Stakeholder Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators for the Adoption of Virtual Clinical Trials: Qualitative Study

Background: Conventional clinical trials are essential for generating high-quality evidence by measuring the efficacy of interventions in rigorously controlled clinical environments. However, their execution can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, clinical trials face several logistical challenges regarding the identification,...

Not all homeowners are alike: a segmentation model based on a quantitative analysis of Dutch adopters of residential photovoltaics

The implementation of residential photovoltaics must increase more rapidly to combat climate change and its impacts. This challenge is addressed in this study by introducing a segmentation model in order to develop a theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding the heterogeneity of potential adopters. Data were collected by means of a...

The environmental and material implications of circular transitions A diffusion and product-life-cycle-based modeling framework

Circular business models (CBMs) and their potential environmental benefits have been widely assessed by using life cycle assessment (LCA). However, most LCA studies consider static systems and assume instant and full technology adoption, limiting the analysis of the implications of circular transitions. Considering technology diffusion in LCA...

Innovating eHealth in the Netherlands

Innovation is essential to improve accessibility, effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery. eHealth promises these improvements provided that it complies to essential requirements with respect to quality and patient safety. eHealth must be implemented thoughtfully to yield full benefit to the patient. However, there exists no...

Rescuing drug discovery: In vivo systems pathology and systems pharmacology

The pharmaceutical industry is currently beleaguered by close scrutiny from the financial community, regulators and the general public. Productivity, in terms of new drug approvals, has generally been falling for almost a decade and the safety of a number of highly successful drugs has recently been brought into question. Here, we discuss...

Determinants of innovation within health care organisations: A literature review and Delphi-study

Purpose. When introducing innovations to health care, it is important to gain insight into determinants that may facilitate or impede the introduction, in order to design an appropriate strategy for introducing the innovation. To obtain an overview of determinants of innovations in health care organizations, we carried out a literature review...

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Evaluation and diffusion of excimer laser treatment of myopia in the United States and in the Netherlands

Excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) is an experimental treatment to correct myopia (short-sightedness) that is diffusing into use without convincing evidence of safety and efficacy. It has been claimed that PRK may render conventional methods of correcting myopia, such as wearing glasses or contact lenses, obsolete. Since about 25%...

Strategies for successful evaluation and policy-making toward health care technology on the move: The case of medical lasers

Evaluating new health care technology that is rapidly diffusing is one of the greatest challenges to researchers and policy-makers. If no evaluation is done until the technology is mature, evaluation will not influence processes of diffusion. If evaluation is done early, it may be irrelevant when it is completed because of developments in the...

Health care technology in Sweden

Health care in Sweden is a public sector responsibility and equity in access to care is quite important. The Swedish system is organized into several levels, with the Federation of County Councils at the top, and with regional, county, and local levels. In theory, the four hospital tiers developed by these different levels provide a clear...

The future and health care technology: Implications of a system for early identification

Future and emerging health care technologies are increasingly high-impact events for society in terms of the quality and costs of health care. They raise issues of efficacy, safety, resource allocation, ethics, impact on the organization and delivery of care, and broad social effects. This article describes an analysis of future and emerging...

Lessons from the eight countries

While the eight countries presented in this issue differ considerably from each other, they have important similarities. All have faced the problem of increasing health care expenditures, and all are coming to recognize problems with health care technology such as inappropriate use and poor quality of care. Health reforms appear to be...

Health care technology as a policy issue

Health care technology has become an increasingly visible issue in many countries, primarily because of the rising costs of health care. In addition, many questions concerning quality of care are being raised. Health care technology assessment has been seen as an aid in addressing questions concerning technology, including benefits and costs. A...

Introduction. Minimally invasive therapy in five European countries: Diffusion, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Minimally invasive therapy (MIT) is a field that has gained a great deal of attention since the mid-1980s. MIT is a new and rapidly growing area of medical treatment based on developments in endoscopy, vascular catheters, imaging devices, and related technologies. Although endoscopes have been in use for more than 100 years, it is relatively new...

Implications for hospitals, health workers, and patients

Minimally invasive surgery is one of the great innovations of health care in the 20th century. It promises to revolutionise surgery by allowing many more operations to be performed with minimal hospitalisation. Pressure from patients has caused many techniques to spread rapidly before they have been adequately assessed. This must be resisted,...

Diffusion of minimally invasive therapy in Europe

This paper considers the diffusion of the 10 cases presented in this issue. Most of the cases have diffused relatively slowly. This slow diffusion can be explained by a number of factors, including budgetary restraints, financial incentives, physician conservatism, and lack of appropriate training. A consistent thread in the cases is the...

Implications of minimally invasive therapy

The field of minimally invasive therapy (MIT) raises many important issues for the future of health care. It seems inevitable that MIT will replace much conventional surgery. This trend is good for society and good for patients. The health care system, however, may find the change disruptive. The need for hospital beds will shrink. Day surgery...

Health care technology transfer in Latin America and the Caribbean

The greatest problem concerning health care technology for developing countries is that they are dependent upon the industrialized world for technology. The only short-term solution to this problem is to improve the choices that are available to them. This goal will require changes in the structure and processes of policy making. A particular...