The feasibility of QR-code prescription in Taiwan

What is known and Objective: An ideal Health Care Service is a service system that focuses on patients. Patients in Taiwan have the freedom to fill their prescriptions at any pharmacies contracted with National Health Insurance. Each of these pharmacies uses its own computer system. So far, there are at least ten different systems on the market in Taiwan. To transmit the prescription information from the hospital to the pharmacy accurately and efficiently presents a great issue. Methods: This study consisted of two-dimensional applications using a QR-code to capture Patient’s identification and prescription information from the hospitals as well as using a webcam to read the QR-code and transfer all data to the pharmacy computer system. Two hospitals and 85 community pharmacies participated in the study. Results and Discussion: During the trial, all participant pharmacies appraised highly of the accurate transmission of the prescription information. The contents in QR-code prescriptions from Taipei area were picked up efficiently and accurately in pharmacies at Taichung area (middle Taiwan) without software system limit and area limitation. The QRcode device received a patent (No. M376844, March 2010) from Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Economic Affair, China. What is new and Conclusion: Our trial has proven that QR-code prescription can provide community pharmacists an efficient, accurate and inexpensive device to digitalize the prescription contents. Consequently, pharmacists can offer better quality of pharmacy service to patients

Artificial Neural Networks and other AI Applications for Business Management Decision Support

Artificial intelligence (AI) in general and artificial neural networks (ANN) in particular provide a tremendous amount of knowledge to improve managerial decision making. Additionally, these same ANN and AI techniques also serve as knowledge repositories and distribution schema for organizations that facilitate managerial leadership responsibilities. This article examines how various ANN and other AI applications may be adapted to facilitate managerial leadership, improve manager performance and in some cases perform management activities. Further research that classifies leadership styles and the desired qualities of leaders is reviewed

Personality, internet addiction, and other technological addictions: an update of the research literature

There has been a significant shift from the view that addictions are disorders involving compulsivedrug usage to a view that non-substance related behaviors may now be considered addictions. Thereis evidence to suggest that people are showing signs of addiction to non-substance-related behaviors.Research into technological addictions, such as internet addiction, smartphone addiction and socialnetworking addiction has exponentially increased over the last decade. Understanding how technologicaladdictions relate to personality and key individual differences is important. This chapter providesrenewed empirical and conceptual insights into technological addictions and how they may be relatedto different personality types and key individual differences. The complex nature of personality andtechnological addictions is discussed together with areas for future research