Evaluations in health care, especifically reviews of health technologies ( “Health Technology Assessment” - HTA) are an indispensable part of modern health care systems. Companies that are active in this field do not only have to develop new technologies but also have to set out the consequent benefits to the relevant decision makers. In the process, innovative approaches offer the possibility of development of standardized, quality-assured concepts, since the real use of technology often delivers different results than expectations based on clinical studies. The aim is to work with the participating SMEs company-specific issues and to develop subsequent simulation tools.
After mutual definition methods were identified and simulation tools of specific issues were implemented by dwh and the academic staff of the TU Vienna. The methods were chosen or developed from the field of network simulation and agent-based simulation. During this phase, an ongoing process of communication took place between the developers and the partners in order to cover as many aspects as possible. This way many concrete simulation studies could be conducted together. Further, training opportunities beyond the attendance phase were provided by the specially created e-learning system.
Modeling helps to provide better information for decision support in order to enable better strategies concerning health policies. In addition, complex dynamic aspects and contexts can be identified and illustrated, whereas they are not simply recognizable from the data and studies. As a consequence, the achieved understanding of the causes and effects of influences and actions helps to interpret the calculated results and leads to better strategic decisions. New technologies that have not been used in this form yet will be presented to the involved SMEs. There, an absolutely new understanding of the process will develop which increases the potential for innovation in dealing with customers.
Funding information:
This is a funded research-project processed by FFG funded by BMWF.