Browsing by Subject "Norway"

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    Assessing the competency needs in the Green Technology Industry
    (2011-04-29) McMahon, Rosemarie
    This study reviews the technical and interpersonal competencies of professionals in the Green Technology industry. This industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Europe. This growth trend is expected to continue and is largely due to global environmental issues and energy requirements. Ambitious European targets to reduce dependency on fossil fuels provide the ideal political framework for the expansion of this industry. In light of this development, an important consideration is the availability of skilled professionals in the workforce. This research examines the competencies of professionals based in Scandinavia (regions of Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Information for this study has been gathered from a number of Green Technology companies. This was managed through a series of interviews, focus group discussions and an online survey. Professionals involved in this study concur that education is invaluable to the development of this sector. Many of these professionals have already acquired university level education in disciplines such as engineering. According to the feedback, engineering skills in the Green Technology sector will continue to be important for the next 5 to 10 years. However, supplementary technical (e.g. project management, accounting) and interpersonal (e.g. leadership) skills are also relevant for the development of Green Technology. As this industry grows such competencies will inevitably increase in importance. Professional development thus needs to be designed effectively and in accordance with industrial requirements and the training preferences of professionals.
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    Does improved access to diagnostic imaging results reduce hospital length of stay? A retrospective study.
    (BMC Health Serv Res, 2010-09-06) Hurlen, Petter; Østbye, Truls; Borthne, Arne S; Gulbrandsen, Pål
    BACKGROUND: One year after the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support diagnostic imaging at our hospital, clinicians had faster and better access to radiology reports and images; direct access to Computed Tomography (CT) reports in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) was particularly popular. The objective of this study was to determine whether improvements in radiology reporting and clinical access to diagnostic imaging information one year after the ICT introduction were associated with a reduction in the length of patients' hospital stays (LOS). METHODS: Data describing hospital stays and diagnostic imaging were collected retrospectively from the EMR during periods of equal duration before and one year after the introduction of ICT. The post-ICT period was chosen because of the documented improvement in clinical access to radiology results during that period. The data set was randomly split into an exploratory part used to establish the hypotheses, and a confirmatory part. The data was used to compare the pre-ICT and post-ICT status, but also to compare differences between groups. RESULTS: There was no general reduction in LOS one year after ICT introduction. However, there was a 25% reduction for one group - patients with CT scans. This group was heterogeneous, covering 445 different primary discharge diagnoses. Analyses of subgroups were performed to reduce the impact of this divergence. CONCLUSION: Our results did not indicate that improved access to radiology results reduced the patients' LOS. There was, however, a significant reduction in LOS for patients undergoing CT scans. Given the clinicians' interest in CT reports and the results of the subgroup analyses, it is likely that improved access to CT reports contributed to this reduction.