Information Technology Development Needs in Community Pharmacies : A Strategic Approach

In the context of health care, information technology (IT) has an important role in the operational infrastructure, ranging from business management to patient care. An essential part of the system is medication management in inpatient and outpatient care. Community pharmacists strategy has been to extend practice responsibilities beyond dispensing towards patient care services. Few studies have evaluated the strategic development of IT systems to support this vision. The objectives of this study were to assess and compare independent Finnish community pharmacy owners and staff pharmacists priorities concerning the content and structure of the next generation of community pharmacy IT systems, to explore international experts visions and strategic views on IT development needs in relation to services provided in community pharmacies, to identify IT innovations facilitating patient care services and to evaluate their development and implementation processes, and to assess community pharmacists readiness to adopt innovations. This study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods. A qualitative personal interview of 14 experts in community pharmacy services and related IT from eight countries and a national survey of Finnish community pharmacy owners (mail survey, response rate 53%, n=308), and of a representative sample of staff pharmacists (online survey, response rate 22%, n=373) were conducted. Finnish independent community pharmacy owners gave priority to logistical functions but also to those related to medication information and patient care. The managers and staff pharmacists have different views of the importance of IT features, reflecting their different professional duties in the community pharmacy. This indicates the need for involving different occupation groups in planning the new IT systems for community pharmacies. A majority of the international experts shared the vision of community pharmacy adopting a patient care orientation; supported by IT-based documentation, new technological solutions, access to information, and shared patient data. Community pharmacy IT innovations were rare, which is paradoxical because owners and staff pharmacists perception of their innovativeness was seen as being high. Community pharmacy IT systems development processes usually had not undergone systematic needs assessment research beforehand or evaluation after the implementation and were most often coordinated by national governments without subsequent commercialization. Specifically, community pharmacy IT developments lack research, organization, leadership and user involvement in the process. Those responsible for IT development in the community pharmacy sector should create long-term IT development strategies that are in line with community pharmacy service development strategies. This could provide systematic guidance for future projects to ensure that potential innovations are based on a sufficient understanding of pharmacy practice problems that they are intended to solve, and to encourage strong leadership in research, development of innovations so that community pharmacists potential innovativeness is used, and that professional needs and strategic priorities will be considered even if the development process is led by those outside the profession.

Recent advances in radar technology

The technical developments and advances that have taken place thus far are reviewed in those areas impacting future phased array active aperture radar systems. The areas covered are printed circuit antennas and antenna arrays, GaAs MMIC design and fabrication leading to affordable transmitter-receiver (T-R) modules, and novel hardware and software developments. The use of fiber-optic distribution networks to interconnect the monolithically integrated optical components with the T-R modules is discussed. Beamforming and sidelobe control techniques for active phased array systems are also examined.

Biomass gasification: Environmentally sound technology for decentralized power generation, a case study from India

This study aims at understanding the need for decentralized power generation systems and to explore the potential, feasibility and environmental implications of biomass gasifier-based electricity generation systems for village electrification. Electricity needs of villages are in the range of 5–20 kW depending on the size of the village. Decentralized power generation systems are desirable for low load village situations as the cost of power transmission lines is reduced and transmission and distribution losses are minimised. A biomass gasifier-based electricity generation system is one of the feasible options; the technology is readily available and has already been field tested. To meet the lighting and stationary power needs of 500,000 villages in India the land required is only 16 Mha compared to over 100 Mha of degraded land available for tree planting. In fact all the 95 Mt of woody biomass required for gasification could be obtained through biomass conservation programmes such as biogas and improved cook stoves. Thus dedication of land for energy plantations may not be required. A shift to a biomass gasifier-based power generation system leads to local benefits such as village self reliance, local employment and skill generation and promotion of in situ plant diversity plus global benefits like no net CO2 emission (as sustainable biomass harvests are possible) and a reduction in CO2 emissions (when used to substitute thermal power and diesel in irrigation pump sets).

Solar pond technology

Solar pond technology has made substantial progress in the last fifteen years. This paper reviews the basic principles of solar ponds and the problems encountered in their operation and maintenance. The factors which influence the technical and economic viability of solar ponds for thermal applications and power generation have been discussed.

Electro-magnetically Actuated Minute Polymer Pump Fabricated using Packaging Technology

Design, fabrication and preliminary testing of a flat pump with millimetre thickness are described in this paper. The pump is entirely made of polymer materials barring the magnet and copper coils used for electromagnetic actuation. The fabrication is carried out using widely available microelectronic packaging machinery and techniques. Therefore, the fabrication of the pump is straightforward and inexpensive. Two types of prototypes are designed and built. One consists of copper coils that are etched on an epoxy plate and the other has wound insulated wire of 90 mu m diameter to serve as a coil. The overall size of the first pump is 25 mm x 25 mm x 3.6 mm including the 3.1 mm-thick NdFeB magnet of diameter 12 mm. It consists of a pump chamber of 20 mm x 20 mm x 0.8 mm with copper coils etched from a copper-clad epoxy plate using dry-film lithography and milled using a CNC milling machine, two passive valves and the pump-diaphragm made of Kapton film of 0.089 mm thickness. The second pump has an overall size of 35 mm x 35 mm x 4.4 mm including the magnet and the windings. A breadboard circuit and DC power supply are used to test the pump by applying an alternating square-wave voltage pulse. A water slug in a tube attached to the inlet is used to observe and measure the air-flow induced by the pump against atmospheric pressure. The maximum flow rate was found to be 15 ml/min for a voltage of 2.5 V and a current of 19 mA at 68 Hz.

Integrated optics � technology and applications

The emergence of optoelectronics and photonics as viable alternatives to electronics in many key areas of engineering relevance is indeed significant. This paper presents a tutorial review of integrated optics � a technologically important development in photonics. Materials, processes, device technology and applications are highlighted.

Design and realization of high-performance wave-pipelined 8×8 b multiplier in CMOS technology

Wave pipelining is a design technique for increasing the throughput of a digital circuit or system without introducing pipelining registers between adjacent combinational logic blocks in the circuit/system. However, this requires balancing of the delays along all the paths from the input to the output which comes the way of its implementation. Static CMOS is inherently susceptible to delay variation with input data, and hence, receives a low priority for wave pipelined digital design. On the other hand, ECL and CML, which are amenable to wave pipelining, lack the compactness and low power attributes of CMOS. In this paper we attempt to exploit wave pipelining in CMOS technology. We use a single generic building block in Normal Process Complementary Pass Transistor Logic (NPCPL), modeled after CPL, to achieve equal delay along all the propagation paths in the logic structure. An 8×8 b multiplier is designed using this logic in a 0.8 ?m technology. The carry-save multiplier architecture is modified suitably to support wave pipelining, viz., the logic depth of all the paths are made identical. The 1 mm×0.6 mm multiplier core supports a throughput of 400 MHz and dissipates a total power of 0.6 W. We develop simple enhancements to the NPCPL building blocks that allow the multiplier to sustain throughputs in excess of 600 MHz. The methodology can be extended to introduce wave pipelining in other circuits as well

The physics and technology of gallium antimonide: An emerging optoelectronic material

Recent advances in nonsilica fiber technology have prompted the development of suitable materials for devices operating beyond 1.55 mu m. The III-V ternaries and quaternaries (AlGaIn)(AsSb) lattice matched to GaSb seem to be the obvious choice and have turned out to be promising candidates for high speed electronic and long wavelength photonic devices. Consequently, there has been tremendous upthrust in research activities of GaSb-based systems. As a matter of fact, this compound has proved to be an interesting material for both basic and applied research. At present, GaSb technology is in its infancy and considerable research has to be carried out before it can be employed for large scale device fabrication. This article presents an up to date comprehensive account of research carried out hitherto. It explores in detail the material aspects of GaSb starting from crystal growth in bulk and epitaxial form, post growth material processing to device feasibility. An overview of the lattice, electronic, transport, optical and device related properties is presented. Some of the current areas of research and development have been critically reviewed and their significance for both understanding the basic physics as well as for device applications are addressed. These include the role of defects and impurities on the structural, optical and electrical properties of the material, various techniques employed for surface and bulk defect passivation and their effect on the device characteristics, development of novel device structures, etc. Several avenues where further work is required in order to upgrade this III-V compound for optoelectronic devices are listed. It is concluded that the present day knowledge in this material system is sufficient to understand the basic properties and what should be more vigorously pursued is their implementation for device fabrication. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Combinatorial logic synthesis using technology directed decomposition

The aim of logic synthesis is to produce circuits which satisfy the given boolean function while meeting timing constraints and requiring the minimum silicon area. Logic synthesis involves two steps namely logic decomposition and technology mapping. Existing methods treat the two as separate operation. The traditional approach is to minimize the number of literals without considering the target technology during the decomposition phase. The decomposed expressions are then mapped on to the target technology to optimize the area, Timing optimization is carried out subsequently, A new approach which treats logic decomposition and technology maping as a single operation is presented. The logic decomposition is based on the parameters of the target technology. The area and timing optimization is carried out during logic decomposition phase itself. Results using MCNC circuits are presented to show that this method produces circuits which are 38% faster while requiring 14% increase in area.

Training Young Minds for Nanoscience and Technology: Issues and Challenges

This article explores issues and challenges in the field of education in nanoscience and technology with special emphasis with respect to India, where an expanding programme of research in nano science and technology is in place. The article does not concentrate on actual curricula that are needed in nano science and technology education course. Rather it focuses on the desirability of nanoscience and technology education at different levels of education and future prospect of students venturing into this within the economic and cultural milieu of India. We argue that care is needed in developing the education programme in India. However, the risk is worth taking as the education on nanoscience and technology can bridge the man power gap not only in this area of technology but also related technologies of hardware and micro electronics for which the country is a promising destination at global level. This will also unlock the demographical advantage that India will enjoy in the next five decades.

Role of Management Decision Variables in Determining Technology Progress and Technical Efficiency in Indian Electronic Industry

This paper analyses the influence of management on Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) and Technological Progress (TP) in the communication equipment and consumer electronics sub-sectors of Indian hardware electronics industry. Each sub-sector comprises 13 sample firms for two time periods.The primary objective is to determine the relative contribution of TP and TEC to TFP Growth (TFPG) and to establish the influence of firm specific operational management decision variables on these two components. The study finds that both the sub-sectors have strived and achieved steady TP but not TEC in the period of economic liberalisation to cope with the intensifying competition. The management decisions with respect to asset and profit utilization, vertical integration, among others, improved TP and TE in the sub-sectors. However, R&D investments and technology imports proved costly for TFP indicating inadequate efforts and/or poor resource utilisation by the management. Management was found to be complacent in terms of improving or developing their own technology as indicated by their higher dependence on import of raw materials and no influence of R&D on TP.