Determinants of a high-quality consultation in medical communications: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 457-483
Author(s):  
Mohammadkarim Bahadori ◽  
Edris Hasanpoor ◽  
Maryam Yaghoubi ◽  
Elaheh HaghGoshyie

Purpose The medical consultation is one of the requirements in diseases diagnosis and patient treatment. In addition, a high-quality consultation is a fundamental demand of patients, and it is one of the rights of every patient. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting the high-quality consultation in medical communications. Design/methodology/approach The following electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Web of Science, Cochrane, EMBASE, Scopus and ProQuest until December 2018. In addition, the authors searched Google Scholar. Qualitative and quantitative studies were assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme, Qualitative Checklist and the Center for Evidence-Based Management appraisal checklist, respectively. A stepwise approach was conducted for data synthesis. Findings Of 3,826 identified studies, 29 met the full inclusion criteria. Overall, after quality assessment of studies, 25 studies were included. The studies were conducted in the USA (n=6), the UK (n=6), the Netherlands (n=4), Canada (n=2), Belgium (n=2), Poland (n=2), Germany (n=1), Iran (n=1), Finland (n=1), Austria (n=1), Qatar (n=1), Denmark (n=1) and China (n=1), and five studies were excluded. Data synthesis showed that high-quality consultation consisted of three main categories: structural (4 main themes with 26 sub-themes), process (2 main themes with 33 sub-themes) and outcome (3 main themes with 12 sub-themes) quality. Originality/value Using the indicators of consultation quality improvement can develop physicians’ clinical competence and skills. Decision makers can use them to monitor and evaluate physicians’ performance. A high-quality consultation can be useful in social prescribing that helps patients to manage their disease.

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Caiazza ◽  
David Audretsch ◽  
Tiziana Volpe ◽  
Julie Debra Singer

Purpose – Existing work documents the role that institutional setting plays in the process of spin-off creation. However, despite decades of studies, scholars have not clearly explained why some regions are more involved in spin-off activity than others. Drawing from institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to compare different institutional settings identifying factors affecting the general environment capability to support spin-off activity of a specific region. Design/methodology/approach – The authors utilize a cross-national analysis of American, Asian, and European areas identifying factors affecting their different rate of spin-off activity. This study contributes to the policy debate concerning entrepreneurship and how best to spur spin-off activities. Findings – In this paper, the authors identify the general and specific factors that explain the cross-national diversity in spin-off creation. The authors then perform an analysis of the impact of these factors in various regions of the USA, Asia, and Europe, providing evidence for the necessity of specific combinations of these factors. Originality/value – The paper offers a new perspective on the causes of spin-offs through a cross-national analysis of many areas around the world.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore T.Y. Chen

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine whether Hong Kong is ready for accounting education reform. Design/methodology/approach – The approach for this study is using a Likert-scale questionnaire for the academic institutions, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the big four accounting firms, followed by detailed follow-up interviews with each. Findings – There is general agreement among accounting academics and the profession that the Accounting Education Change Commission initiatives should be adopted in Hong Kong. Hong Kong accounting academics in public institutions do not oppose to a balance between teaching and research, but would oppose to an emphasis of teaching over research. This is important as an overemphasis on research could mean less time for teaching and curriculum development. The big four accounting firms are either happy with the way Hong Kong universities have been educating the accounting graduates or have no complaints against them. This is also important as an urge for accounting education reform usually comes from the practitioners as in the USA. Originality/value – The USA was the first country that saw the need for accounting education reform as accounting practitioners felt that curriculum and pedagogical considerations placed heavy emphasis on the technical aspects of accounting at the expense of a general, broad-based education. Similar needs for change were also found in the UK and Australia. As Hong Kong is one of the world’s major financial centres with a large securities exchange, there is a great deal of emphasis on accounting standards, financial reporting, corporate governance, etc., and hence the importance of accounting education. Is Hong Kong ready for the change?


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Montgomery ◽  
Janet Anand ◽  
Kathryn Mackay ◽  
Brian Taylor ◽  
Katherine C. Pearson ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarities and differences of legal responses to older adults who may be at risk of harm or abuse in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw upon a review of elder abuse and adult protection undertaken on behalf of the commissioner for older people in Northern Ireland. This paper focusses on the desk top mapping of the different legal approaches and draws upon wider literature to frame the discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different legal responses. Findings – Arguments exist both for and against each legal approach. Differences in defining the scope and powers of adult protection legislation in the UK and internationally are highlighted. Research limitations/implications – This review was undertaken in late 2013; while the authors have updated the mapping to take account of subsequent changes, some statutory guidance is not yet available. While the expertise of a group of experienced professionals in the field of adult safeguarding was utilized, it was not feasible to employ a formal survey or consensus model. Practical implications – Some countries have already introduced APL and others are considering doing so. The potential advantages and challenges of introducing APL are highlighted. Social implications – The introduction of legislation may give professionals increased powers to prevent and reduce abuse of adults, but this would also change the dynamic of relationships within families and between families and professionals. Originality/value – This paper provides an accessible discussion of APL across the UK and internationally which to date has been lacking from the literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Mohamed ◽  
Parinaz Jafari ◽  
Ahmed Hammad

PurposeThe bid/no-bid decision is critical to the success of construction contractors. The factors affecting the bid/no-bid decision are either qualitative or quantitative. Previous studies on modeling the bidding decision have not extensively focused on distinguishing qualitative and quantitative factors. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to improve the bidding decision in construction projects by developing tools that consider both qualitative and quantitative factors affecting the bidding decision.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposes a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach to deal with both qualitative and quantitative factors. The mixed qualitative-quantitative approach is developed by combining a rule-based expert system and fuzzy-based expert system. The rule-based expert system is used to evaluate the project based on qualitative factors and the fuzzy expert system is used to evaluate the project based on the quantitative factors in order to reach the comprehensive bid/no-bid decision.FindingsThree real bidding projects are used to investigate the applicability and functionality of the proposed mixed approach and are tested with experts of a construction company in Alberta, Canada. The results demonstrate that the mixed approach provides a more reliable, accurate and practical tool that can assist decision-makers involved in the bid/no-bid decision.Originality/valueThis study contributes theoretically to the body of knowledge by (1) proposing a novel approach capable of modeling all types of factors (either qualitative or quantitative) affecting the bidding decision, and (2) providing means to acquire, store and reuse expert knowledge. Practical contribution of this paper is to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive model that mimics the decision-making process and stores experts' knowledge in the form of rules. Therefore, the model reduces the administrative burden on the decision-makers, saves time and effort and reduces bias and human errors during the bidding process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Maloney ◽  
Alma McCarthy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse how firm size impacts pension workforce coverage with a particular focus on automatic enrolment (AE) to pension plans in small organisations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the alignment of government AE interests with those of small employers, their employees and pension providers to better understand how firm size impacts pension workforce coverage.FindingsThe alignment of interests between stakeholders (government, pension providers, employers and employees) differs between large and small organisations, and empirical findings from large organisations cannot be assumed to apply in small organisations.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper calls attention to the need for future empirical research and identifies a number of research questions for further analysis to examine how AE impacts pension participation in small organisations and advance the field.Originality/valueThe policy of automatically enroling employees into occupational pension plans, recently legislated for all eligible workers in the UK and under consideration in the USA and Ireland, was developed from research conducted in a small number of large organisations. Pension coverage is particularly inadequate for the large number of employees working in small organisations (1–49 employees). However, little research attention has been focussed on pensions in small organisations with pension policy makers assuming that legislated AE will work as effectively in small organisations as it did in large organisations. This paper addresses this gap in the field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1318-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Higgins

Purpose Digital curation addresses the technical, administrative and financial ecology required to ensure that digital information remains accessible and usable over the long term. The purpose of this paper is to trace digital curation’s disciplinary emergence and examine its position within the information sciences domain in terms of theoretical principles, using a case study of developments in the UK and the USA. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical principles regarding disciplinary development and the identity of information science as a discipline are applied to a case study of the development of digital curation in the UK and the USA to identify the maturity of digital curation and its position in the information science gamut. Findings Digital curation is identified as a mature discipline which is a sub-meta-discipline of information science. As such digital curation has reach across all disciplines and sub-disciplines of information science and has the potential to become the overarching paradigm. Practical implications These findings could influence digital curation’s development from applied discipline to profession within both its educational and professional domains. Originality/value The disciplinary development of digital curation within dominant theoretical models has not hitherto been articulated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-766
Author(s):  
Anete Petrusch ◽  
Guilherme Luís Roehe Vaccaro ◽  
Juliane Luchese

Purpose Although discussed for more than 20 years, information about Lean adoption in higher education institutions (HEIs) is scarce, especially in developing countries. This research aims to investigate the degree of Lean thinking adoption on administrative services of Brazilian private HEIs. The results are compared to studies from USA and UK, highlighting the maturity on enablers, principles, tools and performance measures related to Lean. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey research was carried out. The instrument is adapted for HEIs from the proposal of Malmbrandt and Åhlström (2013) for Lean services. Cronbach’s alpha and factor analysis were used to validate the adapted instrument. Additional data analysis was based on non-parametric tests. Findings No evidence of broad implementation of Lean thinking in administrative processes of Brazilian private HEIs was found, with the adoption being incipient. The results are convergent to those presented by other studies in the USA and the UK. There is a gap between the existing knowledge about Lean in the academic sphere of the HEIs and its application on their academic processes. Research limitations/implications The effective sample size was of 47, despite contacts being sent to 2,090 institutions. This sample allows exploratory research, although further research is required. Results are adherent to those found in research from other countries. Originality/value The research presents descriptive and exploratory results regarding the adoption of Lean in Brazilian HEIs. No previous similar research was found in the literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Hassan Ahmed ◽  
Yasean Tahat ◽  
Yasser Eliwa ◽  
Bruce Burton

Purpose Earnings quality is of great concern to corporate stakeholders, including capital providers in international markets with widely varying regulatory pedigrees and ownership patterns. This paper aims to examine the association between the cost of equity capital and earnings quality, contextualised via tests that incorporate the potential for moderating effects around institutional settings. The analysis focuses on and compares evidence relating to (common law) UK/US firms and (civil law) German firms over the period 2005–2018 and seeks to identify whether, given institutional dissimilarities, significant differences exist between the two settings. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors undertake a review of the extant literature on the link between earnings quality and the cost of capital. Second, using a sample of 948 listed companies from the USA, the UK and Germany over the period 2005 to 2018, the authors estimate four implied cost of equity capital proxies. The relationship between companies’ cost of equity capital and their earnings quality is then investigated. Findings Consistent with theoretical reasoning and prior empirical analyses, the authors find a statistically negative association between earnings quality, evidenced by information relating to accruals and the cost of equity capital. However, when they extend the analysis by investigating the combined effect of institutional ownership and earnings quality on financing cost, the impact – while negative overall – is found to vary across legal backdrops. Research limitations/implications This paper uses institutional ownership as a mediating variable in the association between earnings quality and the cost of equity capital, but this is not intended to suggest that other measures may be of relevance here and additional research might usefully expand the analysis to incorporate other forms of ownership including state and foreign bases. Second, and suggestive of another avenue for developing the work presented in the study, the authors have used accrual measures of earnings quality. Practical implications The results are shown to provide potentially important insights for policymakers, creditors and investors about the consequences of earnings quality variability. The results should be of interest to firms seeking to reduce their financing costs and retain financial viability in the wake of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Originality/value The reported findings extends the single-country results of Eliwa et al. (2016) for the UK firms and Francis et al. (2005) for the USA, whereby both reported that the cost of equity capital is negatively associated with earnings quality attributes. Second, in a further increment to the extant literature (particularly Francis et al., 2005 and Eliwa et al., 2016), the authors find the effect of institutional ownership to be influential, with a significantly positive impact on the association between earnings quality and the cost of equity capital, suggesting in turn that institutional ownership can improve firms’ ability to secure cheaper funding by virtue of robust monitoring. While this result holds for the whole sample (the USA, the UK and Germany), country-level analysis shows that the result holds only for the common law countries (the UK and the USA) and not for Germany, consistent with the notion that extant legal systems are a determining factor in this context. This novel finding points to a role for institutional investors in watching and improving the quality of financial reports that are valued by the market in its price formation activity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1655-1687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magaly Gaviria-Marin ◽  
Jose M. Merigo ◽  
Simona Popa

Purpose In 2017, the Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) celebrates its 20th anniversary. This study aims to show an updated analysis of their publications to provide a general overview of the journal, focusing on a bibliometric analysis of its publications between 1997 and 2016. Design/methodology/approach The methodology involves two procedures: a performance analysis and a science mapping analysis of JKM. The performance analysis uses a series of bibliometric indicators such as h-index, productivity and citations. This analysis considers different dimensions, including papers, authors, universities and countries. VOSviewer software is used to carry out the mapping of science of JKM, which, based on the concurrence of key words and co-citation points of view, seeks to graphically analyze the structure of the references of this journal. Findings There is a positive evolution in the number of publications (although with certain oscillations), which shows a growing interest in publishing in JKM. The USA and the UK lead the publications in this journal, although at a regional level, Europe is the most productive. The low participation of emerging economies in JKM is also observed. Practical implications The paper will identify the leading trends in the journal in terms of papers, authors, institutions, countries, journals and keywords. This study is useful for obtaining a quick snapshot of what is happening in the journal. Originality/value From the historical record of JKM publications, this study presents an exclusive bibliometric analysis of its publications until 2016 and identifies its main trends.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1370-1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiju Antony ◽  
Vijaya Sunder M. ◽  
Raja Sreedharan ◽  
Ayon Chakraborty ◽  
Angappa Gunasekaran

Purpose Fostered by a rapid spread beyond the manufacturing sector, Lean philosophy for continuous improvement has been widely used in service organizations, primarily in the healthcare sector. However, there is a limited research on the motivating factors, challenges and benefits of implementing Lean in healthcare. Taking this as a valuable opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to present the key motivating factors, limitations or challenges of Lean deployment, benefits of Lean in healthcare and key gaps in the literature as an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach The authors used the secondary data from the literature (peer-reviewed journal articles) published between 2000 and 2016 to understand the state of the art. The systematic review identified 101 articles across 88 journals recognized by the Association of Business Schools ranking guide 2015. Findings The systematic review helped the authors to identify the evolution, current trends, research gaps and an agenda for future research for Lean in healthcare. A bouquet of motivating factors, challenges/limitations and benefits of Lean in healthcare are presented. Practical implications The implications of this work include directions for managers and healthcare professionals in healthcare organizations to embark on a focused Lean journey aligned with the strategic objectives. This work could serve as a valuable resource to both practitioners and researchers for learning, investigating and rightly adapting the Lean in the healthcare sector. Originality/value This study is perhaps one of the comprehensive systematic literature reviews covering an important agenda of Lean in Healthcare. All the text, figures and tables featured here are original work carried by five authors in collaboration (from three countries, namely, India, the USA and the UK).


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