The Business of Medicine

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-92
Author(s):  
Alex Broadbent

This chapter identifies a competence whose exercise might constitute the core business of medicine in the absence of curative competence. On the basis of an inference to the best explanation, the Inquiry Thesis is introduced: medicine is an inquiry into the nature and causes of disease, for purpose of cure. (The Inquiry and Curative Theses thus agree on the goal of medicine, but differ on its business.) The Bullshit Objection says that the core medical competence is bullshit—that is, duping patients into believing that medicine has cures when it does not. This is rejected on the basis of strong historical evidence that the ineffectiveness of medicine was widely known. The Whig’s Objection says that old medicine was just a mistake, and is rejected on the basis that it fails to acknowledge either the similarities between our epistemic position and that of our forebears, or the contribution their activities made to contemporary cures.

Author(s):  
Alex Broadbent

Philosophy of Medicine seeks to answer two questions: (1) what is medicine? and (2) what should we think of it? The first question is motivated by the observation that medicine has existed and continues to exist in many different forms in different times and places. There is no activity or belief that is common to all medical traditions in all times and places. What, if anything, makes us count these activities as varieties of the same thing—namely, medicine? The book distinguishes the goal and business of medicine, arguing that the goal is cure, while the business of medicine cannot be, because medical traditions have been too hit-and-miss at achieving cure. The core medical competence is identified as engaging with the project of understanding the nature and causes of disease. A model of health is also required to say what medicine is, since health is part of its subject matter, and a novel theory of health as a secondary property is offered. In the second part of the book, the proper epistemic attitude to medicine is considered. Contrary to much contemporary work, the book argues against positions setting very rigid constraints on what counts as admissible evidence in forming beliefs either about whole traditions or about specific interventions. Thus both Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Nihilism are rejected. Instead a view called Medical Cosmopolitanism is developed from Appiah’s corresponding work in ethics. The view is applied to alternative and non-Mainstream traditions, as well as to the project of decolonizing medicine.


Author(s):  
Juan Alfredo Lino-Gamiño ◽  
Carlos Méndez-González ◽  
Eduardo José Salazar-Araujo ◽  
Pablo Adrián Magaña-Sánchez

In the value chain it is important to keep in mind the core business of the company, since it depends largely on the competitiveness of the company and its overall performance, bearing in mind that all business indicators depend on it. In this work we will study the washing process within the company WASH CONTAINERS SA DE CV, to improve the washing processes and in this way reduce times and movements in the process leading the company to reduce costs considerably within the operations company daily, having a more competitive operation and with greater profit margin in its business process. Goals: It Improve the logistics of the movement of containers for washing and with it the core business of the company. Methodology: The action research will be applied applying Business Process Management for the improvement of processes in situ, it will be developed in a certain period of time and with that it will establish an improvement projection. Contribution: The improvement of the times for the disposal of the containers and their subsequent use, allows a better competitiveness and with it the income of the company, on the other hand, the transport companies improve in performance in quantity, quality of disposition and with it their income.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Kalil Steinbruch ◽  
Bernardo Soares Fernandes ◽  
Leandro da Silva Nascimento ◽  
Paulo Antônio Zawislak

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the main activities that startups outsource and the elements involved in outsourcing decisions. Design/methodology/approach A multi-case study composed of Brazilian startups was conducted. Data through interviews and secondary sources were obtained. Two groups of startups were considered and analyzed comparatively: startups in the development stage and in the sales stage. Findings The findings show that even though the literature suggests that the core business should not be outsourced, some startups do have to outsource this kind of activity. That was the main difference found between startups in the sales stage and in the development stage: the former group has a solid structure, knowledge and resources, so they can keep the core business inside the firm; whereas the latter group has little experience, scarce knowledge and resources, making outsourcing a more attractive alternative. Originality/value Theoretically, this paper approaches a perspective underexplored in the innovation and management literature: outsourcing in startups. It highlights how outsourcing, as a decision between making and buying, can help startups to improve success potential. In practice, this paper discusses and demonstrates why and what can be outsourced by startups in the development and in the sales stages to overcome their limitations and, consequently, achieve better innovative results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 8854-8858

The article is devoted to assessing the effect of the implementation of information technologies in non-profit organizations. The purpose of the assessment is to evaluate the effect of IT implementation and its impact on key performance indicators of an organization. The indicators characterizing the results of the organization’s activities in accordance with the State Assignment and the results of commercial activities were used as the key performance indicators. For federal state budget NPOs, it has been shown that a positive IT effect for auxiliary business processes does not directly ensure positive performance indicators for the core business processes. Hidden effects of the use of IT were assessed by changes of the indicators of the core business processes. Performance indicators characterizing the results of commercial activities may demonstrate a negative effect. Understanding the specifics of non-profit organizations, as well as metrics and performance parameters characterizing the effectiveness of such organizations, is important to ensure a correct approach to the digitalization of business processes and their performance management.


Author(s):  
Steven King

This chapter foregrounds the concept of pauper agency. Using the largest corpus of letters by or about the poor ever assembled, it argues that sickness was the core business of the Old Poor Law by the early nineteenth century. Rather than paupers being simply subject to the whim and treatment of the parish, the chapter argues that they had considerable agency. Despite problems of moral hazard and the idea that sickness could be faked, paupers and officials agreed that ill health and its treatment was an area of acceptable contestation.


Author(s):  
Dake Jiang ◽  
Hong Zhang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Jin Liu ◽  
Linlin Chang

In the business ecosystem, the core business niche is not occupied by a structural position; its objectives and strategies are easily dispersed, while the core business can't coordinate the business ecosystem elements. Therefore, the ecological advantages obtained by core enterprises in the process of self-organization evolution are not sustainable. To solve this problem, a possible way is to explore how core enterprises consolidate and form new ecological advantages from the perspective of cross-border business. However, the academic community has not discussed the evolution path of cross-border entrepreneurship in detail. For this reason, based on the perspective of ecological advantages, this chapter discusses the strategic path of cross-border entrepreneurship of core enterprises and constructs an interaction model between ecological advantages and core enterprises' cross-border entrepreneurial paths. The study broadens the understanding of the relationship between corporate strategies and business ecosystems, then provides theoretical value for subsequent research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Sorge

Angesichts der zunehmenden Bedeutung von Dienstleistungen als Wirtschaftsfaktor – bei wachsender Industrialisierung und Globalisierung – steigt auch die Bedeutung des Einkaufs von Dienstleistungen. Das vorliegende Werk schlägt dabei einen Bogen von der Entstehung der Dienstleistungen bis hin zur zukünftigen Entwicklung der Dienstleistungsbranche. Worin insbesondere die Potenziale und Risiken im Dienstleistungseinkauf liegen, wird an Beispielen wie der Implementierung eines Risikomanagements, der Bündelung von Gütern und Dienstleistungen sowie der Bildung von Kooperationen und Netzwerken dargestellt. Die Facetten der Dienstleistungen reichen dabei von der Ergänzung zum Kerngeschäft (Services) über das Angebot reiner Dienstleistungen bis hin zum Dienstleistungsmarketing. In view of the increasing significance of services as an economic factor – along with increasing industrialisation and globalisation – the purchasing of services is also increasing in importance. This work starts with the origins of services and goes all the way to the future development of the services sector. The particular potentials and risks involved in purchasing services are shown by examples such as the implementation of risk management, the bundling of products and services, and building co-operation and networks. The different aspects of services range from those which complement the core business, to those where only services are provided, to the marketing of services. Keywords: risikomanagement, netzwerke, maverick buying, marktrecherchen, kostenrecherchen, after sales gewinn


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary W White
Keyword(s):  
The Core ◽  

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