Purpose – This editorial briefly outlines present applications of lean systems applications in healthcare and then summarises the contributions to this special edition. Design/methodology/approach – A brief background to lean is introduced to provide the context for the subsequent papers in this special issue Findings – The requirements for successful introduction of Lean Systems Thinking (LST)...

Dramatic applications of information technology to healthcare have promised reduced medical errors and costs in the healthcare system. Much attention has focused on continuing to develop new applications, the features of the applications themselves, and the adoption of these applications. The questions of errors and costs in the health care system still persist. In this paper, we take a data an...

This paper surveys the contributions and applications of queuing theory in the field of healthcare. The paper summarizes a range of queuing theory results in the following areas: waiting time and utilization analysis, system design, and appointment systems. The paper also considers results for systems at different scales, including individual departments (or units), healthcare facilities, and r...

The use of wireless hand held devices is becoming popular in healthcare applications for flexibility and mobility. While the concept is attractive, difficulties encountered by health professionals included the small size of the device, problems in fitting current data collection forms into one screen of a handheld device and data entry using the 'grafiti' option. It appears that prior studies, ...

Purpose – This editorial briefly outlines present applications of lean systems applications in healthcare and then summarises the contributions to this special edition. Design/methodology/approach – A brief background to lean is introduced to provide the context for the subsequent papers in this special issue Findings – The requirements for successful introduction of Lean Systems Thinking (LST)...

A fundamental requirement for achieving continuity of care is commonly accepted to be the integration and interoperability of different clinical oriented systems towards the realization of a “longitudinal” Electronic Healthcare Record. To enable seamless integration of various kinds of IT applications into a healthcare network, a commonly accepted framework based on international relevant stand...

The rapid worldwide deployment of the Internet and Web is the enabler of a new generation of e-healthcare applications, but the provision of a security architecture that can ensure the privacy and security of sensitive healthcare data is still an open question. Current solutions to this problem (mostly built on static RBAC models) are application-dependent and do not address the intricate secur...

The rapid worldwide deployment of the Internet and Web is the enabler of a new generation of e-healthcare applications, but the provision of a security architecture that can ensure the privacy and security of sensitive healthcare data is still an open question. Current solutions to this problem (mostly built on static RBAC models) are application-dependent and do not address the intricate secur...

In today's world, the Internet of Things (IoT), which is a fairly new technology, has become a popular topic for discussion. Meanwhile, the increasing demand for personalized healthcare with the assistance of new technologies has created new applications called e-health IoT applications; however, researchers are still attempting to find its applications, therefore they have not been able to foc...