Assessment Procedures Research Articles

Adaptation and validation of a social information processing assessment procedure for research.

Biases and deficits in social information processing (SIP) skills are associated with social maladjustment in children and adolescents. There is much literature on the association between processing skills and their relationship to aggressive behavior, but there is limited knowledge about their association with other types of antisocial behavior. In this study we conducted a Spanish adaptation and validation of the Sociale Informatie Verwerkings Test, a Dutch research assessment and diagnostic instrument. For this purpose, construct, content and criterion validity were analyzed through their association with antisocial behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis supported the structure of the measure in a sample of 364 adolescents aged 12-18 years (55.2% female) from a high school in Spain. Constructs underlying the items of the new assessment were associated with SIP steps and profiles from SIP theory. SIP steps in the data of the new adaptation were related to each other being consistent with the theoretical conceptualization. The results showed associations between self-reported antisocial behaviors in adolescents with a greater tendency to aggressive SIP processing style. Treatment and training of such behaviors starts with valid assessment of the specific skills and steps that are biased or deficient, to which the current study contributes.

Co-production of public policy to mitigate animal-vehicle collisions on roads in Brazil

ABSTRACT Roads worldwide contribute to biodiversity loss through animal-vehicle collisions, impacting ecological connectivity and ecosystem functioning. Despite existing environmental impact assessment procedures for road operations, the absence of specific rules for planning mitigation measures raises major concerns about the effectiveness of current practices. To address these challenges, a two-year co-production process was initiated to develop a novel regulation for mitigating animal-vehicle collisions in Brazil. This collaborative effort involved over 90 stakeholders, including the state environmental agency, road administrators, researchers, and legal representatives. The process, characterized by its context-based, pluralistic, goal-oriented, and interactive nature, resulted in a framework for developing and implementing mitigation plans. The process included detailing context definition, reviewing existing public policies, identifying participants, creating an official working group, conducting monthly virtual meetings, and a public consultation. Despite challenges in participant engagement and decision-making in the absence of evidence, the co-production process demonstrated the importance of inclusivity, a formalized working group, and a core team in structuring discussions. Recommendations for future practice include participative processes, transparent public consultation, and a realistic schedule for implementing mitigation measures. We emphasize the importance of credibility, relevance, legitimacy, and iterativity in the co-production process, highlighting its increased potential to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Literacy assessment of English teachers: Need analysis for higher education contexts

This paper is aimed to describe what knowledge and skills an English teacher should have to be assessment literate. The paper focuses on the following four basic knowledge areas of assessment literacy. First, English teachers should know what assessment is in general and what classroom assessment is. Second, the teachers should know the purposes of assessment. This knowledge will guide the teachers to create general learning goals, construct clear learning targets, and formulate clear rubrics. Third, the teachers should be aware of various assessment methods in ELT. Last, the teachers should comprehend assessment's positive influences in teaching and learning. To have a positive washback of assessment, the teachers should know how to create effective classroom assessments, how to make constructive feedback, how to support the role of students in assessment, and how to modify instruction based on assessments' results. Assessment literacy is an individual's understanding of the basic concepts and procedures of assessment which will be used as a basis for educational decisions (Popham, 2009). To be assessment literate, a teacher should have the knowledge and skills in relation to basic principles of quality assessment. This essay will discuss four basic knowledge areas of assessment literacy: definition of assessment, purposes of assessment, methods of assessment and keys for creating positive washback of assessment that can improve instruction and students' learning.

Image-Guided Robotic Surgery for Sentinel Lymph Node Status Assessment in Uterine Cancers Using Ultrasound Drop-in Probe: Surgical Technique in 10 Steps.

Recent guidelines recommend the sentinel lymph node (SLN) technique in uterine cancers, as it is associated with lower perioperative complications.1 Image-guided surgery can address some limitations of SLN procedures, such as low frozen-section accuracy and risk of empty packets,2-4 by providing real-time lymph node assessment.5,6 This video describes the surgical procedure of intraoperative robotic ultrasound examination for SLN assessment. The Arietta L43K (2-12MHz, Hitachi, Japan) drop-in robotic ultrasound probe was used to assist with SLN dissection. The procedure was performed on the da Vinci Xi platform. The probe, introduced through an accessory trocar, was manipulated by robotic instruments, providing real-time ultrasound imaging in split-view mode on the surgeon's console. Ultrasound images, captured by the surgeon under the guidance of an experienced ultrasound examiner, were analyzed both in vivo and ex vivo.7 RESULTS: The procedure involves ten steps, detailed as follows. (1) The procedure begins with the cervical injection of indocyanine green. (2) The pelvic retroperitoneum is opened to allow access to anatomical landmarks. (3) Using near-infrared imaging mode, the lymphatic pathways are highlighted, allowing for the identification of the SLN. (4) Once identified, the drop-in ultrasound probe is introduced. (5) The console is switched to split-view mode, enabling the surgeon to observe ultrasound images alongside the endoscopic view. (6) In vivo imaging is conducted. (7) Both images and videos of the lymph node are captured. (8) The SLN is subsequently dissected. (9) SLN specimens are safely extracted. (10) Ex vivo ultrasound assessment is performed to further evaluate their characteristics. Although its accuracy compared with histology as the gold standard is yet to be demonstrated, image-guided robotic lymph node ultrasound is a feasible and promising procedure for real-time SLN assessment. A prospective study is ongoing (R-LYNUS, NCT06621823) to clinically validate this technique.

Paraphilias, problematic sexual behaviours and personality disorder-To what extent are they linked?

Since DSM-III, mental disorders have been classified based on overt symptoms and behaviours rather than underlying psychological and personality processes. This study examines the occurrence of personality dysfunction in individuals with paraphilic disorders and problematic sexual behaviours. The Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), a clinician-rated assessment measure of personality disorders, was administered in a sample of 303 patients referred to a specialist forensic psychotherapy clinic. Sixty-six percent (N =200) of the sample were diagnosable with traits of one or more DSM-5 personality disorders, and 35% (N =106) were diagnosable with categorical DSM-5 personality disorders. When an alternative set of empirically derived personality diagnoses was examined, 94% (N =285) had significant traits of the personality syndromes, and 62% (N =188) of the sample met criteria for categorical diagnoses. Paraphilic fantasies and behaviours may be linked to underlying personality pathology, suggesting implications for assessment and treatment.

Systematic study on the evaluation method of surface antibacterial activity based on the fluorescent observation of bacterial growth.

Antibacterial and antiviral coating materials have attracted increasing attention for the prevention of infections caused by frequently touched surfaces in communities and hospitals. The standard assessment procedure for antibacterial surfaces involves bacterial culture on a film-covered substrate followed by transfer onto agar for colony counting (ISO22196:2011). However, this assessment lacks temporal and spatial information regarding bacterial growth, resulting in an incomplete and inaccurate evaluation of the antibacterial activity of the surface. In this study, we develop a novel evaluation procedure for antibacterial substrates that enables in situ visualization of bacterial growth on a surface with centimeter-scale spatial information using fluorescent protein-expressing bacterial cells and an image acquisition setup. The effects of equipment parameters on bacterial growth are systematically investigated to establish the standard evaluation conditions. Based on the optimized parameters, a quantitative evaluation of the antibacterial activity of the coating material is successfully demonstrated. The proposed method is expected to be useful in investigating the spatial and temporal distribution of bacterial growth on substrates.

An Intelligent Model for Parametric Cognitive Assessment of E-Learning-Based Students

In an e-learning environment, question levels are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (BT), which normally classifies a course’s learning objectives into diverse levels. As per the previous literature, the assessment procedure lacks accuracy and results in redundant keywords when automatically assigning Bloom’s taxonomic categories using a keyword-based approach. These assessments are considered challenging as far as e-learning-based students are concerned, as the text feed is the only instrumental testing part. Student assessments are limited to multiple-choice questions and lack an evaluation of students’ text-based input. This paper proposes a natural-language processing-based intelligent deep-learning model that relies on parametric cognitive assessments. By applying class labels to students’ descriptive responses, the proposed approach helps classify a variety of questions mapped to BT levels. The first contribution of this work is a compiled dataset of the assessment items from 300 students, who were tested on 20 questions at each level. Each level is calculated by combining the responses from all students, resulting in 6000 questions per cognitive level for a total of 36,000 records. The second contribution is the development of an intelligent model based on a recurrent neural network (RNN), which not only predicts Bloom’s question level but also learns it over further iterations. The students’ text-based answers are accessed to gauge performance using a refined question pool gathered through the RNN model. The student dataset is mapped and tested using the NLP model for further classification of the students’ cognitive levels. This assessment is related to the formulation of questions and the compilation of Episode 2 for assessment. The third contribution is the comparison and demonstration of the improvements in learning using a parametric cognitive-based assessment in an episodic manner. Improved classification accuracy was attained by adding more processing layers based on the iterative, RNN-based learning model to achieve the vital threshold difference. The cognitive based questions pool classification achieved by RNN results in 98% accuracy. The resulting student assessments, based on performance, increased to an accuracy ratio of 92.16% and a precision ratio of 92.36% at an aggregate level based on the Random Forest classifier. We claim that our work serves as an initiative for effective student evaluations in interactive and e-learning-based environments when handling other types of inputs, like mathematical, graphical, and multimodal inputs.

The Chinese version of the patients' experiences scale for older inpatients in the medical group: Instrument development and cross-sectional validation study.

Value-based healthcare is increasingly emphasizing attention to patients' self-reported experiences. However, due to the lack of effective tools, older patients in China lack feedback on the comprehensive care experience. Based on the psychometric assessment procedure, we developed a new geriatric inpatient experience scale (GIES). The study comprised two stages: (1) instrument development and (2) empirical testing. Through literature screening and Delphi methods, 26 preliminary items were identified. The content and facial validity tests then produced 23 items across eight factors: 'Doctor-patient communication', 'Engagement', 'Privacy', 'Right to know', 'Services timeliness', 'Continuity care', 'Visiting environment', and 'Overall satisfaction'. Using reliability analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate psychometric characteristics, GIES showed good reliability and structural validity. As a multidimensional instrument for the experience of older patients, the application of GIES in clinical practice can assist healthcare providers in identifying areas for improvement to improve care experiences and outcomes for older patients.

Acute Pain Recognition using an Ensemble Learning Methods: Evaluation of Performance and Comparison

Accurate assessment and classification of acute pain are critical for optimal therapy, particularly in healthcare environments in which early intervention might prevent chronic pain development. Conventional pain recognition approaches mostly depend on the self-reported information, which can be subjective by psychological factors and communication problems, especially in nonverbal organizations. Recent advancements in technology have provided new opportunities for pain recognition using facial images and biomedical signals such as electromyography (EMG). In this work, we proposed an ensemble learning-based model that combines both face images and EMG data for acute pain classification, and the CNN ShuffleNet V2 approach is used for feature extraction. Our objective for pain classification is to correct classification for pain intensity levels from T0 to T4 (no pain vs. pain). We proposed ensemble learning-based techniques like TabNet, LightGBM, Hidden Markov, and Gaussian Process for acute pain classification. We used many kinds of approaches to improve prediction performance, which created a comprehensive framework for pain classification and insights into the physiological and psychological responses to acute pain. Our analysis of results also indicates that the ensemble approach definitely surpasses previous approaches whereby TabNet model accuracy came to be 97.8%. Also, this model has great F1 score of 97.6%, as well as recall at 97.3%, while on kappa score, it goes up to 92.4%, indicating great dependability. These results present a good optimism that our ensemble learning technique could change the face of pain assessment procedures and therefore patient care in acute pain treatment.

Discourse Structuring Metadiscourse in EMI Lecturer Microteaching Test Performance

Microteaching is frequently used in English-medium instruction (EMI) teacher education to provide a controlled environment for skill refinement and feedback (Deroey, 2023; Morell, 2020), but less frequently in EMI language testing (Dimova, 2017) due to concerns about its suitability. While some argue for its potential to standardize language assessment procedures, others question its ability to reflect classroom discourse (Molino et al., 2022). To address this issue, empirical evidence of the language features of microteaching is needed. So far, however, very limited language-focused research has been conducted. This paper takes a step in this direction by analyzing EMI lecturers’ test performance in terms of discourse structuring metadiscourse, a key language function for enhancing clarity and coherence. The performances of 15 EMI lecturers on the Test of Oral English Proficiency for Academic Staff (TOEPAS) are examined to identify the most commonly used personal and impersonal metadiscourse markers, as well as differences in lecturers’ use of these markers across proficiency levels. Following Ädel’s (2010) reflexive model, quantitative and qualitative insights into metadiscourse are provided. Results suggest that simulated lectures elicit a range of forms and functions of metadiscourse that have been documented in the literature on classroom discourse in English-dominant and non-English-dominant settings. While more research is needed to elucidate the frequency distributions of these forms and how they reflect actual classroom practices, the qualitative analysis across proficiency levels provides insights into the degree of lexico-grammatical variation in the articulation of metadiscourse, which has implications for the widespread use of microteaching in testing and training.

Expert consensus on neuropsychological assessment for mild cognitive impairment (2025 edition)

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a state of objective cognitive decline that falls between normal aging and dementia, with a high prevalence among the elderly in China. Cognitive impairments in MCI patients involve multiple cognitive domains such as memory, language, attention, executive, visuospatial functions, and social cognition, as well as non-cognitive domains such as neuropsychiatric, mood, sleep, daily living activities, and frailty. The assessment and clinical diagnosis of MCI highly rely on neuropsychological testing. In order to standardize the neuropsychological assessment of MCI, the Dementia and Cognitive Disorders Group of the Chinese Society of Neurology formulated this consensus document. It recommends tools for assessing global cognition, various cognitive domains, and non-cognitive functions suitable for both clinical and research settings. The consensus proposes assessment procedures and precautions based on the experiences of domestic researchers. Based on the latest international and domestic research advancements, using the Delphi method and the GRADE evidence system, 24 recommendations were formulated in 5 aspects of MCI: global cognitive function assessment, various cognitive domains assessment, non-cognitive assessment, the use of neuropsychological scales, and precautions in neuropsychological assessment, aiming to improve the diagnosis and management of MCI in China.

SAP Cloud Migration: Strategies, Challenges, and Best Practices

This comprehensive technical article explores the strategies, challenges, and best practices for successful SAP cloud migration in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape. It examines various aspects of cloud migration, including market trends, implementation approaches, and critical success factors. The article provides detailed insights into three primary migration strategies: Greenfield, Brownfield, and Bluefield, along with their respective technical considerations and use cases. It covers cloud platform selection criteria, focusing on major providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP, while discussing their specific capabilities and differentiating features. The article delves into essential aspects of migration planning, including infrastructure requirements, data security, system integration, and performance optimization. Special attention is given to zero downtime migration techniques, outlining pre-migration assessment, execution strategies, and post-migration optimization procedures. The article emphasizes the importance of proper planning, technical preparation, and continuous monitoring throughout the migration journey.

Parallel EEG-fNIRS assessments of covert cognition in behaviorally non-responsive ICU patients: A multi-task feasibility study in a case of acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy.

Repeat neurological assessment is standard in cases of severe acute brain injury. However, conventional measures rely on overt behavior. Unfortunately, behavioral responses may be difficult or impossible for some patients. As a result, patients who recover consciousness before the ability to express so may go undetected. Recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of incorporating functional neuroimaging into clinical assessment protocols. The objective of the current study is to assess the feasibility of a multi-task, multimodal bedside technique to evaluate sensory and cognitive function in behaviorally non-responsive patients. We deployed a novel assessment paradigm to evaluate sensory and cognitive processing in one 63-year-old unresponsive patient with acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN). We collected parallel bedside EEG-fNIRS activity during hierarchical auditory processing, movie listening, and motor imagery. We found appropriate hemodynamic activation in the patient's middle and superior temporal gyri to simple sounds and activation in their superior temporal gyrus, left angular and precentral gyri during speech. During movie listening, the patient produced patterns of EEG and fNIRS activity that were statistically indistinguishable from healthy controls. The patient also showed appropriate fNIRS and source-localized EEG activation of motor areas during motor imagery. Upon recovering, the patient correctly recalled multiple aspects of our assessment procedures. In sum, our assessment protocol effectively captures neural markers of sensory and cognitive function in behaviorally non-responsive patients. Crucially, while AMSAN is distinct from brain injury, the patient's assumed dissociation between behavior and awareness provided an ideal test case to validate our protocol.

Digitalization of the Workflow for Drone-Assisted Inspection and Automated Assessment of Industrial Buildings for Effective Maintenance Management

Industrial buildings are a key element in the industrial fabric, and their maintenance is essential to ensure their proper functioning and avoid disruptions and costly economic losses. Continuous maintenance based on an accurate diagnosis makes it possible to meet the challenges of aging infrastructures, which demands a reliable data-based assessment for maintenance management implementing corrective and preventive actions, according to the damage criticality. This paper researches an innovative digitalized process for the inspection and diagnosis of industrial buildings, which leads to categorizing and prioritizing maintenance actions in an objective and cost-effective way from the inspection data. The process integrates some technical developments carried out in this work, aimed to automate the workflow: the drone-based inspection, the building condition assessment from the definition of a standardized construction pathology library, and a visual analysis of pathology evolution based on photogrammetry. The use of drones for digitalized inspection involves some challenges related to the positioning of the drone for damage localization, which has been herein overcome by developing a geo-annotation system for image acquisition. This system has also enabled the capture of geo-located images intended to generate 3D photogrammetric models for quantifying the pathological process evolution. Moreover, the assessment procedure outlined through multi-criteria decision-making methodology MIVES establishes a single criterion to automatically weight the relative importance of the damage defined in the library. As a result, this procedure yields the so-called Intervention Urgency Index (IUI), which allows prioritizing the maintenance actions associated with the damage while also considering economic criteria. In such a way, the overall process aims to increase reliability and consistency in the results of inspection and diagnosis needed for the effective maintenance management of industrial buildings.

Structural reliability assessment of a historical reinforced concrete building using numerical analysis and NDT techniques

AbstractThis paper presents a case study of a methodology for assessing the structural reliability of an early reinforced concrete structure using a combination of primarily non‐destructive diagnostic and advanced numerical analysis methods. The case study examines the historical Csíky Gergely Theater in Kaposvár, Hungary, built in 1911. At that time, the design methodology and construction process were carried out using a relatively rudimentary standard framework. This study demonstrates that a multi‐phase assessment procedure integrating numerical analysis and primarily non‐destructive testing techniques can significantly reduce structural analysis uncertainty. This approach allows for an optimal selection of the reliability index (βtarget), even when deviating from design standards. Based on this modified reliability index and considering the diagnostic and material test results, the partial factors used for the assessment can be optimally adjusted, and in most cases reduced, compared to those in design codes for new structures. Consequently, the extent of structural interventions needed to increase the load‐bearing capacity can be minimized.

The Performance-based IISCA Can Inform Effective and Socially Meaningful Skill-based Treatment

AbstractJessel et al. (Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 727–745, 2024) demonstrated that results from the performance-based, interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) had strong correspondence when compared to typical IISCA procedures and produced positive outcomes with resultant functional communication training procedures. On the basis of the assumption that functional analyses may include potentially adverse events insofar as they deliberately and repeatedly arrange conditions suspected to evoke dangerous behavior, Jessel and colleagues argued in favor of aligning functional analysis procedures with guidelines of trauma-informed care. We replicated and extended Jessel et al. (Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 727–745, 2024) by conducting a performance-based IISCA with three children with autism referred for behavioral services due to dangerous behavior and by evaluating a comprehensive skill-based treatment informed by the performance-based IISCA. The skill-based treatment resulted in the eventual elimination of dangerous behavior and the acquisition of multiple important skills, with caregivers implementing treatment sessions for two of the three participants. Assessment and intervention procedures and outcomes were socially validated by all participating families.

Performance of five dynamic models in predicting tuberculosis incidence in three prisons in Thailand.

This study examined the ability of the following five dynamic models for predicting pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) incidence in a prison setting: the Wells-Riley equation, two Rudnick & Milton-proposed models based on air changes per hour and liters per second per person, the Issarow et al. model, and the applied susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered (SEIR) tuberculosis (TB) transmission model. This 1-year prospective cohort study employed 985 cells from three Thai prisons (one prison with 652 cells as the in-sample, and two prisons with 333 cells as the out-of-sample). The baseline risk of TB transmission for each cell was assessed using the five dynamic models, and the future PTB incidence was calculated as the number of new PTB cases per cell and the number of new PTB cases per 1,000 person-years (incidence rate). The performance of the dynamic models was assessed by a four-step standard assessment procedure (including model specification tests, in-sample model fitting, internal validation, and external validation) based on the Negative Binomial Regression model. A 1% increase in baseline TB transmission probability was associated with a 3%-7% increase in future PTB incidence rate, depending on the dynamic model. The Wells-Riley model exhibited the best performance in terms of both internal and external validity. Poor goodness-of-fit was observed in all dynamic models (chi-squared goodness-of-fit tests of 70.75-305.1, 8 degrees of freedom, p < .001). In conclusion, the Wells-Riley model was the most appropriate dynamic model, especially for large-scale investigations, due to its fewer parameter requirements. Further research is needed to confirm our findings and gather more data to improve these dynamic models.

Verification report: A critical reanalysis of Vahey et al. (2015) "A meta-analysis of criterion effects for the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) in the clinical domain".

The meta-analysis reported in Vahey et al. (2015) concluded that the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has high clinical criterion validity (meta-analytic r‾=.45) and therefore "the potential of the IRAP as a tool for clinical assessment" (p. 64). Vahey et al. (2015) also reported power analyses, and the article is frequently cited for sample size determination in IRAP studies, especially their heuristic of N>37. This article attempts to verify those results. Results were found to have very poor reproducibility at almost every stage of the data extraction and analysis with errors generally biased towards inflating the effect size. The reported meta-analysis results were found to be mathematically implausible and could not be reproduced despite numerous attempts. Multiple internal discrepancies were found in the effect sizes such as between the forest plot and funnel plot, and between the forest plot and the supplementary data. 23 of the 56 (41.1%) individual effect sizes were not actually criterion effects and did not meet the original inclusion criteria. The original results were also undermined by combining effect sizes with different estimands. Reextraction of effect sizes from the original articles revealed 360 additional effect sizes that met inclusion criteria that should have been included in the original analysis. Examples of selection bias in the inclusion of larger effect sizes were observed. A new meta-analysis was calculated to understand the compound impact of these errors (i.e., without endorsing its results as a valid estimate of the IRAP's criterion validity). The effect size was half the size of the original (r‾=.22), and the power analyses recommended sample sizes nearly 10 times larger than the original (N>346), which no published original study using the IRAP has met. In aggregate, this seriously undermines the credibility and utility of the original article's conclusions and recommendations. Vahey et al. (2015) appears to need substantial correction at minimum. In particular, researchers should not rely on its results for sample size justification. A list of suggestions for error detection in meta-analyses is provided.

Peer support for adult social care in prisons in England and Wales: a mixed-methods rapid evaluation.

More adults in prison need social care support. In some prisons, prisoners ('buddies') are trained to provide social care support for non-personal care tasks to other prisoners. These services are not mandated but have been proposed as a solution to support social care provision in prisons. Previous research explored delivery of peer support initiatives in prisons, but there has been little research evaluating the effectiveness, implementation and experience of social care peer support. There is a need to establish how best to measure the impact and cost of peer support schemes for social care in prisons in England and Wales. To evaluate peer support schemes for adult social care in prisons in England and Wales (including implementation, experiences, risks and benefits, outcomes and costs, available data, andhow to measure impact and cost). A rapid mixed-methods study, including a rapid systematic scoping review (n = 70 papers), a documentary analysis of 102 His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons reports, and a multisite study of implementation and experience. The multisite study included 1 workshop with national and local stakeholders (n = 13) and 71 interviews with national and local leads (n = 7), prison leads from 18 prisons (n = 20), staff (n = 7), peers (n = 18) and recipients (n = 19) from 5 prisons. Qualitative analysis took place in two phases: (1) rapid analysis (using rapid assessment procedure sheets) and (2) in-depth thematic analysis. We analysed availability of data to measure impact and cost of services. 'Buddies' are frequently used in prisons in England and Wales, filling an important gap in social care provision. Implementation varies, due to service, prison, staff and prisoner factors. Prison service instruction guidelines for peer-supported social care are not consistently being implemented. This study identified areas for improvement, for example the need for formal training for buddies and staff, and the need for clear standardised employment procedures. Buddy schemes are valued by staff, buddies and recipients. Some barriers were identified, for example, lack of peer and staff training and supervision, and prison regime. Peer-supported social care may have wide-reaching benefits, yet there are several risks for recipients and buddies that must be mitigated, including the potential for exploitation of the role by staff, buddies and recipients. It is currently not possible to evaluate impact and cost due to limited data. We have developed an evaluation guide which outlines operational, cost and outcome data that needs to be collected to enable regular monitoring and/or evaluation in future. There is a lack of data collected on impact and cost, so we were unable to measure effectiveness and cost in this study. Instead, we developed an evaluation framework to inform future impact and cost evaluations. National standards for peer-supported social care (including national data infrastructure) would enable robust monitoring and evaluations of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of peer support for social care. Peer support services are well received by different stakeholders, but standardisation is needed to ensure they are sufficiently resourced and appropriately monitored and evaluated to mitigate against risks. This study is registered as researchregistry8783. This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme (NIHR award ref: NIHR135689) and is published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research; Vol. 13, No. 1. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.

МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ АНАЛИЗА КАЧЕСТВА УСЛУГ АПТЕЧНЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ

The quality of a pharmaceutical service is a cumulative characteristic indicating the homogeneity of its provision in accordance with consumer expectations and existing requirements reflected in regulatory documents and institutional-level standards. The level of quality of pharmaceutical services largely determines the position of a pharmacy organization among competitors and its resistance to changing conditions of the pharmaceutical market, and the social aspects of pharmacies' work indicate the quality of drug treatment of patients and the pharmaceutical care provided to them. In this regard, the procedure for measuring and assessing the quality of pharmaceutical services is becoming increasingly important and relevant. Aim. To develop and apply a methodological approach to assessing and analyzing the quality of pharmaceutical services using a number of pharmacy organizations in the Irkutsk region as an example. Materials and methods. Scientific publications and provisions of current regulatory documents defining the basic requirements for the quality of pharmaceutical services were used. The quality of pharmaceutical services was assessed using the expert assessment method with the involvement of 285 experts. The study was based on 30 pharmacy organizations in the Irkutsk region. The competence assessment was carried out by assigning numerical values in points to individual characteristics of experts. When assessing the consistency of expert opinions, the Kendall concordance coefficient was used. Results. The most important tool used in the analysis of the quality of services of pharmacy organizations is the assessment system, which allows measuring the level of quality of services, interpreting the current situation, identifying possible risks and determining the available opportunities to improve the quality of services provided to the population. The article presents a concept for assessing the quality of pharmaceutical services suitable for use in retail pharmacy organizations serving the population. The authors present a ready-made set of tools for analyzing the quality of services: the main provisions of the assessment procedure and assessment criteria are defined and substantiated. The parameters and quality indicators adequately characterize the most important properties of the object of assessment. The results of testing made it possible to identify factors that have a negative impact on the quality of pharmaceutical services at the regional level. Conclusion. The developed methodological approach is universal and allows measuring and analyzing the quality of pharmaceutical services both at the level of individual pharmacy organizations and at the regional level. The obtained results of the assessment indicate a sufficiently high level of quality of pharmaceutical services, however, they provide a basis and opportunity to make a corrective impact on the activities of pharmacy organizations to improve the situation.