Assessment of the Partnership Quality between Travel Agencies and Health Care Organizations on the International Medical Tourism Market in Taiwan

The medical tourism literature lacks insight into related issues of these types of partnerships. Those that integrate multiple perspectives into one research framework are especially rare. This study evaluated and compared the influence of external environment uncertainty, trust, and resource dependence perspectives on the quality of interorganizational partnerships in the international medical tourism market and quantified these elements using external environment uncertainty assessment on the international medical tourism development. The research sample was based on a survey from 161 travel agency managers in Taiwan. This study found that external environment uncertainty has direct negative impact on trust and resource dependence has a positive influence on interorganizational partnership. Moreover, trust has a significant impact on partnership quality while resource dependence does not. Therefore, medical travel agents should extend their network of trustworthy health care organization partners in order to improve performance, decrease their self-risk, collect information, and avoid missed opportunities.     

Treatment patterns,complications, and direct medical costs associated with ankylosing spondylitis in Chinese urban patients: a retrospective claims dataset analysis

Aim: To describe treatment pattern, complications, and direct medical costs associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Chinese urban patients.

Methods: The 2013 China Health Insurance Research Association (CHIRA) urban insurance claims database was used to identify patients with AS. The identified patients were stratified by AS treatments for the comparisons of well established AS-related complications and direct medical costs. Conventional regression analyses adjusted the collected patient baseline characteristics to confirm the impact of treatments on complications and direct medical costs.

Results: Of the identified 1299 patients with AS, 18.0% received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), 11.2% received immunosuppressant, 48.2% received NSAID plus immunosuppressant, 4.6% received biologic agents, and 17.9% received medications without indication for AS. Biologic group was associated with the lowest proportion of AS-related complications (8.3%) that was confirmed by multiple logistic regression analysis (odds ratio = 0.200, p?=?.017). The biologic group was also associated with highest direct medical costs (median: RMB?=?14,539) that were confirmed by the multiple generalized linear model (coefficient = 1.644, p?Conclusions: Biologics were not commonly used for AS in Chinese patients likely due to their high cost. Future studies are needed to confirm the potential long-term clinical benefits associated biologic treatment for AS.     

智能自助售药设备的研究与应用

近些年来，为了改善我国医疗系统就诊密度大，看病买药难的问题，政府出台了一系列的政策措施，鼓励并引导人们就近在社区医院或门诊看病购药。自助售药机作为一种新型自助服务终端，在结合了物联网、大数据等技术后，可节省医院一部分医疗资源，实现患者自主问诊取方购药，有效的缓解了我国现行医疗资源紧张的现象。该文以几种最新出现的智能自助售药设备作为研究对象，通过对其功能特点进行详细阐述，分析了各类自助售药设备的结构模块和工作原理，并对可能存在的问题提出了一些看法，最后针对未来智能自助售药设备的发展前景进行了探讨与展望。     

中日农村医疗保险制度比较研究

纵向比较分析中日两国农村医疗保险制度的发展历程,从覆盖范围、筹资方式、补偿方式、资金收支情况等方面横向比较中日两国的农村医疗保险制度,探讨中日两国农村医疗保险制度的优缺点,为我国完善新型农村合作医疗制度提供相关建议。     

#br# 药交所试点背景下人均医疗费用的影响因素研究

本文采用固定效应模型建立人均医疗费用影响因素的一般模型，并通过引入药交所虚拟变量和考察医生收入的中介效应进一步阐释该模型。研究结果表明，诱导需求与医院规模对人均医疗费用均有显著影响；药交所政策降低了人均医疗费用，但医生收入中介效应的存在使得部分医疗资源被浪费。本文提出了控制人均医疗费用的政策建议：增加医院与卫生院的数量；合理调整医务工作者内部结构；倡导医生自由执业并提供保障；合理增加医生收入。     

经济政策主要变量对控制中国失业率有效性的实证检验

随着中国经济的增长,失业率却一直居高不下,因此国家采取各种手段进行宏观调控。在回顾各种经济学派对失业理论研究的基础上,着眼于经济政策对控制失业率是否有效,在简要分析货币政策和财政政策对失业率影响的基础上,选取1991—2011年中国城镇登记失业率、货币发行量以及财政支出,通过对三者进行单位根检验和Johansen协整检验,得到三者存在唯一的协整关系,并建立误差修正模型,得出货币发行量对失业率影响较大并且较稳定的结论,并通过格兰杰因果检验,得出货币发行量和财政支出与失业率之间都不存在因果关系,最后在实证研究的基础上对当前中国如何控制失业率提出相应的对策。     

增强化学发光技术的发展和在生物学与医学中的实践

近年来增强化学发光技术得到快速发展,在生物学和医学中得到逐步应用,具有很大的应用价值。本文就增强化学发光技术的工作原理、增强化学发光的基因加测系统、增强化学发光的酶联免疫研究、增强化学发光的蛋白质检测系统、增强化学发光的寡核苷酸标记与检测系统进行全面分析,以促进增强化学发光技术在生物学与医学中的实践应用更加广泛。     

Towards Assessing the Knowledge Gap in Medical Tourism

The medical tourism industry is a fast growing global niche market that generated $20 billion in income for destinations around the world. This study suggests and tests a mechanism to assess the medical tourism providers’ perceptions about the tourists’ perceived important product attributes when selecting a medical tourism destination. The results indicate that the various medical tourism providers groups do not vary in their perceptions regarding 24 important attributes of the medical tourism product and that they all agree that tourists perceive the medical variables to be more important than the tourism related variables. Using the Korean market for data collection, the study’s additional contribution is providing insights for Korean government agencies, operators of medical tourism hospitals, policymakers, and marketers.     

Effects of Firm Size,Financial Leverage and R&D Expenditures on Firm Earnings: An Analysis Using Quantile Regression Approach

As documented in the literature, the effects of firm size, financial leverage, and R&D expenditures on firm earnings are inclusive. Our hypothesis is that the inconsistent empirical results of such effects may be driven by the regression models implemented in data analysis. Using the quantile regression (QR) approach developed by Koenker and Basset (1978), this study analyses S&P 500 firms from 1996 to 2005. We find that the effects of firm size, financial leverage and R&D expenditures on firm earnings differ considerably across earnings quantiles. Comparing the results from the QR approach with those from the ordinary least squares (OLS) and least absolute deviation (LAD) methods, this study further explains the puzzling relationship between firm size, financial leverage, R&D expenditures and firm earnings.     

大学生医疗保险的现状分析与政策改进——基于内蒙古自治区呼和浩特市6所高校的实证研究

通过对呼和浩特市6所高校的学生访谈和问卷调查，分析得出：将大学生纳入城镇居民基本医疗保险试点范围的政策，初步实现了与公费医疗的制度转换，但还有不少问题，需要进一步的改进和完善。笔者认为，要根据大学生的生理特点、经济承受能力以及对医疗保险的需求意愿，坚持分责制的建制理念，以“重预防、保大病”为重点，建立一种以疾病预防保健为基础，基本医疗保险为核心，大额医疗保险为应急和商业保险为辅助的大学生医疗保障模式。