Critical peak pricing (CPP) is a demand response program that can be used to maximize profits for a load serving entity in a deregulated market environment. Like other such programs, however, CPP is not free from the payback phenomenon: a rise in consumption after a critical event. This payback has a negative effect on profits and thus must be appropriately considered when designing a CPP schem...

BACKGROUND Primary health care research is under pressure to be accountable to funders in terms of benefits for practice and policy. However, methods to assess the impact of primary health care research must be appropriate to use with the diverse topics, settings and approaches of this sector. This project explored the feasibility of using the Buxton and Hanney Payback Framework to determine th...

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) needs considerable financial resources. In fact, the ICT environment in developing countries is different from that of the developed countries in many aspects. These differences make the impact of an ICT project failure more harmful than that of a developed country especially at the economic level where financial resources are limited. Organization...

BACKGROUND The Health and Health Services Research Fund (HHSRF) is dedicated to support research related to all aspects of health and health services in Hong Kong. We evaluated the fund's outcomes and explored factors associated with the translation of research findings to changes in health policy and provider behaviour. METHODS A locally suitable questionnaire was developed based on the "pay...

BACKGROUND The economic benefits of healthcare research require study so that appropriate resources can be allocated to this research, particularly in developing countries. As a first step, we performed a systematic review to identify the methods used to assess the economic impact of healthcare research, and the outcomes. METHOD An electronic search was conducted in relevant databases using a...