Modelling mobile health systems: an application of augmented MDA for the extended healthcare enterprise

Mobile health systems can extend the enterprise computing system of the healthcare provider by bringing services to the patient any time and anywhere. We propose a model-driven design and development methodology for the development of the m-health components in such extended enterprise computing systems. The methodology applies a model-driven design and development approach augmented with formal validation and verification to address quality and correctness and to support model transformation. Recent work on modelling applications from the healthcare domain is reported. One objective of this work is to explore and elaborate the proposed methodology. At the University of Twente we are developing m-health systems based on Body Area Networks (BANs). One specialization of the generic BAN is the health BAN, which incorporates a set of devices and associated software components to provide some set of health-related services. A patient will have a personalized instance of the health BAN customized to their current set of needs. A health professional interacts with their\ud patients¿ BANs via a BAN Professional System. The set of deployed BANs are supported by a server. We refer to this distributed system as the BAN System. The BAN system extends the enterprise computing system of the healthcare provider. Development of such systems requires a sound software engineering approach and this is what we explore with the new methodology. The methodology is illustrated with reference to recent modelling activities targeted at real implementations. In the context of the Awareness project BAN implementations will be trialled in a number of clinical settings including epilepsy management and management of chronic pain

Designing a complex intervention for dementia case management in primary care

Background: Community-based support will become increasingly important for people with dementia, but currently services are fragmented and the quality of care is variable. Case management is a popular approach to care co-ordination, but evidence to date on its effectiveness in dementia has been equivocal. Case management interventions need to be designed to overcome obstacles to care co-ordination and maximise benefit. A successful case management methodology was adapted from the United States (US) version for use in English primary care, with a view to a definitive trial. Medical Research Council guidance on the development of complex interventions was implemented in the adaptation process, to capture the skill sets, person characteristics and learning needs of primary care based case managers. Methods: Co-design of the case manager role in a single NHS provider organisation, with external peer review by professionals and carers, in an iterative technology development process. Results: The generic skills and personal attributes were described for practice nurses taking up the case manager role in their workplaces, and for social workers seconded to general practice teams, together with a method of assessing their learning needs. A manual of information material for people with dementia and their family carers was also created using the US intervention as its source. Conclusions: Co-design produces rich products that have face validity and map onto the complexities of dementia and of health and care services. The feasibility of the case manager role, as described and defined by this process, needs evaluation in ‘real life’ settings

What works for disadvantaged unemployed : private or public ALMP services? Evidence from Poland

Purpose: This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of public vs. private active labour market policies (ALMP) for disadvantaged unemployed. The literature on the efficiency of contracting-out ALMP services by public institutions is not consistent. Formalism and limited scope of possible actions in public institutions stand in the way to activation of the less promising unemployed. On the other hand, contracted-out companies work as a black-box and are paid a success fee. Design/Methodology/Approach: We used (conducted by accident) Randomised Control Trial evaluation of the contracting-out ALMP services program in Poland. We used public registers data from Poland. Findings: We found a strong positive effect of support provided by contracted private agencies. This effect was found to be the strongest among the most dismissed groups of the unemployed. Practical Implications: Study shows that success-fee for external institutions and lack of hard frames assures incentives compatibility that results in real improvement of the unemployed situation, even a year after the end of the intervention. This conclusion should result in adjustments in active labour market policy. Originality/Value: The uniqueness of the study lies in scale of the RCT experiment and robustness of conculusons. The golden standard of evaluation allowed for gaining indisputable evidence on the effectiveness of particular ALMP instrument. Without this kind of analysis, public decisions can turn out to be wrong and lead to the closure of effective programmes (as it happened with contracting-out ALMP services), and investment in programmes that do not provide any effective support for those in need.peer-reviewe

Dynamic simulation methodology for implementing circular economy: A new case study

Purpose: Circular economy (CE) principles have evolved in response to natural resource depletion as a set of guidelines for eliminating the linear take-use-dispose model of product consumption. The consequences of shifting from a linear to a circular supply chain are difficult to visualize in the long term. This study aims to design a methodology for building a simulation model to implement CE strategies in any small and medium-sized enterprise SME to prove policies before implementing them in the real world. This paper applied the methodology in a biological cycle case study: a confectionery factory in Mexico. Design/methodology/approach: This study evaluated service-dominant logic, ecosystem services, system dynamics, and agent-based modeling to design the proposed methodology. A series of interviews with stakeholders were performed to assess the simulation model during the development phase. The circular economy indicator prototype (CEIP) was used as a circular maturity measure of the confectionery factory. The simulator was executed in Netlogo software, implementing a four-scenario analysis based on two CE policies for the caramel recycling process. Five state variables were proposed in this analysis: confectionery waste, recycled glucose, recycling utilization, costs of recycled glucose, and profit. Findings: The CEIP score of the confectionery factory was 52%, rated as a “good” product. Regarding scenario analysis, the first scenario had the highest profit improvement. Practical implications: The simulator allowed stakeholders to understand the operation of the recycling process and visualize all variables involved in the system. Originality/value: In the CE literature, little attention has been paid to proposing a methodology for designing a simulation model to implement CE strategies in any industry. Thus, this study implements a nine-step methodology based on services context and dynamic simulation tools to design a platform to evaluate and visualize the consequences of CE strategies implementation in the long termPeer Reviewe

Data driven approaches for smart city planning and design: a case scenario on urban data management

Purpose Because of the use of digital technologies in smart cities, municipalities are increasingly facing issues related to urban data management and are seeking ways to exploit these huge amounts of data for the actualization of data driven services. However, only few studies discuss challenges related to data driven strategies in smart cities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to present data driven approaches (architecture and model), for urban data management needed to improve smart city planning and design. The developed approaches depict how data can underpin sustainable urban development. Design/methodology/approach Design science research is adopted following a qualitative method to evaluate the architecture developed based on top-level design using a case data from workshops and interviews with experts involved in a smart city project. Findings The findings of this study from the evaluations indicate that the identified enablers are useful to support data driven services in smart cities and the developed architecture can be used to promote urban data management. More importantly, findings from this study provide guidelines to municipalities to improve data driven services for smart city planning and design. Research limitations/implications Feedback as qualitative data from practitioners provided evidence on how data driven strategies can be achieved in smart cities. However, the model is not validated. Hence, quantitative data is needed to further validate the enablers that influence data driven services in smart city planning and design. Practical implications Findings from this study offer practical insights and real-life evidence to define data driven enablers in smart cities and suggest research propositions for future studies. Additionally, this study develops a real conceptualization of data driven method for municipalities to foster open data and digital service innovation for smart city development. Social implications The main findings of this study suggest that data governance, interoperability, data security and risk assessment influence data driven services in smart cities. This study derives propositions based on the developed model that identifies enablers for actualization of data driven services for smart cities planning and design. Originality/value This study explores the enablers of data driven strategies in smart city and further developed an architecture and model that can be adopted by municipalities to structure their urban data initiatives for improving data driven services to make cities smarter. The developed model supports municipalities to manage data used from different sources to support the design of data driven services provided by different enterprises that collaborate in urban environment.acceptedVersio

Exploring inter-departmental barriers between production and quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of adopting an organizational ecological perspective to explore behavioural barriers in a UK operations & production management (OPM) setting. Design/methodology/approach – An ethnographic case study approach was adopted with a narrative ecological stance to deconstruct the perceived realities and the origins of the inter‐departmental barriers applying Scott‐Morgan's unwritten rules methodology. Findings – Despite an improvement in the physical proximity of the production and quality control departments, the qualitative approach revealed that latent, socially constructed drivers around management, interaction and communication reinforced inter‐departmental barriers. Conflicting enablers were ultimately responsible derived from the organizational structure, which impacted the firm's production resources. Research limitations/implications – As a case study approach, the specificity of the findings to this OPM setting should be explored further. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates the use of theoretical frameworks in a production and manufacturing organization to provide insights for maximising process effectiveness. Using the organizational ecological perspective to uncover the socially constructed unwritten rules of the OPM setting beneficially impacted on operational effectiveness. Originality/value – The paper contributes to organization ethnography literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis of manufacturing and services behaviour using an organizational ecology perspective. The example demonstrates that “qualitative” research can have real world impact in an advanced operational context. It also contributes to an ecological or complex adaptive systems view of organizations and, inter alia, their supply chains

Towards an agent-based framework for online after-sales services

The multi-agent paradigm for building intelligent systems has gradually been accepted by researchers and practitioners in the research field of artificial intelligence. There are also attempts of adapting agents and agent-based systems for creating industrial applications and providing e-services. In this paper, we present an attempt to use agents for constructing an online after-sale services system. The system is decomposed into four major cooperative agents, and in which each agent concentrates on particular aspects in the system and expresses intelligence by using various techniques. The proposed agent-based framework for the system is presented at both the micro-level and the macro-level according to the Gaia methodology. UML notations are also used to represent some software design models. As the result of this, agents are implemented into a framework for which exploits Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) technique to fulfil real life on-line services' diagnoses and tasks

“Plug and play” modular façade construction system for building renovation to achieve nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB)

Following energy performance improvement policies, there is a need for the massive renovation of the European building stock. The prevalence of multi-rise buildings with concrete structure and poor thermal performance offers a significant opportunity for renovation packages that facilitate the improvement of the building fabric, with its insulation, air-tightness and integration of building services and solar technologies. The RenoZEB project develops a "plug and play" modular facade construction system answering to this need. This prefabricated plug and play modular system has been tested by reproducing the holistic methodology and new technologies in the market by means of real and virtual demonstrators. The applicability and effectiveness of the methodology has been tested by means of a full-scale mock-up system has been constructed and installed in the KUBIK by Tecnalia test facility. The design, construction, manufacture & installation cycle has been tested. Its applicability for a real construction project for a multi-rise residential building in Spain is presented.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 768718