Advancing Big Data Analytics for Healthcare Service Delivery

In recent years, there has been steady increase in the interest shown in both big data analytics and the use of information technology (IT) solutions to improve healthcare services. Despite the growing interest, there are limited materials, to addressing the needs and challenges posed by the activities and processes including the use of big data. From IT solutions’ perspectives, this book aims to advance the deployment and use of big data analytics to increase patients’ big data usefulness and improve healthcare service delivery.

The book provides significant insights and useful guide on how to access and manage big data, in improving healthcare service delivery. The book contributes a fresh perspective, which primarily comes from the complementary use of analytics approach with actor-network theory (ANT), and other techniques, in advancing healthcare service delivery. Accessing and managing healthcare big data have always been a challenging exercise. Due to the sensitivity of the health sector, the focus on patients’ big data is from either technical or social perspective. Thus, the book employs sociotechnical theories, ANT and structuration theory (ST) as lenses to examine and explain the factors that enable and constrain the use of patients’ big data for health services. By doing so, the book brings a different dimension and advance health service delivery.

Providing a timely and important contribution to this critical area, this book is a valuable, international resource for academics, postgraduate students and researchers in the areas of IT, big data analytics, data management and health informatics.

Tiko Iyamu holds a PhD in information systems from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Currently, Iyamu is a Research Professor at the Faculty of Informatics and Design, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Cape Town, South Africa. Previously, he was with the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa, and Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia. Iyamu served as a Professor Extraordinaire at the Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, from 2006 to 2015. In 2014, he was a Visiting Professor at the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Professor Iyamu’s areas of focus include enterprise architecture, health informatics, big data analytics and mobile computing. In addition, he has keen interest in the application of sociotechnical theories, such as actor-network theory, structuration theory and diffusion of innovation for information systems research. He has authored over 160 peer-reviewed research articles in journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. Prof Iyamu has authored seven books, including Applying theories for information systems research and Enterprise Architecture for Strategic Management of Modern IT Solutions. He has received several awards in research and excellence in supervision of postgraduates.