Workflow

A calculation grid developed by an international expert group was tested across biobanks in six countries to evaluate costs for collections of various types of biospecimens. The assessment yielded a tool for setting specimen-access prices that were transparently related to biobank costs, and the tool was applied across three models of collaborative partnership.

The implementation of a pharmacovigilance service compliant with the legal and regulatory responsibilities of clinical trial sponsors presents particular challenges for sponsors in a non-commercial setting.In this paper we examine these challenges in detail. We identify and discuss the key steps in the development of a pharmacovigilance service within a public health service and university setting in the United Kingdom. We describe how we have established a central Pharmacovigilance Office with dedicated staff and resources within our organisation. This office is supported by an electronic pharmacovigilance reporting infrastructure developed to facilitate the receipt and processing of safety information, the onward reporting in compliance with legislation and the provision of sponsor institution oversight of clinical trial participant safety. An education and training programme has also been set up to ensure that all relevant staff in the organisation are fully aware of the pharmaco...

Different technologies, such as quantitative real-time PCR or microarrays, have been developed to measure microRNA (miRNA) expression levels. Quantification of miRNA transcripts implicates data normalization using endogenous and exogenous reference genes for data correction. However, there is no consensus about an optimal normalization strategy. The choice of a reference gene remains problematic and can have a serious impact on the actual available transcript levels and, consequently, on the biological interpretation of data. In this review article we discuss the reliability of the use of small RNAs, commonly reported in the literature as miRNA expression normalizers, and compare different strategies used for data normalization. A workflow strategy is proposed for normalization of miRNA expression data in an attempt to provide a basis for the establishment of a global standard procedure that will allow comparison across studies.

The second-generation contrast agent Definity (a perflutren microsphere) became available in Australia in mid-2007. We describe the introduction of contrast echocardiography into a high-volume quaternary teaching hospital, performing over 16,000 echocardiograms per year. Workflow protocols were developed for patient selection, contrast administration, and image acquisition and analysis. Data were prospectively collected for all contrast cases. Endocardial definition scores were derived by three independent observers before and after contrast administration, and statistically compared. 161 patients received contrast in the first 12 months of the contrast program. There was statistically significant improvement in endocardial definition scores after contrast administration (p=0.0001), and reduction in inter-observer variability of wall motion assessment. A number of clinically significant findings (pseudoaneurysm, non-compaction, thrombus) were detected on contrast echo that were not apparent on standard 2D imaging. Adverse events were rare (0.6%) with no life-threatening events. The introduction of a second-generation contrast agent into clinical workflow in a hospital echocardiography department resulted in a statistically significant improvement in endocardial definition, and safely provided diagnostic imaging in cases which were otherwise non-diagnostic. Inter-observer variability was reduced, and diagnostic yield increased. These results reflect previously published data, and indicate that contrast echocardiography is feasible in Australian clinical practice.

The business processes and workflows of Public Administration within the Hungarian Government are transformed profoundly in the past years. As more and more tasks of public administration are carried out by the assistance of electronic solutions, the tracking and monitoring of activities became possible whereby data in electronic form are available for data processing. In enterprises, the performance measurement, strategic enterprise management and similar approaches turn out to be fashionable; moreover, the techniques and methods out of data science provides the opportunities for data analytics on the collected data. As the e-public administration develops and significant amount of data will be accessible for data processing it will give the chance to apply data science for the wide spectrum of activities within public administration. There is project that is planned and dedicated to the before-mentioned task. Firstly, a data warehouse will be built that will collect and load the data from disparate sources in a data schemes within the data warehouse that will suit data analytics. We will analyze the E-government architecture, public administration processes and the available techniques of data science that will provide useful services for the senior public officers.

Numerous quality improvement projects on patient handoffs have been conducted, yet standardized, reliable measurement tools remain elusive. The literature review, which yielded approximately 400 relevant articles, led to the identification of seven primary functions for patient handoffs, each of which implies different interventions to improve them: (1) Framing 1, information processing is the most prevalent in the patient handoff literature; (2) Framing 2, stereotypical narratives, emphasizes highlighting deviations from typical narratives, such as a patient who is allergic to the preferred antibiotic for treating his or her diagnosed condition; (3) Framing 3, resilience, takes advantage of the transparency of the thought processes revealed through the conversation to identify erroneous assumptions and actions; (4) Framing 4, accountability, emphasizes the transfer of responsibility and authority; (5) Framing 5, social interaction, considers the perspective of the participants in t...

The present report was developed by the Operations and Quality Management (QM) Consultant with means to equip the Board of Directors with solid evidence of Ferrero’s actual position. The Report's core component encompassed an assessment of Ferrero's Operations, Project, and QM mechanisms, whilst employing applicable literature, interviews, theories, and frameworks revolving around the aforementioned topics. The report embarks on a concise outline pertaining to Ferrero’s heritage, up to its multinational expansion and acquisition strategy, supplemented by incurred operational management constraints, identified in the realms of customer demand shifts, pricing fluctuations, and most notably raw material scarcity. Revolving around three core QM approaches, namely Customer Focus, Integrated System, and Continuous Improvement (CI), the report emphasizes the significance of sustaining TQM tools throughout the entire organization, which endeavor is critical in the attainment of impeccable performance. Upon assessing the influence of workflow, productivity, and quality, on organizational competitiveness, the Consultant recognized the value of an optimized model in achieving the desired competitive edge, as it enables error mitigation, redundancy avoidance, and the pursuit of efficiency. A holistic review of the synchronization of Ferrero's core strategies has been performed in the domains inherent to Code of Ethics, Product Strategy, Traceability, and SCN Design, comprehensively intertwined with the overarching company strategy, although the potential for advancement has been identified in the realm of Supply Chain (SC) operations. The report then offers a range of performance metrics, critical cornerstones of Ferrero’s Operations and Project Management (PM). The report aims to raise concerns toward critical aspects in developing and enhancing MIS and ICTs among Operation Management throughout the enterprise; although the foregoing technologies have been regarded as crucial facilitators for the corporation, they have been shown to result in either opportunities or constraints. In an effort to facilitate the optimization of the company's operational processes, a thorough review of the actual requirements, relevant approaches, and technologies was highlighted. A.I. was recognized as an instrumental constituent in facilitating operational performance. The report includes an analysis centered on the engagement of the PERT methodology, consolidated in a cohesive strategy aimed at enhancing PM techniques in the corporation, thus increasing its competitive advantage. The report concludes with an assessment of Project Leadership's critical position in flawlessly sparking corporate success and synchronizing all stakeholders' expectations.

This paper proposes the use of design patterns in a marine research general information platform. The development of the platform refers to a design of complicated system architecture. Creation and execution of the research workflow nodes and designing of visualization library suited for marine users play an important role in the whole software architecture. This paper studies the requirements characteristic in marine research fields and has implemented a series of framework to solve these problems based on object-oriented and design patterns techniques. These frameworks make clear the relationship in all directions between modules and layers of software, which communicate through unified abstract interface and reduce the coupling between modules and layers. The building of these frameworks is importantly significant in advancing the re usability of software and strengthening extensible and maintainability of the system.

This chapter is intended to provide a common language to enable both medical and design professionals to improve their dialog and collaborative work processes when designing pediatric cardiac care settings. This approach will help provide knowledge that can be applied to new construction or renovation
of cardiovascular operating rooms and cardiac catherisation laboratories.

It is not uncommon during the course of healthcare facility design for numerous people to use common terms that have different meanings for each person and community, and then be surprised to later discover that their conversations were about different meanings that led to a different understanding and mindset.

Within the context of this chapter, the term “hybrid (surgical) room” is used to describe a procedure room designed and intended for either “open” or “closed” procedures, or both. They may be built for use by specific sub- specialists, or they may be shared by diverse users. This is a prime example of the necessity to clarify the operational, technological, cultural and political strategies explicitly prior to design inception and master planning.

This chapter is not only about architectural design and planning, although that is its primary focus. Its underlying message is that the design of cardiovascular surgical procedure rooms or suites – regardless of how innovative they are or how much advanced medical technology they contain – will likely only be successful if they are closely aligned with the evolving changes in models of care, medical practices, local culture, politics and a concern for safety and high reliability of care. Cardiovascular spaces must
also be designed with strategies that enable them to constantly evolve and be prepared for future changes in care models and technology requirements.

Traditional boundaries – both physical and virtual – between surgical and non-surgical specialists, as well as within surgical and interventional subspecialties are eroding with the emergence of hybrid interventionalists.
The chapter encourages the development of a new design ethos and practice to be considered: one in which the commonalities – instead of the differences – of traditional surgical and interventional environments form the building blocks of facility design for tomorrow’s cardiovascular procedures.

Nowadays there are techniques for the recovery of business processes (BP) to facilitate the work of the designer within a company, reducing the design time and reuse them. However the current arrangements are not sufficiently accurate and its computational performance is considerably high. Therefore the development of methods based on semantic search becomes an important area of I + D.

In this context, this book summarizes the research done by the Telematics Engineering group of University of Cauca (Colombia) about the discovery de BP based in behavior. To accomplish this purpose was necessary to develop matching techniques that operate on behavior of service models to allow partial matches delivering, evaluating the matching and users requirements. To accomplish this, we reduced the problem of matching services to a graph matching problem by adapting different algorithms to accomplish this purpose. The developed system takes as input a business process described in BPEL4SWS and it’s compared with a repository of 60 business processes , form the same protocol. The system, retrieves the most similar business processes depending on the filter used (workflow, inputs, outputs, name of the operation).

The purpose of this note is to explain the purpose, benefits and key elements of the Last Planner System (LPS) of Production Control.  Designed for use in Construction, LPS is now being used in a variety of project-based production settings.

Last Planner is a short-term project production planning system first used in engineering construction in the early 1990s. It continues to create significant improvements in project & program safety, flow, predictability, productivity, speed of delivery, profit and feelings of wellbeing among project staff.

LPS offers a realistic way to collaboratively manage project-based production, enables issues to be identified and resolved before they become problems on-site and increases the chances that work will flow and projects be completed on time. It is a vital link between logistics and building assembly teams. That’s why more and more enterprises are making it part of their standard procedure for project delivery.  It is now being jused to manage production in design as well as assembly.
 
In construction, for example, Last Planner promotes conversations between trade foremen and site-management at appropriate levels of detail before issues become critical. These conversations increase the chances that work flows and recognises that personal relationships and peer pressure are critical to that process.

Last Planner has evolved over the last two decades. It has become associated with new theory, some details have changed and other elements clarified. This process will and should continue. As when making any supposed improvement, the change should be benchmarked against pre-change performance so as to be able to answer the question “is this change an improvement”.