Download Lecture 6

INF5220 - 6
Lecture 3rd of January 2006
Today:
• Study health policy documents:
• Health Policy of the Transitional Government of
Ethiopia (1993)
• Health Sector Development Program (HSDP)
– A summary/description of the action plan
– Specifically the chapter on HMIS
• Literature searches and library resources
– UiO library as well as Internet resources
– Exercises (in the lab): literature searches,
download soft copies of course readings.
Group exercise: Discuss
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What is the objectives of the plan with respect to the
HMIS?
Why is an HMIS considered important? What is it
supposed to deliver?
Organisational responsibility for implementation of the
HSDP: Look at the proposed organisational structure
in the last few pages of the description document. Do
you think the proposed organisational structure will
impact the development/implementation of HMIS
positively or negatively?
Look at the proposed indicators for measuring sucess
of implementing HMIS (last page of HMIS document).
Try to formulate a critique of them.
In what way can it be of value for IS professionals to
know such documents?
Textual analysis of policy document
• A policy document is the result of a consensus process between
various stakeholders (various levels in health bureaucracy,
politicians, the public, donors and NGO’s, etc.)
• Evaluations/negotiations involved in the process in many ways;
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Defining the problem
Setting the priorities
Defining options
Developing strategies
• Neither of these steps are ’just given’, self-evident or obvious
• Political documents may appear as uncontentious and
unproblematic. Political documents assert their authority through
language, and through examining policy language, one may see
which interest, ideas and values that are dominant, and which are
not dominant (excluded).
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (1)
• Basic questions of textual analysis: Who says what to whom? By
which means? With which effect?
• Who is speaking? How do the speakers establish their authority?
• Which ’tools’ (features of the text) are used to convince, enrol or
persuade the audience? Three forms of persuasion: ethos
(credibility), pathos (emotion) and logos (reason)
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Quotes from experts (scientific discourse)
Statistics or other ’technical discourse’
Figurative language (metaphors, symbolism, imagery)
Experience (’true stories’, anecdotes, examples)
• This text: Not a lot of technical or scientific discourse, but some
affective language (adjectives/modifiers). Notice the role of the
preamble.
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (2):
• Dominant and recurrent themes:
– Self-reliance, community involvement, active popular
participation, democracy, rights and powers of people,
decentralisation, self-responsibility
• The policy will address this through:
– Giving emphasis to…, give appropriate prominence to…, give
support to…, give attention to …, undertake development…
strengthen provision…
And the expected results:
Enhanced awareness, control, promotion, development,
rehabilitation, integration, expansion….
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (3):
• Important principle of semiotic analysis – to study how
signs are given meaning and convey meaning in context:
text and intertext.
• E.g. the relations between different words and the
groupings they occur in. This says something about how
the area/topic is conceived, and has thus implications for
what a ’solution’ (and course for action) may be.
• The use of the word ’health’ in the policy doument:
One definition (”Health = physical, mental and social wellbeing”)
and > 40 different combinations with other words.
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (4):
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Health policy
Health service policy
Health parameters
The field of health
Development of health
Health services
Health centers
Health development
Health service system
Health sector
Health administrative apparatus
Health problems
Health care
Health awareness
Occupational health
Environmentla health
Health stations
Health Infrastructure
Health service management system
Components of health
Mental health
Health institutions
Health units
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Health research
Health professionals
Health needs
Health councils
Health activities
Health committees
Health care organisation
Family health
School health
Health education
Self-care in health
Health promotive lifestyle
Healthy environment
Community health development
Major health problems
Research in health
Maternal health
Optimal health
Health care facilities
Health laws and regulation
Health issues
Health fund
Health insurance
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (5):
• Health status: Health is something to be
measured and increased
• Health problems: to be solved
• Health needs: to be met
• Here: health as organisation, as structure seems
significant:
– Field, sector, system, structure, organisation, facilities,
committee, council, units, administrative apparatus
etc.
• Mode of understanding health: Health is
something you organise
Possible questions for a textual
analysis (6):
• What is not mentioned? What are the
assumptions? What is taken for granted?
– Donor dependence not mentioned
– More..?
Tools for literature searches:
• Read through this document:
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5220/h05/undervisningsmateriale/Slides/Bi
bliotek.pdf
• DUO at UiO’s library pages http://www.ub.uio.no/english/
– Contains instructions for thesis writing (templates, styles,
submission)
– Electronic archive: search in previous thesis (e.g. e-learning,
HISP, action research)
• X-port
– E-journals: locate and download soft copies of the papers on the
course reading list (many but not all are available, not MISQ)
– Databases: choose the INSPEC database, do a search with free
words and one by using the thesaurus. Combine searches to
refine your results.
– Other databases: ERIC (education science), PubMed
(medicine), PsycInfo (psychology) and Sociological Abstracts
(Sociology)
Tools for literature searches:
• Internet resources:
– Compare what you find on the ordinary Google and
www.scholar.google.com
– Encyclopedia Britannica (http://search.eb.com/), Oxford
Reference (http://www.oxfordreference.com ) , and many more
reference works
– Resources such as Wikipedia, dictionaries (e.g.
www.dictionary.com), Webopedia (http://www.webopedia.com)
• Check out the ACM Digital Library at
http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm
– find the papers by Lynne Markus, and by Walsham and Sahay.
How many have cited them later (counts only those within the
’ACM system’)? Try the ’find similar articles’-feature.
• IEEExplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org)