The Experts below are selected from a list of 174 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
David Cella - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the patient reported outcomes measurement information system promis progress of an nih roadmap cooperative group during its first two years
Medical Care, 2007Co-Authors: David Cella, Susan Yount, Nan E Rothrock, Richard Gershon, Karon F Cook, Bryce B ReeveAbstract:In May 2002, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a series of meetings to chart a “roadmap” for medical research in the 21st century. The purpose of the roadmap is to identify major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single NIH institute could tackle alone, but that the agency as a whole must address to maximize progress in medical research. The ultimate goal of the roadmap is to catalyze changes that are necessary for transforming new scientific knowledge into tangible benefits for people. It proposes a vision for a more efficient and productive system of medical research and identifies the most compelling opportunities in 3 areas: (1) New Pathways to Discovery, (2) Research Teams of the Future, and (3) Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise. The theme of New Pathways of Discovery addresses the need to advance our understanding of complex biologic systems, and to build a better “toolbox” for medical research in the 21st century by providing wide access to technologies, databases, and other scientific resources that are more sensitive, robust, and easily adaptable to the needs of researchers. The Research Teams of the Future Initiative seeks to encourage scientists to test alternative models for conducting research, including the pursuit of unexplored avenues of research that carry a high potential for failure but also a greater chance for groundbreaking discoveries; stimulating new ways of combining skills and disciplines in the physical and biologic sciences; and encouraging novel partnerships, such as those between the public and private sectors, to accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries from bench to bedside. Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise is designed to accelerate and strengthen the clinical research process by adopting a systematic infrastructure to better and more efficiently serve the field of scientific discovery. One of the programs within the re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise Initiative involves dynamic assessment of patient-reported chronic disease outcomes. Supporting this Initiative, in late 2004 the NIH initiated a multi-center cooperative group referred to as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). PROMIS will build and validate common, accessible item banks to measure key symptoms and health concepts applicable to a range of chronic conditions, enabling efficient and interpretable clinical trial and clinical practice applications of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Applications of item response theory (IRT) and advances in computer technology make it possible to improve health status measurement through the development and maintenance of item banks for measuring specified symptoms and health status domains.1,2 An item bank is more than a collection of questions about a particular symptom or functional problem; it is comprised of carefully calibrated questions that define and quantify a common concept and thus provide an operational definition of a trait.3,4 Item banks enable item comparison and selection and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) tools for tailored individual assessment without loss of scale precision or content validity.5–12 The PROMIS Initiative is designed to help realize this potential at a national level, focusing on several important symptoms and health status domains that have relevance across chronic diseases. Valid, generalizable item banks and CAT tools can stimulate and standardize clinical research across NIH-funded research dealing with PROs. They may also assist individual clinical practitioners in assessing patients’ responses to interventions and in modifying treatment plans on the basis of these responses.
Allan Riding - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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gender based small business programming the case of the women s Enterprise Initiative
Journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 2006Co-Authors: Barbara Orser, Allan RidingAbstract:Abstract The incidence of, and controversy surrounding, gender-based small business training programs are both increasing. However, the nature and impact of these Initiatives are not well documented. This empirical paper summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the impact of the Women’s Enterprise Initiative (WEI), a programthat seeks to foster the development of women-owned firms in Western Canada. Program assessment criteria included program effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, job creation and retention, business survival, incrementality, and the facilitation of Enterprise growth. The results suggest that men and women seek differenttypes of assistance with respect to business development. When compared to a control group of business owners, WEI clients and women business owners were more likely than males to prioritize intrinsic outcomes such as evaluation of entrepreneurial skills, building self-confidence, and improving strategic management skills. Conversely, male business owners prioritized...
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Gender-based Small Business Programming: The Case of the Women’s Enterprise Initiative
Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 2006Co-Authors: Barbara Orser, Allan RidingAbstract:Abstract The incidence of, and controversy surrounding, gender-based small business training programs are both increasing. However, the nature and impact of these Initiatives are not well documented. This empirical paper summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the impact of the Women’s Enterprise Initiative (WEI), a programthat seeks to foster the development of women-owned firms in Western Canada. Program assessment criteria included program effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, job creation and retention, business survival, incrementality, and the facilitation of Enterprise growth. The results suggest that men and women seek differenttypes of assistance with respect to business development. When compared to a control group of business owners, WEI clients and women business owners were more likely than males to prioritize intrinsic outcomes such as evaluation of entrepreneurial skills, building self-confidence, and improving strategic management skills. Conversely, male business owners prioritized...
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Gender-Based Small Business Programming: The Case of the Women's Enterprise Initiative
2006Co-Authors: Barbara Orser, Allan RidingAbstract:The incidence of, and controversy surrounding,gender-based small business training programs are both increasing. However, thenature and impact of these Initiatives are not well documented. This empiricalpaper summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the impact of the Women'sEnterprise Initiative (WEI), a program that seeks to foster the development ofwomen-owned firms in Western Canada. Program assessment criteria included program effectiveness, strengths andweaknesses, job creation and retention, business survival, incrementality, andthe facilitation of Enterprise growth. The results suggest that men and womenseek different types of assistance with respect to business development. Whencompared to a control group of business owners, WEI clients and women businessowners were more likely than males to prioritize intrinsic outcomes such asevaluation of entrepreneurial skills, building self-confidence, and improvingstrategic management skills. Conversely, male business owners prioritizedoperational skills such as helping to improve strategic management andidentifying opportunities for growth. (Publication abstract)
David J. Storey - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance
Oxford Economic Papers, 2002Co-Authors: Colin Wren, David J. StoreyAbstract:The paper applies robust econometric techniques to assess the impact of publicly-provided subsidised 'soft' business support on the performance of small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It considers the assistance for consultancy advice provided towards marketing under the UK Enterprise Initiative, looking at its effect on sales turnover, employment and survival, and making explicit allowance for selection effects. It is found that the policy has no impact on the survival of smaller SMEs, and that it is most effective in the mid-range SMEs, where it raises survival rates by about 4% over the longer run and growth rates in surviving firms by up to 10% per annum. Overall, the scheme has a substantial impact, but the paper draws attention to the possible displacement effects.
David C. Holzman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Can the Energy and Enterprise Initiative improve public health
Environmental health perspectives, 2012Co-Authors: David C. HolzmanAbstract:A former Republican congressman from South Carolina has started an institution to promote conservative approaches to mitigating climate change and achieving energy security for the United States. According to Bob Inglis, whose Energy and Enterprise Initiative is housed within George Mason University, market distortions lead Americans to use far more fossil fuels than they would if they paid the full cost of that fuel. If fuel producers are held fully accountable for the health, productivity, and environmental costs of their products, he says, free Enterprise will naturally give rise to the cleanest, most sustainable fuels. A committee of the National Research Council recently estimated that burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and vehicle operation cost the United States more than $120 billion in 2005. These estimates were based on damages to human health, grain crop and timber yields, building materials, and recreation by criteria air pollutants including particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.1 The majority of this cost was attributed to premature deaths resulting from exposure to these pollutants. The estimates omitted a number of factors that could further increase costs, including damages to ecosystem services, environmental damages from coal mining, and military costs of protecting fuel imports.1 Alexander Bozmoski, director of strategy and operations for the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, says society bears those costs not through payments at the gasoline pump or on their power bill, but instead through greater health insurance premiums, lost income, and increased taxes for defense spending. In 2009 the United States provided $5.3 billion in subsidies for fossil fuel producers and $4.9 billion in subsidies for fossil fuel consumers. Of the total $10.2 billion in producer and consumer subsidies, more than half went toward natural gas, one-third went toward petroleum, and about one-tenth went toward coal. These figures do not include costs for fossil energy research and development or for maintenance of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, which were established as buffers against major supply disruptions.2 Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels According to the National Research Council report Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use,1 criteria air pollutants emitted by power plants and motor vehicles caused more than $120 billion in estimated external costs in 2005: $62 billion in damage was attributed to 406 coal-fired electric power plants. Damages averaged $156 million per plant and 3.2¢ per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. $740 million in damage was attributed to 498 natural gas electric power plants. Damages averaged $1.49 million per plant and 0.16¢ per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. $1.4 billion in damage was attributed to burning natural gas for heating (residential, commercial, and industrial). Median estimated damages were about 11¢ per thousand cubic feet of heated space. $56 billion in damage was attributed to motor vehicles. Damages averaged 1.2–1.7¢ per mile traveled depending on vehicle technology and fuel type. Fossil fuel subsidies come in a variety of forms. Some of the largest subsidies on the production side include write-offs for properties used to process qualified petroleum fuels and costs associated with exploration and development for oil and gas wells. Consumer subsidies include the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program to help needy residents pay their energy bills, fuel tax exemptions for farmers (one of the biggest single subsidies at nearly $1 billion in 2009), and a tax credit for investing in power generation projects that use “clean coal” technologies.2 The United States is not alone in subsidizing these fuels; worldwide, fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $409 billion in 2010.3 In a 2012 interview with the U.K. Guardian, Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency, was quoted as saying, “Energy is significantly underpriced in many parts of the world, leading to wasteful consumption, price volatility, and fuel smuggling. It’s also undermining the competitiveness of renewables.” 4 According to Birol, phasing out subsidies could, in the course of discouraging waste and encouraging development of clean fuels, reduce emissions by about half the amount necessary to prevent warming beyond 2°C over preindustrial levels.4 That is the goal many governments worldwide have adopted to avoid what are projected to be the most serious effects of climate change.5 Inglis says the Initiative’s primary modus operandi will be educational: to provide information to conservatives, particularly young conservatives, by speaking at colleges and universities, convening forums, and sponsoring policy papers. The Initiative website is clear that its founders “don’t subscribe to apocalyptic visions of climate change.” They do believe, however, that “the best science available indicates that America faces substantial risks in a changing climate [and] that conservative energy policy should mitigate those risks.”6
Bryce B Reeve - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the patient reported outcomes measurement information system promis progress of an nih roadmap cooperative group during its first two years
Medical Care, 2007Co-Authors: David Cella, Susan Yount, Nan E Rothrock, Richard Gershon, Karon F Cook, Bryce B ReeveAbstract:In May 2002, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a series of meetings to chart a “roadmap” for medical research in the 21st century. The purpose of the roadmap is to identify major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single NIH institute could tackle alone, but that the agency as a whole must address to maximize progress in medical research. The ultimate goal of the roadmap is to catalyze changes that are necessary for transforming new scientific knowledge into tangible benefits for people. It proposes a vision for a more efficient and productive system of medical research and identifies the most compelling opportunities in 3 areas: (1) New Pathways to Discovery, (2) Research Teams of the Future, and (3) Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise. The theme of New Pathways of Discovery addresses the need to advance our understanding of complex biologic systems, and to build a better “toolbox” for medical research in the 21st century by providing wide access to technologies, databases, and other scientific resources that are more sensitive, robust, and easily adaptable to the needs of researchers. The Research Teams of the Future Initiative seeks to encourage scientists to test alternative models for conducting research, including the pursuit of unexplored avenues of research that carry a high potential for failure but also a greater chance for groundbreaking discoveries; stimulating new ways of combining skills and disciplines in the physical and biologic sciences; and encouraging novel partnerships, such as those between the public and private sectors, to accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries from bench to bedside. Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise is designed to accelerate and strengthen the clinical research process by adopting a systematic infrastructure to better and more efficiently serve the field of scientific discovery. One of the programs within the re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise Initiative involves dynamic assessment of patient-reported chronic disease outcomes. Supporting this Initiative, in late 2004 the NIH initiated a multi-center cooperative group referred to as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). PROMIS will build and validate common, accessible item banks to measure key symptoms and health concepts applicable to a range of chronic conditions, enabling efficient and interpretable clinical trial and clinical practice applications of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Applications of item response theory (IRT) and advances in computer technology make it possible to improve health status measurement through the development and maintenance of item banks for measuring specified symptoms and health status domains.1,2 An item bank is more than a collection of questions about a particular symptom or functional problem; it is comprised of carefully calibrated questions that define and quantify a common concept and thus provide an operational definition of a trait.3,4 Item banks enable item comparison and selection and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) tools for tailored individual assessment without loss of scale precision or content validity.5–12 The PROMIS Initiative is designed to help realize this potential at a national level, focusing on several important symptoms and health status domains that have relevance across chronic diseases. Valid, generalizable item banks and CAT tools can stimulate and standardize clinical research across NIH-funded research dealing with PROs. They may also assist individual clinical practitioners in assessing patients’ responses to interventions and in modifying treatment plans on the basis of these responses.