(l-r) MBS students Ms Triona O'Donoghue and Mr Steve Osaghae, Ms Marguerite O’Brien, Information Technology Manager, COPE Foundation, and Dr Fergal Carton, MBS MIMAS Co-director and senior HISRC researcher
Two UCC students have just completed a research project to help the COPE Foundation with its cloud computing strategy.
They developed a detailed set of process maps, which will assist in the potential roll-out of cloud-based Tablet PCs for client assessment for COPE Foundation staff. They did this as part of their research activities in association with the Health Information Systems Research Centre (HISRC - http://hisrc.ucc.ie). This has resulted in an early system prototype, which is currently under review within COPE Foundation as part of their existing Information System infrastructure. MBS Management Information and Management Accounting Systems (Business Information Systems students, Triona O’Donoghue and Steve Osaghae have just completed a six month placement programme with COPE Foundation.
COPE Foundation has committed itself to providing services to a broad spectrum of people, from individuals with profound disability who require extensive support, to people who have a considerable degree of independence. Such commitment calls for a wide range of programmes through which the individual can reach his/her full potential. This requires careful documentation and auditing of the individual’s well-being, from a clinical and social perspective. COPE Foundation has a strong track record of providing a high level of client service. Documentation of this service and the related support results in the utilisation of a large number of client assessment forms, which results in a complex, tedious, and time consuming approach to processing this data set.
The unique research effort between COPE Foundation and UCC will act as a basis for further development in the area of intellectual disability support, potentially resulting in an improvement of client services and management decision making. COPE Foundation is proactive in the area of Health and I.T. and plan to build on this research effort with UCC on future research projects.