Example Of Research Proposal On Problem Statement – Healthcare In Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

The Saudi health care system is currently facing many problems, including a lack of Saudi-born health care professionals, a worrying increase in incidences of lifestyle diseases and rising health care costs associated with various services.
The Ministry of Health points to a shortage of Saudi health care professionals. According to the MOH, while the total number of health care workers in Saudi Arabia is about 282,681 people, only 39% of its total workforce is comprised of actual Saudis. . The Kingdom is therefore forced to attract expensive expatriates to fulfill the local deficit, which only increases the Ministry’s costs. In addition, the uneven geographical distribution of health care facilities throughout the nation means many people are excluded from accessing specialized health care facilities, which further burdens these health care providers and results in long waiting lists.
The second challenge confronting the Saudi health care industry is the increasing prevalence of lifestyle and chronic diseases. According to Dr. Alyemeni, nearly 33.0% of Saudi Arabia’s adult population suffers from obesity . Moreover, the costs associated with treating such chronic diseases are elevated and may not even be effective in the long run. The annual cost of treating diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia, for example, was estimated to be 7 billion Saudi Riyal (SR).

Big Data, Data visualization and HCI

The accelerated development of an e-health system and the production of “big data requiring data visualization literacy” are the main drivers behind this research in Saudi Arabia. These so-called E-health systems have been evolving ever since the Ministry of Health began implementing its 10-year strategic health plan, designed to update all health care centers with this new electronic health care solution. It is hoped that successful implementation of this plan to connect the Kingdom’s health care providers can be achieved by 2020. Once that happens, Saudi Arabia will have the largest e-health network in the world, according to Dr. Mohammed R. Alyemini, the deputy minister for planning and health economics at the Ministry of Health. In a speech at the HIMSS14 Annual Conference and Exhibition, Dr Alyemini described how this e-health system implementation will produce a vast amount of data, what is known as “Big Data.” He believes Big Data could increase both health care quality and efficiency and reduce national health care expenditures by approximately 8% if it is used creatively and effectively (McKinsey Global Institute, 2011) However, Big Data applications will also be needed to process the variety, volume, and velocity of various datasets, according to Dan Suciui. In his words, “the data is too big to process with current tools; it arrives too fast for optimal storage and indexing; and it is too heterogeneous to fit into a rigid schema.” Data visualization, he believes, will support the consistent, effective, secure, and validated systems required for personal health, clinical healthcare, and public health in general. Despite the important of data visualization, a 2011 report from the US Institute of Medicine focused instead on improving patient safety through “cross-disciplinary research.” It found that “user-centered design and human factors applied to health IT shows that information visualization is not as advanced in parts of clinical medicine as compared with other scientific disciplines.” Furthermore, it is hoped that the HCI principle will be applied to evaluating the data visualization outputs from the big data applications, which would go a long way in making that data more useful to users. “The discipline uses analytic and empirical techniques to evaluate the effects of user interaction with computers,” all of which will greatly exploit the advantages of Big Data application.
The following research will focus on big data literacy and the facilitation of the big data application functionalities, allowing information to be visualized in such a way that users can both easily understand and effectively interact with it in order to not only enhance decision-making processes, but to ultimately save both time and effort.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The intention of this research is to establish why health care providers are using big data applications; with particular references to exactly how they are using such programmers to empower decision-makers and improve health services quality and overall public health. Therefore, a study will be conducted to evaluate Big Data applications for health care services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in terms of their design, purchase, and real-world usage. This research will examine the following questions:
Why is it becoming more significant to analyze Big Data in health care in Saudi Arabia? This study explains Big Data and explores the literature regarding Big Data applications. It will also provide answers to the following questions:

Are Saudi health care providers aware of the important role of Big Data?

Do Saudi health care providers currently use Big Data and, if so, what are their big-data applications?
What are Saudi health care providers’ Big Data strategies?
What are the Big Data tools that Saudi health care providers use?
As big data application matures, more voluminous content and accelerating diversity of data forms will produce more complex visualization forms. HCI principles will be used to analyze the current big data applications and outputs and investigate their effects on user behavior by answering the following questions:
What are the effects of applying HCI principles to Big Data applications for patient health behavior and clinician decision-making? To answer this question, an assessment of the big data application functionalities – which includes verifying if the system fulfills all of the functions requested by healthcare professionals – will need to be addressed. The visual representations of data will then be examined according to the following criteria; functionality, effectiveness, efficiency, usability, and usefulness will each be evaluated.

For clinical use, applications from local Saudi health care services will be examined.

For patient use, an evaluation of some commercial health tracking hardware - such as Nike bracelets, Samsung Gear, smartphones and software such as FUEL APP, health, health rete, fitness buddy, and los it etc.
How does presenting understandable and useful health care information affect patients? Comparing these results with the system HCI assessment outcomes (question 2) may enlighten patients’ behavior in terms of their system usage rates, health behavior, health status and total number of doctor visit(s).
Why does visualization literacy, including underrating and interpreting the visual displays of data, play a critical rule for clinical decision making for a healthcare professional’s practice?

Clinician decision-making will be explored by examining performances rates, response times, productivity, error rates and accuracy.

Do healthcare professions, such as doctors, need to demonstrate data visualization literacy competency to provide health care at the present time and/or in the future?