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In addition to general barriers of information exchange and communication in intersectoral healthcare processes, the healthcare process of dementia patients has unique requirements regarding the communication and information exchange of the various healthcare professionals and nonprofessional caregivers, such as relatives or their legal caregivers. We conduct a process analysis to determine the status quo of such healthcare processes in the region of Darmstadt, Germany and elicit existing gaps in the information and communication exchange. We identify key processes by performing a document analysis and conducting interviews with seven different healthcare professionals. The results of a weak point analysis based on advanced event driven process chains (EPC) point out 32 information and communication gaps summarized in four categories: "information exchange", "information transfer" "information provision" and "activity impulse". Our results show further opportunities regarding the support of caring relatives and primary care physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R&D collaborations, including intersectoral partnerships involving both academia and industry, have a proven track record of fostering innovation in highly specialized technological fields. However, based on differences regarding organizational culture, framework constraints, motivations and interest as well as the often 'virtual' nature of such initiatives, challenges can arise in terms of knowledge transfer and trust building between the partners. Appropriate HRM measures counteracting this risk are therefore required. Personnel exchange (PE) between R&D partners of different sectors and institutions can be such a measure. However, PE is currently not a routine 'tool' in this context. To gain an understanding of key factors influencing the successful implementation of PE in an intersectoral context, a qualitative survey with 24 key executives in both academia and industry has been carried out. The results of our survey indicate that there is an underlying interest in such measures but that the implementation remains challenging. The identified barriers are based on (1) framework-, (2) employeerelated and (3) practical factors, which are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, a need to increasingly raise awareness in academia and industry regarding the value and benefits of intersectoral PE as well as to enhance information flow in terms of existing concepts has been noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Center for Lung Research (DZL) is a research network with the aim of researching respiratory diseases. To perform consortium-wide queries through one single interface, it requires a uniform conceptual structure. No single terminology covers all our concepts. To achieve a broadly accepted and complete ontology, we developed a platform for collaborative metadata management "CoMetaR". Anyone can browse and discuss the ontology while editing can be performed by authenticated users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]