Special Task Force Research Articles

Approaches to Aggregation and Decision Making—A Health Economics Approach: An ISPOR Special Task Force Report [5

The fifth section of our Special Task Force report identifies and discusses two aggregation issues: 1) aggregation of cost and benefit information across individuals to a population level for benefit plan decision making and 2) combining multiple elements of value into a single value metric for individuals. First, we argue that additional elements could be included in measures of value, but such elements have not generally been included in measures of quality-adjusted life-years. For example, we describe a recently developed extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) that provides a good example of how to use a broader concept of utility. ECEA adds two features—measures of financial risk protection and income distributional consequences. We then discuss a further option for expanding this approach—augmented CEA, which can introduce many value measures. Neither of these approaches, however, provide a comprehensive measure of value. To resolve this issue, we review a technique called multicriteria decision analysis that can provide a comprehensive measure of value. We then discuss budget-setting and prioritization using multicriteria decision analysis, issues not yet fully resolved. Next, we discuss deliberative processes, which represent another important approach for population- or plan-level decisions used by many health technology assessment bodies. These use quantitative information on CEA and other elements, but the group decisions are reached by a deliberative voting process. Finally, we briefly discuss the use of stated preference methods for developing “hedonic” value frameworks, and conclude with some recommendations in this area.

The difficulties in policing and combatting of a maritime crime: the case of Abalone poaching along South Africa's coastline

ABSTRACTThe poaching or the illegal harvesting of Abalone has for many years been endemic along South Africa's coastline and is the biggest threat to the continued survival of Abalone in the wild in its seas. Over the last 25 years, Abalone, once abundant, has been poached to the verge of commercial extinction. As a criminal enterprise Abalone poaching has become a well-planned, highly lucrative, illicit industry, controlled by organized crime syndicates, with large numbers of Abalone being harvested and poached illegally every year. Ninety-five percent of the poached Abalone in South Africa is smuggled out of the country to countries in South-East Asia, where it is a high-priced delicacy. This paper examines some of the factors driving the demand–supply dynamics, modus operandi, syndicate networks and smuggling routes concerning Abalone poaching in South Africa and the authorities’ efforts to combat it. Policing of this maritime crime presents its own set of obstacles and difficulties compounded by lack of funds; antipathy of communities dependent on Abalone poaching for economic survival; disbandment of special abalone anti-poaching task forces; high levels of corruption and even collusion between police and poaching syndicates.

The Association of Departmental Quality Infrastructure and Positive Change: A Pathology Department Illustration

A vertically and horizontally well-integrated quality improvement team is essential for effective quality data collection and implementation of improvement measures. We outline the quality structure of a large academic pathology department and describe successful projects across multiple divisions made possible by this tightly integrated structure. The physician vice chair for quality organizes departmental quality efforts and provides representation at the hospital level. The department has an independent continuous quality improvement unit and each laboratory of the department has a staff quality improvement representative. Faculty and staff experts have interacted to produce improvements such as accurate container labeling, efficient triage of specimens, and reduction of unnecessary testing. Specialized task forces such as the Courier Task Force are producing concrete recommendations for process improvement. All phases of pathology patient care are represented by faculty and staff who are trained in quality improvement, and each position touches and communicates actively with levels above and below itself. The key to the department’s approach has been the daily attention to quality efforts in all of its activities and the close association of faculty and staff to accomplish the goals of greater efficiency, safety, and cost savings.

Disease and non-battle injuries (DNBI) in austere environments: Lessons learned, for the DoD Role I, from CL Garoua, Cameroon, U.S. Army Africa (USARAF/SPMAGTAF)

Purpose: To provide Commanders and healthcare providers tasked with establishing Contingency Locations (CL) forward, insight regarding Disease and Non-Battle Injury (DNBI) trends that may adversely affect personnel readiness and mission accomplishment. This is a performance improvement/quality assurance (PI/QA) project utilizing a retrospective descriptive analysis of the DNBI trends associated with the establishment of CL Garoua, Cameroon. This operation included elements from the Contingency Command Post (CCP) for USARAF and the Special Purpose Marine Ground Task Force (SPMAGTAF). Provide: (1) objective information and DNBI data collected over twelve months in an environmentally challenging and austere location; (2) Identify examples of interventions used to reduce the DNBI numbers during the initial entry and CL establishment; (3) Offer information that may be helpful to both clinicians and command teams for future operations.

DUPLICATE: Recommendations for Good Procedural Practices for Real-World Data Studies of Treatment Effectiveness and/or Comparative Effectiveness Designed to Inform Health Care Decisions: Report of the Joint ISPOR-ISPE Special Task Force on Real-World Evidence in Health Care Decision Making

Available online 12 September 2017. The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2017.08.3019. The duplicate article has therefore been withdrawn. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.

The joint ISPOR-ISPE Special Task Force on real-world evidence in health care decision making: an interview with Marc Berger.

Marc L Berger, MD, is a retired, part-time consultant. He recently became Chair of the Real World Evidence Advisory Board for SHYFT Analytics. Over a 25-year industry career, Marc has held senior-level positions at Pfizer, Inc., OptumInsight, Eli Lilly and Company, and Merck & Co., Inc. His professional activities have included serving on committees for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Drug Information Association (DIA), and the editorial advisory boards of several journals. Marc has written or co-written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and other publications on a range of topics including health services research, outcomes research, health economics, health policy, and the analysis of real-world data.

PENEGAKAN HUKUM DI INDONESIA: APAKAH INDONESIA NEGARA HUKUM?

AbstractLaw problems are not finished yet until Indonesia entering its reformation era. AlthoughIndonesia actually is the Constitutional State, constitution has failed to provide protectionto the people. Supremacy of Law which is mandated by the Constitution 1945 is failed to beconducted, while law apparatus like public prosecutors, judges, polices and lawyers areinvolved playing the law. And then term as Law Mafia becomes familiar for public. Thegovernment has initiated various efforts to solve the law problems by making the NationalLaw Commission, Corruption Eradication Commission, Judicial Commission, Special TaskForce for Law Mafia, etc but it seems that it’s need a long time to improve the lawenforcement in Indonesia. But, law enforcement is still far from the ideals of rechts idée,and the aim of the State Law (Homeland/NKRI) as contained in the preamble of theConstitution paragraph four: developing the intellectual life of the Indonesian nation;creating more prosperous life or public welfare, and the fourth principle of Pancasila that isrealizing social justice for all the people of Indonesia.Keywords: Rule of law, Law enforcement, Constitution 1945, Law institution

AACP Special Taskforce White Paper on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital

The 2015-2017 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Special Taskforce on Diversifying our Investment in Human Capital was appointed for a two-year term, due to the rigors and complexities of its charges. This report serves as a white paper for academic pharmacy on diversifying our investment in human capital. The Taskforce developed and recommended a representation statement that was adapted and adopted by the AACP House of Delegates at the 2016 AACP Annual Meeting. In addition, the Taskforce developed a diversity statement for the Association that was adopted by the AACP Board of Directors in 2017. The Taskforce also provides recommendations to AACP and to academic pharmacy in this white paper.

Good Practices for Real-World Data Studies of Treatment and/or Comparative Effectiveness: Recommendations from the Joint ISPOR-ISPE Special Task Force on Real-World Evidence in Health Care Decision Making.

Real-world evidence (RWE) includes data from retrospective or prospective observational studies and observational registries and provides insights beyond those addressed by randomized controlled trials. RWE studies aim to improve health care decision making. The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) created a task force to make recommendations regarding good procedural practices that would enhance decision makers' confidence in evidence derived from RWD studies. Peer review by ISPOR/ISPE members and task force participants provided a consensus-building iterative process for the topics and framing of recommendations. The ISPOR/ISPE Task Force recommendations cover seven topics such as study registration, replicability, and stakeholder involvement in RWE studies. These recommendations, in concert with earlier recommendations about study methodology, provide a trustworthy foundation for the expanded use of RWE in health care decision making. The focus of these recommendations is good procedural practices for studies that test a specific hypothesis in a specific population. We recognize that some of the recommendations in this report may not be widely adopted without appropriate incentives from decision makers, journal editors, and other key stakeholders.

Target Practice

The nineteenth-century strategist Carl von Clausewitz describes “fog” and “friction” as fundamental features of war. Military leverage of sophisticated information technology in the twenty-first century has improved some tactical operations but has not lifted the fog of war, in part, because the means for reducing uncertainty create new forms of it. Drawing on active duty experience with an American special operations task force in Western Iraq from 2007 to 2008, this article traces the targeting processes used to “find, fix, and finish” alleged insurgents. In this case they did not clarify the political reality of Anbar province but rather reinforced a parochial worldview informed by the Naval Special Warfare community. The unit focused on the performance of “direct action” raids during a period in which “indirect action” engagement with the local population was arguably more appropriate for the strategic circumstances. The concept of “data friction”, therefore, can be understood not simply as a form of resistance within a sociotechnical system but also as a form of traction that enables practitioners to construct representations of the world that amplify their own biases.

IMPLEMENTASI KEBIJAKAN PENATAAN DAN PEMBINAAN PEDAGANG KAKI LIMA ZONA MERAH PADA KAWASAN ALUN-ALUN DAN MASJID RAYA KOTA BANDUNG

Implementation of Policy Planning and Development Street Vendor in the Red Zone area Central Square of The City and the grand mosque Bandung city is regulated through the Local Government Act of Bandung City (Perda) and Regulations Mayor Area (Perwal) Number 571 Year 2014 as an amendment Regulations Mayor Area number 888 Year 2012 on implementation guidelines Organize and Development Street Vendors in Bandung, especially in the Red Zone area Central Square of The City and the grand mosque Bandung city is not in accordance with the prescribed rules. The purpose of this research is to know how the activity implementation of policy by executing the instructions, which the measurement of success seen on three things: planning activities, training, and monitoring, control and enforcement. The next purpose was to describe the supporting factors and inhibiting factor the implementation of the policy. The method used in this research is qualitative - descriptive type, with key informants from agencies involved in the Special Task Force team coaching arrangement and street vendors, street vendors, and society. Data was collected through interviews, observation, and documentation. The results showed that the implementation is already well underway in accordance with the implementation guidelines activities although the outcome has not been maximized. While inhibiting factor in the implementation of this policy were standard and policy objectives, both human and budgetary resources, and economic conditions. Advice that can be given are a feasibility study placement locations Street Vendor and they economic ability, the attention of every department in the budget, make SOP and MOU clearly, and increase the number of officers and support facilities in supervisory activities.

The Road to Leadership in SPN

The Road to Leadership in SPN

The Politics of Security Deployment of Security Operatives to Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria 2001-2014

Abstract The paper examines the politics of security deployment by the Federal Government of Nigeria to Jos, metropolis. A cross-sectional study was conducted and Public Opinion Theory adopted. Methodologically, mixed methods of data collection were conducted that involved the administration of 377 questionnaires to adult respondents, six In-Depth Interviews with religious and community leaders while three Key Informant Interviews with security personnel working with Special Task Force. The survey reveals that, the deployment of Mobile Police from 2001-2010 and the formation of Special Task Force in 2010 has generated mixed reactions and divergent perceptions among the residents of Jos metropolis. Majority of the ethnic groups that are predominantly Christians were more contented with the deployment of the Mobile Police whereas ethnic groups that are dominantly Muslims questioned the neutrality, capability, performance and strength of the Nigerian Police Force in managing the crises. The study recommends that, security personnel should display high degree of neutrality in order to earn the confidence of the residents and change their perceptions.

Predictable Impact of Current Economic Recession on the Spread and Severity of Diseases in African Countries: Focus on Nigeria

This paper hypothesizes the health effect of current economic recession in sub-Saharan African countries, especially Nigeria, and how this is projected to impact especially the child health. Malnutrition is expected to be the bed-rock of other diseases, though this may not be a new phenomenon but one that has not been adequately addressed. Most (71%) children in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from child-poverty, and may be stunted, wasted and malnourished. Over-riding disease that may super-impose on malnutrition are bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, cholera, typhoid and Cancrum oris (NOMA), viral diseases such as measles, hepatitis, resurgence of polio, helminthic diseases such as Necator americanus and parasitic diseases such as malaria. The severity of these diseases is consequent upon two major factors which are out-of-pocket expenditure and caliber of health system in the nation. The main task is for the African Union and sub-Saharan governments at all levels to institute Child Health Insurance, Child Support Grant, Women Health Insurance and Women Support Grant for the protection and support of every African child and woman. The African Union should also constitute a special task force on overall health of African children and women.

AACP Special Taskforce White Paper on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital

AACP Special Taskforce White Paper on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital

An Investigation into the Effect of Airport Touting from the Passengers’ Perspective: A Case of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja

Abstract A detailed investigation of the impact of airport touting on passengers at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA). Using several analytical tools such as basic descriptive, multiple regression’s analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to assess identifiable characteristics. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to capture responses from both passengers and the touts, in order to obtain a balance view on the issue. Around two hundred (200) were distributed across two terminals, one hundred and eighty (180) responses were retrieved back. The results reveal that most of the touts operating at this airport were males, while only a quarter were females, only a few of them had higher education. They engaged themselves in all sort of activities - carry passenger’s luggage, make a reservation for their taxis and hotels, purchase and resell airline tickets at the airport. Besides, they extorted money and collect illegal fees from passengers, engaged in stealing and intimidating passengers, and most of them sampled were pleased with the profession. The majority of passengers sampled were unsatisfied with the touts’ activities and the current law on touting. They called for the regulation to be amended to prevent further exploitation of passengers and to protect the air transport industry. More so, the government should review and amend the current regulations on touting in public places. Establish a bespoke funding instrument for touting campaign and rehabitation programme for touts. Commission a special task-force for sensitising and monitoring of touting activities across the nation airports.Review and upgrade the nation airport sercurity infrastructures to include modern technologies; fingerprint/voice recognition to restrict touts from gaining entry into sensitive areas of the airport.

Evidence Based Medical Prevention: International Experience

The objective: was to study the international experience of evidence based preventive medicine development as well as to estimate its perspectives in Ukraine.
 Patients and methods. Main principles and methods of scientific knowledge and research have been used including universal ones, methods of systemic approach, quantitative and qualitative information analysis, classification and systematization of theoretical and empirical data, hystorical and logical methods, health statistics as well). In total 529 scientific information sources have been studied, particularly a number of evidence based medicine (EBM) computer databases, special task forces recommendations and Cochrane reviews on prevention, Register of medical and technological documents for health care standards in Ukraine et al.
 Results. The contribution of foreign scientific schools in the development of EBM has been determined, as well as the crucial role of scientific works carried out in the US and Great Britain in 1930–80s as to the development of evidence based preventive medicine. The international experience of the development and functioning of evidence based practice centers’ and special task forces on prevention has been summarized, as the experience of the development and implementation of recommendations on prevention in primary health care (PHC) in high income countries acceptable for Ukraine. The concept of evidence based prevention has been first proposed. It is revealed, that EBM implementation in Europe has been prioritized in both the field of infectious diseases prevention and PHC, while there are both the development of differentiated evidence based prevention and early evidence based diagnosis in PHC in the US.
 Conclusion. The results proved importance of taking into consideration of international experience while evidence based PHC is being developed as a priority in Ukraine.

AACP Special Taskforce on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital Interim Update

The 2015-2017 AACP Special Taskforce on Diversifying our Investment in Human Capital was appointed for a two-year term, therefore the interim update from the Taskforce. A full report will be provided in 2017 in the form of a white paper for academic pharmacy on diversifying our investment in human capital.

Not what, but who: Controlled choice in gifted education programs in the United States

Gifted education’s most pressing problem, according to its critics, is a lack of racial, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity. This lack of diversity can be attributed to the fractured nature of gifted education’s historical development, and the also fractured development of its very independent and numerous stakeholders. By the 20th century, these factors caused an overreaching regulatory structure to be practically infeasible. This policy proposal attempts to push back against historical precedent and begin a process of implementing overarching guidelines for gifted education programs in the United States based on a Controlled Choice model of admissions for gifted and talented pro-grams that receive federal funding. The new federal Special Task Force on Equity in Excellence will be tasked with enforcing and overseeing this policy change.

Zum Ausnahmezustand als Experimentierfeld für die Legitimierung von sonder- und außerrechtlichen Maßnahmen

This study focuses on the protests against the G8 summit in Heilgendamm, Germany, 2007. In the weeks preceding the event, Germany was preparing for a state of emergency. This discourse was created by legal authorities, politicians, security experts, the international media and the protestors alike. The study reconstructs the struggle for legitimacy and hegemonic supremacy. During this process the definition what was considered a "normal" protest and what a transgression shifted – highlighted by the demeanor of the special police task force BAO Kavala, but also by the gradual establishment of emergency laws for the normal case. The BAO expressed their intention to influence the public opinion explicitly.