Letter to the editor - The 23-Year Existence of the “Zdrowie” [Eng. Health] Rehabilitation Centre in Kraków – Memories and Summary of Activities

On June 30, 2021, 23 years after its establishment, the activity of "Zdrowie" [Eng. Health] Rehabilitation Centre in Kraków came to an end. At the “Zdrowie” Rehabilitation Centre, this was done through appropriate personalised treatment, mainly rehabilitation, and since its inception, the centre had promoted not only the treatment of diseases, the consequences of traumatic injuries and the resulting disability, but most of all, their prevention. In 1998, as one of the first centres in Poland, the “Zdrowie” Rehabilitation Centre began routinely carrying out pedobarographic examinations, to an extent not found in other places at that time. Since 2006, photogrammetric testing has also been performed. What definitely distinguished the Centre, not only in Kraków, but also on the Polish medical market, was, among others, its scientific activity. Based on the Centre's professional and scientific achievements, sixteen M.A. one B.A, three doctoral dissertations, articles published in reputable journals with the Impact Factor (IF) index and scores from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) or the Ministry of Science and Education (MNiE) were prepared.

Access To Healthcare as A Fundamental Right or Privilege?

Right to health is a government obligation to provide its citizens with necessary medical services regardless of their ability to pay. The right to health requires the state to develop policies and action plans to achieve accessible health care. Ensuring access to healthcare services is an important social responsibility; because of its socio-economic nature, demand for it often carries not only individual but also social aspects that need to be considered and requires the consolidation of consumer funds. Peculiarities of the medical market such as health risk and uncertainty, incomplete information, limited competition, external effects, production of public goods, lead to special forms of economic relations in the medical market, which requires the development of appropriate regulatory mechanisms. In countries, where an individual’s financial contribution to health care does not depend on his or her health risk, there is a principle of universal health care, which covers the entire population. Human is a higher social capital for whom health care is considered a right and not a privilege not only for humanistic and moral reasons, but also for rational, utilitarian approaches, as universal access benefits both the individual and society as it increases labor productivity.

How should physicians set prices for individual service and team-based service in the online environment? A view from the price difference (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Price which has a significant effect on consumers’ exchanging value perception plays a decisive role in the product market. Different from the traditional medical market, the online medical market allows physicians considerable discretion in setting prices of their services, which begin to be paid close attention to. Physicians face a challenge with the introduction of various service styles. Some studies have begun to examine the role of price in the online medical service environment, however, limited studies have explored them in both individual and team-based contexts. OBJECTIVE Guided by transaction utility theory and price fairness, this study aims to investigate the influence of pricing strategy on service demands from the price difference perspective by focusing on two typical service models: individual service and team-based service. Moreover, team characteristics (response speed and team size) are also considered. METHODS The data collection was conducted in March 2018 and repeated in May 2018, and physicians who provide both individual service and team-based service are included in our study. Finally, a dataset consisting of 1,100 teams with 1,100 physician leaders from 14 departments such as obstetrics and gynaecology department were collected from an online medical platform in China were included. RESULTS Empirical results support most of our hypotheses. A negative influence of team-based price has been got (β = -0.282, p < 0.000). As a substitute service, higher individual service price will make patients turn to the team-based service (β = 0.164, p < 0.000). Moreover, individual service price negatively moderates the relationship between team-based service price and demands (β = -0.036, p < 0.05). By calculating the price difference between individual service price and team-based service price, we find a negative role of the price difference in affecting patient purchase decisions (β = -0.085, p < 0.05). Although we did not find a significant effect of team size, a quick response can attract more patients (β = 0.174, p = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Price fairness provides a proper framework for understanding pricing strategy in individual and team-based service in an online environment. Understanding the effects of prices from a price difference perspective has both theoretical and practical contributions. Specifically, this study contributes to knowledge on price fairness, online medical platforms, and virtual teams, and provides management suggestions.

The Trans-Asian Pathways of ‘Oriental Products’: Navigating the prohibition of narcotics between Turkey, China, and Japan, 1918–1938

Patterns of opium production and distribution shifted immensely over the course of the twentieth century, with output falling by three-quarters, almost nine-tenths of which now takes place in Afghanistan. Supporters of drug prohibition trumpet the success of this long-term decline and hail the withdrawal of the four largest opium producers—India, China, Iran, and the Ottoman empire—from the non-medical market, but this seemingly linear trend conceals numerous deviations of historic significance. Among the most notable and little known is Turkey's prolonged resistance to international restrictions on the narcotics trade and the efforts of state and non-state networks to substitute Turkish opium for the diminishing supply of once-dominant Indian exports to a still opium-hungry China in the first half of the twentieth century. This article uses neglected League of Nations and Turkish government sources alongside international newspapers and diplomatic reports to demonstrate the extent of connections forged by state and non-state actors between Turkey and East Asia, expanding on recent research on trans-Asian connections in commerce and political thought.

Private surgery clinics in an open medical market: Barcelona, 1880s-1936

The main purpose of this article is to examine how a new medical technology – the operating room- resulted in the establishment of a model of private clinics in late 19th – century Barcelona. This research explains that this kind of private medical care happened in an open medical market and successfully met a growing demand. Since its origins in the 1880s, private surgery clinics rose to more than 50 in just half-a-century. Here, several business strategies put at work by those surgeons-entrepreneurs are considered, especially those related to publicity and the search of patients/customers. Several aspects played a paramount role in that success: medical technology, domestic comfort, and surgical efficacy. In a context where medical care delivered at hospital was provided by the city-state or the local bourgeoisie as a part of the medieval model of charity, a potential customer for the private surgery clinics was formed by the urban, popular and working classes through the model of mutual aid societies and health insurance companies. Moreover, private clinics also showed how the process of medical specialization was configured and what kind of relationships surgeons-entrepreneurs established with general practitioners to attract their patients. Here, medical directories and medical journals reveal as a useful source of information.

Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis for evaluating the effectiveness of relationship marketing and innovation in 3D printing medical market

This study aims to explore the configurations of potential relevant antecedents in 3D printing medical Market for achieving high user satisfaction from both the suppliers’ and users’ perspectives. The important antecedents in this study include relationship marketing, innovation, 3D printing perceived values, and 3D printing perceived risk. Firstly, this study investigates the relationships among potential relevant antecedents and user satisfaction. Furthermore, to explore the gap between users’ evaluation and innovation suppliers’ perception, this study addresses this issue based on both perspectives of suppliers and buyers. To assess the applicability of the proposed model, we employed questionnaires survey and collected primary data from 3D printing suppliers and their customers. Moreover, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach has been applied for evaluating the effectiveness of relationship marketing and innovation in 3D printing medical market. Finally, the numerical results indicate that there is one causal configuration (i.e., 1A) found to be sufficient for high user satisfaction for the perspectives of 3D printing suppliers and three configurations for the perspectives of 3D printing customers. In the perspectives of 3D printing suppliers, the combination of relationship marketing, innovation, and 3D printing perceived value is sufficient conditions causing high user satisfaction. However, there are three causal configurations (i.e., 1B, 2B, and 3B) found to be sufficient for high user satisfaction for the perspectives of 3D printing customers.

Laboratory Technologies in Independent Medical Laboratories and Analysis of Its Resource Cost

Medical laboratory technology is an important basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment. However, due to problems such as idle resources and high testing costs in laboratories of large hospitals, independent medical laboratory emerged. The independent medical laboratory can independently perform medical tests outside the hospital and can effectively share resources, with low cost and strong specificity. In this study, the advantages of an independent medical laboratory were analyzed to suggest its significance, then the laboratory technologies and resource costs in laboratories were analyzed, some suggestions were put forward for improving technologies and reducing costs, and finally the prospects for the development of the independent medical laboratory was discussed briefly. This work has values for promoting the good development of independent laboratory and the further development of the medical market.

The Effect of Service Quality and Medical Environment Towards Patients’ Satisfaction in the Medical Industry in China

In recent years, the medical and health system face the stern competition of medical market and patients have more choices to choose the medical services that they want. Improving patients&rsquo; satisfaction has become the overall development of hospitals and it is one of the important contents to increase the competitiveness of the markets. This paper provides a further understanding about patient satisfaction by examining the determinants of patients&rsquo; satisfaction in the medical industry in China. Service quality and quality of medical environment were tested towards patients&rsquo; satisfaction. The results show that quality of service and medical environment have significant positive impacts on patient satisfaction.

Female Saints as Agents of Female Healing

This essay studies the mechanics informing the construction of a single healing cult, that of the virgin saint Empress Cunigunde (c.980-1033) and its gender aspects. The shrine of St. Cunigunde in Bamberg was well known as a healing space after her canonization in 1200, although the first miracle collection does not reveal any medical specialization of the cult. Using previously neglected late medieval narrative and archival material, the essay shows that Cunigunde was a popular female patron whose assistance was sought by women, especially during childbirth. This case of female medical patronage is analysed alongside similar practices in the cults of other saints and is regarded as one of the resources for female convalescence in the medical market of that time.