Get real: what will draw physicians to the Web?

What are physicians waiting for? What will it take to stimulate widespread adoption of Internet medical systems? How can health care leaders and physicians help the technology innovators and the executives of technology firms understand the components necessary to assure physician acceptance and utilization of new tools? (1) Don't underestimate the personal nature of a physician's practice. It really isn't a "business." (2) Most physicians are not Luddites; they are just extremely pragmatic and practical. (3) For the majority of physicians to adopt a new technology in their private office practice, it must address three major issues: money, hassle, and patient care. There are many obstacles to adopting the new technologies that are the result of physician training and expectations and the current models of payment and revenue generation. Some technological innovations are presented to physicians without sufficient respect for their knowledge of how medical practices really work. The benefits promised often don't match with the needs structure of the physicians. As a consequence, the cycle of diffusion of these new systems is extended and delayed.     

Health care technology. Evolution toward revolution

The assessment process has a significant effect on the development and diffusion of any new technology. An assessment during the infancy of a new technology may have to be updated as more experience and data accumulate and change the analysis of the technology's safety and effectiveness. An outdated assessment can result in inappropriate utilization either by hindering diffusion of a valuable technology or by promoting utilization of an inappropriate technology. Those who conduct technology assessments must recognize that technologies have life cycles of their own.     

理解科技全球化--资源重组、优势集成和自主创新能力的提升

本文讨论科技全球化趋势的出现及其对中国经济发展带来的新机遇和新挑战。全文包括4个方面的内容。第一部分描述科技全球化的主要表现及特点。科技全球化使科技要素在全球范围内优化重组,使外部技术来源的重要性增加,推动先进技术大量跨国转移,使各国科技系统的开放性增加。第二部分讨论科技全球化为发展中国家带来的新机遇,包括引进先进技术的可能性增加,制造企业有可能提升在分工中的地位和获得更多利益,获取核心技术能力的途径增多。第三部分探讨如何利用机遇提升我国产业竞争能力和创新能力。我国具有利用全球科技资源的有利条件,能够通过“引进来”、“走出去”和更多新的资源组织方式充分利用外部技术资源,并利用这种机遇提升我国产业技术水平和创新能力,在自主创新和利用外部技术资源之间形成良性互动关系。第四部分分析全球化条件下国家产业与技术战略的重点领域,包括国家安全和重大技术能力的形成,防范外资企业凭借技术实力或其他力量形成垄断的问题等。     

Can industries de-mature?— Applying new technologies to mature industries

This paper looks at how an industry matures and the role technology can play in reversing the trend. It also explores alternative techniques that managers can use to determine whether the application of new technology can revitalize a particular product line or service, and how to determine which technology should be developed or applied. In this way new technology can be used to develop an effective competitive advantage in the marketplace.     

基于群体决策的水资源可持续利用评价的理想区间法

水资源可持续利用评价是可持续发展研究的核心技术,其实质是建立各评价指标与可持续利用等级之间的非线性关系,其中如何合理确定各评价指标的权重是目前研究的难点.提出了用加速遗传算法优化识别判断矩阵群体的Hadamard凸组合矩阵所对应的各评价指标的权重、并改进理想区间法的系统评价新方法(GD-IIM).GD-IIM直接由评价标准样本数据驱动,利用全部隶属度值信息计算可持续利用评价等级值,避免了应用最大隶属度原则进行判断所可能造成的失真,提高了评价精度.用GD-IIM评价黑龙江省14个区域水资源可持续利用的结果说明,GD-IIM直观简便、通用、精度高,可在实际系统评价中推广应用.     

A Learning Curve Analysis of Expert System Use*

In this article, we study how an expert system affects novice problem solving in a financial risk analysis domain. We demonstrate that novice performance is improved after exposure to an expert system. Further, we show that novice performance continues to improve when the system is withdrawn. By comparing learning curves for people with exposure to those without, we can assess how much the system has benefitted its users. We demonstrate a quantitative methodology to measure the increment of learning due to the use of an information technology. We also explore the issue of how expertise is transferred from the system to the user.     

Risk Knowledge and Risk Attitudes Regarding Nuclear Energy Sources in Space

A series of four studies examined the relationship between how much people know about the risks of using nuclear energy sources in space and how they feel about the technology. We found that the more people know, the more favorable they are—except for two groups of people selected from organizations with strong pro-industry or pro-environment positions. These results suggest that a technology will get a more favorable hearing if it can get its message out—providing that it has a legitimate story to tell and that the situation has not become too polarized already. The limits to these conclusions are discussed.     

Consumers,clothing retailers and production planning and control in the smart city

Abstract

Though there has been much talk of smart cities, it is still unclear what the concept means and what the role of their inhabitants might be in the development of such cities. There is a tendency to focus on technology and infrastructure and forget that cities are places for people to live. To counter this, smart city planners need to recognise that people’s needs can and should influence and shape their environment, rather than concentrating too much on technology or the built environment. In order to understand how smart cities can serve the needs of their inhabitants, we will examine the specific example of the fashion clothing industry and its development of omni-channel retailing. This will show that retailers, driven by technology-smart and fashion-conscious consumers, are reshaping the clothing supply chain to achieve greater integration, flexibility and speed. Central to this process is the manufacturers’ ability to create production planning and control (PPC) systems capable of operating effectively in an omni-channel environment. The paper presents a Composite Model of Enterprise Planning which can aid the development of such PPC systems. The paper concludes that changes within the fashion clothing industry indicate how smart cities can develop and are developing, and that although these changes are facilitated by technology, they are driven by the necessity to meet consumers’ needs.     

企业信息技术管理组织模式及其历史演进

信息化时代,企业对信息技术的使用不仅是IT技术开发应用和系统操作维护的问题,更是一种对专门化服务的管理问题。对企业信息技术管理的组织体制设计,将在很大程度上决定这个企业能否有效地利用信息技术作用来提升其竞争和发展的能力。本文试图从历史发展进程角度分析和评价企业信息技术管理可资采用的几种典型组织模式及其各自的优缺点和适用条件,以对全能型单位剥离辅助业务提供一些操作性的指导意见。     

Planning for technological innovation part I. Investment in technology

In the modern industrial age, investment can no longer be seen purely in terms of expenditure on hardware or ‘tangible’ investment; the knowledge content or ‘intangible’ investment is equally important. Of course, intangible investment was always a feature of the manufacturing business but in earlier times the additional effort was mostly supplied by the entrepreneur. The complexity of modern technology, the multidisciplinary skills required and the sheer speed of change have altered this; except possibly in the new venture companies. It follows that a full understanding of the effects of technological change on industry can only be obtained if all aspects of investment are identified and measured. It is then possible to determine how much of its resources any particular industry is allocating to its promotion of products for the future, and whether this has changed significantly over time.

This paper therefore is concerned with the totality of investment, its size, content and economic importance.     

竞争供应链中制造商环保技术投资决策研究

本文考虑消费者对质量差异化产品的异质性偏好以及环保意识,建立了消费者效用函数以及产品需求函数,构建了差异化竞争制造商及其零部件供应商之间的动态博弈模型;进而,研究了竞争供应链中制造商环保技术投资策略,考察了市场竞争对供应链均衡定价决策、环保技术投资决策以及消费者福利的影响。研究结果表明：拥有较高技术水平的制造商总是会选择更高的环保技术投资水平,但消费者也需为此支付更高的产品溢价;制造商环保技术投资会影响产品销售价格并有利于提升消费者福利,拥有较高技术水平的制造商总是有动机选择投资环保技术,而技术水平较低的制造商则不会有动机选择投资环保技术;市场竞争会导致供应商和制造商定价决策的变化,但此时供应商反而能够获得更多利润。     

Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions

Prior research has provided valuable insights into how and why employees make a decision about the adoption and use of information technologies (ITs) in the workplace. From an organizational point of view, however, the more important issue is how managers make informed decisions about interventions that can lead to greater acceptance and effective utilization of IT. There is limited research in the IT implementation literature that deals with the role of interventions to aid such managerial decision making. Particularly, there is a need to understand how various interventions can influence the known determinants of IT adoption and use. To address this gap in the literature, we draw from the vast body of research on the technology acceptance model (TAM), particularly the work on the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and: (i) develop a comprehensive nomological network (integrated model) of the determinants of individual level (IT) adoption and use; (ii) empirically test the proposed integrated model; and (iii) present a research agenda focused on potential pre‐ and postimplementation interventions that can enhance employees' adoption and use of IT. Our findings and research agenda have important implications for managerial decision making on IT implementation in organizations.     

Information technology enters the doctor's office: Part II--Six lessons about intended ... and unintended ... results

Part I of this article ("Six Design and Implementation Lessons," Physician Executive, Sept.-Oct. 1993, pp. 46-50) described an ambulatory utilization review (AUR) program designed and implemented by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and reviewed some of the lessons learned over the past five years. Those lessons pertained to the tasks of inventing a new information technology to measure and evaluate ambulatory care and some of the practical implementation issues associated with review of 30,000 small dollar value claims per day in 19 claim offices nationwide. This article turns to the basic purpose of AUR--to review the medical necessity and appropriateness of ambulatory utilization. One lesson learned about AUR in this context is that AUR works: savings from the program outweigh costs by almost 5:1. The more important lessons, however, stem from understanding how the savings are achieved, and what some of the other unintended benefits of the program are.     

Buy,Keep, or Sell: Economic Growth and the Market for Ideas

An endogenous growth model is developed where each period firms invest in researching and developing new ideas. An idea increases a firm's productivity. By how much depends on the technological propinquity between an idea and the firm's line of business. Ideas can be bought and sold on a market for patents. A firm can sell an idea that is not relevant to its business or buy one if it fails to innovate. The developed model is matched up with stylized facts about the market for patents in the United States. The analysis gauges how efficiency in the patent market affects growth.     

Leading teams in the digital age: Four perspectives on technology and what they mean for leading teams

Digital technologies are changing the nature of teamwork in ways that have important implications for leadership. Though conceptually rich and multi-disciplinary, much of the burgeoning work on technology has not been fully integrated into the leadership literature. To fill this gap, we organize existing work on leadership and technology, outlining four perspectives: (1) technology as context, (2) technology as sociomaterial, (3) technology as creation medium, and (4) technology as teammate. Each technology perspective makes assumptions about how technologies affect teams and the needs for team leadership. Within each perspective, we detail current work on leading teams. This section takes us from virtual teams to new vistas posed by leading online communities, crowds, peer production groups, flash teams, human-robot teams, and human-artificial intelligence teams. We identify 12 leadership implications arising from the ways digital technologies affect organizing. We then leverage our review to identify directions for future leadership research and practice.     

Utilization management in Alberta's new funding environment

Although physicians have the greatest influence on the resource utilization of hospital patients, Canadian hospitals have not been too successful in bringing physicians into the resource planning and decision-making processes. This is because most hospitals have been unable to provide the information needed by physicians to participate in resource management in a meaningful way. With the introduction of a new system in the Canadian Province of Alberta that fundamentally changes the way hospitals are funded, it has become even more important to involve medical staffs in the utilization management process. This article describes the new funding system and highlights some of the ways in which Wetaskiwin Health Care Centre has leveraged information technology to support the utilization management process in this new environment.     

Integrating computers and marketing management: A European overview

The authors look at the role of computers in marketing management, examining some current literature on computers and marketing decision support systems (MDSS). They then present the results of a survey to gauge the extent to which computers are being used by marketing management in Europe, and explore the potential for accelerating the process of integrating computer technology into the marketing manager's job. Specifically they examine the current personal computers (PCs) usage patterns of 50 marketing executives in a selection of high-performing industrial corporations in Europe.The article then briefly highlights areas of greatest PC applications by these executives and the benefits they have brought in practice. It also identifies the problems they have experienced and their views on how better and more effective utilization can be made of the technology in order to enhance their managerial capabilities.     

A new industrial order for physicians: a talk with Jeff C. Goldsmith, PhD. Interview by Richard L. Reece

Richard L. Reece, MD, interviewed Jeff C. Goldsmith, PhD, President of Health Futures, Inc. on October 12, 1999 to discuss how the Internet will affect health care delivery in the millennium. One of the most profound changes that he sees is how the relationship between physicians and patients will be altered. Empowered consumers are where the real revolution is happening--a trend sometimes overlooked by physicians. Goldsmith says, "The key thing physicians have missed is that the patient is in charge of the process.... The Internet has enabled patients to aggregate their collective experience across disease entities." But there is too much information. "It is almost universally acknowledged by patients and physicians that there is a terrible quality problem. Getting from information to knowledge is a huge commercial opportunity for somebody." He doesn't think that people have put enough emphasis on the collective learning part of this new technology.     

新零售渠道整合下生鲜供应链的定价与协调策略

在新零售模式下，本文针对双渠道生鲜供应链，考虑供应商与传统零售商之间的物流合作以及在此基础上的价格整合情形，基于消费者效用理论，综合考虑价格和产品新鲜度对消费者购买决策的共同影响，建立整合前后的定价和协调模型，采用线性补偿契约与收益共享契约进行协调，得到相应的最优协调策略。通过最优决策量数值模拟，对比分析三种不同程度渠道整合情形下生鲜供应链个体以及供应链系统的最优定价决策以及最优利润水平。研究发现：线上线下的物流合作会使对线性补偿量具有强势决策权的传统零售商在利润分配中占优；在进行物流整合的基础上，各供应链成员是否应开展价格整合，取决于消费者对产品时效性要求的高低以及其自身的讨价还价能力；对系统来说，渠道整合可以扩大消费者群体，提高供应链的总利润。     

Collaborative Innovation with Customers: A Review of the Literature and Suggestions for Future Research*

Collaborative innovation with customers or users is increasingly important for the development of new products and services. In this paper we provide a review of the literature, placing emphasis on how firms engage in collaborative innovation with individual and business customers. Our review develops a synthesized conceptual framework from three existing models, and other streams of research, to organize this diverse body of literature. We review studies from several disciplines including innovation, strategy, management, marketing and information technology. Although much of the literature assumes net positive benefits from such collaboration, we also discuss contrary perspectives. We highlight areas in which research is needed for greater understanding of the strategic issues and for managing the collaborative process, and provide suggestions for future studies.