Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders’ evaluation of a novel eHealth tool

Health Research Policy and Systems

Panagiotis Katrakazas¹  Mariola Śliwińska-Kowalska²  Niels Henrik Pontoppidan³  Dario Brdarić⁴  Lyubov Trenkova⁵  Giorgos Dritsakis⁶  Doris-Eva Bamiou⁷ 

[1] Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Athens, Greece;Department of Audiology and Phoniatrics, Lodz, Poland;Eriksholm Research Centre, Oticon A/S, Snekkersten, Denmark;Institute of Public Health for the Osijek-Baranja County, Osijek, Croatia;University of Osijek, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health, Osijek, Croatia;Pazardzhik Regional Administration, Pazardzhik, Bulgaria;University College London, Ear Institute, London, United Kingdom;University College London, Ear Institute, London, United Kingdom;Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute for Health Research, London, United Kingdom;

关键词: hearing loss;    public health;    policy-making;    EVOTION platform;    big data;    SWOT;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12961-020-00637-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHearing loss (HL) affects 466 million people of all ages worldwide, with a rapidly increasing prevalence, and therefore requires appropriate public health policies. Multi-disciplinary approaches that make use of eHealth services can build the evidence to influence public policy. The European Union-funded project EVOTION developed a platform that is fed with real-time data from hearing aids, a smartphone, and additional clinical data and makes public health policy recommendations based on hypothetical public health policy-making models, a big data engine and decision support system. The present study aimed to evaluate this platform as a new tool to support policy-making for HL.MethodsA total of 23 key stakeholders in the United Kingdom, Croatia, Bulgaria and Poland evaluated the platform according to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats methodology.ResultsThere was consensus that the platform, with its advanced technology as well as the amount and variety of data that it can collect, has huge potential to inform commissioning decisions, public health regulations and affect healthcare as a whole. To achieve this, several limitations and external risks need to be addressed and mitigated. Differences between countries highlighted that the EVOTION tool should be used and managed according to local constraints to maximise success.ConclusionOverall, the EVOTION platform can equip HL policy-makers with a novel data-driven tool that can support public health policy-making for HL in the future.

【 授权许可】

CC BY