ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES IN PHARMACEUTICAL PROMOTION GLOBALLY: TOWARDS INTERNATIONALLY DEVELOPING PRACTICALLY-ORIENTED GUIDELINES FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

Purpose. Pharmaceutical industry is transnational and globally important. Many pharmaceutical companies operate their business in multinational and international forms in different countries. Diverse researches from different countries indicated and confirmed marketing promotion importance in pharmaceutical field. Therefore, marketing promotion and its effects are a very important issue that should be globally investigated in real life and evidence context. We oriented our research according to these scientific and practical values.Methodology. We reviewed pharmaceutical marketing promotion researches from more than 25 different countries, e.g., USA, Canada, Italy, France, Russia, India, Egypt and Syria where we employed our knowledge of three widely spread languages, i.e., English, Russian and Arabic. Such language variation supports us with large and variable amount of scientific knowledge, deep understanding and ability of analysis. Some studies investigated average response to pharmaceutical marketing promotion and few studies took into consideration heterogeneity in their effects with respect to advertising medium or drug characteristics.Originality. We investigated empirical evidences of pharmaceutical marketing promotion that can be directed to either consumer or healthcare professionals.Findings. We extracted, gathered and associated information of pharmaceutical promotion globally which oriented us to several evidence and practical facts with regard to employing promotion tools in different definite situations pertinent to main directions; their welfare and health enhancing effects and adverse effects. Practical Implications- Consequently, we developed practically-oriented guidelines for companies concerning pharmaceutical promotion globally ate the end of this paper

Perspectives on COVID-19 prevention and treatment using herbal medicine in Vietnam: A cross-sectional study

Introduction. The significance of herbal medicine (HM) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been confirmed. Nevertheless, limited studies have included the people perspectives on COVID-19 prevention/treatment using herbal medicine in Vietnam. Thus, this study tackled the aforementioned issue.Methods. Online-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Vietnamese adults between FebruaryApril 2021. Descriptive analysis, regression and Chi-squared tests were implemented for the statistical purposes.Results. A total of 787 respondents attended the study, 368 (46.8%) confirmed that they use herbal medicine/nutritional supplements for COVID-19 prevention/treatment. Over 50% of the respondents possessed positive perspective on vitamin C ingestion. Using herbal medicine for external use as a disinfectant was mostly preferred. Respondents who had a ‘very good’ health self-perception or who lived in rural areas, were more likely to have a positive opinion in the COVID-19 prevention/treatment using herbal medicine. The main barrier for herbal medicine utilization was the deficiency of personal experience or expert advice.Conclusion. The Vietnamese people commonly utilize herbal medicine for the COVID-19 prevention/treatment. These data might help policy-makers in managing the public knowledge and practice on herbal medicine use in Vietnam

Organization-wide adoption of computerized provider order entry systems: a study based on diffusion of innovations theory

Background: Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems have been introduced to reduce medication errors, increase safety, improve work-flow efficiency, and increase medical service quality at the moment of prescription. Making the impact of CPOE systems more observable may facilitate their adoption by users. We set out to examine factors associated with the adoption of a CPOE system for inter-organizational and intra-organizational care. Methods: The diffusion of innovation theory was used to understand physicians and nurses attitudes and thoughts about implementation and use of the CPOE system. Two online survey questionnaires were distributed to all physicians and nurses using a CPOE system in county-wide healthcare organizations. The number of complete questionnaires analyzed was 134 from 200 nurses (67.0%) and 176 from 741 physicians (23.8%). Data were analyzed using descriptive-analytical statistical methods. Results: More nurses (56.7%) than physicians (31.3%) stated that the CPOE system introduction had worked well in their clinical setting (P andlt; 0.001). Similarly, more physicians (73.9%) than nurses (50.7%) reported that they found the system not adapted to their specific professional practice (P = andlt; 0.001). Also more physicians (25.0%) than nurses (13.4%) stated that they did want to return to the previous system (P = 0.041). We found that in particular the received relative advantages of the CPOE system were estimated to be significantly (P andlt; 0.001) higher among nurses (39.6%) than physicians (16.5%). However, physicians agreements with the compatibility of the CPOE and with its complexity were significantly higher than the nurses (P andlt; 0.001). Conclusions: Qualifications for CPOE adoption as defined by three attributes of diffusion of innovation theory were not satisfied in the study setting. CPOE systems are introduced as a response to the present limitations in paper-based systems. In consequence, user expectations are often high on their relative advantages as well as on a low level of complexity. Building CPOE systems therefore requires designs that can provide rather important additional advantages, e. g. by preventing prescription errors and ultimately improving patient safety and safety of clinical work. The decision-making process leading to the implementation and use of CPOE systems in healthcare therefore has to be improved. As any change in health service settings usually faces resistance, we emphasize that CPOE system designers and healthcare decision-makers should continually collect users feedback about the systems, while not forgetting that it also is necessary to inform the users about the potential benefits involved.Original Publication:Bahlol Rahimi, Toomas Timpka, Vivian Vimarlund, Srinivas Uppugunduri and Mikael Svensson, Organization-wide adoption of computerized provider order entry systems: a study based on diffusion of innovations theory, 2009, BMC MEDICAL INFORMATICS AND DECISION MAKING, (9), 52, .http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-9-52Licensee: BioMed Centralhttp://www.biomedcentral.com/. On the day of the defence date the original title of this article was "Adoption of computerized provider order entry systems: An organization-wide study based on diffusion of innovations theory"

ANALYSIS OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES’ ACTIVITIES THAT ARE DIRECTED TO PHYSICIANS IN EGYPT

Purpose. Pharmaceutical market is one of the largest world markets with its own conditions. In Middle East, Egypt is a major pharmaceutical emerging market and has geographical, historical and political effective leading role among Arab countries. This research aims to investigate pharmaceutical companies’ activities in Egypt directed to physicians.Methodology. Urveying through simple random probability sampling is the approach appropriate for broad and representative overview of situation in research. Therefore, a survey of 1068 physicians was conducted through interviews and establishing structured data collection questionnaire.Originality. This is the first empirical paper to investigate pharmaceutical companies’ activities directed to physicians in pharmaceutical market of Egypt. These activities include identifying pharmaceutical companies through visits of medical representatives, analysis of those visits, frequency of medical representatives’ visits, characteristics of information introduced by medical representatives to physicians, physicians’ trust in provided information, spending of pharmaceutical companies on physicians, promotional techniques applied by medical representatives. These findings are useful for managers in pharmaceutical industry. They can be also useful in other industries such as medical equipment.Findings. Pharmaceutical companies are employing medical representatives widely, as the most effective and widely-applied promotion tool in Egypt.Practical Implications. Coordinate marketing management vision with pharmaceutical market real context will lead to synergism effect in utilizing medical representatives’ activities

Flexural Behavior of Concrete Composite Beams with New Steel Tube Section and Different Shear Connectors

Hollow sections of steel are widely used in many engineering applications as structural members. This paper aims at studying the flexural behavior of a composite beams with steel tubes sections through a series of bending tests in order to study and examine the influence of the steel tube section shape, (square, rectangular and hexagonal) with the same shear connector type (headed stud or angle or perfobond) on its flexural behavior and the bending properties of these sections. As well as study the effect of different shear connectors types (headed stud, angle and perfobond) in the same steel tube sections (hexagonal, square, or rectangular) on the flexural behavior of the composite beams. The experimental program (in this work) has been divided into two groups, the first consists of nine specimens tests focusing on three types of steel section. Using shear stud first, angle at second, and perfobond at third as shear connector type. The second group consists of testing nine specimens of composite beams too. This group focuses on testing every steel section (hexagonal, square and rectangular) alone when using three types of shear connectors with it. All the specimens are of the same length, width and height (2000, 400 and 130) mm respectively. The tested steel tubes thickness was 2 mm, yield stress of 322 MPa and the ultimate strength was 390 MPa. The results showed that these shapes of hollow steel sections (hexagonal, square and rectangular) sustain the quality of services for the buildings, and these tested specimens are applicable by giving a distinctive strength and stiffness starting from 114 kN as ultimate load reaching to 170 kN. The experimental results proved that the perfobond and angle connector types are clearly effective shear connectors. Shear connector of the perfobond type increased the ultimate load of the composite beams by (6.25-9.74) % compared with the stud shear connector

АНАЛИЗ НАУЧНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ ПО ПРОДВИЖЕНИЮ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧЕСКОЙ ПРОДУКЦИИ В ЗАРУБЕЖНЫХ СТРАНАХ: ПРАКТИЧЕСКИЕ РЕКОМЕНДАЦИИ ДЛЯ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧЕСКИХ КОМПАНИЙ

Purpose. Pharmaceutical industry is transnational and globally important. Many pharmaceutical companies operate their business in multinational and international forms in different countries. Diverse researches from different countries indicated and confirmed marketing promotion importance in pharmaceutical field. Therefore, marketing promotion and its effects are a very important issue that should be globally investigated in real life and evidence context. We oriented our research according to these scientific and practical values.Methodology. We reviewed pharmaceutical marketing promotion researches from more than 25 different countries, e.g., USA, Canada, Italy, France, Russia, India, Egypt and Syria where we employed our knowledge of three widely spread languages, i.e., English, Russian and Arabic. Such language variation supports us with large and variable amount of scientific knowledge, deep understanding and ability of analysis. Some studies investigated average response to pharmaceutical marketing promotion and few studies took into consideration heterogeneity in their effects with respect to advertising medium or drug characteristics.Originality. We investigated empirical evidences of pharmaceutical marketing promotion that can be directed to either consumer or healthcare professionals.Findings. We extracted, gathered and associated information of pharmaceutical promotion globally which oriented us to several evidence and practical facts with regard to employing promotion tools in different definite situations pertinent to main directions; their welfare and health enhancing effects and adverse effects. Practical Implications- Consequently, we developed practically-oriented guidelines for companies concerning pharmaceutical promotion globally ate the end of this paper.Цель. Фармацевтическая промышленность является важной отраслью для всех стран в мире. Многие фармацевтические компании осуществляют свою деятельность на международной арене. Разнообразные исследования в других странах подтвердили важность стимулирования сбыта в фармацевтической отрасли. Таким образом, стимулирование сбыта и его последствия – это очень важный вопрос, который необходимо глобально изучить в рамках теории и практики. Мы построили данное исследование исходя из его научной и практической ценности.Методология исследования. Мы изучили исследования, посвященные стимулированию сбыта в фармацевтической промышленности, из 25 разных стран мира, например, США, Канады, Италии, Франции, России, Индии, Египта и Сирии, где мы применяли наши знания трех наиболее распространенных в мире языков – английского, русского и арабского. На данных языках существует большое количество разнообразных научных работ, их знание дает возможность глубокого понимания и анализа данных. В некоторых исследованиях изучалось влияние продвижения на фармацевтический рынок, а в ряде работ – зависимость этого влияния от средств рекламы или характеристик лекарственного средства.Новизна исследования. Мы исследовали эмпирические данные по стимулированию сбыта товаров в фармацевтической промышленности, которые могут быть направлены как потребителю, так и работникам в сфере здравоохранения.Результаты исследования. Мы выделили, собрали и соотнесли информацию по продвижению фармацевтической продукции в мировом масштабе, что натолкнуло нас на некоторые выводы и практические результаты относительно средств продвижения в определенных ситуациях, имеющих отношение к основным направлениям; их эффекты по улучшению здоровья и благосостояния, а также побочные эффекты.Практическая значимость. В результате мы разработали практико-ориентированные рекомендации для компаний касательно всемирного продвижения фармацевтической продукции, которые вы можете найти в конце данной статьи

ANALYSIS OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES’ ACTIVITIES THAT ARE DIRECTED TO PHYSICIANS IN EGYPT

Purpose. Pharmaceutical market is one of the largest world markets with its own conditions. In Middle East, Egypt is a major pharmaceutical emerging market and has geographical, historical and political effective leading role among Arab countries. This research aims to investigate pharmaceutical companies’ activities in Egypt directed to physicians.Methodology. Urveying through simple random probability sampling is the approach appropriate for broad and representative overview of situation in research. Therefore, a survey of 1068 physicians was conducted through interviews and establishing structured data collection questionnaire.Originality. This is the first empirical paper to investigate pharmaceutical companies’ activities directed to physicians in pharmaceutical market of Egypt. These activities include identifying pharmaceutical companies through visits of medical representatives, analysis of those visits, frequency of medical representatives’ visits, characteristics of information introduced by medical representatives to physicians, physicians’ trust in provided information, spending of pharmaceutical companies on physicians, promotional techniques applied by medical representatives. These findings are useful for managers in pharmaceutical industry. They can be also useful in other industries such as medical equipment.Findings. Pharmaceutical companies are employing medical representatives widely, as the most effective and widely-applied promotion tool in Egypt.Practical Implications. Coordinate marketing management vision with pharmaceutical market real context will lead to synergism effect in utilizing medical representatives’ activities

Enhancing baffle columns’ performance to mitigate sedimentation at intake structures

Abstract The improvement and capacity increasing of hydropower stations have brought attention to the intake structures of water-cooling systems, which suction water from alluvial channels. The accumulation of sediment in the vicinity of these intake structures poses significant operational challenges, such as strong vortices, and irregular flow distribution at pump intakes. One effective approach is the implementation of a sediment deflector system using baffle columns as avoided wall (L-Shape profile) with specific dimensions and arrangement to allow water to go through while preventing sediment ingress into the power station intakes. L-Shape profile means double voided walls, one of them parallel to flow direction while the other wall perpendicular to the flow direction in the upstream of the intake structure. The objective of this study is to optimize the performance of the baffle columns of the deflector system in mitigating sedimentation in front of the intake structures. To achieve this, an undistorted physical model with scale 1:50 is utilized to analyze the impact of a defined angle between the two voided walls of the deflector system. Three trials by changing the angle of the double voided walls (L-Shape profile) from 90° to 120°,135°, and 150°. The results of this study indicate that as the inclination angle of the deflector system increased to 150°, it resulted in uniform flow efficiency in the direction of the flow, less accumulative sedimentation ingress the intake

Effect of Ramadan fasting on amniotic fluid index in last month of pregnancy

Objective: To assess the effect of fasting in Ramadan on amniotic fluid index (AFI). Design: A cross sectional observational study. Methods: This study was conducted between July 21, 2012 and August 17, 2012, which corresponded to the 3rd and 27th days of the month of Ramadan 1433 and from July 12, 2013 and August 6, 2013, which corresponded to the 3rd and 27th days of the month of Ramadan 1434. Pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinic at Assiut and Qena University Hospitals were included in this study. The study groups included fasting and non fasting women beyond 36 weeks of gestation. The study took place at the same time of day (i.e., between 9 and 12 AM). Results: A total of 221 pregnant women were studied, 97 fasting and 124 non fasting. As regards age, parity and the gestational age no significant differences were reported. The AFI was less affected by fasting, also there was a significant difference in the AFI between fasting and non fasting pregnant women with oligohydramnios (4.00 ± 0.82 and 2.64 ± 1.12 respectively). A positive relationship with gravidity was observed as AFI increased with the increase of gravidity in pregnant fasting women, on the other hand there was variable non significant relation between AFI and gravidity in pregnant non fasting women. Conclusion: We conclude that the fasting in Ramadan has no effect on or may improve the AFI in the last month, while gravidity plays a role in the AFI in fasting group