Expertise Of Stakeholders Research Articles

Co-creation of patient engagement quality guidance for medicines development: an international multistakeholder initiative

IntroductionMeaningful patient engagement (PE) can enhance medicines’ development. However, the current PE landscape is fragmentary and lacking comprehensive guidance.MethodsWe systematically searched for PE initiatives (SYNaPsE database/publications). Multistakeholder groups integrated these...

A Conceptual Model of Financial Toxicity in Pediatric Oncology.

The purpose of this article is to explicate a conceptual framework for financial toxicity in pediatric oncology to guide nursing practice and research. The framework is based on one for financial outcomes of severe illness attributed to Scott Ramsey and adapted by the National Cancer Institute to describe relationships between preexisting factors, a cancer diagnosis, financial distress, and health outcomes for adult cancer patients and survivors. The adaption for pediatric oncology was informed by the results of a systematic scoping review to identify advances and gaps in the recent literature about the personal costs of illness to parents in the pediatric oncology context. The conceptual model for pediatric oncology indicates that existing and dynamic parent and family factors, other risk and protective factors, the child's diagnosis and treatment, and treatment-related financial costs can affect parent financial coping behaviors and parent health and family financial outcomes, all of which may affect child outcomes. Additionally, nursing's historic emphasis on holistic care, quality of life, and health determinants justify attention to financial toxicity as a nursing role. Therefore, pediatric oncology nurses must be sensitive to financial toxicity and related risk factors, become comfortable communicating about treatment-related financial costs and financial distress with parents and other health professionals, and collaborate in efforts that draw on the expertise of multiple stakeholders to identify potential or actual financial toxicity in parents and mitigate its impact on childhood cancer health outcomes through direct care, referral, research, quality improvement, and health advocacy.

Signaling valuable human capital: Advocacy group work experience and its effect on employee pay in innovative firms

Research Summary: The ability of innovative firms to create and capture value depends on innovations that are quickly and widely adopted. Yet, stakeholder concerns can establish important barriers to diffusion. We study the human capital aspect of this challenge and investigate whether innovative firms pay salary premiums to new hires with work experience from advocacy groups like Transparency International. We integrate strategic human capital with stakeholder theory and suggest that advocacy group experience creates signals for valuable human capital in terms of stakeholder knowledge and legitimacy transfers to innovative firms. Using matched data for 3,562 employees in Denmark, we find that new hires with advocacy group experience enjoy larger salary premiums at technologically leading firms, in occupations with direct stakeholder interaction, and for advocacy group top management.Managerial Summary: Innovation research is increasingly aware of the non‐technological factors behind successful innovations. Users, regulators, or public opinion can be benevolent supporters or stingy opponents of innovations. Employees with an understanding of the needs and sensitivities of societal stakeholders should therefore be valuable to innovative firms. We find this to be the case when innovative firms hire employees from advocacy groups representing such stakeholders (e.g., Transparency International). Such employees receive higher salaries than an otherwise comparable reference group. These findings indicate that recruiting needs of innovative firms reward stakeholder experience, not merely technological expertise. They demonstrate how firms can create value in the pursuit of the public interest. Further, advocacy groups emerge as an important career stage allowing individuals to develop credible signals for stakeholder expertise.

Measuring the Accessibility of Railway Stations in the Brussels Regional Express Network: a Node-Place Modeling Approach

As a result of mounting concerns over the adverse ecological and socio-economic effects of mobility systems dominated by individual motorized transport, metropolitan areas worldwide have expressed a renewed interest in the role of public transport. Like many other metropolitan areas, the Brussels Capital Region (BCR) faces the problem of an increasingly congested transport system. Against this backdrop, the Regional Express Railway (RER) network is intended as a rapid-transit railway system serving an area of 30 km around the region, with the objective of improving the capacity and frequency of the railway services between the BCR and its periphery. In order to inform policy prescription, this paper reports on a systematic empirical assessment of all RER railway stations in terms of transport and land use characteristics, by drawing on the node-place modeling and transit oriented development literature. The proposed accessibility instrument considers different catchment area sizes in order to increase its empirical basis. Based on this systematic railway station inventory, cluster analysis was conducted revealing seven comparative accessibility profiles, of which some prove highly robust over the different precinct sizes. When combining the quantitative analyses reported in this paper with the more intuitive expertise of practitioners and stakeholders involved in the planning process, the accessibility instrument may effectively assist the identification of differentiated development opportunities for the RER stations.

Automatic production of end user documentation for DSLs

Domain-specific languages (DSL) are developed for answering specific problems by leveraging the expertise of domain stakeholders. The development of DSLs requires a significant software engineering effort: editors, code generators, etc, must be developed to make a DSL usable. Documenting a DSL is also a major and time-consuming task required to promote it and address its learning curve. Recent research work in software language engineering focus on easing the development of DSLs. This work focuses on easing the production of documentation of textual DSLs. The API documentation domain identified challenges we adapted to DSL documentation. Based on these challenges we propose a model-driven approach that relies on DSL artifacts to extract information required to build documentation. Our implementation, called Docywood, targets two platforms: Markdown documentation for static web sites and Xtext code fragments for live documentation while modeling. We used Docywood on two DSLs, namely ThingML and Target Platform Definition. Feedback from end users and language designers exhibits qualitative benefits of the proposal with regard to the DSL documentation challenges. End user experiments conducted on ThingML and Target Platform Definition show benefits on the correctness of the created models when using Docywood on ThingML.

Predicted 21st century climate variability in southeastern U.S. using downscaled CMIP5 and meta-analysis

Trends and variability of the climate in the southeastern United States, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee was studied for an array of future scenarios in the 21st century. The region is a biodiversity hotspot affected by more billion-dollar disasters than any other region in the country. Assessing the impacts of climate change in southeastern United States is important and often requires knowledge of plausible future climate change (e.g. scenarios of temperature and precipitation change). Although several methods are available in literature to develop plausible scenarios of the changes, there exists a usability gap [gap between what scientists understand as useful information and what users recognize as usable]. A novel conceptual framework that represents the plausible future climate change scenarios in southeastern United States was developed using information from meta-analysis and outputs from ~19 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) Global Climate Models (GCMs) [data analysis] in the form of scenario funnels (represent the plausible trajectories of changes in climate). The systematic literature review provided 33 values of precipitation changes from 15 studies and 35 for temperature changes from 14 studies. In general, the meta-analysis revealed, the precipitation changes observed ranged from −30 to +35% and temperature changes between −2 °C to 6 °C by 2099. Fiftieth percentile of the GCMs predicts no precipitation change and an increase of 2.5 °C temperature in the region by 2099. Among the GCMs, 5th and 95th percentile of precipitation changes range between −40% to 110% and temperature changes between −2 °C to 6 °C by 2099. Finally, the usability of scenario information to stakeholders in various southeastern United States ecosystems and guidelines for developing causal chains and feedback loops with three levels of complexity were provided. They include utilizing the information from impact assessment studies, stakeholder's expertise and requirement as well as understanding the potential impacts in ecosystems (e.g. agroecosystems, coastal, wetland) by relating the structural components of an ecosystem, their interactions with each other, within and across ecosystems for improved management and sustainable use of their resources. These would improve understanding of ecosystem functioning for better management and sustainable use of resources. Although the methodology was demonstrated for southeastern United States, it could also be applicable to other regions of the world. However, the scenario funnels, potential impacts on ecosystems and causal chain/loops are subjective to the study region, availability of literature, the changes observed in the literature and data analyzed, the characteristics of the study region, the stakeholder and their requirement.

Specifying uncertainty in use case models

ContextLatent uncertainty in the context of software-intensive systems (e.g., Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs)) demands explicit attention right from the start of development. Use case modeling—a commonly used method for specifying requirements in practice, should also be extended for explicitly specifying uncertainty. ObjectiveSince uncertainty is a common phenomenon in requirements engineering, it is best to address it explicitly by identifying, qualifying, and, where possible, quantifying uncertainty at the beginning stage. The ultimate aim, though not within the scope of this paper, was to use these use cases as the starting point to create test-ready models to support automated testing of CPSs under uncertainty. MethodWe extend the Restricted Use Case Modeling (RUCM) methodology and its supporting tool to specify uncertainty as part of system requirements. Such uncertainties include those caused by insufficient domain expertise of stakeholders, disagreements among them, and known uncertainties about assumptions about the environment of the system. The extended RUCM, called U-RUCM, inherits the features of RUCM, such as automated analyses and generation of models, to mention but a few. Consequently, U-RUCM provides all the key benefits offered by RUCM (i.e., reducing ambiguities in requirements), but also, it allows specification of uncertainties with the possibilities of reasoning and refining existing ones and even uncovering unknown ones. ResultsWe evaluated U-RUCM with two industrial CPS case studies. After refining RUCM models (specifying initial requirements), by applying the U-RUCM methodology, we successfully identified and specified additional 306% and 512% (previously unknown) uncertainty requirements, as compared to the initial requirements specified in RUCM. This showed that, with U-RUCM, we were able to get a significantly better and more precise characterization of uncertainties in requirement engineering. ConclusionEvaluation results show that U-RUCM is an effective methodology (with tool support) for dealing with uncertainty in requirements engineering. We present our experience, lessons learned, and future challenges, based on the two industrial case studies.

Community Conversation as a Method of Gathering and Analyzing Qualitative Data

Community conversation, a method of increasing inclusive, community-based employment by harnessing the expertise and motivation of key stakeholders, surfaces important information that can also be used as a method of inquiry. This article examines the commonalities between community conversation as method of practice and method of research. Opportunities to hone this approach for the purpose of increasing its contribution to research are also identified.

Respectful Disposition After Miscarriage: Clinical Practice Recommendations.

Compassionate clinical practice guidelines for healthcare providers for respectful disposition after miscarriage are presented. When woven into the whole of a clinician's practice, these guidelines provide the framework for giving women and their families the care they want and deserve when experiencing miscarriage. Relying on theoretical concepts of personhood, place, and protection, care providers can assess the unique meaning a woman assigns to her early pregnancy loss and offer interventions that embrace the concept of respectful disposition. Respectful methods of disposition involve a continuum of care that shows respect for remains and relies on person-, family-, and culture-centered nursing care. Policies, practices, and perspectives that flow from respectful disposition have women and families at their core and flexibility to cocreate care. This involves courage and competence. Several states have enacted fetal disposition laws, but these mandates are of questionable benefit because the expertise of healthcare leaders, nurses, physicians, chaplains, and other stakeholders must be involved in this sensitive and important area of care. Compassionate care cannot be legislated. We offer a practical approach to respectful disposition, including how to handle and prepare remains and examples of burial and memorial services, which will give clinicians the ability to respond empathetically and respectfully to the heart-rending plea of a woman who asks, "Where is my baby?"

How Placemaking and Positive Incentives Can Enhance Urban Walkability and Revolutionize the Citizens’ Experience of Streets as Public Spaces ( symposia )

Background Cities increasingly celebrate their public spaces incl. streets through placemaking as one tool to create awareness on their societal value. Strong partnerships are required from grassroots to governments in promoting safe, walkable and accessible public spaces. Events from Nairobi and Cape Town will be illustrated. For too long – strategies such as charging, restrictions and regulation – were used to “force” a shift to sustainable mobility. It is time to adopt a ‘reward rather than punishment’ approach. The EMPOWER project looks at positive behaviour change incentives that guide and enable, rather than eliminate or restrict mobility choice. Aims To promote walkability and vibrant streets – incl. examples from the Global South; To illustrate ways on activating streets through a variety of low-cost interventions including pop-up activities; To advocate for rewarding change via positive incentives such as information points, discounts, community support and games, and; To generate partnerships and exchange among audience. Method Speakers will present on Case Studies that come from developed and developing contexts in order to compare and assess walkability incentives. Examples: Nairobi: Nairobi’s Placemaking week happened in November 2016 which led to a revolution of experiencing the city differently. The event leveraged on the expertise of stakeholders from government, civil society and academia. The week was initiated by the Nairobi City Council with technical support from UN-Habitat; Cape Town: Open Streets Cape Town was founded in 2012 and enjoys the full support of the City. OSCT has its roots in street action and research, and has grown as a dynamic movement of street-minded citizens. OSCT challenges the paradigm of urban mobility via campaigns, temporary interventions, dialogues and walks to spark public debate, and drive behaviour change around the role of streets; Europe: The activities of the EMPOWER project started in May 2015 to gather evidence on the power of positive incentives and social innovation to promote Sustainable Transport. Using smartphones, new mobility services are designed to deliver personalised incentives to the public. Examples will be shared where positive incentives delivered on enhanced walkability. Conclusion The session will share successful projects and promote partnerships for future collaborations.

Incorporating stakeholder perspectives into the assessment and provision of captive elephant welfare

AbstractRecent concerns over the welfare of elephants in UK zoos have implications for their future in captivity, and it is clear that improvements in welfare should be made. Evidence suggests that the knowledge of experienced stakeholders is vital to captive animal welfare assessment. However, there have been few attempts to consult with zoo personnel and other stakeholders on the assessment of elephant welfare, and much of their valuable knowledge of routine husbandry has not been captured in the published literature. As part of a research project commissioned by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, open response focus groups and workshop discussions were conducted with representatives from 15 UK elephant-holding facilities, and other experts in the welfare and behaviour of captive or free-ranging elephants. Participants described three broad categories of welfare indicators: behavioural, physical and physiological. Resources perceived to be of importance to elephants included aspects of the physical environment, such as feeding opportunities and appropriate substrate, and aspects of the social environment, including group size and relatedness. The data obtained during this study can be used to develop an elephant welfare assessment strategy, informed by the knowledge and expertise of experienced stakeholders, and for consideration of potential changes to guidelines for managing elephants in captivity. Our approach to capturing the views of those who work closely with captive species could be applied elsewhere, in order to draw upon the extensive knowledge of expert stakeholders and consider ways to improve the welfare of captive animals.

Collaborating on the development and implementation of evidence-based practices: Advancing science and practice

Implementation Science has recently gained considerable attention for the discipline of Communication Sciences and Disorders as a promising means for closing the research–practice gap by proactively facilitating the use of evidence-based protocols in practice. One of the pillars of Implementation Science is collaboration between researchers and stakeholders. This article describes the benefits of researcher–stakeholder collaboration, along with the challenges. Different types of collaborative approaches are provided with specific examples. Guidelines for creating and sustaining successful collaborations are provided. The article concludes with an appeal for more research that brings together the talents and expertise of researchers and other stakeholders in conducting scientifically rigorous and practically important studies in ways that improves the likelihood of adoption and sustained use of evidence-based practices.

Defence by Design: Redesigning the Acquisition Process for the Royal Australian Air Force

Abstract This article presents the process undertaken by the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) Plan Jericho team and the Design Innovation Research Centre to redesign the existing procurement process. The implementation of a design-led innovation process led to key results such as early industry engagement in the procurement process to overcome prevailing issues and risks. Key to this process was the sharing of expertise and perspectives (empathy) of stakeholders and allowing industry participants to have input into the tender requirement document and process. Implementing design methods such as prototyping into the procurement aims to lower risks and costs associated in the current process, via co-creation, testing and refining solutions in a shorter time frame. Findings demonstrated why, where and how design can be implemented into an area other than technology innovation within a Defence context, contributing to the ongoing debate regarding design’s role and value in complex problems with multiple stakeholders.

Engineering Standards: An Introduction for Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

Engineering standards are summaries of industrial best practices. The specifications are written in terms of functional, mechanical and electrical aspects that allow proper usage of available components to build a system. Standards may also be regarded as codified guidelines that define how tests should be performed, and how products are to be designed. Standards are created by bringing together experience and expertise of stakeholders on specific issues. Standards protect public health and safety, improve product quality, help to advance the growth of new technologies, and foster international trade. It is important that students get familiar with standards while in school.

Into the void: Regulating pesticide use in Colorado’s commercial cannabis markets

BackgroundIn 2014, Colorado implemented the world’s first seed-to-sale recreational cannabis market under a commercial model. This paper aims to provide a thick descriptive account that gives insight into the issues and complexities of Colorado’s pioneering and evolving attempt to regulate the use of pesticides on commercial cannabis plantations. MethodsThe paper examines multiple data sets including: (i) Colorado State Government documents; (ii) recreational cannabis regulations; (iii) mass and niche media publications (n=175); (iv) face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders, including seniors, regulators and industry executives (n=8); and (v) field notes from relevant conferences and cultivation facility tours in Denver in October, 2016. ResultsTwo key issues are identified. First, a public safety threat has arisen relating to application of pesticides on cannabis with intensified toxicity in concentrated products of particular concern. Second, as a pioneering jurisdiction, Colorado faces a considerable knowledge gap. To expand collective learning on this issue, for which no regulatory template and little research exists, state regulators tapped industry and other stakeholder expertise while attempting to ensure public safety goals were achieved and regulatory capture by industry was limited. ConclusionFour years since the recreational cannabis market in Colorado was legalised, the State continues to grapple with the pesticide issue as testing regulations and cultivation standards are yet to be finalised. While more work is needed, Colorado has made significant progress in developing regulations relating to this complex matter. As governments of countries such as Canada and US states, including California, contemplate changes to recreational cannabis laws, Colorado’s experience can assist regulators in other jurisdictions considering policy change.

Sustainability and energy efficiency of the European industry

European Industry plays a key role in the achievement of the targets set by the Energy Efficiency Directive published in 2012. Many Countries in the European Union have, in fact, adopted schemes and mechanisms to implement the Directive by incentivising the adoption of more efficient technologies in industry: however, big differences of approach still remain among the Member States, both in terms of assessment of the efficiency and sustainability of the measures and in terms of economic and/or financial support to the projects. As a consequence, a huge amount of the energy efficiency potential still remains untapped. This paper proposes some criteria for the evaluation of the applied Energy Efficiency measures based on their energetic, economic and environmental performances, thus, more in general, on their sustainability. The proposed criteria have been developed in the H2020 project EU¬MERCI and through a national research (Ricerca di Sistema national funding system), both coordinated by RSE, and have led to the identification of the most promising measures in industry (called Good Practices). The starting point is the creation of an harmonized database collecting energy efficiency projects developed and incentivised in different EU countries within national energy efficiency implementation schemes. Then, some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been defined and calculated, in order to assess the energetic, environmental and economic performances of the measures. After that, the Good Practices have been identified, ranked according to the calculated KPIs and, finally, evaluated through the technical expertise of stakeholders in the field. The real added value of this approach is that it is full based on tangibly implemented en-ergy efficiency projects, in opposition to similar attempts, essentially theoretical. Ultimately, it offers a key of assessment of the sustainability of energy efficiency measures implemented under local and EU policies.

Intellectual capital efficiency, technological innovation and family management

Understanding the relation between intellectual capital and innovation has become one of the most relevant topics for both academics and practicing managers in the field of innovation management. This paper attempts to advance this theme by empirically investigating the role played by both human and structural capital efficiency as determinants of achieving technological innovation outputs. This study also examines the moderating role of family management on these relationships. In this paper, we use a matched-pairs design and a conditional logistic regression approach to analyse a sample of 5,304 Spanish firms for the period 2000–2013. The results show that both the attracting and recruiting of competent human resources and the ability to develop mechanisms to capture and translate knowledge, expertise, and skills of organisational members and stakeholders are important to achieve technological innovation outputs. Our findings also suggest that family management increases the efficiency of human and structural capital to obtain technological innovation outcomes.

STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT THROUGHOUT HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: AN EXAMPLE FROM PALLIATIVE CARE.

Internationally, funders require stakeholder involvement throughout health technology assessment (HTA). We report successes, challenges, and lessons learned from extensive stakeholder involvement throughout a palliative care case study that demonstrates new concepts and methods for HTA. A 5-step "INTEGRATE-HTA Model" developed within the INTEGRATE-HTA project guided the case study. Using convenience or purposive sampling or directly / indirectly identifying and approaching individuals / groups, stakeholders participated in qualitative research or consultation meetings. During scoping, 132 stakeholders, aged ≥ 18 years in seven countries (England, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Lithuania, and Poland), highlighted key issues in palliative care that assisted identification of the intervention and comparator. Subsequently stakeholders in four countries participated in face-face, telephone and / or video Skype meetings to inform evidence collection and / or review assessment results. An applicability assessment to identify contextual and implementation barriers and enablers for the case study findings involved twelve professionals in the three countries. Finally, thirteen stakeholders participated in a mock decision-making meeting in England. Views about the best methods of stakeholder involvement vary internationally. Stakeholders make valuable contributions in all stages of HTA; assisting decision making about interventions, comparators, research questions; providing evidence and insights into findings, gap analyses and applicability assessments. Key challenges exist regarding inclusivity, time, and resource use. Stakeholder involvement is feasible and worthwhile throughout HTA, sometimes providing unique insights. Various methods can be used to include stakeholders, although challenges exist. Recognition of stakeholder expertise and further guidance about stakeholder consultation methods is needed.

Facilitating adaptive management in a government program: A household energy efficiency case study

Interim evaluations of government programs can sometimes reveal lower than expected outcomes, leading to the question of how adjustments can be made while the program is still underway. Although adaptive management frameworks can provide a practical roadmap to address this question, a lack of successful learnings and poor implementation have hampered the progress and wider application of adaptive management. Using a case study involving an energy efficiency government program targeting low-income households, this article provides supporting evidence on how adaptive management can be facilitated and applied. Factors such as proactive and responsive leadership, establishing a research-practice interface, and recognizing the skills, expertise, and contributions of multiple stakeholders guided adjustments to the program, and later paved the way for longer-term organizational learning that impacted how other programs are delivered. Implications for knowledge and practice, and a discussion of the challenges faced in the program, advance current thinking in adaptive management.

PHS137 - English CCG Formularies: Resources And Priorities

Commissioners working in English clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were surveyed to understand the processes for evaluating local formulary submissions for new drugs, the stakeholders involved and the expertise of stakeholders involved. Commissioners subscribing to The Commissioning Review and who had a valid NHS email address were invited to take an online survey open between 12 June and 12 July 2016. The survey included ten questions and all participants were entered in a prize draw for a £100 Amazon voucher as a thank you for their participation. Preliminary findings show most local formulary decision-making group regularly collaborate with similar groups in other CCGs. Patient or patient-representative groups are represented on, or consulted by, most local formulary groups. Interestingly, such groups were reportedly consulted more frequently than clinical groups and networks during decisions relating to local formulary submissions. Cost effectiveness and budget impact estimates are important factors when deciding whether or not to include new drugs on the formulary. Health economic estimates derived using CCG specific data were considered more frequently than estimates derived from national data. Many, but not all, CCGs conduct their own cost-effectiveness and budget impact assessments. However, only half of respondents indicated that a member of their CCG’s local formulary decision making group had formal training in how to conduct literature reviews or appraise systematic reviews or clinical data. The processes for deciding on inclusion of a new drug on a local formulary vary between CCGs. Regional data are considered more important than national data. However, only half of respondents reported that a member of their local formulary group has received formal training in how to evaluate data forming part of submissions.