The next stage of managed care.

Since the turn of the century, we have gone from medicine as a cottage industry, based largely on barter, to the complex entity it is today. What we will see in the coming decade, if not sooner is the emergence of the next level of managed care. As managed care matures, contradictions in the health care system that we have not been able to resolve will be addressed, as well as other value-related issues. The ability to deliver value and then to monitor outcomes will be the nut to crack. The next big movement will be to hone in on outcomes and measurement. This will be the path to increasing the inherent value of the medical care system. This will go hana in hand with accountability, which is where physician-sponsored networks (PSNs) will be an indispensable tool. Centered as they are around accountability and responsibility, PSNs will be a natural starting point for developing the protocols to produce and collect this data. The standardization of care, anchored upon medical evidence, is the objective.     

魏巴赫：再造赛诺菲

作为全球领先的多元化医药健康企业赛诺菲的全球cEO，魏巴赫（Christopher A．Viehbacher）先生的一举一动都吸引着业界关注的目光。     

The American health system: a contentious environment in the 21st Century

In the 21st Century, the American public and its elected officials will be unable to reach any overall consensus on our nation's health policies and priorities. With greater demands for health services and fewer fiscal resources, a more contentious environment in the health industry will ensue. As the American health system in the next 100 years continues to behave with an amalgam of competitive and regulatory approaches, it will be difficult to ensure that all Americans will receive universal access, equity, comprehensive benefits, and a high quality of care. For these reasons, the health system is predicted later on to swing away from market-driven to more state-oriented regulatory strategies as the United States attempts to blend such concepts as pluralism, regionalization of resources, and enforcing cost containment.     

Analysing business opportunities in North Sea oil

Offshore activity in the North Sea is the first of a number of worldwide offshore developments that will take off in the next 10 years. Exploration is occurring at a dramatic rate off the coasts of a number of countries in South East Asia and is also taking place off the coast of Australia, Africa, South America, the United States and Canada. The North Sea will thus, in many cases, be the test bed for suppliers to the offshore industry. With all countries which have oil deposits off their coast being anxious to promote indigenous supply of products and services to the oil industry, competition in the world market will intensify. Only those companies who can establish their product and marketing strategies in the politically calm environment of the North Sea can hope to reap the rewards of what may turn out to be the world's fastest growing industrial market over the next 20 years.     

The hidden competitive weapon supporting innovation in health care

It is trite to say health care is experiencing an era of unprecedented change. However, with the preoccupation with reimbursement and economic reform, it is easy to focus on this single dimension and lose sight of the pervasiveness of the need for continuous change throughout the entire health care organization. Health care organizations that will emerge as leaders within the industry will have incorporated not only radical changes to deal with new patterns of reimbursement, but also simultaneous changes in core medical services--changes that not only incorporate new technology, but also push down costs. They will also have to cope with radical changes in information and quality systems. Physical facilities will look less like citadels, and new flexible architectures will emerge. Coping with transportation logistics and remote site service provision will be part of the new industry. Patients will become full partners in ?health,? requiring very different approaches to patient education and involvement in prevention, not simply treatment. Indeed, without belaboring the almost endless list, it is impossible to think of a single dimension of health care that will be untouched.     

The digital transformation of health care

The arrival of the Internet offers the opportunity to fundamentally reinvent medicine and health care delivery. The "e-health" era is nothing less than the digital transformation of the practice of medicine, as well as the business side of the health industry. Health care is only now arriving in the "Information Economy." The Internet is the next frontier of health care. Health care consumers are flooding into cyberspace, and an Internet-based industry of health information providers is springing up to serve them. Internet technology may rank with antibiotics, genetics, and computers as among the most important changes for medical care delivery. Utilizing e-health strategies will expand exponentially in the next five years, as America's health care executives shift to applying IS/IT (information systems/information technology) to the fundamental business and clinical processes of the health care enterprise. Internet-savvy physician executives will provide a bridge between medicine and management in the adoption of e-health technology.     

The looming millennium bug

Evaluating and fixing date sensitive systems by the year 2000 is a significant challenge for the health care industry. Health care executives will be engrossed in this important management activity over the next several months. By now all critical business functions should have been identified and remediated. Contingency planning to ensure the continuity of high quality systems is an essential next step. Physician executives need to have a contingency plan in case Y2K-related failures occur. Most health care facilities have a disaster plan that has been tested in clinical scenarios. These plans should be reviewed to ensure they include procedures for handling problems with office operations, power outages, equipment failure, supply or pharmaceutical shortages, and patient evacuation. Financial systems are at risk at multiple points, including determining eligibility, claims submission, billing, and payments.     

消费者寻求多样化与厂商折扣定价竞争

在很多市场环境中，消费者喜欢尝试不同产品的特性，重复消费同一商品会产生滞留成本。本文通过构建两期动态博弈模型，研究了滞留成本对企业折扣券定价行为的影响，并与其他定价策略的市场绩效进行了比较。本文研究结果表明：（1）企业会通过折扣券奖励忠诚的消费者，即企业会对重复购买自己产品的消费者给予价格优惠，而对新消费者制定高价格；（2）在均衡中，随着滞留成本的提升，消费者剩余和社会总福利降低，企业利润上升；（3）与其他定价机制相比较，折扣券定价策略下的社会总福利较低，政策制定者应当限制此类策略的应用。     

从体验管理的角度透视中国大型购物中心——以世纪金源为例

Mall是未来5~10年零售业发展的主要趋势,现在已经在中国呈现出迅猛发展势头,但也出现很多问题。以Mall的本质特征为基础,从体验管理的角度出发,在目标顾客、战略定位、交通、商店布局、商店定位、环境和服务等方面对中国Mall中存在的营销和管理问题进行了深入的探讨,并以世纪金源为案例加以分析。结果表明有:造成上述问题的根本原因在于Mall的设计和管理者对其本质内涵及定位没有深刻的理解和把握,没有充分考虑中国消费者的消费习惯而盲目照搬国外模式,以及缺乏科学的管理团队。最后,根据分析结果和经济现状提出中国大型购物中心未来营运管理的方向及建议。     

The microprocessor and medicine

Technology continues to accelerate at an amazing pace. Where have we been, where are we going, and what do these technology enhancements mean to the health care industry? We are entering the era of the personal computer becoming the window to the multimedia digital world of cyberspace. Microprocessors will continue to improve from one generation to the next to make cyberspace as realistic as possible-and with their improving capabilities will come myriad applications for health care services, either not cost-effective, or not even contemplated, until now. As a leader of an organization, one who approves substantial budgets for information technology, you must ask yourself what new products and services these startling technological advances will create. How will they change health and medical care?     

Health care reform. Gridlock and pork?

Can Americans expect the same gridlock and pork between now and the 21st Century? What are the possible directions that the United States can move in regarding health care reform and the long-term financing of health entitlement programs? Here, the author offers a snapshot of current politics and some predictions for the next four years. And explores the question: Are Americans willing to make the necessary sacrifices for future generations to profit by the significant changes needed by entitlement and health reform, or will it be business as usual? America's centrist perspective was recently reinforced by the 1996 election, suggesting that no major innovations in entitlement or in the health system should be anticipated in the next four years.     

A future for fishing?

This article outlines the potential in the fishing industry viewed from the present. The author argues that current methods are still relatively inefficient and that increases of 50–100 per cent can be expected in the next 10–20 years. Further that these larger catches can contribute markedly to world protein requirements. The article includes consideration of system fishing and concludes with a picture of the British fishing industry being among the most advanced in the world.     

基于遗传算法的前沿生产函数构造及其应用

效率测度分析是评价企业经营管理的重要指标,其求解往往同构造前沿生产函数联系 在一起. 对采用遗传算法构造前沿生产函数进行了研究,电力工业的实证效率测度分析以及与 非参数方法的比较结果验证了本方法的正确性和实用性,可为电力工业的决策者和这一领域 的研究人员提供参考.     

The Emergence of Flood Insurance in Canada: Navigating Institutional Uncertainty

Flood insurance has remained unavailable in Canada based on an assessment that it lacks economic viability. In response to Canada's costliest flood event to date in 2013, the Canadian insurance industry has started to develop a framework to expand existing property insurance to cover flood damage. Research on flood insurance has overlooked why and how insurance systems transition to expand insurance coverage without evidence of economic viability. This article will address this gap through a case study on the emergence of flood insurance in Canada, and the approach to its expansion. Between 2013 and 2016, insurance industry officials representing over 60% of premiums collected in Canada were interviewed. These interviews revealed that flood insurance is being expanded in response to institutional pressure, specifically external stakeholder expectations that the insurance industry will adopt a stronger role in managing flood risk through coverage of flood damage. Further evidence of this finding is explored by assessing the emergence of a unique flood insurance model that involves a risk‐adjusted and optional product along with an expansion of government policy supporting flood risk mitigation. This approach attempts to balance industry concerns about economic viability with institutional pressure to reduce flood risk through insurance. This analysis builds on existing research by providing the first scholarly analysis of flood insurance in Canada, important “empirical” teeth to existing conceptual analysis on the availability of flood insurance, and the influence of institutional factors on risk analysis within the insurance sector.     

Telecommunications and the customer—Prospects for the 1980s

There will be major changes in the telecommunications system during the next decade and computing and broadcasting technologies will contribute to the advances in telecommunication. The author describes the prospects for the customer and the improved systems that will become available.     

Lessons from industry.

Rapidly emerging in public debate as the key to the future of the health care industry is quality. One can hardly pick up a health care magazine or journal or listen to a discussion among health care professionals without quality becoming a concern. Despite virtually universal agreement on the importance of the generic term and secondary agreement on the importance of being able to measure it, discussion bogs down in either of two ways. It may become overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task of describing all the elements of health care quality, or the different viewpoints of individuals will yield quite variable understandings of what the term "quality of health care" means. To make substantial progress in improving health care quality, we will need to come to an agreement on terms.     

移动互联网风向标

移动互联网已被证实是一块巨型蛋糕,但真正从中赚到钱的却少之又少,这是为什么?AppStore模式作为移动互联网门槛最低、人数最多的产业模式,目前究竟面临哪些瓶颈,让众多开发者怨声载道?资本市场对于移动互联网市场已渐渐回归理性,移动互     

Knowledge Building: Developing Employees Through Education

Is it enough for an organization to develop the total individual? Beyond technical expertise and skills necessary to perform jobs, employees who are encouraged to learn are more willing and able to meet the needs, goals, and objectives of the organization. These employees who are will-rounded transition what they have learned into the workings of the organization and for the sake of the growth and development of the organization. Allowing employees to learn, organizations create a workforce capable of applying all the benefits of learning to the growth of the organization. Whether a corporation develops its own university, creates an alliance with traditional educational institutions or creates a virtual university, it gives the employees the opportunity to learn and develop. As Peter Drucker said in a 1994 interview, the growth industry of the future is the education of adults. The education and the development of executives and the workforce are a new commodity and organizations that support education will be placed at a distinct competitive advantage over organizations that do not. Imagine a workplace filled with employees who have realized self-satisfaction, employees who can of gather information, analyze information and make decisions. Imagine a learning organization consisting of employees with greater understanding of corporate politics, employees who are motivated and employees who are persistent in pursuing goals. Is it worth the expense to increase employees' knowledge through education? Is it worth the expense to develop employees to increase productivity and obtain financial goals for the shareholders and stakeholders? I think any organization not willing to invest in an employees' education is an organization that is `running a fever' and an organization that may have difficulties competing globally in the next millennium.