Many constructs of interest to occupational therapists can only be studied through qualitative methods. Such constructs include meaning of activity or the illness experience and the context in which these occur. The purpose of this paper is to describe how ethnographic methods used in research can be generalized and applied to clinical practice. Ethnography is compared with other qualitative re...

Software process improvement aims at improving the development process of software systems. It is initiated by process assessment identifying strengths and weaknesses and based on the findings, improvement plans are developed. In general, a process reference model (e.g., CMMI) is used throughout the process of software process improvement as the base. CMMI defines a set of process areas involve...

Two types of model propose that strategic decisions during contests are determined either by (i) a mutual-assessment process or (ii) a self-assessment process. Vocal signals are thought to convey information about the competitive abilities of individuals, the ultimate function of which is a reduction in costs associated with fighting consistent with the principle of mutual assessment. Neverthel...

The international animal health community is advocating a more widespread use of quantitative risk assessment in making international trade decisions. In this article, the authors explain why quantitative risk assessment is a valuable tool, outline a process with key steps for developing a quantitative risk assessment, and describe a method for quantifying the uncertainty associated with the re...

Berkeley Power Station was a world leader when in June 1962 it became the UK's first commercial nuclear power station to produce electricity for the National Grid. Berkeley then stood at the leading edge of nuclear technology. After 27 years of successful operation and the supply of nearly 40 billion units of electricity, Berkeley ceased generation in March 1989. Just as it was at start-up, Ber...

The past 5 years have seen increasing calls to reexamine our assessment and intervention practices to ensure that they reflect the profession's basic focus on occupation. Although a number of noteworthy efforts in this direction have been presented for adult practice areas, implementation of occupation-centered assessment in pediatric has been hampered by the lack of a consistent framework to g...

Digital assessment and graphical feedback of patient-reported outcome measures such as the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) could increase empowerment and involvement of patients in their own care process. The App ecosystem that Reade is building is an example of how digital assessment using mobile devices can be integrated into existing hospital IT infrastructure.

background: dealing with ethical considerations is a major component of health technology assessment (hta) definitions. objectives: present study aimed to explore and describe the manner of ethical analyses in hta reports and the effects it had on hta-related decision making around the world.   methods: by considering the contextual milieu of reports and searching for ethical themes and subject...

Accepted for publication 9 March 1992 The organisation and planning of health service delivery has long been dominated by concerns other than the evaluation of health services outcomes. The thrust of the Griffiths' inquiry into the management of the NHS,l resulting in the 1984 reforms, was towards the achievement of greater accountability. The then Department of Health and Social Security promu...

Hospital education departments can better align with the strategic direction of the organization, effectively prioritize work processes, and focus on what matters most to the organization when the organization adopts an assessment process known as the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence. This article describes the Baldrige assessment process, a framework of seven criteria b...