A conceptual analytics model for an outcome-driven quality management framework as part of professional healthcare education

BACKGROUND: Preparing the future health care professional workforce in a changing world is a significant undertaking. Educators and other decision makers look to evidence-based knowledge to improve quality of education. Analytics, the use of data to generate insights and support decisions, have been applied successfully across numerous application domains. Health care professional education is one area where great potential is yet to be realized. Previous research of Academic and Learning analytics has mainly focused on technical issues. The focus of this study relates to its practical implementation in the setting of health care education. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to create a conceptual model for a deeper understanding of the synthesizing process, and transforming data into information to support educators’ decision making. METHODS: A deductive case study approach was applied to develop the conceptual model. RESULTS: The analytics loop works both in theory and in practice. The conceptual model encompasses the underlying data, the quality indicators, and decision support for educators. CONCLUSIONS: The model illustrates how a theory can be applied to a traditional data-driven analytics approach, and alongside the context- or need-driven analytics approach

An Intelligent Data Mining System to Detect Health Care Fraud

The chapter begins with an overview of the types of healthcare fraud. Next, there is a brief discussion of issues with the current fraud detection approaches. The chapter then develops information technology based approaches and illustrates how these technologies can improve current practice. Finally, there is a summary of the major findings and the implications for healthcare practice

MISTRAL

This report outlines the MISTRAL model (Administrative Compliance Cost Assessment Tool), by emphasising the issues of when a model may be applied, why it will be applied, how the model works and why the model should be used. The report concludes by narrating several results obtained on the basis of MISTRAL.

Coal Mine Remediation as a Tool to Improve Disparate Coal Mining Impacts in Appalachian Communities Utilizing a Community Health Assessment Conceptual Model

The coalfields region of central Appalachia bears the unfortunate hallmark characteristics of low socioeconomic status, poor health outcomes, and some of the lowest life expectancies in the United States, making some residents potentially part of vulnerable health populations. Vulnerability impacts the ability of individuals to respond or recover from stressors--- particularly environmental pollution---not as well as other individuals. Moreover, the economic outlook for the region is grim, given that the international coal mining industry has experienced serious recent downturns, and increased production from the natural gas sector has made coalfired power production domestically less competitive. As a result, many of the larger coal companies are in or have recently been in bankruptcy, leaving coal mining states at risk for large-scale forfeitures and abandoned coal mines. In 2016, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) estimated that coal operators in the bankruptcy process held over 900 mine site permits, leaving sites in various stages of mining. Unremediated coal mines may pose a risk for safety and discharge pollutants into surface waters, potentially impacting water quality. Given that the communities near coal mines may constitute vulnerable health populations, the impacts of pollution stressors pose a serious public health concern. Coal mining states should prioritize the remediation of forfeited and abandoned coal mines due to these concerns. However, serious financial limitations may impact the states\u27 abilities to remediate these sites.;Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), coal mine operators are required to post full financial assurance that the mine site will be remediated to environmental performance standards. If a coal mine operator abandons a site without fully remediating the environmental impacts, the state becomes responsible for the reclamation. However, due to the ways states administer the bond programs under SMCRA, they may have limited financial and administrative resources to remediate all existing abandoned coal mines, and the possibility of future abandoned sites may strain those resources further. These issues of available remediation resources is compounded by the disparate impacts of coal mining between the counties, as well the watersheds. In West Virginia, disparities exists between the counties for the amount of acres impacted by coal mining, with higher levels of mined acres occurring in counties with the poorest health rankings. In addition, some counties and watersheds are much more impacted by the costs of under-secured reclamation bonding. Counties with the worst health outcome rankings have the greatest amounts of potential risks for under-secured coal mine bonding. As a result, vulnerable health populations may live in areas where the state does not have adequate financial assurance to remediate abandoned coal mines and the watersheds heavily impacted by mining, placing these residents at further risk for long-term environmental stressors.;Surface water pollution presents one source of environmental stressor. Long-term surface water quality issues may already exist at many coal mine sites, as evidenced by a history of longterm pollutant discharge violations under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Over 43% of the individual coal mine sites that West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) certified would meet water quality standards and nearly half of the total WVDEP coal mining state water quality certifications issued in order for the sites (or portions of the sites) to be constructed under the CWA resulted in consent decrees or other types of settlements for violations of state water quality standards. These pollutant discharge violations were also from larger acre sites with that predominantly drain into the Coal, Upper Guyandotte, Upper Kanawha, Lower Guyandotte, and other watersheds that are currently listed with impaired status under the CWA. CWA violation consent decrees involving 5 of the largest coal operators in West Virginia occurred in areas of the state with the worst health rankings.;With limited financial and administrative resources, WVDEP is currently responsible for remediation at 192 post-SMCRA forfeited mines with water pollution discharges, at an estimated initial cost of {dollar}35.5 million and {dollar}6.7 million in annual treatment costs. WVDEP has not completed remediation at these sites. Because of the need for prioritization of the state\u27s cleanup of these forfeited mines, regulations require that WVDEP maintain a priority listing of forfeited sites based upon (1) the severity of the water discharges, (2) the quality of the receiving stream, (3) the effects on downstream water users, and (4) other factors determined to affect the priority ranking. Surface coal mine remediation presents an excellent opportunity to improve both the environment of the coalfields and the health in communities surrounded by coal mines and downstream of polluted mining water discharges. By utilizing a community health impacts assessment conceptual model tailored to the concerns of West Virginia and central Appalachia, WVDEP can identify the existing pollution burdens on communities and vulnerable health populations to utilize community health as one factor in prioritizing mine remediation. By utilizing data that the state---specifically WVDEP---already collects and maintains, as well as other easily-accessible and publicly available information, WVDEP can utilize this community health assessment conceptual model framework to objectively consider characteristics of the coalfield communities. This conceptual model is objective and tailored to mine remediation. It fits within existing West Virginia laws and regulations and would not require Legislative rulemaking to incorporate into practice

Sustainable mining, local communities and environmental regulation

Sustainable mining is an objective as well as a tool for balancing economic, social, and environmental considerations. Each of these three dimensions of mining – and sustainable development – has many components, some of which were chosen for closer study in the SUMILCERE project. While there is no single component that in itself provides a definitive argument for or against sustainable mining, the research reveals some that have proven valuable in the process of balancing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the SUMILCERE project, comparative studies enabled us to identify factors such as the following, which are essential when discussing the balancing in practice of the three dimensions of sustainable mining cited above: the framework and functionality of environmental regulation to protect the environment (environmental sustainability); the competitiveness of the mining industry in light of environmental regulation and its enforcement (economic sustainability); public participation and the opportunities local communities have to influence their surroundings, as well as communities’ acceptance of projects (social sustainability) before and during operations; and the protection of Sámi cultural rights in mining projects (social and cultural sustainability). Although each of the three dimensions of sustainability leaves room for discretion in the weight assigned to it, ecological sustainability, protected by smart environmental regulation and minimum standards, sets essential boundaries that leave no room for compromises. Economic and social sustainability are possible only within these limits. Details of the analyses in the Kolarctic area and accounts of the methods used can be found in the cited SUMILCERE articles.publishedVersio

Discipline Formation in Information Management: Case Study of Scientific and Technological Information Services

Discipline formation in information management is investigated through a case study of the origi-nation and development of information services for scientific and technical information in Australia. Particular reference is made to a case of AESIS, a national geoscience, minerals and petroleum reference database coordinated by the Australian Mineral Foundation. This study pro-vided a model for consideration of similar services and their contribution to the discipline. The perspective adopted is to consider information management at operational, analytical and strate-gic levels. Political and financial influences are considered along with analysis of scope, perform-ance and quality control. Factors that influenced the creation, transitions, and abeyance of the service are examined, and some conclusions are drawn about an information management disci-pline being exemplified by such services

Environmental Risk and the Traditional Sector Approach: Market Efficiency at the Core of Environmental Law

Professor Gillroy provides an in-depth discussion on the evolution of environmental law and the proposition that market efficiency has been, and still is, at its core

The enviornmental assessment of a contemporary coal mining system

A contemporary underground coal mine in eastern Kentucky was assessed in order to determine potential off-site and on-site environmental impacts associated with the mining system in the given environmental setting. A 4 section, continuous room and pillor mine plan was developed for an appropriate site in eastern Kentucky. Potential environmental impacts were identified, and mitigation costs determined. The major potential environmental impacts were determined to be: acid water drainage from the mine and refuse site, uneven subsidence of the surface as a result of mining activity, and alteration of ground water aquifers in the subsidence zone. In the specific case examined, the costs of environmental impact mitigation to levels prescribed by regulations would not exceed $1/ton of coal mined, and post mining land values would not be affected