- Assess the effectiveness of their efforts, and focus especially on how cost-effective they are.
- Understand how impactful their efforts will be over time.
- Understand ultimately whether to invest in specific technologies.
As MAFEIP expert, Frans Folkvord of Open Evidence, Barcelona, Spain said, about MAFEIP’s use: “It is helping to show the effects of interventions, especially the cost-effectiveness of interventions.” Today, MAFEIP is helping digital health innovators to look not simply at digital tools used in health and care, but particularly digital interventions related to COVID-19 responses.
Over the years, MAFEIP has been applied by over 300 organisations including tech companies, health service managers, and projects. This has happened in more than 100 cases and 20 European countries. At least six European projects have made use of it. Among the most current projects is the series of large-scale pilots involved in Gatekeeper. There are hopes that ongoing projects, such as NWE-Chance and vCare can also use the tool.
This workshop helped digital innovators to understand both what MAFEIP can do in theory but how it can be applied in practice. The session investigated in detail the implications of experimental designs in projects. It clarified what digital innovators need to know when starting to plan an investigatory study, what useful data can be found through scientific studies, and what data they need to collect.
Astrid van der Velde, who is from the Isala Heart Centre in Zwolle in the Netherlands. The Heart Centre is the co-ordinator of a project called NWE-Chance. She used the example of the Heart Centre to reflect on:
- What are relevant dependent and independent variables in a study?
- What are relevant key performance indicators?
- How are costs calculated? What types of costs need to be examined?
EHTEL was very pleased that, in total, some 25 people attended the virtual workshop. The attendees came from a variety of regions and Reference Sites around Europe, from the most northerly regions to the most southern. They also included people from several small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses. This reflects also the richness of the range of EHTEL’s own 60+ members.
To find out more about the MAFEIP tool and what types of evidence to start consider gathering:
- Visit the MAFEIP website.
- Explore the MAFEIP series of use cases.
- Approach the MAFEIP leaders and join the MAFEIP community.
In 2021, EHTEL is keen to explore further use of the MAFEIP tool in a diversity of settings. One of these is NWE-Chance.
- Learn more about WE4AHA.
- Learn more about the joint EHTEL and MAFEIP workshop.
- Download the workshop presentation [PDF].