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Explosive growth of the Internet in a number of industries has created an information distribution channel that is likely to alter and leverage every aspect of electronic commerce. With the levels of IS integration and technological innovations in development in healthcare today, it is not unreasonable to predict that this industry soon will be similarly driven.
Organizations are using extranets to engage in electronic commerce with trading partners. But the definitions of what constitute an extranet vary widely.
The World Wide Web has become a convenient tool for research, communication, and even commerce, but a recent survey of foundations and corporate giving programs reveals that grant makers are not making full use of computer and Internet capabilities that might benefit them.
In Summit Health Ltd. v. Pinhas, the United States Supreme Court by a narrow majority found that the exclusion of an ophthalmologist from a hospital in Los Angeles had a sufficient effect on interstate commerce to establish federal jurisdiction under the Sherman Act. In resolving a split among the federal circuit courts of appeal, the Court applied the broad jurisdictional test from McLain v. Real Estate Board of New Orleans, Inc. to peer review proceedings. Despite many ambiguities in the majority opinion by Justice Stevens and a scathing dissent by Justice Scalia, the effect of Pinhas will be to increase the suits in federal court on antitrust grounds brought by aggrieved medical staff members and applicants denied appointments or privileges, and to decrease, if not eliminate, the likelihood of preliminary dismissal on jurisdictional grounds. This, in turn, should serve to emphasize the importance of complying with the Health Care Quality Improvement Act in order to obtain immunity from damages under federal antitrust and state laws.
Progress in the field of organs and tissues transplantation contributes today to saving lives and improving their quality. Consequently, the increasing need of organs and tissues and their constant shortage give rise financial benefits and commercial risks. Several European countries have tasted in one or another way organ trading. These ethical and legal important problems implicated preventive measures in European countries and in the whole world. Since 1986, Belgium has a national legislation which forbids in every forms, organs and tissues commerce. In addition, an item imposes penalties in this connection. Meanwhile different international organisations established acts, recommendations and resolutions preventing purchase and sale of human organs and tissues.
Tobacco products, despite being lethal and addictive, are highly attractive and accessible to children at hundreds of thousands of retail outlets. The proposed Toxic-Tobacco Law (the Law) will end this access by prohibiting U.S. corporations from making, marketing, or importing tobacco products. The Law will go into effect twenty years after enactment, giving all stake-holders (e.g., farmers) time to adjust. After this adjustment period, adults will be "free" to import tobacco products for personal use. Unlike Prohibition, which sought to stop Americans from consuming alcohol, the Toxic-Tobacco Law does not seek to restrict consumption by adults. The purpose of this law is to end the massive presence of tobacco products in American society in order to prevent the addiction of children to tobacco and its devastating health consequences (e.g., lung cancer). The U.S. Congress, under the "commerce clause" of the Constitution, has the authority to pass the Toxic-Tobacco Law.
MEDICOM system is a world wide telematics application for electronic commerce of medical devices. It has been designed so as to provide the health care professionals with a central Internet access to up-to-date information about medical equipment from multiple manufacturers, in a particular easy and friendly way. Moreover, the Medicom system will serve the health care professionals' requirements for high-quality information about specific products in a form of multimedia presentations and that of a secure communication channel with the community of manufacturers, especially for post marketing surveillance. The system will provide the medical staff (physicians and technicians) with demonstrations of the operation procedures and the functioning of high-tech equipment in a form of virtual models. Moreover, through the medicom system the end users of medical devices can have access to on line libraries and participate in special newsgroups. This paper discusses the architectural structure of the MEDICOM system with emphasis to its educational and training functionality.
Electronic hubs--Internet-based intermediaries that host electronic marketplaces and mediate transactions among businesses--are generating a lot of interest. Companies like Ariba, Chemdex, and Commerce One have already attained breathtaking stock market capitalizations. Venture capitalists are pouring money into more business-to-business start-ups. Even industrial stalwarts like GM and Ford are making plans to set up their own Web markets. As new entrants with new business models pour into the business-to-business space, it's increasingly difficult to make sense of the landscape. This article provides a blueprint of the e-hub arena. The authors start by looking at the two dimensions of purchasing: what businesses buy--manufacturing inputs or operating inputs--and how they buy--through systematic sourcing or spot sourcing. They classify B2B e-hubs into four categories: MRO hubs, yield managers, exchanges, and catalog hubs, and they discuss each type in detail. Drilling deeper into this B2B matrix, the authors look at how e-hubs create value--through aggregation and matching--and explain when each mechanism works best. They also examine the biases of e-hubs. Although many e-hubs are neutral--they're operated by independent third parties--some favor the buyers or sellers. The authors explain the differences and discuss the pros and cons of each position. The B2B marketplace is changing rapidly. This framework helps buyers, sellers, and market makers navigate the landscape by explaining what the different hubs do and how they add the most value.
The painful truth is that the Internet has been a letdown for most companies--largely because the dominant model for Internet commerce, the destination Web site, doesn't suit the needs of those companies or their customers. Most consumer product companies don't provide enough value or dynamic information to induce customers to make the repeat visits--and disclose the detailed information--that make such sites profitable. In this article, David Kenny and John F. Marshall suggest that companies discard the notion that a Web site equals an Internet strategy. Instead of trying to create destinations that people will come to, companies need to use the power and reach of the Internet to deliver tailored messages and information to customers. Companies have to become what the authors call "contextual marketers." Delivering the most relevant information possible to consumers in the most timely manner possible will become feasible, the authors say, as access moves beyond the PC to shopping malls, retail stores, airports, bus stations, and even cars. The authors describe how the ubiquitous Internet will hasten the demise of the destination Web site--and open up scads of opportunities to reach customers through marketing "mobilemediaries," such as smart cards, e-wallets, and bar code scanners. The companies that master the complexity of the ubiquitous Internet will gain significant advantages: they'll gain greater intimacy with customers and target market segments more efficiently. The ones that don't will be dismissed as nuisances, the authors conclude. They suggest ways to become welcome additions--not unwelcome intrusions--to customers' lives.
The assumption today is that new value in a company can be created only when people shed their suits, don khakis and Hawaiian shirts, and think and act like the most passionate entrepreneurs. The problem is, they're rarely told when it makes sense to do those things--or how to do them. With help from a team of ethnographers and senior organization specialists, authors Mark Maletz and Nitin Nohria recently conducted a unique research project that attempted to full those gaps. Their project focused on whitespace: the large but mostly unoccupied territory in every company where rules are vague, authority is fuzzy, budgets are nonexistent, and strategy is unclear--and where entrepreneurial activity that helps reinvent and renew an organization most often takes place. The researchers shadowed entrepreneurial managers operating in the whitespace and met with top managers about their efforts to oversee whitespace activities. Using examples from the financial services, computer, and e-commerce industries, the authors explain when it's imperative to operate in the whitespace--and when it's wiser to stay in the traditional blackspace. They describe how effective whitespace managers subtly and resourcefully lead successful efforts, and how senior executives nurture whitespace projects by putting aside their traditional planning, organizing, and controlling techniques. Finally, they examine the ultimate issue for any successful whitespace project: should it be moved into the blackspace, kept in the whitespace indefinitely--or, despite its apparent success, killed off? If companies leave this valuable territory to the scattershot whims and talents of individual managers, the authors say, they are likely to miss out on many of the opportunities that come from exploring the next frontier.
Union of chemists exploited the disputes between pharmacists and legislators for its own prosperity. In 1780 the sale of natural drugs was permitted to the chemists for first time and the Trade Rules of 1856 (later amended) gave them a possibility of production, preparation and sale of poisons and medicaments, unless they were reserved for pharmacists only (section 15, article 14). Among the first founders of chemist's shops belonged the pharmacists who could not establish their own pharmaceutical store due to lack of finance or complaints from their colleagues. The chemist's didn't have to fulfill the obligatory requirements for rooms and equipment, they were not regularly checked and they had less expenses and also lower prices. Their lower profit from the sale of medicaments was compensated by selling typical chemist's articles. The pharmacists brought the level of chemists nearly to the level of organized pharmacy (pharmaceutics supervisory committee, division into regions, a two-years special school, producing and purchasing cooperatives). However, around 1925 the pharmacists became aliens from the point of view of chemists. The chemists felt their own existence threatened and tried to refuse pharmaceutical studies as an approval for chemist trade and tried to limit the sale of cosmetics and dietetics in the pharmaceutical stores. Without bashfulness, they themselves dispatched and prepared medicaments on medical and veterinary prescriptions even though it was illegal. Later they tried to legalize this state during the discussions of the reform of pharmaceutical law. Protesting pharmacists did not have efficient support either from the pharmaceutics supervisory committee, Ministry of Health Care, or Chamber of Commerce. The state solution to this problem which lacked any concept, and together with inconsistency and disunity among pharmacists themselves contributed to deepen the problems between pharmacists and chemists. Unfortunately, pharmacists often focused on minor matters and omitted the essential problems of their profession.
Despite the harsh realities of retailing, the illusion persists that magical tools can help companies overcome the problems of fickle consumers, price-slashing competitors, and mood swings in the economy. Such wishful thinking holds that retailers will thrive if only they communicate better with customers through e-mail, employ hidden cameras to learn how customers make purchase decisions, and analyze scanner data to tailor special offers and manage inventory. But the truth is, there are no quick fixes. In the course of his extensive research on dozens of retailers, Leonard Berry found that the best companies create value for their customers in five interlocking ways. Whether you're running a physical store, a catalog business, an e-commerce site, or a combination of the three, you have to offer your customers superior solutions to their needs, treat them with respect, and connect with them on an emotional level. You also have to set prices fairly and make it easy for people to find what they need, pay for it quickly, and then move on. None of these pillars is new, and each sounds exceedingly simple, but don't be fooled--implementing these axioms in the real world is surprisingly difficult. The author illustrates how some retailers have built successful operations by attending to these commonsense ways of dealing with their customers and how others have failed to do so.
When the Food and Drugs Act became law in 1906, the commercial fig industry in California had just become established. Domestic figs began to compete with imported figs, especially from Turkey and Greece. Fig culture, both in the Near East and the American West, was beset by many threats, especially insect pests. The Bureau of Chemistry in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), enforcer of the 1906 law, undertook to protect consumers from spoiled figs from overseas and in interstate commerce. Simultaneously the USDA helped both domestic and Turkish growers to counter infestation. Through the State Department, sanitary controls in Smyrna were enhanced. Scientific experts from Agriculture educated American growers and packers in protective techniques. A high point of both legal actions and educational endeavors came in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, the state of California assumed the role of guiding inspection and helping dispose of substandard figs. World War II brought retrogression in fig quality, requiring a new corrective campaign by the Food and Drug Administration, successor to the Bureau of Chemistry, to prevent spoiled figs from reaching the market. By the 1950s, the need for such legal actions was rare.
During the seventeenth century the small Dutch nation with a population of no more than 1.5 million people played a prominent role in the whale oil and salt trade. Two reports discovered in the Archives in The Hague and Delft are dealing with the provision of medical and pharmaceutical services during their extensive maritime commerce. Surgeon chests destinated for whaling explicitly contained medicines to treat scurvy, respiratory illnessses and musculoskeletal diseases. The workers exploiting the saltpans in Arguin, near the northwestern coast of Afrika, were in need for drugs to cure gastrointestinal complaints and inflammatory conditions of the mouth.
In most companies, investments in innovation follow a boom-bust cycle. For a time, the cash flows. Then, as the economy sours or companies rethink their priorities, the taps go dry. But when research budgets are slashed, the strong projects are often abandoned along with the weak ones. Promising initiatives are cut off just when they are about to bear fruit. Expensive labs are closed; partnership agreements costing millions in legal fees are thrown away. When disruptive changes in the competitive landscape come, companies are caught flat-footed. Sustainable innovation requires a new approach: Instead of being largely isolated projects, innovation initiatives need to gain access to the insights and capabilities of other companies. To be protected from the ax of short-term cost reductions and the faddishness born of easy money, the initiatives must become part of the ongoing commerce that takes place among companies. But how can businesses traffic in such sensitive information without giving their competitors an advantage? The answer, the author contends, lies in a practice that's been common since the Middle Ages: the use of independent intermediaries to facilitate the exchange of sensitive information among companies without revealing the principals' identities or motives and without otherwise compromising their interests. Executive search firms, for example, allow job seekers to remain anonymous during the early stages of a search, and they protect businesses from disclosing their hiring plans to rivals. A network of innovation intermediaries would be in a unique position to visualize new opportunities synthesized from insights and technologies provided by several companies--ideas that might never occur to businesses working on their own.
"This paper shows the demographic prospect of population in the Eastern part of Indonesia, especially in four provinces: Bali, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and South East Sulawesi." The focus is on the sociodemographic characteristics of consumers in the region, and the implications for commerce. (SUMMARY IN ENG)
Online drugstores represent one of the hottest categories in electronic commerce. The Internet offers great promise in expanding access to prescription drugs for the disabled, the elderly, and people living in rural areas. But with this promise comes the danger of eliminating the safeguards that protect consumers from inappropriate use of medications and adverse drug events. This Issue Brief highlights two studies that investigate the availability of prescription drugs over the Internet, and focuses on the alarming ease with which consumers can obtain drugs without seeing a physician or a pharmacist.
World Trade Organization member states are preparing for the upcoming renegotiation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. One of the important elements of that renegotiation is the ethical considerations regarding the patenting of higher life forms and their component parts (e.g. DNA and cell-lines). The interface between the genetic revolution, patentability, and ethical considerations is the subject of this article. The author identifies, explores, and critiques four possible positions Canada may adopt in respect of patentability of biomedical material. First, Canada could do nothing. This approach would mean keeping biomedical materials outside the patent system and outside the stream of commerce. Canada would simply wait for an international consensus to develop before adopting a position of its own. Second, Canada could go it alone. It could implement a policy that balances the incentive effects of patents with the need to incorporate ethical and social values into the decision-making process regarding the use of biomedical materials. In respect of this option, the author proposes a model whereby non-profit bodies would hold the exclusive rights to research, use, and exploit biomedical materials. Third, Canada could follow the United States, Europe, and Japan by providing for almost unrestricted patenting of biomedical materials. This would be the most industry-friendly alternative. The fourth and final option is to use the medicare system to promote discussion of ethical considerations involved in the use of biomedical materials. The power of provincial health agencies may be used as a lever to ensure the discussion of ethical considerations concerning the use of biomedical materials. The author concludes that the fourth and final option is the best alternative for Canada while waiting for an international consensus to emerge.