Toward Automated Support of Complaint Handling Processes: An Application in the Medical Technology Industry

Complaints about finished products are a major challenge for companies in the medical technology industry, where product quality is directly related to public health and therefore strictly regulated. In this paper, we examine how available data can be used to provide automated support to the complaint handling processes in the medical technology companies. We identify the automation potentials in the 8D reference process for complaint management and discuss their organizational and technical challenges. Using data from a large manufacturer of medical products, we show how partial process automation can be achieved in practice by designing, implementing, and evaluating a deep learning-based prototype for automatically suggesting a likely error code for future complaints, given their textual description. Our approach is able to assign the correct error code for more than 75% of all cases and outperforms the conventional classification approaches used as a baseline comparison. Our results show that partial automation of a complaint management process by means of deep learning can be achieved in practice.

The Abbott PanBio WHO emergency use listed, rapid, antigen-detecting point-of-care diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2—Evaluation of the accuracy and ease-of-use

Objectives Diagnostics are essential for controlling the pandemic. Identifying a reliable and fast diagnostic device is needed for effective testing. We assessed performance and ease-of-use of the Abbott PanBio antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT). Methods This prospective, multi-centre diagnostic accuracy study enrolled at two sites in Germany. Following routine testing with reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a second study-exclusive swab was performed for Ag-RDT testing. Routine swabs were nasopharyngeal (NP) or combined NP/oropharyngeal (OP) whereas the study-exclusive swabs were NP. To evaluate performance, sensitivity and specificity were assessed overall and in predefined sub-analyses accordingly to cycle-threshold values, days after symptom onset, disease severity and study site. Additionally, an ease-of-use assessment (EoU) and System Usability Scale (SUS) were performed. Results 1108 participants were enrolled between Sept 28 and Oct 30, 2020. Of these, 106 (9.6%) were PCR-positive. The Abbott PanBio detected 92/106 PCR-positive participants with a sensitivity of 86.8% (95% CI: 79.0% - 92.0%) and a specificity of 99.9% (95% CI: 99.4%-100%). The sub-analyses indicated that sensitivity was 95.8% in Ct-values <25 and within the first seven days from symptom onset. The test was characterized as easy to use (SUS: 86/100) and considered suitable for point-of-care settings. Conclusion The Abbott PanBio Ag-RDT performs well for SARS-CoV-2 testing in this large manufacturer independent study, confirming its WHO recommendation for Emergency Use in settings with limited resources.

Evaluation of the accuracy and ease-of-use of Abbott PanBio - A WHO emergency use listed, rapid, antigen-detecting point-of-care diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2

BackgroundDiagnostics are essential for controlling the pandemic. Identifying a reliable and fast diagnostic is needed to support testing. We assessed performance and ease-of-use of the Abbott PanBio antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT).MethodsThis prospective, multi-centre diagnostic accuracy study enrolled at two sites in Germany. Following routine testing with RT-PCR, a second study-exclusive swab was performed for Ag-RDT testing. Routine swabs were nasopharyngeal (NP) or combined NP/oropharyngeal (OP) whereas the study-exclusive swabs were NP. To evaluate performance, sensitivity and specificity were assessed overall and in predefined sub analyses accordingly to cycle-threshold values, days of symptoms, disease severity and study site. Additionally, an ease-of-use assessment and System Usability Scale (SUS) were performed.Findings1108 participants were enrolled between Sept 28 and Oct 30, 2020. Of these, 106 (9·6%) were PCR-positive. The Abbott PanBio detected 92/106 PCR-positive participants with a sensitivity of 86·8% (95% CI: 79·0% - 92·0%) and a specificity of 99·9% (95% CI: 99·4%-100%). The sub analyses indicated that sensitivity was 95·8% in CT-values <25 and within the first seven days from symptom onset. The test was characterized as easy to use (SUS: 86/100) and considered suitable for point-of- care settings.InterpretationThe Abbott PanBio Ag-RDT performs well for SARS-CoV-2 testing in this large manufacturer independent study, confirming its WHO recommendation for Emergency Use in settings with limited resources.FundingThe Foundation of Innovative New Diagnostics supplied the test kits for the study. The internal funds from the Heidelberg University as well as the Charité Berlin supported this study.

Reverse Auction Impact on Mining Company

The case describes the initial implementation and evaluation of an e-procurement system, using reverse auctions, for a large manufacturer of brown coal in the Slovak Republic. One of the biggest problems when making decisions on e-business investments is unclear return on investment (ROI) and uncertainty about what method should be used for measuring the results. An outline of the reverse auction process is provided, followed by the presentation of a number of metrics that evaluate the current performance of the system versus intended future performance matrix. Specifically, it focuses on the ROI and other performance indicators that have been adjusted according to e-commerce specifics, particularly to procurement with dynamic pricing transactions. The case results proved that the investment into the e-commerce solution is highly effective in reducing input costs.