Radiotherapy Information System in Cancer Treatment Improvement: A Case Study at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Radiotherapy is one of the main means of treating cancer patients. Its application has grown worldwide. Around 50% of all cancer patients should receive radiation. Brazil faces a shortage of radiotherapy treatment because of a lack of enough treatment units, equipment availability, well-trained staff, and fair reimbursement. The Radiotherapy Information System (RIS) implementation to manage information about patient scheduling is vital to improve the efficiency of care and reduce the waiting time to start cancer treatment. The information system deployed can be indicated as a disruptive innovation in the Brazilian public health system, considering the radical improvement in the cancer treatment process at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

The Implementation of a Mobile APP for Cancer Care Management at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

There is increasing recognition of the potential to use mobile health (mHealth) technologies such as smartphone apps to support clinical care. Mobile apps are progressively being implemented to manage chronic diseases like cancer to improve patient care. The app deployed at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute enables patients to access the appointments/exam booking, medication prescription, and cancer-prevent educational resources, improving self-management, autonomy, and cancer treatment outcomes in resource-limited environments. Despite acknowledging the importance of mHealth, research is still scarce regarding patients' views on using these innovations in cancer care management.

Innovation in Cancer Treatment: The Impacts of Robotic-Assisted Surgery Adoption at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Robotic-assisted surgery has been actively applied in several fields of minimally invasive surgery, and its use in cancer treatment is increasing. This technology has diffused rapidly, despite high costs and limited reimbursement. Studies have proven the positive results of robotic surgery for patients' quality of life. The objective of this article is to describe the impacts of robotic-assisted cancer surgery adoption at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute. A single qualitative case study was conducted with a descriptive approach, and to have triangulation, data were collected from 3 different sources - participant observation, technical reviews, and seven semi-structured interviews with the main actors involved in the case - and analyzed through content analysis. Despite the considerable costs associated with robotic surgery, this innovation dramatically decreases the length of hospital stay and reduces complications and rehabilitates the patient in a much faster way.

Decision Support System for Inventory Management in Healthcare Organizations: A Case Study at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Nowadays, the great majority of the healthcare organizations has been criticized due to the high costs and low efficiency and are facing a critical situation aggravated by unmet demand and aging population. Availability of medicines is one of the clearest indicators that a healthcare organization is working efficiently. Medicines represent a large portion of the costs in the health services due to the significant value of these products and their storage and control requirements. Shortages of inventory have become a severe problem at the Brazilian healthcare organizations. The purpose of this work is to present the deployment of a Decision Support System which supports real-time inventory control and medicine tracking providing transparency and accessibility of this critical information at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Implementing an Oncology Decision Support System: The Case of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Brazil has a complex situation in cancer treatment services. The incidence rates have reached around 600.000 new cases each year. The development of an Oncology Decision Support System (ODSS) that support cancer treatment is amongst the priorities in the cancer control program. The purpose of this article is to study the ODSS deployment at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute. The implementation of this Clinical Decision Support System employed on the management, processing, and analysis of Brazilian cancer clinical data can be considered a disruptive innovation which changes the clinical decision-making process radically.

Knowledge Management for Brazilian Cancer Care Services.

Nowadays Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year in Brazil, and the huge majority of patients have some contact with hospital services. However, long waiting queues for diagnostics and treatments have become common. One of the critical success factors in a cancer treatment is early diagnosis. The reduction of waiting time to start therapeutic procedures is one of the main issues for improvement of patient's quality of life and possibilities of cure. The objective of this work is to describe the development of a decision support system that improves the identification of access alternatives, appointment scheduling and employment of available resources. The Theory of Constraints was used to identify bottlenecks in patient treatment flow and a Discrete Events Simulation model was used to reduce patients' waiting time to start cancer treatment.

Smart Oncology Care Networks: An Approach in Information Systems to Support Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

In last decades Information Technology (IT) has been established as the main tool to support processes. Medical area has noticed the opportunity for improvement and interacting with IT has enabled solid interdisciplinary instruments for improvement. The aim in this project is composed by an analysis of the relationship between the application of information technologies, oncological assistance and innovation. Next, the project will focus to present the case of a proposal to reformulate the national cancer care system, with IT and Innovation being the base instrument for this process.

Decision Support Systems in Cancer Treatment: A Case Study at Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Nowadays Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year in Brazil, and the huge majority of patients have some contact with hospital services. However, long waiting queues for diagnostics and treatments have become common. One of the critical success factors in a cancer treatment is early diagnosis. The reduction of waiting time to start therapeutic procedures is one of the main issues for improvement of patient's quality of life and possibilities of cure. The objective of this work is to describe the development of a decision support system that improves the identification of access alternatives, appointment scheduling and employment of available resources. The Theory of Constraints was used to identify bottlenecks in patient treatment flow and a Discrete Events Simulation model was used to reduce patients' waiting time to start cancer treatment.

Big Data in Brazilian Cancer Surveillance.

Cancer research has a great importance across the world. It is responsible for data analysis of cancer incidence by region, ethnicity, gender, age, social and economic issues, and contributes to the assessment of population health necessities. Nowadays, Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year. Cancer surveillance in Brazil is carried out by a network of cancer registries which together feed the data warehouse of cancer incidence across the country. The analysis of cancer data warehouses using Data Mining techniques may discover hidden relations among patients' data, cancer treatment, and disease surveillance. This paper presents the development of a Big Data project with the purpose to analyze the cancer incidence and mortality patterns within the different regions and population groups in Brazil.

Mobile Technology Applications in Cancer Palliative Care.

Mobile devices frequently used in other specialties can find great utility in palliative care. For healthcare professionals, the use of mobile technology not only can bring additional resources to the care, but it can actually radically change the cancer remote care practices. The Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) has developed the largest cancer home care program in Latin America, which currently benefits more than 500 patients. The purpose of this paper is to show the development of an ICT environment of mobile applications developed to support the palliative cancer care program at INCA.

A rede brasileira de produção pública de medicamentos na perspectiva da gestão de cadeias de suprimentos: o papel das TIC / The Brazilian network of public production of medicines from the perspective of supply chain management: the role of TIC

A indústria farmacêutica configura-se como um oligopólio, com produtos diferenciados em segmentos de classes terapêuticas específicas. As grandes farmacêuticas globais concentram seus esforços de pesquisa e de comercialização nas doenças degenerativas, que trazem maior retorno financeiro. No Brasil, destaca-se a presença de um conjunto de laboratórios públicos, os quais compõem a Rede Brasileira de Produção Pública de Medicamentos (RBPPM), voltados para as necessidades do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), em grande parte negligenciadas pelas Big Pharmas. O objetivo deste estudo é investigar o uso pelos laboratórios farmacêuticos oficiais brasileiros das contribuições derivadas das tecnologias da informação e comunicação (TIC), no sentido da integração da cadeia de suprimentos da RBPPM. Em sua primeira fase, a pesquisa de campo foi realizada por meio de uma abordagem quantitativa em todos os laboratórios oficiais afiliados à Associação de Laboratórios Farmacêuticos Oficiais Brasileiros (Alfob). Essa análise permitiu levantar questões que foram aprofundadas por meio da abordagem qualitativa em três laboratórios selecionados da fase anterior. As evidências coletadas permitem concluir que os objetivos descritos na criação da RBPPM, cujo alcance poderia ser facilitado pela adoção dos atributos da GCS pela rede capitaneada pelo Ministério da Saúde, ainda são incipientes e erráticos. O estudo demonstrou que, apesar das evidências teóricas e empíricas a respeito da capacidade das TIC de integrar processos, os laboratórios públicos brasileiros ainda fazem pouco uso das tecnologias estudadas na gestão de cadeias de suprimento (GCS), e o desempenho das poucas ferramentas encontradas revelou-se incipiente e insatisfatório. É bem provável que essa evidência seja uma decorrência natural do fato de que a RBPPM não utilizava uma abordagem de GCS na época em que esta pesquisa foi realizada.

The pharmaceutical industry is characterized as an oligopoly with differentiated products in segments of specific therapeutic classes. The global pharmaceutical companies focus their research and marketing efforts on degenerative diseases, as they bring bigger income as result. In Brazil, a distinctive feature is the presence of a set of public laboratories, which comprise the Brazilian Network of Public Production of Medicines (RBPPM), targeting the needs of the Unified Health System (SUS), in great part ignored by the Big Pharmas. The aim of this study is to investigate the use by Brazilian Official Pharmaceutical Laboratories of contributions derived from the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), towards the integration of RBPPM ́s supply chain. In its first phase, the field research was carried out through a quantitative approach in all affiliated Alfob official laboratories. This analysis allowed to raise issues that have been deepened by qualitative approach in three laboratories selected from the previous phase. Collected evidences allowed to conclude that the objectives defined by the Health Department at the creation of RBPPM, that could be facilitated by the adoption of the attributes of the SCM network headed, are still incomplete and erratic. The study demonstrated that despite the theoretical and empirical evidences about the capacity of ICT to integrate processes, the Brazilian government labs still make little use of ICT supply chain management (SCM) technologies, and the performance the few tools found proved unsatisfactory and incipient. It is likely that this evidence is a natural consequence of the fact that RBPPM did not use an approach of SCM at the time this research was conducted.

[Factors affecting the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics in biopharmaceutical organizations: a case study in the Brazilian Cancer Institute]. / Fatores que influenciam a adoção de ferramentas de TIC nos experimentos de bioinformática de organizações biofarmacêuticas: um estudo de caso no Instituto Nacional do Câncer.

The scope of this article is to identify and analyze the factors that influence the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics at the Brazilian Cancer Institute (INCA). It involves a descriptive and exploratory qualitative field study. Evidence was collected mainly based on in-depth interviews with the management team at the Research Center and the IT Division. The answers were analyzed using the categorical content method. The categories were selected from the scientific literature and consolidated in the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework created for this study. The model proposed made it possible to demonstrate how the factors selected impacted INCA´s adoption of bioinformatics systems and tools, contributing to the investigation of two critical areas for the development of the health industry in Brazil, namely technological innovation and bioinformatics. Based on the evidence collected, a research question was posed: to what extent can the alignment of the factors related to the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics increase the innovation capacity of a Brazilian biopharmaceutical organization?

Fatores que influenciam a adocao de ferramentas de TIC nos experimentos de bioinformatica de organizacoes biofarmaceuticas: um estudo de caso no Instituto Nacional do Cancer / Factors affecting the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics in biopharmaceutical organizations: a case study in the Brazilian Cancer Institute

O objetivo deste artigo é identificar e analisar os fatores que influenciaram a adoção de ferramentas de Tecnologias de Informação e de Comunicação (TIC) nos experimentos de Bioinformática do Instituto Nacional do Câncer (Inca). Trata-se de um estudo de campo único descritivo e exploratório, dentro da tradição qualitativa. As evidências foram coletadas principalmente em entrevistas de fundo com os gestores de áreas da Coordenação Geral Técnico-Científica e da Divisão de Tecnologia da Informação do Inca. As respostas foram tratadas pelo método de análise de conteúdo do tipo categorial. As categorias de análise foram definidas a partir da revisão da literatura e consolidadas nos sete fatores do Modelo Tecnologia-Organização-Ambiente (TOE) adaptado para este estudo. O modelo proposto permitiu demonstrar como atuam no caso do Inca os fatores que impactam a adoção das complexas TIC usadas nos experimentos de Bioinformática, contribuindo para investigações em duas áreas de importância crescente para o Complexo Econômico-Industrial de Saúde brasileiro: a inovação tecnológica e a Biotecnologia. Com base nas evidências coletadas, uma questão é formulada: em que medida o alinhamento dos fatores pertinentes à adoção das TIC nos experimentos de Bioinformática pode aumentar a capacidade de inovar de uma organização biofarmacêutica brasileira? .

The scope of this article is to identify and analyze the factors that influence the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics at the Brazilian Cancer Institute (INCA). It involves a descriptive and exploratory qualitative field study. Evidence was collected mainly based on in-depth interviews with the management team at the Research Center and the IT Division. The answers were analyzed using the categorical content method. The categories were selected from the scientific literature and consolidated in the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework created for this study. The model proposed made it possible to demonstrate how the factors selected impacted INCA´s adoption of bioinformatics systems and tools, contributing to the investigation of two critical areas for the development of the health industry in Brazil, namely technological innovation and bioinformatics. Based on the evidence collected, a research question was posed: to what extent can the alignment of the factors related to the adoption of ICT tools in experiments with bioinformatics increase the innovation capacity of a Brazilian biopharmaceutical organization? .

Gestão da capacidade de atendimento em hospitais de câncer

Em um centro de tratamento de câncer, um dos fatores críticos de sucesso é o diagnóstico precoce. A agilidade no encaminhamento do paciente a adequadas condutas terapêuticas, com a redução do tempo de espera é fundamental para o aumento da sobrevida, melhoria da qualidade de vida e chances de cura. Neste contexto, o objetivo desse trabalho é a formulação de um modelo para gestão da capacidade de atendimento em hospitais de câncer, apresentando contribuições ao entendimento e identificação de melhores alternativas de acesso, agendamento, utilização de recursos humanos e do parque de equipamentos disponíveis. A metodologia adotada foi analisar o fluxo de tratamento reduzindo o intervalo de tempo entre o registro do paciente e a execução de procedimentos terapêuticos

One of the critical success factors in a cancer treatment center is an early diagnosis. The rapidness in guiding patients to adequate therapeutic conduct, along with wait time reduction is basic for the increase of life span and the improvement of the quality of life and possibilities of cure. Under these circumstances, the objective of this work is the formulation of a model for capacity management of attendance in cancer hospitals, demonstrating contributions to the comprehension and identification of better alternatives of access, appointment scheduling, use of human resources and the availability of equipment. The methodology adopted was to analyze the treatment patient flow and accelerate the beginning of the cancer treatment, thus reducing the wait time between the patient’s enrolment and the execution of therapeutic procedures

A importância do médico na investigaçäo dos acidentes aeronáuticos / The role of the physician in the investigation of aeronautic accidents

Os autores após procederem uma revisäo em trabalhos e palestras sobre investigaçäo e prevençäo de acidentes aeronáuticos, enfocando a participaçäo do médico na investigaçäo do acidente, evidenciam a importância da pesquisa do fator humano na elucidaçäo das causas, fornecendo subsídios para a prevençäo de acidentes