Tag: Pieter Van Gorp

Master Thesis defense by Maarten Kooijman on GameBus

On Monday, February 15th, 2016, Maarten Kooijman will defend his master thesis entitled “The potential of a mobile health rewarding app (GameBus) for people with  Intellectual disabilities”.  Everyone is cordially invited to join to learn, ask questions and give feedback.

Where: TU/e, Paviljoen building, room K10

When: 13:00-14:00

Stakeholders:

  • Supervisors TU/e: Dr. P.M.E. (Pieter) Van Gorp, Prof. Dr. J.H.D.M (Joyce) Westerink
  • Supervisors Lunet Zorg (the home care organization at which the practical work was performed): P. (Patrick) Leijte, R. (Ruud) Kavelaars, H.J. (Henk) van Heffen

Subject headings: HEALTH CARE; E-HEALTH; M-HEALTH, GAMIFICATION, INTELLECTUAL DISABILLITIES

Abstract: This research describes the results of a six-month graduation project within the GameBus project. GameBus is a novel app, developed within a multinationality collaboration. The app engages families and friends to stay active physically, cognitively and socially via an enjoyable personalized gaming experience. GameBus connects children, colleagues, the elderly and other family members to join physical, cognitive and social challenges, and it is unique because it crosses the boundaries of existing health apps. The app was not designed explicitly for people with intellectual disabilities. However, some issues (e.g., social isolation, insufficient physical exercise, etc.) play a role in the care for people with intellectual disabilities, as they do in care for the elderly. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate if health-rewarding apps like GameBus can play a role within healthcare organizations for people with intellectual disabilities. Via this master thesis project, it has been examined which clients are eligible for GameBus and how the app might be used in the future. The findings and experiences of clients and client supervisors with the application of GameBus are presented. Three promising use cases were found in which GameBus can play a role. GameBus is a valuable way to motivate and stimulate clients to perform physical, social, cognitive and other (e.g., domestic) activities.

Master Thesis Defense Sven Bastianen: Towards an architecture for the support of integrated Personal Health Records

Pieter Van Gorp is proud to announce the very successful completion of the master thesis project of Sven Bastianen.  Sven has worked closely with SAP NL and for the final presentation the large number of attendees confirmed that he tackled a very relevant problem.

Abstract

In the past decade Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs) have widely adopted Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems for storing patient records digitally. As information technology is developing and healthcare is becoming more patient-centered, we notice the development of Personal Health Record (PHR) systems, which enable individuals to store their health-related information in a digital, online fashion. Together with the upcoming trend of Wearable Health Monitoring Systems (WHMSs), which ideally store their information in a PHR system, it is expected that individuals have a valuable collection of health information that can support the healthcare services that they receive.

In this research we investigate the technical challenges and barriers for integrating EMR systems and PHR systems and how these can be resolved in order to come to a more holistic approach in the way health information is used. We do this by analyzing currently existing PHR systems and investigating the current health information infrastructure in The Netherlands, while having a strong focus on interoperability standards, e.g. HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). In order to also cover challenges that arise from a practical sense, we have built a prototype of an integrated PHR by setting up an interoperability scenario between the EMR system i.s.h.med of Cerner, part of SAP for Healthcare, and the PHR system HealthVault, developed by Microsoft. Subsequently we present an integration design for setting up an integrated PHR. The research is concluded with an architecture that implements the integration design into the current Dutch health information exchange infrastructure AORTA.

Thesis Text

Available from the TU/e library and from here. Thanks to SAP for not requiring any form of confidentiality.

IS-HEART session: presentation by Ivo Canjels (Philips)

Also see the agenda item in our online calendar.

Ivo Canjels is Product architect at Philips Medical Systems. He has had previous positions at IBM and Sagantec.  In his talk, Ivo will describe the Philips Healthsuite Digital Platform with a focus on Interventional X-Ray technologies.  In a preparation meeting, some opportunities for collaboration were already identified (e.g., on TraceBook but also on mining large repositories of data from Philips devices.) The purpose of this session is to identify the top collaboration opportunities and make concrete agreements afterwards.

IS-HEART sessions are organized every first and third Friday of the month. Sometimes, extra sessions are organized or sessions are moved for example to the fourth week of the month. Such exceptions are scheduled as separate events in the IS agenda.

IS-HEART talk: Improving patient engagement through Personal Health Records (by KPMG)

On April 4th, KPMG will present on PHRs. This presentation is part of the IS-HEART series.

Speaker: René Pingen

Title: Improving patient engagement through Personal Health Records

Abstract:

Investments in healthcare are focused on the short period of time that a patient meets his caregiver. How can eHealth tools such as Personal Health Records help to increase patient engagement in order to shift the focus from care to personal health? This will help improving quality of life and reduce the costs of healthcare.

Details see Agenda Item

Master Thesis Defense by Anouk Suntjens on Knowledge Maintenance for Clinical Rules

On Friday, September 27th 2013, Anouk Suntjens has defended her master thesis. The thesis relates to a project conducted in collaboration with the hospital pharmacy of the Catharina Ziekenhuis Eindhoven (CZE).

Thesis title

Knowledge Translation and Maintenance in health care: Identification of the requirements for tool support.

Abstract

This study investigates the requirements for a tool supporting Knowledge Translation and Maintenance (KT&M) in the health care sector. The process is currently inefficient, resulting in a suboptimal level of care. An overview of practical support options and tool requirements is derived from a case study in a Dutch hospital. In addition, theoretical tool requirements are obtained via a literature review. These support options and tool requirements are validated with different process stakeholders from the hospital. As a result, useful insights are obtained in the perceptions of process actors with respect to knowledge translation and maintenance and their preferences for tool support during the CR process. Tools should demonstrate their practical usefulness and focus on supporting collaboration between different stakeholders, automatic filling of artefacts, and traceability between sources and their usage.

Both the TU/e supervisors as well as the CZE contacts were very pleased with the end-result as well as by Anouk’s professionalism throughout the thesis project execution.

The full thesis text can be downloaded from the TU/e library.

Master Thesis defense by Willem Dalinghaus

Title

An Introduction to Reference Process Modeling in Healthcare

Abstract

In this master thesis project a research is described providing an introduction to reference modeling in healthcare. The goal is to provide a design approach to automatically create reference models based on existing process models. This master thesis focuses on healthcare; a complex domain, where little knowledge about business process management is applied. Due to the economic crisis healthcare must reduce costs without decreasing quality of care. The use of business process management could help the healthcare domain to achieve this. One way to create business processes is the use of reference process models. The research described in the thesis is about creating a reference model concerning the intake process based on several existing process models from a single hospital.

Online Access

Get the PDF from the TU/e library.

Master Thesis defense by Steven Dassen

Title

BPMN 2.0 in practice: The usefulness of extended constructs in a business environment.

Abstract

Many studies are devoted to the theoretical capabilities of the workflow language BPMN, but not much is known about the actual practical use of BPMN in a business environment. Recker’s research (2010) concluded that business analysts barely use extended constructs in their business models, so they only use a core set of constructs (basic constructs). He questioned whether the extended constructs have an added value when used in industrial business process models. The research
objective of this study is to examine the influence of the extended constructs in BPMN 2.0 with regard to the understandability and correctness of a process model for practitioners in the healthcare domain.

To investigate this objective a theoretical analysis and an experiment were conducted. The theoretical analysis was based on the peri-operative process in hospitals. NICTIZ1, an organisation which focuses on process optimisation in the healthcare domain, delivered the textual description (guidelines) of this process. A part of the process (pre-operative process) was already modelled by business practitioners with BPMN (NICTIZ model). To examine the influence of the different
constructs, two different versions of the peri-operative process were modelled by the researcher, a model with only basic constructs (basic version) and a model with the full set of constructs (extended version). To measure and compare the understandability of the models, the complexity metrics for business process models were used (Gruhn & Laue, 2006). The correctness (level of correct behaviour) of the models was analysed by reproducing the state spaces of the models and illustrating
the behaviour of the models via tokens. These state spaces were compared with the guidelines.

The theoretical analysis showed that the models with the full set of constructs were more understandable than the models with only basic constructs based on the results of the complexity metrics. Moreover, the state spaces showed how the extended constructs can improve the correctness of a model. The experiment measured the actual effectiveness of the various constructs in BPMN based on the Method Evaluation Model (Moody, 2003). The experiment contained a test that consisted of
different questions related to the extended constructs to assess the factors of interest empirically. The purpose of the test was to examine the participants’ understandability and modifiability (ability to modify a model correctly) regarding the constructs (basic/extended). The focus in the experiment was solely on the constructs, not the process. The participants of the experiment were business analysts from the healthcare domain. A workshop, which explained the behaviour of several constructs, was constructed to examine whether training improved the results of the participants. Two different versions of the test were constructed to see whether the results were not test specific. The results of the tests were analysed and hypotheses were tested using the independent t-test. The experiment showed that the results of the test were not test specific (hypothesis 1). Also, it showed that the workshop did not have a significant effect on the results of the participants (hypothesis 2). Furthermore, it showed that practitioners do not encounter more difficulty understanding (hypothesis 3) or modifying (hypothesis 4) models with extended constructs compared to similar models with only basic constructs.

Online Access

Get the PDF from the TU/e library

Master Thesis Defense by Michel Koeken on HIS/EHR Procurement

Today, Michel Koeken has defended his master thesis. The thesis relates to a project conducted in collaboration with Siemens and provides valuable insights into the HIS procurement methods of Dutch academic hospitals.

Thesis title

Identifying and ranking the selection criteria in European tenders regarding the procurement of HIS/EHR systems in Dutch academic hospitals.

Management summary (excluding tables)

The thesis focused on the procurement of Hospital Information System / Electronic Health Record (HIS/EHR) systems at Dutch academic hospitals. As Dutch academic hospitals are considered to be a public institution and the value of the procurement of a HIS/EHR system exceeds the threshold value of €200,000 they are obliged by the BAO (Besluit Aanbestedingsregels voor Overheidsopdrachten) to conduct a European tender. The BAO is the Dutch implementation of the European guideline 2004/18/EG.

Each European tender contains a Research For Proposal (RFP). The RFP provides a detailed set of requirements of what the academic hospital wants to acquire and the score model that the academic hospital will use to evaluate the proposals of the vendors. The detailed set of requirements is divided into subtopics and these subtopics are considered as the selection criteria. The score model states how much points can be scored by the vendors by fulfilling a specific selection criterion. The vendor with the highest score and therefore the most economically advantageous offer (i.e. best price-quality ratio) wins the tender. In The Netherlands are three European tenders conducted by the Dutch academic hospitals in order to acquire a HIS/EHR system. All three European tenders were won by different vendors and this is interesting when one take into account that:

  • a vendor had to be selected through a strict tendering process which is based on the three principles (equal treatment, transparency, and non-discrimination) and therefore ensures for total transparency since all decisions are open for involved parties, no possibility for negotiation, and an equally review of every vendor;
  • the Dutch academic hospitals did not differ that much;
  • and there were only five (six at the time of the first two European tenders) available vendors from which the Dutch academic hospitals could choose from.

One would expect that at least two out of the three European tenders were won by the same vendor, but this was not the case. Therefore it is interesting to analyze these European tenders to investigate how Dutch academic hospitals used the European tenders to come to their results.

To answer the raised issue the thesis started with analyzing the three score models in the RFPs in order to identify and rank the selection criteria in terms of importance. The three included RFPs were those from the European tenders conducted by Leiden University Medical Center + University Medical Center Utrecht, University Medical Center St. Radboud, and Erasmus Medical Center + University Medical Center Groningen. This analysis showed that the three European tenders could not be compared one on one as they used slightly different terminology and wording for their selection criteria. This problem was tackled by selecting one European tender as the reference tender and the selection criteria of the other two European tenders were matched with the selection criteria of the reference tender. This matching was done by two vendor experts and followed the two round Delphi method (Skulmoski, Hartman, & Krahn, 2007). Now the three European tender could be compared as they contained the same selection criteria. The comparison showed that the European tenders scored their selection criteria differently.

As academic hospitals are often an example for general hospitals this identification and ranking could be an important insight for general hospitals. It is even possible that general hospitals use this as a blueprint for determining their own selection criteria. Obviously also other academic hospitals can use this insight to their advantage and consultancy companies can use it in advising their clients.

The differences between the percentages were analyzed with the help of a vendor expert and as the tenders occurred sequentially trends were determined. It is important to state that the trends could be based on coincidence as there were only three available data sets. Nonetheless it is interesting and useful to discuss the possible trend and especially the most important ones.

The possible trends can be beneficial for every stakeholder in The Netherlands or elsewhere as they show which topics are hot or not. Vendors could use it to determine their business strategy, the consultancy companies can advise their clients about it, and the hospitals can take it into account in their procurement processes.

The full thesis text can be downloaded here. Michel also provided a Powerpoint file with an embedded audio recording of his (trial) presentation.

Master Thesis Graduation: Pieter Dat

On November 22nd, Pieter Dat defended his master thesis entitled “Business process simulation in healthcare: the applicability of general-purpose and application-oriented simulation software”.

In this thesis, Pieter compared FlexSim HealthCare against CPNTools based on two case studies.  FlexSim HC provides healthcare-specific 3D animations as well as widgets for conveniently modeling agenda’s of human resources involved in health processes.  CPNTools does not provide such features but provides opportunities for modeling the overall process more explicitly.

Pieter’s first case study relates to patient flows while his second case study relates to goods logistics.

Pieter used Moody’s Method Evaluation Model in combination with a framework specific to simulation tool evaluation.  The thesis concludes that FlexSim HC has advantages for simulation studies related to patient flows while the two approaches are comparable when in comes to goods logistics.

Update (14/02/2013): A related blog post has been published on the official FlexSim website.

Master Thesis defense by Robert Janssen

Title

Increasing accessibility and reproducibility of process mining research in healthcare

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to develop a set of best practices for process mining research in healthcare. Process mining in healthcare has been studied by several researchers already, but these studies suffer from disappointing results, which may be partly to blame to the low accessibility and reproducibility of the process mining research methodologies. Therefore, in this thesis we aimed to synthesize the most common and best research steps, or best practices, of previous process mining research by means of a multiple case study and expert interviews into one process mining methodology for healthcare which would show increased accessibility, reproducibility and results that are better, or at least comparable, to present process mining research. Pattern language was identified as the most suitable method to report the best practices and as a result, 22 best practices patterns that cover a variety of process mining research steps have been developed. Subsequently, 11 patterns were selected as recommendations for use in healthcare, as they showed the most promising results and highest accessibility. In addition, we have introduced the concepts of virtual machines and screencasts to the field of process mining as means to increase accessibility and reproducibility of the best practices pattern language. The results of the best practices and recommendations have been validated by experts at two Dutch healthcare institutions and showed that the process mining best practices pattern language is indeed able to produce process models which are of similar or superior quality compared to process models created
with conventional methodologies.

Online Access

Get the PDF from the TU/e library