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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Electronic commerce: beyond the euphoria.

As the center of considerable media attention, case study articles, vendor research, and development efforts, electronic commerce technology is entering healthcare and having a profound effect. The simple truth, however, is that after the drama and excitement begins to wear off, completing a successful e-commerce implementation remains good old-fashioned hard, sometimes monotonous work. To be successful, e-commerce technologies must be planned and implemented with rigorous project standards, and incorporated with significant process and workflow reengineering to actually return significant value to the organization. This article briefs readers on the organizational issues they must consider in evaluating e-commerce readiness--cultural, executive and technological factors that either support or inhibit project and technology success. Readers will be left with the tools to conduct an electronic commerce "readiness assessment" to evaluate the immediate, mid- and long-term potential of electronic commerce; practical remediation strategies for better preparing the organization for the changes inherent in moving to an e-commerce-enabled business model; and comments from the field--advice from organizations that have successfully implemented e-commerce technologies into their ongoing operations.

Commerce↗
PubMed2000

The proportions of mutagens among chemicals in commerce.

It has been estimated that there are approximately 80,000 chemicals in commerce. Thus, it is not possible to test all these substances for mutagenicity and carcinogenicity; it is possible, however, to test or make estimates from selected subsets of these chemicals. For example, in the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), 35% of the chemicals tested for mutagenicity in Salmonella were positive, as were 52% of the chemicals tested for carcinogenicity in rodents. In contrast, in the U.S. EPA Gene-Tox database, the proportions of chemicals that are Salmonella mutagens is 56%. These and other databases may be biased toward positive responses because they generally have been developed to look at specific structural or use classes of chemicals or chemicals suspected of genetic or carcinogenic activity. To address the question of the proportions of mutagens among all chemicals in commerce, a database of 100 chemicals was created from a random selection of chemicals in commerce. These chemicals were tested for mutagenicity in Salmonella and 22% were mutagenic. The mutagenicity of the 46 highest U.S. production organic chemicals was also compiled; 20% were mutagenic. These values provide a more accurate estimate of the proportions of mutagens among chemicals in commerce than can be derived from published mutagenicity databases.

Commerce↗
PubMed2000

Modeling the customer in electronic commerce.

This paper reviews interface design of web pages for e-commerce. Different tasks in e-commerce are contrasted. A systems model is used to illustrate the information flow between three subsystems in e-commerce: store environment, customer, and web technology. A customer makes several decisions: to enter the store, to navigate, to purchase, to pay, and to keep the merchandize. This artificial environment must be designed so that it can support customer decision-making. To retain customers it must be pleasing and fun, and create a task with natural flow. Customers have different needs, competence and motivation, which affect decision-making. It may therefore be important to customize the design of the e-store environment. Future ergonomics research will have to investigate perceptual aspects, such as presentation of merchandize, and cognitive issues, such as product search and navigation, as well as decision making while considering various economic parameters. Five theories on e-commerce research are presented.

Advertising↗
PubMed2004

Swiss community pharmacies' on the Web and pharmacists' experiences with E-commerce: longitudinal study and Internet-based questionnaire survey.

BACKGROUND: There are multiple ways in which community pharmacies can present themselves on the Internet, e.g., as a platform for drug information or as an advertising platform for their services. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the number of Swiss community pharmacies on the Internet over the period of 32 months (2000-2003), to describe their current e-commerce services, and to explore the experiences and plans these pharmacies have with regard to their Internet presence. METHODS: A longitudinal study was performed to determine the number of Swiss German pharmacies on the Internet by conducting Internet searches in 2000, 2001, and 2003. In April 2002, a cross-sectional Internet-based survey was administered to explore the pharmacies' experiences and plans regarding their Web sites. RESULTS: As of April 2003, 373 (44%) of 852 community pharmacies from the German speaking part of Switzerland were on the Internet. One hundred eighty four listed an e-mail address and were asked to complete a questionnaire. Of the 107 pharmacies answering the survey questions (58% response rate): 46% had been on the Internet for 1 to 2 years; 33% of the Web sites are part of a pharmacy group's Web portal; 31% of the pharmacies plan to expand their Internet appearance in the future; 74% provide e-commerce services, with 81% of those pharmacies filling five or less orders per month; and 12% plan on expanding their e-commerce services in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The number of community pharmacies offering Internet services steadily increased over 32 months. Given the importance of the Internet as a tool for information, communication, and advertising for pharmacy products and services, it can be expected that the increase will continue. Pharmacy-group portals are important promoters of pharmacies on the Internet. For many community pharmacies, Internet portals that provide an Internet presence for the pharmacies and provide regularly-updated content (e.g., health news, tips, drug information) seem to be the most effective solutions. Even though 40% of the pharmacies already offer e-commerce services, these services are still of minor importance. For many pharmacists, the current legal regulations seem to be unclear. Most pharmacies want to maintain their Internet services.

Commerce↗
PubMed1999

A decision technology system for health care electronic commerce.

Mounting costs have escalated the pressure on health care providers and payers to improve decision making and control expenses. Transactions to form the needed decision data will routinely flow, often electronically, between the affected parties. Conventional health care information systems facilitate flow, process transactions, and generate useful decision information. Typically, such support is offered through a series of stand-alone systems that lose much useful decision knowledge and wisdom during health care electronic commerce (e-commerce). Integrating the stand-alone functions can enhance the quality and efficiency of the segmented support, create synergistic effects, and augment decision-making performance and value for both providers and payers. This article presents an information system that can provide complete and integrated support for e-commerce-based health care decision making. The article describes health care e-commerce, presents the system, examines the system's potential use and benefits, and draws implications for health care management and practice.

Commerce↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Getting real about virtual commerce.

In its first generation, electronic commerce has been a landgrab. Space on the Internet was claimed by whoever got there first with enough resources to create a credible business. It took speed, a willingness to experiment, and a lot of cybersavvy. Companies that had performed brilliantly in traditional settings seemed hopelessly flat-footed on the Web. And despite their astronomical valuations, the new e-commerce stars have appeared to be just as confused. Many have yet to make a profit, and no one has any idea when they will. Now, the authors contend, we are entering the second generation of e-commerce, and it will be shaped more by strategy than by experimentation. The key players--branded-goods suppliers, physical retailers, electronic retailers, and pure navigators--will shift their attention from claiming territory to defending or capturing it. They will be forced to focus on strategies to achieve competitive advantage. Success will go to the businesses that get closest to consumers, the ones that help customers navigate their way through the Web. Indeed, the authors argue, navigation is the battlefield on which competitive advantage will be won or lost. There are three dimensions of navigation: Reach is about access and connection. Affiliation is about whose interests the business represents. And richness is the depth of the information that a business gives to or collects about its customers. Navigators and e-retailers have the natural advantage in reach and affiliation, while traditional product suppliers and retailers have the edge in richness. The authors offer practical advice to each player on competing in the second generation of e-commerce.

Commerce↗
PubMed2005

Avoiding liability under the Commerce Act--what can be learned from the Ophthalmologists' case?

AIM: To consider the application of the Commerce Act 1986 to the conduct of medical practitioners and practitioner associations and societies, with special reference to the recent Ophthalmologists' case and the lessons which can be learned from that. DISCUSSION: The Commerce Commission recently took successful action (under Section 27 [s27] of the Commerce Act) against the Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand and several ophthalmologists from the lower South Island. The case illustrates the ease with which practitioners can be drawn into anticompetitive arrangements, and practitioner associations and societies can become liable under the Act through the conduct of their officeholders. The article discusses the relevant prohibitions under the Act, and the way in which these can relate to individual practitioners and practitioner associations and societies. In particular, s27 applies not only when the purpose of an arrangement substantially lessens competition, but also when the effect or likely effect of the arrangement substantially lessens competition. Therefore arguing that conduct is for ethical or safety reasons will not be sufficient to avoid liability. CONCLUSION: Markets for medical services are treated just like the markets for most other services under the Commerce Act. Individual practitioners should avoid becoming involved in or giving support to conduct or arrangements, which may be anticompetitive. Practitioner associations and societies should exercise control over the actions of their officeholders, especially where the purpose or effect of these could be considered to be anticompetitive.

Commerce↗
PubMed2001

Incidental memory and navigation in panoramic virtual reality for electronic commerce.

Recently much effort has been dedicated to designing and implementing World Wide Web sites for virtual shopping and e-commerce. Despite this effort, relatively little empirical work has been done to determine the effectiveness with which different site designs sell products. We report three experiments in which participants were asked to search for products in various experimental e-commerce sites. Across the experiments participants were asked to search in either QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality), hypertext, or pictorially rich hypertext environments; they were then tested for their ability to recall the products seen and to recognize product locations. The experiments demonstrated that when using QTVR (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or pictorial environments (Experiment 2), participants retained more information about products that were incidental to their goals. In two of the experiments it was shown that participants navigated more efficiently when using a QTVR environment. The costs and benefits of using 3D virtual environments for on-line shops are discussed. Actual or potential applications of this research include support for the development of e-commerce design guidelines.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Energy effects associated with e-commerce: a case-study concerning online sales of personal computers in The Netherlands.

The introduction of e-commerce is changing purchase and distribution patterns dramatically. One of the observed effects is that logistics become more efficient as products are directly shipped from a manufacturer or wholesaler to an end-user. Another effect is that market transparency increases, which has a downward pressure on prices of many products sold via the Internet. This article addresses the energy implications of e-commerce at the micro level. This is done by quantifying the transport related energy savings in the case of a Dutch online computer reseller and by assessing the extra energy expenditure associated with increased buying power of online buyers. It is found that energy use per article sold by the online computer reseller is lower. However, taking into account indirect effects such as increased consumer buying power, there are scenarios that lead to an overall increase in energy use.

Commerce↗
PubMed2002

Environmental impacts of the emerging digital economy: the e-for-environment e-commerce?

The Internet-led digital economy is changing both the production and consumption patterns at the global scale. Although great potential exists to harness information technology in general and the Internet in particular and improve the environment, possible negative impacts of e-commerce on the environment should also be considered and dealt with. In this forum, we discuss both the potential positive and negative impacts of e-commerce. Drawing from insights gained from the complexity theory, we also delineate some broad contours for environmental policies in the information age. Given the paradoxical nature of technological innovations, we want to caution the scientific community and policymakers not to treat the Internet as the Holy Grail for environmental salvation.

Commerce↗
PubMed2005

International trade and air pollution: estimating the economic costs of air emissions from waterborne commerce vessels in the United States.

Although there is a burgeoning literature on the effects of international trade on the environment, relatively little work has been done on where trade most directly effects the environment: the transportation sector. This article shows how international trade is affecting air pollution emissions in the United States' shipping sector. Recent work has shown that cargo ships have been long overlooked regarding their contribution to air pollution. Indeed, ship emissions have recently been deemed "the last unregulated source of traditional air pollutants". Air pollution from ships has a number of significant local, national, and global environmental effects. Building on past studies, we examine the economic costs of this increasing and unregulated form of environmental damage. We find that total emissions from ships are largely increasing due to the increase in foreign commerce (or international trade). The economic costs of SO2 pollution range from dollars 697 million to dollars 3.9 billion during the period examined, or dollars 77 to dollars 435 million on an annual basis. The bulk of the cost is from foreign commerce, where the annual costs average to dollars 42 to dollars 241 million. For NOx emissions the costs are dollars 3.7 billion over the entire period or dollars 412 million per year. Because foreign trade is driving the growth in US shipping, we also estimate the effect of the Uruguay Round on emissions. Separating out the effects of global trade agreements reveals that the trade agreement-led emissions amounted to dollars 96 to dollars 542 million for SO2 between 1993 and 2001, or dollars 10 to dollars 60 million per year. For NOx they were dollars 745 million for the whole period or dollars 82 million per year. Without adequate policy responses, we predict that these trends and costs will continue into the future.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2000

Commerce in transplantation: how does it affect European legislation?

Commerce in transplantation is well known, if not well defined. Although the word commerce suggests an exchange of money, in reality it often simply signifies a non-profit-making transaction. Nevertheless, money, and therefore profit, may be involved in some human organ transactions, and the buying and selling of organs for transplantation remains common in too many countries. Clearly, if such transactions were allowed to continue only those who could afford to pay would benefit. They would probably also lead to an increase in the number of media horror stories. A number of such stories have appeared in the past. Although they are rarely based on hard evidence, they do influence politicians and, as a consequence, affect legislation and the availability of organs for transplant. They may also diminish the willingness of the general public to become organ donors and contribute to the persistent poor supply of organ donors. Organ exchange organizations, such as Eurotransplant, have made many efforts to prevent unethical transactions. Nevertheless, stories of such transactions continue to appear and are unlikely to abate while there is a high demand and poor supply of organs for transplantation. An international donor surveillance committee--a clearing house for information on malpractice--could be one solution to the problem as it would prevent doctors from taking part in unethical transplant procedures.

Commerce↗
PubMed2003

What users want in e-commerce design: effects of age, education and income.

Preferences for certain characteristics of an online shopping experience may be related to demographic data. This paper discusses the characteristics of that experience, demographic data and preferences by demographic group. The results of an online survey of 488 individuals in the United States indicate that respondents are generally satisfied with their online shopping experiences, with security, information quality and information quantity ranking first in importance overall. The sensory impact of a site ranked last overall of the seven characteristics measured. Preferences for these characteristics in e-commerce sites were differentiated by age, education and income. The sensory impact of sites became less important as respondents increased in age, income or education. As the income of respondents increased, the importance of the reputation of the vendor rose. Web site designers may incorporate these findings into the design of e-commerce sites in an attempt to increase the shopping satisfaction of their users. Results from the customer relationship management portion of the survey suggest that current push technologies and site personalization are not an effective means of achieving user satisfaction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Value-added benefits of technology: e-procurement and e-commerce related to the health care industry.

PURPOSE: To provide insights into the current supply chain for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the radiology diagnostic imaging equipment business. As is common in many manufacturing and service firms, the rationale of bridging suppliers of OEMs is the ability to leverage technology, software, and accessories pertaining to the various pieces of equipment. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Several models of e-procurement and e-commerce related to the health care industry are presented. FINDINGS: Although the radiology capital equipment market presents numerous idiosyncrasies that must be addressed to successfully implement an e-business strategy effectively, incredible opportunities exist all along the supply chain for e-business strategies to both eliminate costs and acquire strategic initiatives. Those firms that most successfully listen to their customers and address the barriers to efficiency (B2E) will help move the industry toward more effective utilization of the benefits e-business can create and also obtain first mover advantages. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Although the efficiencies that e-business provides are extremely important in the radiology capital equipment market, the main value of e-business in this industry of high-priced and relatively infrequently purchased equipment may well be the value-added benefits the technology brings to its customers, as illustrated in the modeling process. The OEMs that eventually market their finished product directly to hospital and imaging centers via a direct sales force can best take advantage of the connectivity and accessibility of e-commerce.

Capital Expenditures↗
PubMed2001

E-commerce for healthcare supply procurement.

The total investment of the more than fifty e-commerce startups that entered healthcare supply chain management in the past three years has surpassed $500 million. However, none of these early entrants has delivered on the initial promise of restructuring the entire supply chain, replacing the traditional intermediaries, or at least achieving substantial revenue. This article offers a new business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solution classification paradigm and uses it to analyze the functional requirements for an effective and, efficient healthcare supply chain marketplace. The analysis exposes several fundamental B2B market complexities that prevent the early entrants from creating a solid customer base and reaching desired liquidity goals. It also identifies several technological solutions to the problems mentioned. These new technologies create a comprehensive and symmetric order-matching engine that is capable of aggregating buy orders, requesting quotes from multiple vendors simultaneously, and negotiating along multiple criteria.

Commerce↗
PubMed1990

Tuberculosis in commerce and industry in a Western Cape suburb, South Africa, 1987.

A postal questionnaire of 557 industries in a defined area of the Western Cape, South Africa, aimed to determine the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in 1987 as well as the provision of health services. A 65% response rate was obtained. A random sample of non-respondents did not differ from respondents with respect to factory size or sector. The overall incidence rate for 1987 was 472 per 100,000 workers (95% confidence interval 386-558). Tuberculosis rates of Africans and "coloureds" were substantially higher than those of Asians and whites. There was considerable variation in the rates by employment sector. We found highest rates of TB in the textile and iron and steel industries and the lowest rates are reported among the printing and paper industry, in trade and commerce, and in the transport sectors. It is likely that the differences in the rates by sector reflect the different social class composition of their work force. TB incidence rates also varied by factory size, with the highest rates being reported in the smallest factories. The implications of the study are that the current policy of not screening workers in industry on a routine basis for TB needs to be urgently reviewed. The provision of health services, shown to vary according to factory size, was found to be inadequate in the smaller factories. Alternative methods of providing such care to workers need to be implemented.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The relationship between paediatricians and commerce.

The interaction between doctors and commerce, particularly the pharmaceutical industry, has recently been subject to increasing scrutiny. Doctors are now exposed to mounting influence from industry as it spends large amounts of money on marketing, is heavily involved with continuing medical education and sponsors a major proportion of research. Conflicts of interest may exist on both sides of the relationship: doctors can be manipulated and companies need to be profitable. Paediatricians are just as open to this influence as are other members of the medical profession. There is evidence that clinical practice is altered by interaction with industry, although doctors appear to deny the likelihood of being influenced. There are significant concerns over the increasing involvement of the pharmaceutical industry with research, although the regulation of the industry continues to be strengthened and the process of research is becoming more transparent. Disclosure of conflicts of interest involving authorship is now common practice and should extend to all facets of the relationship. However, collaboration continues to be necessary in order to develop new therapies, maximise research and particularly in paediatrics, to test medications in children. Paediatricians need to be aware of the sources of influence and understand current guidelines so that interactions with industry continue to be appropriate.

Commerce↗
PubMed1996

The commerce of ideas: copyright in the digital era.

Copyright law concerns the rights of an individual to make copies of published works. Changes in technology, be they the introduction of the printing press or the proliferation of photocopy machines, affect how these "copy rights" are interpreted. The transmission of published works over digital networks and the introduction of new and relatively inexpensive ways to conduct commerce over the same networks will have a profound effect on how medical school faculty protect their own published works and how they make use of the published works of others. When copyright law moves from tangible objects such as books and journals to intangible bits carried over a network, many historic notions about the nature of publications and libraries will be called into question. The authors review the history of copyright law and some basic concepts of copyright, particularly "first sale" and "fair use." They also discuss the effects past technological changes have had on the law and on the often-competing concerns of authors, publishers, and readers/users. Finally, they discuss the implications for medical schools of digital publications, digital libraries, and the proposed changes to copyright law.

Commerce↗