275 research outputs found
A Smarter Academic Year
The Dutch academic year is exceptionally long. This causes a high work pressure for instructors and students and leaves little time for research and other core scientific duties. The Young Academy compared the Dutch academic year with other countries and is making concrete recommendations for improvement.Het Nederlands academisch jaar is uitzonderlijk lang. Dit veroorzaakt een hoge werkdruk voor docenten en studenten en laat weinig tijd over voor onderzoek en andere wetenschappelijke kerntaken. De Jonge Akademie onderzocht het Nederlands academisch jaar in vergelijking met het buitenland en doet concrete aanbevelingen voor verbetering
Experiences of Dutch maternity care professionals during the first wave of COVID-19 in a community based maternity care system
Background and objective During the COVID-19 pandemic the organization of maternity care changed drastically; this study into the experiences of maternity care professionals with these changes provides suggestions for the organization of care during and after pandemics. Design An online survey among Dutch midwives, obstetricians and obstetric residents. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to investigate associations between the respondents' characteristics and answers. Results Reported advantages of the changes were fewer prenatal and postpartum consultations (50.1%). The necessity and safety of medical interventions and ultrasounds were considered more critically (75.9%); 14.8% of community midwives stated they referred fewer women to the hospital for decreased fetal movements, whereas 64.2% of the respondents working in hospital-based care experienced fewer consultations for this indication. Respondents felt that women had more confidence in giving birth at home (57.5%). Homebirths seemed to have increased according to 38.5% of the community midwives and 65.3% of the respondents working in hospital-based care. Respondents appreciated the shift to more digital consultations rather than face-to-face consultations. Mentioned disadvantages were that women had appointments alone, (71.1%) and that the community midwife was not allowed to join a woman to obstetric-led care during labour and subsequently stay with her (56.8%). Fewer postpartum visits by family and friends led to more tranquility (59.8%). Overall, however, 48.0% of the respondents felt that the safety of maternity care was compromised due to policy changes. Conclusions Maternity care professionals were positive about the decrease in routine care and the increased confidence of women in home birth, but also felt that safety in maternity care was sometimes compromised. According to the respondents in a future crisis situation it should be possible for community midwives to continue to deliver a personal handover after the referral of women to the hospital, and to stay with them
Surgical prioritization based on decision model outcomes is not sensitive to differences between the health-related quality of life values estimates of physicians and citizens
Purpose: Decision models can be used to support allocation of scarce surgical resources. These models incorporate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) values that can be determined using physician panels. The predominant opinion is that one should use values obtained from citizens. We investigated whether physicians give different HRQoL values to citizens and evaluate whether such differences impact decision model outcomes. Methods: A two-round Delphi study was conducted. Citizens estimated HRQoL of pre- and post-operative health states for ten surgeries using a visual analogue scale. These values were compared using Bland–Altman analysis with HRQoL values previously obtained from physicians. Impact on decision model outcomes was evaluated by calculating the correlation between the rankings of surgeries established using the physicians’ and the citizens’ values.Results: A total of 71 citizens estimated HRQoL. Citizens’ values on the VAS scale were − 0.07 points (95% CI − 0.12 to − 0.01) lower than the physicians’ values. The correlation between the rankings of surgeries based on citizens’ and physicians’ values was 0.96 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Physicians put higher values on health states than citizens. However, these differences only result in switches between adjacent entries in the ranking. It would seem that HRQoL values obtained from physicians are adequate to inform decision models during crises.</p
Towards responsible quantum technology, safeguarding, engaging and advancing Quantum R&D
The expected societal impact of quantum technologies (QT) urges us to proceed
and innovate responsibly. This article proposes a conceptual framework for
Responsible QT that seeks to integrate considerations about ethical, legal,
social, and policy implications (ELSPI) into quantum R&D, while responding to
the Responsible Research and Innovation dimensions of anticipation, inclusion,
reflection and responsiveness. After examining what makes QT unique, we argue
that quantum innovation should be guided by a methodological framework for
Responsible QT, aimed at jointly safeguarding against risks by proactively
addressing them, engaging stakeholders in the innovation process, and continue
advancing QT (SEA). We further suggest operationalizing the SEA-framework by
establishing quantum-specific guiding principles. The impact of quantum
computing on information security is used as a case study to illustrate (1) the
need for a framework that guides Responsible QT, and (2) the usefulness of the
SEA-framework for QT generally. Additionally, we examine how our proposed
SEA-framework for responsible innovation can inform the emergent regulatory
landscape affecting QT, and provide an outlook of how regulatory interventions
for QT as base-layer technology could be designed, contextualized, and tailored
to their exceptional nature in order to reduce the risk of unintended
counterproductive effects of policy interventions. Laying the groundwork for a
responsible quantum ecosystem, the research community and other stakeholders
are called upon to further develop the recommended guiding principles, and
discuss their operationalization into best practices and real-world
applications. Our proposed framework should be considered a starting point for
these much needed, highly interdisciplinary efforts
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