Developing and validating a model to predict the success of an IHCS implementation: the Readiness for Implementation Model.

Objective: To develop and validate the Readiness for Implementation Model (RIM). This model predicts a healthcare organization's potential for success in implementing an interactive health communication system (IHCS). The model consists of seven weighted factors, with each factor containing five to seven elements.

Interagency and interprofessional collaboration in community care: the interdependence of structures and values.

This paper considers the problems of interagency and interprofessional collaboration in community care in Great Britain from the combined perspectives of UK and US researchers. The research team drew on empirical and theoretical literature from both countries to construct a framework for analysing inter- and intra-organisational theories of joint working. This analysis, supplemented and supported by local case studies conducted by the researchers, generates a framework recommendation against which the government's initiatives for partnership working in the NHS plan 2000 and subsequently can be critically reviewed.

Patient Internet services: creating the value-added paradigm.

An analysis of consumer and organizational perspectives on web design suggests emerging webside functionality, growing patient needs for self-management skills, and mounting corporate accountability will transform web strategies and consumer expectations from the current general health information approach to a value-added paradigm, which is described with a list of eight guiding principles.

Barriers to information access, perceived health competence, and psychosocial health outcomes: test of a mediation model in a breast cancer sample.

This study examined the relationship between breast cancer patients' experience of barriers to accessing health information and their psychosocial health outcomes and explored the extent to which this relationship was mediated by patient perceptions of competence in dealing with health-related issues. Study sample consisted of 225 women surveyed within 6 months of diagnosis. Regression analyses suggested that patients who reported greater difficulty in accessing needed information experienced lower emotional (P=0.