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Background: Health care is a complex economic and social system, which combines market elements and public and social interest. This combination in Brazil, like systems in China and United States of America, is operationalized through the public and private system. The sector represents approximately 9% of the country's GDP, of which 56% is privately sourced and 44% is of public origin. In the private sector includes a structure with 711 private health institutions, 47 million beneficiaries and revenues of US$30 billion a year.Methods: Therefore, this research describes and analyzes the complementarity of Private Health before the Brazilian Unified Health System, highlighting its main characteristics, scenarios, and trends in the face of the health system and the Brazilian market. This descriptive and exploratory research uses secondary data from various sources, submitted to quantitative data analysis methods. The object of the research is the history of private health in Brazil and its main actors.Results: The data are organized into three groups, each with its approach of collection and analysis. Thus, it is perceived as the notorious growth of large operators, to the detriment of operators with a lower concentration of beneficiaries; the increasing concentration of the market through mergers and acquisitions promoted by large publicly traded corporations, especially in regions with a lower rate of private health coverage; and the growth of the sector through business plans, whose central characteristic is the dependence on the country's employability rate.Conclusions: It is possible to perceive an intense trend of concentration of Brazilian private health in large institutions that have capitalized and have a great appetite for growth through mergers and acquisitions, whether from smaller operators or health institutions that integrate their health networks, following complementary health models already consolidated in countries such as China, and the United States of America, among others. This concentration projects a market with fewer options and competitiveness, reduction in transaction costs and increase the operational effectiveness of health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a method was developed to allow a civil society organization to seek public budget information using open government data (OGD) available on platforms. Accordingly, an empirical study was conducted based on Design Science Research (DSR) to address how to monitor the future outcome of national education policy through e-transparency tools. The method designed, represented in a flowchart tool, revealed some aspects regarding the implications of e-transparency for the monitoring and projection of public policy accomplishment, identifying and addressing five constraints for the use of OGD platforms: granularity, traceability, correlation, accessibility, and usability. When monitoring is possible, civil society is interested in using the information to project the future outcomes of public policy rather than monitor the past, which creates a feature in envisioning the future public policy accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the concept of smart governance in the context of smart cities, with a focus on analyzing the phenomenon of smart collaboration. Relying on the existing collaboration and participation concepts in the smart city domain, an empirical analysis was undertaken of how ICT can promote collaborative governance and increase the participation and engagement in government. The multiple case studies focus on three cities in Brazil that run municipal operations centers in an effort to “become smarter”: Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte. Interviews with directors, managers, and technicians shed light on the contribution that ICT makes in promoting an environment of collaboration in the government. The findings have revealed that ICT has an important role in supporting information sharing and integration between government agencies and external stakeholders, including citizens, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the client-consultant relationship in the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) using a case study of the human resource model in the government of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. To understand this relationship, we use the theoretical framework of Pozzebon and Pinsonneault, which suggests that knowledge and power are shared and negotiated during ERP implementation. The findings show a unique dynamic of cooperation between the client and the consultant due to mutual dependence, with nine identified mechanisms of knowledge and power that influence the relationship. Some of these mechanisms may be specific to governments and large corporations, including a common language, the involvement of an external agent in the project, and the external information technology (IT) team. This study provides insight that can benefit governments and consultants in successful implementations of ERP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims at investigating the social representations in public participation decision-making using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). The Belo Horizonte City Hall used ICT for the first time in 2006, in the Digital Participatory Budget (OP Digital). It was a choice made by the population of the implementation of public works for the next two years. The OP Digital was applied again in 2008 and 2011, but with a lower participation than its first edition. We performed this study to understand the use of Internet by citizens in public decision making and to explain the decline of popular participation. The methodological approach is based in social representations theory and in the critical discourse analysis of 101 texts - from the press and from public agencies or government representatives. Our results suggest that current political strategies were not fully exploiting the potential for interaction and collective construction offered by the Internet, trivializing it. This may be one of the reasons of lower participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Telemedicine has grown significantly in recent years, mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there has been a growing body of literature on the subject. Another topic that merits increased attention is differences in patient and family experience between telehealth and in-person visits. To our team’s knowledge, this is the first study evaluating pediatric and obstetrics outpatients experience with telemedicine and in-person visit types in an academic maternal and children’s hospital, and its correlation with geographic distance from the medical center throughout 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: We aim to evaluate and compare patients’ telemedicine and in-person experience for ambulatory encounters based on survey data throughout 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular focus on the influence of distance of the patient’s home address from the medical facility. A total of 9,322 patient experience surveys from ambulatory encounters (6,362 in-person and 2,960 telemedicine), in a maternal and children’s hospital during 2020 were included in this study. The percentage of patients who scored the question “Likelihood to recommend practice” with a maximum 5/5 (top box) score was used to evaluate patient experience. The k-means model was used to create distance clusters, and statistical t-tests were conducted to compare mean distances and Top Box values between telemedicine and in-person models. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between Top Box scores and patients’ distance to the hospital. Results: Top Box likelihood to recommend percentages for in-person and telemedicine were comparable (in-person = 81.21%, telemedicine = 81.70%, p-value = 0.5624). Mean distance from the hospital was greater for telemedicine compared to in-person patients (in-person = 48.89 miles, telemedicine = 61.23 miles, p-value < 0.01). Patients who live farther displayed higher satisfaction scores regardless of the visit type (p-value < 0.01). Conclusions: There is a direct relationship between the family experience and the distance from the considered medical center, during year 2020, i.e., patients who live farther from the hospital record higher Top Box proportion for “Likelihood to Recommend” than patients who live closer to the medical center, regardless of the approach, in-person or telemedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial service industry (FSI) has been the victim of sophisticated cyber attacks that take advantage of vulnerabilities created by employee misconduct. An experiment was conducted on Facebook® with 500 employees from the top five largest banks in Brazil and another 100 randomly selected individuals. It was observed that bank employees are more prepared to avoid social engineering than typical Facebook® users; however, more training is still needed because an anonymous individual using social engineering techniques successfully infiltrated an online social network (OSN) used by bank employees and gained access to sensitive data. Moreover, by analyzing the banking reports and their policies, it was possible to identify the five main mechanisms of control and governance implemented by the FSI to protect data: (a) incorporate the National Institute of Standards and Technology framework into its model of cybersecurity governance, (b) establish policies that regulate the use of information assets, (c) establish a code of conduct for its employees, (d) develop a corporate security culture, and (e) maintain a corporate security department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is a recent certification technology that has strong potential to transform many business models and to have a social impact by providing solutions, including governance and sustainability. This paper presents a case study on a pioneering blockchain application on an online platform to negotiate forest credits issued for environmental services. The context is the management of the Green Treasure Program in the State of Amapá in the Amazon region of Brazil, a complex and interesting case for research. The purpose of this study is to identify how blockchain can contribute to the negotiation of environmental investments between the public and private sectors. For this purpose, we conducted qualitative research, a case study, using the lens of the theory of public value and an interpretative perspective. We seek to understand the connections between public value theory and the blockchain application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic government (e-gov), a means of providing online public services, has the potential to greatly benefit all members of society. However, its advantages are often out of the reach of citizens who are digitally excluded. Drawing on socioeconomic and demographic ICT survey data, researchers have explored the digital divide and have concluded that gender is an important determinant of inequality. If we are to provide e-gov services that are more accessible to women and geared towards their needs, we must consider the digital gender gap. This paper explores gendered differences in e-gov service usage in Brazil. Findings on the disproportionate numbers of women and men seeking and using e-gov services, as well as the reasons for not using them, justify the relevance of gendering the e-gov debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]