INVESTIGATING TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE OBJECTS WITHIN THEIR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE

Precise and detailed information for infrastructure assets, as well as information about the property interests attached to them are crucial to prevent unnecessary costs, disruptions, and delays when planning, constructing, and managing such objects. Various models encapsulating infrastructure objects information are available, mostly during their design stage, and could be also reused in other stages of the Spatial Development Lifecycle (SDL), such as the Land Registration. In this respect, and as ISO 19152:2012 Land Administration Domain Model is currently under revision, it is well-timed to consider the modelling of infrastructure objects within the scope of the upcoming Edition II of the standard. Given this background, the aim of this paper is to initiate the discussion on the registration options of infrastructure objects in the context of the LADM revision. Attention is given on specific categories of transport infrastructure objects, identifying the information required to be reused in other stages of the SDL, sourced from BIM/ IFC files used in the design stage. As currently IFC does not support infrastructure information, in order to investigate how such information is stored in IFC models based on the modellers’ decisions and the software used, two models of transport infrastructure objects coming from the industry were inspected and based on these findings, the conceptual modelling followed, based on the LADM concept. The paper aims to provide insights on to the limitations of the current use of IFC for transport infrastructure objects and propose the future steps to overcome them.

Qualitative research to inform economic modelling: a case study in older people’s views on implementing the NICE falls prevention guideline

Background High prevalence of falls among older persons makes falls prevention a public health priority. Yet community-based falls prevention face complexity in implementation and any commissioning strategy should be subject to economic evaluation to ensure cost-effective use of healthcare resources. The study aims to capture the views of older people on implementing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on community-based falls prevention and explore how the qualitative data can be used to inform commissioning strategies and conceptual modelling of falls prevention economic evaluation in the local area of Sheffield. Methods Focus group and interview participants (n = 27) were recruited from Sheffield, England, and comprised falls prevention service users and eligible non-users of varying falls risks. Topics concerned key components of the NICE-recommended falls prevention pathway, including falls risk screening, multifactorial risk assessment and treatment uptake and adherence. Views on other topics concerning falls prevention were also invited. Framework analysis was applied for data analysis, involving data familiarisation, identifying themes, indexing, charting and mapping and interpretation. The qualitative data were mapped to three frameworks: (1) facilitators and barriers to implementing the NICE-recommended pathway and contextual factors; (2) intervention-related causal mechanisms for formulating commissioning strategies spanning context, priority setting, need, supply and demand; and (3) methodological and evaluative challenges for public health economic modelling. Results Two cross-component factors were identified: health motives of older persons; and professional competence. Participants highlighted the need for intersectoral approaches and prioritising the vulnerable groups. The local commissioning strategy should consider the socioeconomic, linguistic, geographical, legal and cultural contexts, priority setting challenges, supply-side mechanisms spanning provider, organisation, funding and policy (including intersectoral) and health and non-health demand motives. Methodological and evaluative challenges identified included: incorporating non-health outcomes and societal intervention costs; considering dynamic complexity; considering social determinants of health; and conducting equity analyses. Conclusions Holistic qualitative research can inform how commissioned falls prevention pathways can be feasible and effective. Qualitative data can inform commissioning strategies and conceptual modelling for economic evaluations of falls prevention and other geriatric interventions. This would improve the structural validity of quantitative models used to inform geriatric public health policies.

Qualitative Research to Inform Economic Modelling: Older People’s Views on Implementing the Nice Falls Prevention Guideline in English Community Context.

Background: High prevalence of falls among older persons makes falls prevention a public health priority. Yet community-based falls prevention face complexity in implementation and any commissioning strategy should be subject to rigorous economic evaluation to ensure cost-effective use of scarce healthcare resources. The study aims to capture the subjective views of older people in Sheffield on implementing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on community-based falls prevention and explore how the qualitative data can be used to inform commissioning strategies and the conceptual modelling of falls prevention economic evaluation. Methods: Focus group and interview participants (n=27) were recruited from Sheffield, England, and comprised falls prevention service users and eligible non-users of varying falls risks. Topics concerned key components of the NICE-recommended falls prevention pathway, including falls risk screening, multifactorial risk assessment and treatment uptake and adherence. Views on other topics concerning falls were also invited. Framework analysis was applied for data analysis, involving data familiarisation, identifying themes, indexing, charting and mapping and interpretation. The qualitative data were mapped to three frameworks: (1) facilitators and barriers to implementing the NICE-recommended pathway and contextual factors; (2) intervention-related causal mechanisms for formulating commissioning strategies spanning context, priority setting, need, supply and demand; and (3) methodological and evaluative challenges for public health economic modelling. Results: Two cross-component factors were identified: health motives of older persons; and professional competence. Participants highlighted the need for intersectoral approaches and prioritising the vulnerable groups. The local commissioning strategy should consider the socioeconomic, linguistic, geographical, legal and cultural contexts, priority setting challenges, supply-side mechanisms spanning provider, organisation, funding and policy (including intersectoral) and health and non-health demand motives. Methodological and evaluative challenges identified included: incorporating wider costs and effects; considering dynamic complexity in ageing process; considering social determinants of health; and conducting equity analyses. Conclusions: Holistic qualitative research can inform how commissioned falls prevention pathways can be feasible and effective. Qualitative data can inform commissioning strategies and conceptual modelling for economic evaluation of falls prevention and other geriatric interventions. This would improve the structural validity of quantitative models used to inform geriatric public health policies.

Business Patterns Catalogue and Selection Proposal for the Conceptual Model of a Software Product

A pattern is a model that allows reusing a successful solution to the same problem in a different context. A pattern implementation could be the elaboration of an analysis model to incorporate good practices patterns Conceptual Modelling of Electronic Government systems. Defining a new pattern, and selecting a previously existing one from a limited set, called catalogue, are essential activities that every analysis model must solve when using patterns. The present work describes a proposal to manage a Business Patterns catalogue that can be applied to Conceptual Modelling of software products. Business Patterns allow to model and design business processes inside an organization, being it public or private. An application, called “PatCat” (Pattern Catalogue), was developed to test de proposal, using the Business Model of an Information System for a public education institution as a pilot. The introduction of patterns at the beginning of the Modelling Process allows to simplify and clarify the requirements elicitation, amongst other benefits. Thus, a specific management application for a pattern catalogue is useful to standardize and speed up this software design task.