As a priority-setting exercise, we examined interactions between users and a simple spoken dialog system in comparison to interactions with a human operator. Based on analysis of the observed usability differences and their root causes we propose seven priority issues for spoken dialog systems research. keywords: evaluation, human-computer interaction, human-human dialog, usability events, huma...

In current clinical practice, priority-specific wait time targets are usually determined based on the consensus of medical specialists and health care administrators. The rationale behind this approach considers urgency but it does not consider efficient use resources patient volume associated with each priority class. we present here aims to determine in a systematic fashion that both respects...

3 List of Papers 5 Abbreviations 7 Background 9 Introduction 9 Priority setting and rationing – why and what it is 10 Aspects of priority setting and rationing 12 Priority setting at different levels 14 Vertical and horizontal priority setting 14 Explicit and implicit priority setting 15 Central components in priority setting 16 Facts 16 Values 17 Process 18 Synthesis 20 Priority setting in Swe...

The paper dwells on a judgement model for R&D project evaluation using multifactor criteria based on hierarchic considerations. The idea is to employ formal tools in quantification of subjective evaluations where expert judgement is involved. Comparative evaluations on a priority scale are converted to quantities using the eigen vector concept. This is also the essence of the Analytic Hierarchi...

With demand for health services continuing to grow as populations age and new technologies emerge to meet health needs, healthcare policy-makers are under constant pressure to set priorities, ie, to make choices about the health services that can and cannot be funded within available resources. In a recent paper, Smith et al apply an influential policy studies framework – Kingdon’s multiple str...

Background Priority setting in publicly financed healthcare systems should be guided by ethical norms and other considerations viewed as socially valuable, and we find several different approaches for how such norms and considerations guide priorities in healthcare decision-making. Common to many of these approaches is that interventions are ranked in relation to each other, following the appli...

BACKGROUND Priority setting is one of the most difficult issues facing hospitals because of funding restrictions and changing patient need. A deadly communicable disease outbreak, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto in 2003, amplifies the difficulties of hospital priority setting. The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate priority setting in a hospital in...

background cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide. organized cervical screening and vaccination against human papilloma virus (hpv) have been successful interventions for prevention of invasive cervical cancer (icc). because of cultural and religious considerations, icc has low incidence in iran and many other muslim countries. there is no organized cervical scre...