Background Digital stress management interventions are considered promising additions to the spectrum of the programs companies use to support the well-being of their employees. However, a series of constraints are identified that hinder the potential benefits of such interventions. These constraints include a lack of user engagement and personalisation, poor adherence and high attrition. Understanding the specific user needs and requirements is essential to increase the likelihood of success in implementing ICT (Information and Communication Technology)-supported stress management interventions. Thus, following the findings from a previous quantitative study, the proposed study aimed to further explore the user needs and requirements for designing digital stress management interventions for software employees in Sri Lanka.

Methods The study used a qualitative approach based on three focus groups with 22 software employees in Sri Lanka. The focus group discussions were conducted online and recorded digitally. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ)-32 items were followed for reporting this study.

Results The analysis revealed three major themes: self-help in a personal space, social support in a collaborative space, and general design considerations for achieving success. The first theme revealed the users’ preference for having a personal space where they could engage in individual activities without support from an external party. The second theme elaborated on the importance of adding a collaborative platform to seek help from peers and professionals. The final theme explored the user-desired design features that could increase user engagement and adherence.

Conclusions This study used a qualitative approach to further explore the findings of a previous quantitative study. The focus group discussions confirmed the results of the previous study and provided the opportunity to better understand user needs and yield new insights. Such insights revealed user preference for embedding personal and collaborative platforms in a single intervention, embedding gamified elements, the provision of passive content generation via sensory systems, and the need for personalisation. These empirical findings will feed into the design of ICT-supported interventions for occupational stress management among Sri Lankan software employees.

Digital stress management is an evolving yet promising approach to the continuum of stress management programs. There are shreds of evidence on the benefits that could be achieved. However, numerous studies discuss the challenges that hinder the potential benefits of digital stress management interventions. Such challenges mainly include less engagement, insufficient theoretical underpinning, high attrition, and lack of personalisation. Thus, the current study aims to propose a design of a digital intervention to bridge the identified gaps. The proposed intervention, Felix the DigiBud, was co-designed and developed using a multidisciplinary team based on empirical and literature evidence. The mentioned empirical studies mainly focused on gathering user requirements from different stakeholder groups. These stakeholder groups involved software employees, counsellors and human resource managers working at software companies. All the empirical studies were carried out in Sri Lanka, applying quantitative and qualitative approaches. Seven design principles were built to govern the design process and fulfil the defined requirements. The first iteration of the design cycle resulted in a clickable mock-up with a web-based front end to visualise the user interfaces and the process flow of the intended features and functionalities. It has a setting module and eight functional modules that reflect different stress management activities. The designers made a comprehensive effort to embed gamification and digital micro intervention concepts in the intervention design to increase user engagement. In the next phase, the ICT-supported intervention will be demonstrated to the stakeholders to determine to what extent the artefact fulfils the identified problems.

Online communities of practice (CoPs) for professionals is a growing phenomenon in social networking. Such an online CoP consists of people who share their work-related knowledge, experiences, ideas, and practices using different electronic modes. The study focuses on the potential use of online CoPs for social support among software professionals who need to manage a demanding work-life. Five Facebook (FB) groups comprising software employees were cross-examined qualitatively using thematic analysis. The results revealed how software engineers engaged in different practices and activities to support each other in the communities. It was noted how the group members exerted social support, which is considered a key element in occupational health. The findings provide promising insights into how software professionals collaborate and support each other in cyberspace, which could be further explored to design technology that could foster online communities for software employees who need to manage their occupational stress.

Introduction: The software industry is considered a growing industry with a high propensity to cause stress reactions among employees due to its demanding and technology-driven nature. There are convincing shreds of evidence that information and communications technology (ICT) interventions can effectively solve stress-related disorders. However, several identified constraints have hindered its potential benefits, such as poor adherence, lack of engagement, high attrition and lack of personalisation.

Objective: The study presented in this article aims to gather the user needs of software employees in Sri Lanka to identify design ideas for an ICT-supported intervention for occupational stress management (ICTSMI) in the software industry.

Materials and methods: The study followed a quantitative approach using an online questionnaire in which three key areas were investigated: (1) stressors, (2) coping strategies and (3) design preferences. A total of 408 valid responses were collected and analysed using SPSS software.

Results: Findings revealed that the majority of software employees were with a moderate level of stress. They perceived work stressors and role stressors as common causes of stress. The most frequently used coping strategy was to seek social support, followed by digital activities and sports and physical exercises. The male and female design preferences varied to a greater extent but only slightly varied based on their job category. However, findings suggested the necessity of further elicitation of user needs to support the design process.

The software industry is considered to be a growing industry worldwide but with a high propensity to cause stress reactions among employees due to its demanding and technology-driven nature. As a human capital-intensive industry, too much of stress on employees can also create a negative impact on the quality of work. Thus, organizations take numerous initiatives at both individual and organizational levels to address this problem. One area of concern is the use of ICT supported occupational stress management interventions. In Sri Lanka, the dominant ICT occupation today is software engineer, and there is a national awareness of mental health issues due to occupational stress. Thus this study aims to investigate current practices used to frame employees well-being inside software organizations in Sri Lanka, and to understand Sri Lankan software companies viewpoints of using ICT supported occupational stress management interventions through the lens of human resource (HR) managers. Ten HR managers were interviewed covering eight software companies. Through thematic analysis, we identified three main themes and multiple subthemes. Results revealed various types of individual level and organizational level strategies, policies and practices implemented to create a healthy work setting for the employees. Findings also show that the HR managers had limited knowledge and experiences of ICT supported occupational stress management interventions. Nevertheless, they appreciated the immediate possible benefits of ICT interventions and demonstrated the willingness to adopt them in their organizations. Moreover, they revealed several functional requirements and feature sets they would like to see in such applications to better support their employees. Therefore, this study can possibly provide insights for researchers and practitioners who are to design and develop ICT supported interventions to manage occupational stress, to promote well-being and healthy organizations.

Information and communication technology (ICT) supported occupational stress management interventions are considered as an effective way of treating stress-related complications. Digital healthcare, including both e-health and m-health, is provided by a diverse ecosystem of actors that aims at contributing to better health of people. The development of such technological interventions is considered as an emerging area with a unique set of constraints and design concerns. However, to increase the likelihood of success of implementing ICT supported interventions for occupational stress management, it is essential to conduct a detailed analysis of the design practices and implications related to prior studies. Thus, the proposed systematic literature review based on qualitative content analysis encapsulates the knowledge gained from existing design and development efforts in the area of ICT supported occupational stress management interventions. Knowledge incorporates design characteristics and methodological implications concerning the evaluation of the design. Further, practical limitations to yield optimum efficacy levels of ICT supported stress interventions are also discussed. A systematic review of publications in four databases (PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science and MEDLINE) was carried out using broad search queries. The search strategy yielded 985 unique citations. Of those, this paper presents details relevant to 31 assessed full-text publications selected during the search process. The review showed a variety of interventional platforms, health outcomes and intervention usage measurements. Various modalities of human-and machine-based support and interactions were also identified in the analysis along with several study limitations. The findings of this review may offer insights for IT professionals working in design and implementation of ICT supported stress management interventions and to researchers involved in designing and evaluating ICT supported interventions.

ICT supported health intervention is a phenomenon that has grown stronger in recent years. Although eHealth and mHealth care are an expanding area of ICT, the development has not been as significant as in other fields. Successful implementation of eHealth or e-mental health applications requires close collaboration between healthcare practitioners and system developers. Complex and multilayered factors determine healthcare practitioners’ intention to use ICT in their practice. This study aims to understand the Sri Lankan stress experts’ experience and perception of using ICT tools in their stress management practices. Eight stress experts in Sri Lanka were interviewed. Through thematic analysis, we identified three main themes and multiple subthemes. Results show that practitioners used only a limited set of internet resources in their stress management practices and preferred face-to-face consultations over distance/online communication. Overall, they appreciated the immediate benefits of ICT interventions while highlighting disutilities like the risk of misleading information and insufficient access to resources. Moreover, clients were regarded as empowered through increased access to new and more information. They were also encouraged to make their own decisions to a greater extent. However, there were also objections from practitioners who were reluctant to accept the client’s ability to make decisions through self-education. This study can possibly provide a better understanding of the impact of ICT on stress management practices and knowledge to design and develop ICT tools for stress management.

Background One component of the 2009 Chinese health care reform plan is to train general practitioners to improve the delivery of primary care services. This continuing professional development is expected to further improve the physicians' competencies to be general practitioners in primary care. Augmented reality +/- a combination of virtual information and the real environment +/- may enhance general practitioners' continuing professional development by allowing their learning experiences to overlap with their workplace practice. Objective To explore the needs, opportunities, and challenges involved in continuing professional development for Chinese physicians becoming competent general practitioners within primary care, with a special focus on the possibilities of applying augmented reality. Methods This study used a qualitative approach with semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Two managers and thirteen physicians (from four community health centers and stations) participated. The data were analyzed using a thematic inductive analysis approach. Results Based on our interviews, most of the physicians were not fully trained as general practitioners but still assumed the duties of that position; they were supposed to eventually become fully trained in line with the reforms of the Chinese primary care system. However, they reported a lack of in-service training opportunities to fulfill this goal. Even those who said that they had such opportunities perceived the efficacy of that training as being poor. The managers and most of the physicians reacted positively to the idea of using augmented reality in continuing professional development, and they suggested antibiotics treatment, surgery, and emergency care as learning areas in which augmented reality could be applied. Conclusions Due to the Chinese reforms of the primary care system, both managers and the physicians themselves expect general practitioners to become qualified by engaging in continuing professional development. Both groups also regarded augmented reality as a potentially useful tool.

Adequately considering project interdependencies has shown to be a determinant of how successful IT/IS project portfolios are managed. However, this can be especially troublesome since there is no universal way to handle many project interdependencies that continue to change over time due to environmental uncertainty or unexpected decisions. This can seriously disrupt portfolio performance. In this article, the authors used the systems perspective to address the problem of managing multiple IT-project interdependencies in complex IT/IS portfolio environment. In particular, the authors propose using the cybernetic model Viable System Model to facilitate thinking and reasoning concerning the difficulty of managing IT-project interdependencies. To validate their approach and to ensure the appropriateness of it, the authors used real-world problem situations drawn from multiple case studies conducted in four leading organizations in Saudi Arabia. The findings support that the Viable System Model can be applied to assist in diagnosing and handling of IT-project interdependencies.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health threat. Primary care physicians are important inducers of the overuse of antimicrobials and inappropriate prescribing. Augmented reality (AR) might providea potential educational tool in health care. The aim of this study was to identify the need for education andexpectations for AR-based education in the context of improving the rational use of antibiotics by primarycare physicians in China.

Methods: The study used a qualitative approach based on face-to-face interviews with eleven physicians from three community health service centers and stations in China. We used a hybrid thematic analysis approach to analyze the interview data. A conceptual design framework, mobile augmented reality education (MARE), guided the work.

Results: The physicians’personal prescription paradigms included problems regarding the way they diagnosed and chose treatments and prescriptions. Although the physicians mentioned that they should not treat patients with antibiotics without proof of a bacterial infection, in practice, they often did not wait for necessary testresults before they prescribed antibiotics. It was also revealed that they often experienced difficulties when trying to convince patients to follow non-antibiotic treatments. Physicians’prescription of antibiotics was based on three different paths: if they thought there was a bacterial infection, if they thought preventing additional possible infections for the patient to be necessary; and if the patients requested antibiotics. The physicians expressed various learning needs for the rational use of antibiotics, and their expectations of an AR-based educational intervention included suggestions for contents, learning assets, learning environments and learning activities.

Conclusions: The results showed that the physicians were not only unfamiliar with national guidelines on the use of antibiotics and local AMR patterns but also had personal paradigm issues related to the physicians’decision making. Moreover, the physicians provided meaningful insights into and expectations for possible AR-based education on AMR. In this article, we demonstrate how to apply the MARE framework to analyze the needs of educational interventions for rational use of antibiotics.