The positive impacts of Real-World Data on the challenges facing the evolution of biopharma.

Demand for healthcare services is unprecedented. Society is struggling to afford the cost. Pricing of biopharmaceutical products is under scrutiny, especially by payers and Health Technology Assessment agencies. As we discuss here, rapidly advancing technologies, such as Real-World Data (RWD), are being utilized to increase understanding of disease. RWD, when captured and analyzed, produces the Real-World Evidence (RWE) that underpins the economic case for innovative medicines. Furthermore, RWD can inform the understanding of disease, help identify new therapeutic intervention points, and improve the efficiency of research and development (R&D), especially clinical trials. Pursuing precompetitive collaborations to define shared requirements for the use of RWD would equip service-providers with the specifications needed to implement cloud-based solutions for RWD acquisition, management and analysis. Only this approach would deliver cost-effective solutions to an industry-wide problem

Business Model Evaluation: A Systematic Review of Methods

Background: As a result of factors such as digitization and rapid technology change, organizations are compelled to innovate their business models at an accelerated pace. While the domain of business model innovation has focused on understanding and structuring the process of innovation, it offers limited guidance for evaluating business models during the innovation process. Business model evaluation plays a vital role in supporting decision-making about the performance or viability of new business models and motivating continued investments. Existing literature on methods for business model evaluation and their application is limited and available information is scattered. Furthermore, as the BMI process covers a broad spectrum of activities - from business model initiation to implementation - the evaluation challenges and the effectiveness of evaluation methods vary across the phases of innovation. Thus, there is a need for a better understanding on methods for business model evaluation, and their timing and application for business model innovation. Method: Through a systematic literature review, we have investigated the methods available for business model evaluation and focused on understanding their characteristics and effective timing of application in the business model innovation process. Results: We have identified six groups of methods used for business model evaluation. Additionally, we find that early phase business model evaluation is predominantly qualitative in nature, whereas late phases of business model innovation are generally supported through quantitatively-oriented methods. Moreover, we observe that limited evaluation support is available in the literature to support the initiation phase of business model innovation. Based on our findings, we propose a guiding structure for aligning the available methods with the respective innovation phases. Conclusion: The proposed guiding structure offers guidance for business model evaluation in practice and serves as a basis for future research in developing more effective methods and tools for business model evaluation and development

Usability analysis of contending electronic health record systems

In this paper, we report measured usability of two leading EHR systems during procurement. A total of 18 users participated in paired-usability testing of three scenarios: ordering and managing medications by an outpatient physician, medicine administration by an inpatient nurse and scheduling of appointments by nursing staff. Data for audio, screen capture, satisfaction rating, task success and errors made was collected during testing. We found a clear difference between the systems for percentage of successfully completed tasks, two different satisfaction measures and perceived learnability when looking at the results over all scenarios. We conclude that usability should be evaluated during procurement and the difference in usability between systems could be revealed even with fewer measures than were used in our study. © 2019 American Psychological Association Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Quality framework for semantic interoperability in health informatics: definition and implementation

Aligned with the increased adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, it is recognized that semantic interoperability provides benefits for promoting patient safety and continuity of care. This thesis proposes a framework of quality metrics and recommendations for developing semantic interoperability resources specially focused on clinical information models, which are defined as formal specifications of structure and semantics for representing EHR information for a specific domain or use case. This research started with an exploratory stage that performed a systematic literature review with an international survey about the clinical information modelling best practice and barriers. The results obtained were used to define a set of quality models that were validated through Delphi study methodologies and end user survey, and also compared with related quality standards in those areas that standardization bodies had a related work programme. According to the obtained research results, the defined framework is based in the following models: Development process quality model: evaluates the alignment with the best practice in clinical information modelling and defines metrics for evaluating the tools applied as part of this process. Product quality model: evaluates the semantic interoperability capabilities of clinical information models based on the defined meta-data, data elements and terminology bindings. Quality in use model: evaluates the suitability of adopting semantic interoperability resources by end users in their local projects and organisations. Finally, the quality in use model was implemented within the European Interoperability Asset register developed by the EXPAND project with the aim of applying this quality model in a broader scope to contain any relevant material for guiding the definition, development and implementation of interoperable eHealth systems in our continent. Several European projects already expressed interest in using the register, which will now be sustained by the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data

SHELDON Smart habitat for the elderly.

An insightful document concerning active and assisted living under different perspectives: Furniture and habitat, ICT solutions and Healthcare