The potential role of medical imaging to support treatment decisions

The treatment of cancer has received great advantage from medical imaging technology. This thesis project is oriented to collect the opinion of patients and medical personnel to understand if advanced medical imaging could be useful when patients are involved in treatment decision making (TDM) process. In the specific, the investigation tries to understand if medical imaging can be useful for TDM in patients affected by prostate and bowel cancer and at which degree. The project was conducted with semi-structured interviews involving medical personnel. The opinion of the patients was collected with the analysis of patient’s diaries shared on the Internet. A thematic analysis was performed to both sources to extract valuable insight about the problem. The results of the research shows that, at the current state, medical imaging is difficult to be used to guide patients in treatment decision making. In particular, the research revealed that medical imaging is underused due the difficulty to collect, organise and show medical pictures. Nevertheless, imaging is a powerful tool to help TDM in some specific situations. Body scans and other imaging techniques look promising tools for TDM, but further investigation is suggested to discover its full potential

Marketing digital na indústria farmacêutica

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre no Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas MonizA indústria farmacêutica tem um papel de grande relevo na evolução da sociedade, contribuindo para o aumento dos índices da qualidade de vida e da economia. Trata-se de um setor robusto que constitui um dos principais pilares das economias industrializadas. Um dos objetivos centrais da indústria farmacêutica é procurar inovações, sendo o marketing farmacêutico o responsável por divulgar essas mesmas através da promoção dos produtos junto dos profissionais de saúde. Conhecer os fatores de influência no ato da prescrição de novos medicamentos e o estudo do marketing tornam-se muito relevantes para este setor, pois permite que este se adeque e utilize os melhores meios disponíveis para comunicar e informar os seus clientes alvos, neste caso particular, médicos. Os avanços tecnológicos como o aparecimento da Internet, Internet móvel, uso de dispositivos móveis, mudou a forma como comunicamos e a classe médica não é exceção. Neste sentido, e também devido ao facto de os médicos possuírem cada vez menos disponibilidade para a indústria farmacêutica, este setor da indústria deve repensar a utilização dos canais de comunicação, sendo que a via digital pode ser uma alternativa. Desta forma, conhecer as ferramentas do marketing digital e a forma como a classe médica as recebe, deve ser um ponto crucial de estudo para este setor num futuro próximo

Factors that influence pharmaceutical industry stakeholders behavioral intentions to use social media that influence decision making for healthcare

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe aim of the research was to investigate the industry-related factors and their influences on behavioural intention with regard to the acceptance and use of social media for providing increased healthcare care to society, and supporting the decision-making processes of patients, pharmacists and physicians in the pharmaceutical industry in Kuwait, with regard to the healthcare needs of society. The key rationale and motivation for undertaking this research was to understand the industry-related factors that influence the behavioural intention to use social media discussion forums by people making decisions related to healthcare. It also examined how social media is used as a means of providing knowledge and awareness about the ways in which social health and the well-being of people can be increased. The focus of this research had a social motive, to promote the health of people, as opposed to a technology-related consideration. The research study made use of the positivist paradigm, along with the deductive approach to address the research aim and objectives. The data for the research study was collected in three phases. In the first phase, interviews were conducted with nine respondents, who included physicians, pharmacists and customers of the pharmaceutical companies, as an exploratory phase. This was followed by a survey questionnaire in the second phase, the sample size of which was determined as 440. This was also conducted with physicians, pharmacists and customers of the pharmaceutical companies in Kuwait. In the third phase, a final interview was conducted with seven physicians, seven pharmacists and seven customers, using the information gained from them to derive a logical and valid conclusion for the research study. The research findings determined that the four key constructs that influence behavioural intention to use social media discussion forums are: effort expectancy, social influence, performance expectancy and trust, while the five moderators in this regard are gender, age, experience, education level and health condition. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the two pharmaceutical industry-related constructs that influence behavioural intention while using social media discussion forums are: (1) authenticated credibility by industry support and (2) trust. The pharmaceutical industry-related moderators are: (1) educational level, which includes educational stage and medical knowledge, and (2) health conditions. The findings also revealed that the current practice of behavioural intention in respect of social media adoption and usage by pharmaceutical customers (pharmacists, physicians) and consumers in Kuwait highlights the addition of perceived trust as an industry-related construct, and education level and health conditions as the industry-related moderators. The research modified model BIUSF (Behaviour intention to use social media forums) has been developed on the basis of the primary data findings and analysis with respect to the pharmaceutical industry of Kuwait