2011 - Graduate Student Conference Creating Healthy Opportunities for Healthcare Management in Global Context

Graduate Student Conference Creating Healthy Opportunities for Healthcare Management in Global Context
Co-sponsored by the Ashburn Institute & Washington University, St. Louis
14-?‐15 April 2011
St. Louis, MO USA

The Ashburn Institute,1 an independent institute committed to the promotion of democracy, equality and international peace, the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute,2 and the Washington University in St. Louis International Law Society3 are delighted to announce their 1st international graduate student conference "Creating Healthy Opportunities for Healthcare Management in Global Context."

In recent decades accessibility and quality of healthcare has become an issue of the highest importance in many countries of the world. Healthcare managers face many challenges in delivering quality service. While availability of skilled healthcare professionals -?‐ particularly doctors and nurses -?‐ remains an issue for numerous OECD countries, many developing nations are still struggling to obtain minimum of necessary medication, disease prevention information and/or health education. The healthcare sector is viewed as a huge share of national expenditures worldwide. Despite the fact that the recent global financial crisis has led to declining healthcare budgets, the demand for better health services is increasing. Therefore strategic, tactical, and operational healthcare management issues have all become critically important.

One of the ways to provide tangible solutions to the variety of healthcare management questions worldwide is to take a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare management research and encourage collaborative academic efforts from international community. That is why the proposed conference embraces a broad scope of research topics that include but are not limited to:

? identifying and investigating intelligent healthcare management issues from a technological, social, human rights and medical perspective;
? examining the underlying principles of related software infrastructures and applications design, implementation, management and evaluation; and
? improving our understanding of organizational strategies (including public and private sectors) that facilitate integration of the pervasive healthcare management into the healthcare enterprise.

More precisely, we seek novel, innovative, and exciting work in the areas:
? Healthcare Management Systems. What are the costs & benefits of recent changes across the world?
? Health care as a human right. Can health care be considered as such? To what extent is there a right? Is there any difference in the understanding of “health care as human right” concept in the United States (especially in the light of the recent US Health Care Reform) and the European Union?
? Challenges surrounding healthcare service quality and costs. Public and private sector cases, training of healthcare professionals, health service performance measurement, legal and regulatory issues.
? Identifying and addressing stakeholder conflicts. Patient needs, caregiver needs, health professional and organizational needs. 1 www.ashburninstitute.org 2 www.law.wustl.edu/harris 3 www.wustl.edu 2
? Intelligent healthcare management. Medical data mining, protection and use in pervasive healthcare environments, smart homes and hospitals.
? Social implications of pervasive health technology: security and privacy issues in healthcare
? Healthcare technologies use in different countries. E.g.: using mobile and Internet storage devices for storage, update, and transmission of medical and/or patient data.

Ph.D. and Master degree students from all relevant disciplines are invited to submit the following categories of proposals along with a brief cover letter providing details of the program of study4 in which they are engaged:

? Full papers or extended abstracts (up to 8 pages single-?‐spaced) describing results and original research work not submitted or published elsewhere in one of the above listed categories. Full papers should properly place the work within the field, cite related work, and clearly indicate the innovative aspects of the work and its contribution to the field.

? Workshop proposals (2-?‐page/person submission from every workshop moderator and presenter) containing the names of the contributors and indicating the preferred duration for the proposed workshop (1-?‐1,5 hr). Several workshops are planned within the conference to discuss work in progress and explore future research themes in the field.

The conference committee will select approximately 25 papers/workshop proposal for inclusion in the conference. The Ashburn Institute will provide travel and accommodation support for the student-?‐ authors of the best 10 papers; preference will be given for workshop proposing teams. The Washington University International Law Society will provide the conference location. In addition, approximately 20 best papers will be selected for inclusion in an edited conference volume.

The conference will consist of full days of panel/workshop sessions on Thursday, 14 April and Friday, 15 April, and will conclude with a closing cocktail and attending of the famous Great St. Louis Jazz Festival on the evening of the 15th. Participants should plan to arrive on Wednesday, 13 April, and depart on Saturday, 16 April, 2011. The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2011.

The program committee co-?‐chairs will inform participants of their acceptance by 4 February, 2011. Abstract submitting participants will be expected to provide complete copies of their papers (in the range of 7,000 to 8,000 words) in electronic form by 20 March, 2011.

Please submit proposals to ALL program committee members at: Kseniya.Khovanova-AT-gmail.com
McCall.Carter-AT-gmail.com
Rbrtfrnt-AT-aol.com