Over the past 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed enormous pressure on the health care industry. There has been an increase in demand and, at the same time, a shortage of supplies. This has shown that supply chain management in the health care industry cannot be taken for granted. Furthermore, the health care industry is also facing other major challenges, such as the current labor market shortage. In the literature, the Internet of Things (IoT) is highlighted as an effective tool to build a more resilient and efficient supply chain that can manage these challenges. Although using IoT in supply chain management has been extensively examined in other types of supply chains, its use in the health care supply chain has largely been overlooked. Given that the health care supply chain, compared to others, is more complex and is under growing pressure, a more in-depth understanding of the opportunities brought by IoT is necessary.
This study aims to address this research gap by identifying and ranking the drivers of and barriers to implementing IoT in the health care supply chain.
We conducted a 2-stage study. In the first, exploratory stage, a total of 12 semistructured interviews were conducted to identify drivers and barriers. In the second, confirmatory stage, a total of 26 health care supply chain professionals were asked in a survey to rank the drivers and barriers.
The results show that there are multiple financial, operational, strategy-related, and supply chain-related drivers for implementing IoT. Similarly, there are various financial, strategy-related, supply chain-related, technology-related, and user-related barriers. The findings also show that supply chain-related drivers (eg, increased transparency, traceability, and collaboration with suppliers) are the strongest drivers, while financial barriers (eg, high implementation costs and difficulties in building a business case) are the biggest barriers to overcome.
The findings of this study add to the limited literature regarding IoT in the health care supply chain by empirically identifying the most important drivers and barriers to IoT implementation. The ranking of drivers and barriers provides guidance for practitioners and health care provider leaders intending to implement IoT in the health care supply chain.

Advances in digital electronics delivered small and portable gadgets, changing human interface with technology. Demand for new small devices of Information and Telecommunication Technology (small-IT) that have a short lifespan, like smartphones and laptops, creates flows and accumulation of electronic resources. These include precious metals that show potential for Urban Mining and Circular Economy. To find out the extent of setting up an improved recycling, reuse and repair system, data collection was conducted through surveys, bin observations and social experiments. These methods enabled us to analyse stocks and flows, identify behavioural practices and map collection infrastructure. About 80% of domestic small-IT stocks are hibernated, meaning they could be directly reused or easily repaired. Results show four barriers that keep citizens from handing in their unused small-IT: Devices are kept as back-up, they contain sentimental value, citizens are suspicious of post-collection data confidentiality issues and there is a perceived high effort to recycle. Drivers to enhance circularity are: improving e-waste infrastructure, introducing economic incentives and raising awareness on environmental impacts of hibernated stocks. A more trustworthy and legitimate management system is expected to deliver safety and confidentiality of personal data and provide the quality that fits the expectations of citizens of a proper place to dispose of their valuable items.

UNASSIGNED: HIV self-testing could add a new approach to scaling up HIV testing with potential of being high impact, low cost, confidential, and empowering for users.
UNASSIGNED: Pregnant women attending antenatal clinics (ANC) and their male partners were recruited in 14 clinics in the eastern and central regions of Kenya and randomly allocated to intervention or control arms at a ratio of 1:1:1. Arm 1 received the standard of care, which involved invitation of the male partner to the clinic through word of mouth, arm 2 received an improved invitation letter, and arm 3 received the same improved letter and, two self-testing kits. Analysis was done using adjusted odds ratios (aOR) at 95% confidence intervals (CI) to calculate and determine effects of HIV self-testing in increasing uptake of male partner testing.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 1410 women and 1033 men were recruited; 86% (1217) women and 79% (1107) couples were followed up. In arm 3, over 80% (327) of male partners took HIV test, compared to only 37% (133) in arm 2 and 28% (106) in arm one. There was a statistical significance between arm one and two (p-value=0.01) while arm three was statistically significant compared to arm two (p-value<0.001). Men in arm three were twelve times more likely to test compared to arm one (aOR 12.45 (95% CI 7.35, 21.08)).
UNASSIGNED: Giving ANC mothers test kits and improved male invitation letter increased the likelihood of male partner testing by twelve times. These results demonstrate that HIV self-test kits could complement routine HIV testing methods in the general population.