Emerging prenatal genetic tests : developing a health technology assessment (HTA) framework for informed decision-making

Delphi Process In preparation for the first Delphi exercise, a list of questions was produced from the academic literature, webbased sources and interviews with experts. These questions were structured into broad dimensions and a draft questionnaire piloted. A final list of 73 questions formed the basis of the first Delphi survey. Participants were asked to grade the perceived importance of each question for inclusion in HTA reports on new prenatal genetic tests (4 = Essential; 3 = Desirable, but not essential; 2 = Useful but should not be required; 1 = Of little/ no importance; 0 = I have no basis for judgement). Secondly, they were asked to indicate whether a question should be addressed during test development or whether the question could be addressed later once the technology is ready for implementation. Finally, Panel members were encouraged to identify any other questions which appeared to be missing from the initial list. For copy of questionnaire, see Annex 1: Delphi Round 1 Questionnaire. Respondents were also asked to provide personal details to give some indication of their HTA experience and specialist expertise. Analysis of responses demonstrated that SAFE Delphi panel members represent a highly experienced, multidisciplinary international group of experts with the knowledge required to define which key questions should be addressed in HTA reports on new prenatal genetic tests. Delphi Responses Responses were received from 77/90 (86%) of Panel members. These were analysed with a cut-off of 75% (±3%) applied as an indicator of Panel consensus for all questions. Thus, any question which three out of four respondents rated as essential or desirable was retained, whilst those not achieving this level of agreement were provisionally excluded. In addition, mean scores were also calculated (excluding 0 = I have no basis for judgement) for each question. A mean score >3.25 ± 0.05 was taken as an indication that the Panel had identified a particular question as being of the highest priority to address in HTA

Corporate governance and banking regulation

The globalisation of banking markets has raised important issues regarding corporate governance regulation for banking institutions. This research paper addresses some of the major issues of corporate governance as it relates to banking regulation. The traditional principal-agent framework will be used to analyse some of the major issues involving corporate governance and banking institutions. It begins by analysing the emerging international regime of bank corporate governance. This has been set forth in Pillar II of the amended Basel Capital Accord. Pillar II provides a detailed framework for how bank supervisors and bank management should interact with respect to the management of banking institutions and the impact this may have on financial stability. The paper will then analyse corporate governance and banking regulation in the United Kingdom and United States. Although UK corporate governance regulation has traditionally not focused on the special role of banks and financial institutions, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 has sought to fill this gap by authorizing the FSA to devise rules and regulations to enhance corporate governance for financial firms. In the US, corporate governance for banking institutions is regulated by federal and state statute and regulation. Federal regulation provides a prescriptive framework for directors and senior management in exercising their management responsibilities. US banking regulation also addresses governance problems in bank and financial holding companies. For reasons of financial stability, the paper argues that national banking law and regulation should permit the bank regulator to play the primary role in establishing governance standards for banks, financial institutions and bank/financial holding companies. The regulator is best positioned to represent and to balance the various stakeholder interests. The UK regulatory regime succeeds in this area, while the US regulatory approach has been limited by US court decisions that restrict the role that the regulator can play in imposing prudential directives on banks and bank holding companies. FSA regulatory rules have enhanced accountability in the financial sector by creating objective standards of conduct for senior management and directors of financial companies. The paper suggests that efficient banking regulation requires regulators to be entrusted with discretion to represent broader stakeholder interests in order to ensure that banks operate under good governance standards, and that judicial intervention can lead to suboptimal regulatory results

Planning and implementation of effective collaboration in construction projects

The 21st century is now seen as the time for the construction industry to embrace new ways of working if it is to continue to be competitive and meet the needs of its ever demanding clients. Collaborative working is considered by many to be essential if design and construction teams are to consider the whole lifecycle of the construction product. Much of the recent work on collaborative working has focused on the delivery of technological solutions with a focus on web (extranets), CAD (visualisation), and knowledge management technologies. However, it is now recognised that good collaboration does not result from the implementation of information technology solutions alone. The organisational and people issues, which are not readily solved by pure technical systems, need to be resolved. However, approaches that exclusively focus on organisational and people issues will not reap the benefits derived from the use of technology, especially in the context of distributed teams which are the norm in construction. Work currently being undertaken at Loughborough University aims to bring together the benefits enabled by the technology, with the organisational, and its people issues to provide a framework enabling high level strategic decisions to be made to implement effective collaboration. This paper reports on the initial stages of the project: the background to the project, the methodology used, and findings from the literature survey and the requirements capture survey conducted as part of the project

A conceptual model of enterprise application integration in higher education institutions

Copyright @ 2013 EMCIS.It is eminent that several applications’ systems are deployed at different levels in Higher Education (HE), ranging from academic and administrative to staff and students record systems. Many of these systems suffer from different problems due to the lack of integration such as data redundancy, inconsistency and maintenance cost. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) can provide substantial benefits to these systems, such as assisting with business process integration, facilitating e-service based transformation and supporting collaborative decision-making. However, some factors that influence EAI adoption process in HE will be defined. This paper introduces a conceptual model to explain the outcome of using EAI in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Analyzing the combination of the existing classification of EAI factors with the HE factors will enhance the implementation of EAI in HEI at both organizational and operational levels. A pilot study at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be presented in this paper to show that the integration of the multiple information systems gives an integrated view to facilitate information access and reuse. Moreover data from different information systems is combined to gain a more comprehensive basis to satisfy the educational needs

Article 22 TEU and the Unnoticed Resurrection of the Failed Common Strategies

The old common strategies instrument was introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam in order to improve the coherence and effectiveness of EU external action. However, shortly after its introduction the instrument suffered an inglorious demise because it failed to provide any added value. It is therefore surprising that the Lisbon Treaty, rather unnoticed, holds on to this instrument in Article 22 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Yet, rather than a relic of the past, this move represents a deliberate endeavor to tackle the shortcomings of its predecessor. Despite its significant potential in the new external action constellation, Article 22 TEU has however not yet been used in practice, suggesting that its innovative constitutional design did in fact not reply to any pressing political needs