Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations. ENEPRI Policy Brief No. 14, 28 December 2012

This Policy Brief presents the research questions, main results and policy implications and recommendations of the seven Work Packages that formed the basis of the ANCIEN research project, financed under the 7th EU Research Framework Programme of the European Commission. Carried out over a 44-month period and involving 20 partners from EU member states, the project principally concerns the future of long-term care (LTC) for the elderly in Europe and addresses two questions in particular: How will need, demand, supply and use of LTC develop? How do different systems of LTC perform

Progressive Trust Formation within the South African Fresh Produce Industry through the use of Self-Service Technologies

When using self-service solutions to deliver services the challenge is to retain the trust of the end user. This is specifically the case when dealing with end users in the fresh produce market environment. This sector has not seen the adoption of self-service technologies specifically in southern Africa. In this paper we propose a model to enhance our understanding of trust formation using self-service technologies. A qualitative research approach, based on a case study was followed to create the model. This case study offers insight into how the dynamics of the product, supporting services and the technology shapes trust forming behaviour

Investigating the laundry logistics system of small-sized public hospital: Can the efficiency of operations be improved under the constraints of Thailand’s administrative culture?

yesPurpose All internal logistics systems contribute to the overall success of healthcare service delivery; laundry management (as a closed loop logistics system) is a critical system which facilitates patient recovery and rehabilitation. Studies indicate that applying efficiency measures/improvement tools in such systems, can deliver financial savings and strengthening of in-house competencies (Banerjea-Brodeur et al. 1998; Golden et al. 2008). This study focuses on the review and improvement of laundry management systems in a Thailand Hospital and the organizational culture underpinning this. This hospital was awarded the highest level of hospital accreditation (high level of quality and environmental compliance within this site). Despite this, problems existed at a very basic level with the laundry management, which can undermine patient dignity and respect and increase risk infection and health complications. This study contributes to the Thai healthcare agenda, a core mission of which is to “Develop efficient and equitable integrated health service system for both normal situation and emergency with emphasis on basic rights, specialized service and emergency medicine, surveillance system, disease prevention and control and health threats” (MOPH 2003). Research Approach The key research methods employed include literature review, in-depth interview, observation, documentation and content analysis. A mixed methods methodology was considered appropriate for this study for a number of reasons including a lack of previous insight into this system and the number of actors involved. To this end a triangulated view of the laundry management system was realized. Findings and Originality Delays in the provision of linen and patient clothing (1-4 days bottleneck) were adversely affected by unstructured laundry operations, insufficient personnel, poor job design and worn-out equipment. As a result of this analysis several solutions were steadily implemented which led to: (i) linen shortage was reduced by 12.12% - 28.48%, and (ii) the total cleaning time per cycle was reduced by 130 minutes (45.12%). The impact of the improvement practices in place were perceived to be undermined by cultural factors such as very high internal conflict, the new hospital Director with relatively low power, and limited budget allocated to purchasing linen. Research Impacts Very few studies have explored a closed-loop supply chain of hospital laundry management systems, fewer collected data from key users using a mixed methods methodology. Reverse Exchanges (RE), a new theoretical framework, was adopted to examine the laundry processes. This study attempts to this study fill these gaps. Although this research studied one district hospital; the practices can be greatly generalized; and the diagram of laundry operations and this research design can be replicated. Practical Impacts Improvement measures have been identified which directly impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of this operation. Whilst this is once case study site analysis, this can offer a positive contribution to the healthcare agenda within this country

ESTABLISHING BLOCKCHAIN-RELATED SECURITY CONTROLS

Blockchain technology is a secure and relatively new technology of distributed digital ledgers which is based on interlinked blocks of transactions. There is a rapid growth in the adoption of the blockchain technology in different solutions and applications and within different industries throughout the world, such as but not limited to, finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate and government. Blockchain technology has great benefits such as decentralization, transparency, immutability and automation. Like any other emerging technology, the blockchain technology has also several risks and threats associated with its expected benefits which in turns could have a negative impact on individuals, entities and/or countries. This is mainly due to the absence of a solid governance foundation for managing and mitigating such risks and the shortage of published standards to govern the blockchain technology along with its associated applications. In line with the “Dubai blockchain Strategy 2020” and “Emirates blockchain Strategy 2021” initiatives, this thesis aims to achieve the following: first, preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and information assets in relevance to blockchain applications and solutions implementation across entities, and second, mitigation and reduction of related information security risks and threats; through the establishment of new information security controls specifically related to the blockchain technology which have not been covered in International and National Information Security Standards which are ISO 27001:2013 Standard and UAE Information Assurance Standards by the Signals Intelligence Agency (formerly known as the National Electronic Security Authority). Finally, Risk Assessment and Risk Treatment have been performed on five blockchain use cases; to determine their involved risks with respective to security controls appropriately. The assessment/analysis results showed that the proposed security controls can mitigate relevant information security risks on the blockchain solutions and applications and consequently protect the information and information assets from unauthorized disclosure, modification, and destruction

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 : Cooperative agreement for emergency response : public health crisis response 2018 opioid overdose crisis cooperative agreement supplemental guidance

The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, and more than 630,000 people have died from a drug overdose from 1999 to 2016. In 2016, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was five times higher than in 1999.The FY 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act and Accompanying Report includes an increase in funding appropriated to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to \u201cadvance the understanding of the opioid overdose epidemic and scale up prevention activities across all 50 States and Washington, D.C.\u201d CDC will activate CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response to award a portion of these funds to those affected by the opioid epidemic.This supplemental guidance supplements guidance provided in the CDC-RFA-TP18-1802: Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). All requirements of that NOFO remain in effect unless otherwise amended herein. CDC may issue updated guidance in the future as needed.TP18-1802OpioidSupplementalGuidance-508.pdf201