the test collection and the main sections (IMRaD: introduction, method, results, discussion) were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to analyze the performance of Cochrane reviewers' comments and citation contexts individually and in combination. Results: The citation contexts’ area under the curve (0. 807) was higher than the Cochrane comments' (0. 638), and reached its highest for their combination (0. 936). The former had the highest performance in correct classification of the introduction section (0. 661), and the latter in correct recognition of the methodology section (0. 606). Conclusion: Cochrane reviewers’ comments and the citation contexts had the potential of correct classification of the related texts. The former did well in identifying the methodology section, while the latter in identifying the introduction section. Combining the two systems can boost their power in identifying the discussion section. The results can have implications for natural language processing, machine learning systems, text categorization, retrieval, and summarization.

Introduction: New applications of studies to draw the structure of science include clustering concepts and identifying new fields of studies. This study was co-word analysis of intellectual structure of knowledge in the field of throbbing headaches. Methods: This was a scientometric study conducted through co-word and social network analysis techniques. The data consisted of the total scientific production of throbbing headaches indexed in the Web of Science from the year 2005 to 2017 with 35050 records. After unifying, the co-wording matrix was provided and through cluster analysis method, the data were analyzed. Results: The most often word was migraine keyword in the field of throbbing headaches. Moreover, the results of hierarchical clustering by the Ward method led to the formation of nine clusters in this area. The major clusters were “ intracranial hypotension” , “ headache and treatment” , “ nervous stimulation and headache” , and “ traumatic injury” . The density and degree centrality of the cluster ranking from the analysis of the co-word indicated that the vertigo cluster had the highest concentration and anxiety cluster of the highest density. Conclusion: The co-word analysis can uncover the intellectual structure of scientific disciplines. Due to the frequency of obtained keywords and clusters, the results of the two-dimensional scale showed that the matic areas of “ tolerability” and “ nervous stimulation and headache” were the most important emerging fields.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause a variety of illnesses, from the common cold to the acute and severe respiratory syndrome. Researchers suggest that in transmitting the virus to people at risk, preventing and promoting self-care behaviors reduce the rate of disease transmission in communities; and identifying the sources of disease transmission can be effective in controlling it. Successful 21 st century organizations need to be able to adapt to ever-changes changing environment. Organizations have used various methods to control the spread of this disease such as telecommuting, quarantine, social distance, etc., each of which is considered an important policy in the prevention of this disease. In 1920, Einstein introduced the global view of quantum, in which the world is described as a dynamic, unpredictable, subjective, and self-constructing system. The seven quantum skills have characteristics such as the past or foresight, and simplicity and complexity for balancing crises; some organizations have adopted the approach of using quantum skills to control the coronavirus. In this article, we have tried to explain how to use the above method, which includes the use of seven quantum principles (look, thought, feeling, cognition, practice, trust and existence).