Knowledge, attitude and practices of rural medical practitioners on generic medicines

Background: An unqualified medical practitioner without any formal registration and practicing allopathic medicine in rural areas in India can be called Rural Medical Practitioner (RMP). RMPs enjoy a great deal of practice in rural areas by taking advantage of lacunae in the public health system. Government of India is currently popularising generic medicines, but still certain doubts exist even among doctors and how far the RMPs are aware of generic medicines is a big issue. They influence a lot of uneducated people, so the knowledge, attitude and practices they follow have a large impact on society.Methods: A cross sectional, prospective study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and the practices of 152 RMPs on generic medicines for a period of three months. A 23-item questionnaire was well designed, pre-validated and distributed to RMPs in and around Guntur district. The results were analysed using descriptive statistics.Results: 92% of the participants were aware of generic drugs. More than 80% believed that they are equivalent in terms of efficacy and safety to their branded counterparts and are available at reasonable prices. 95.4% RMPs believed that prescribing generic drugs will decrease the pharmaco-economic burden of the country. Almost all of them agreed on the need for the updates and education on generics by means of continuing medical education (CMEs).Conclusions: The participants had good amount of knowledge on generic drugs but there are concerns regarding quality and therapeutic efficacy of generic drugs. Proper awareness about the generic prescription practice may improve the patient compliance by reducing economic burden to the patients

Comparison of ophthalmic artery Doppler indices among hypertensive and normotensive pregnant women in third trimester: association with perinatal outcomes

Background: In this study, we compared ophthalmic artery Doppler indices between normotensive and hypertensive pregnant women in third trimester and then evaluated if the alterations in ophthalmic artery doppler indices were seen in all the types of hypertensions in pregnancy or confined to preclaampsia. Further we tried to see correlation of ophthalmic artery Doppler indices with perinatal outcomes in terms of fetal growth restriction (FGR), prematurity, neonatal intensive care unit admission (NICU) and maternal outcomes and tried to arrive at mean values of ophthalmic artery Doppler indices to predict adverse outcomes. Methods: 50 hypertensive and 50 normotensive pregnant women were recruited in third trimester. A thorough history about hypertension was taken, obstetric scan was done to know estimated fetal weight, and doppler of umbilical, middle cerebral artery, uterine arteries was done. Simultaneously maternal ophthalmic artery Doppler readings were taken, women were followed up after delivery and perinatal outcomes were recorded. Results: Comparison of mean values of ophthalmic artery doppler parameters in women with and without hypertension showed statistically significant differences with respect to the peak systolic velocity 2 (PSV2), PI (pulsatility index), RI (resistivity index) and peak ratio (PR) (PR=PSV2/PSV1). Significant difference was found only in PR value in preeclampsia group compared to other subgroups of hypertension. In the hypertension group complicated with FGR the mean peak ratio=0.8 whereas in the hypertension group requiring preterm delivery the mean peak ratio=0.78, and in the hypertension group requiring NICU admission the mean peak ratio=0.81. At ophthalmic artery PR cut off ≤0.725, the sensitivity and specificity were 76% and 65% respectively to predict FGR. Conclusions: Pregnancy complicated by hypertension showed alterations in ophthalmic artery Doppler indices. Among the subgroups of hypertension, ophthalmic artery PR was the best index for discriminating preclampsia from other types and it was significantly higher in hypertensive pregnant women who had adverse perinatal outcomes. Ophthalmic artery PR has almost similar performance as uterine artery PI in indicating FGR in our study. It could also indicate maternal disease severity such as hypertensive crisis requiring ICU admission, the study number was small

欧州連合(EU)の成立と発展

Since a movement to establish a union of nations in Europe occurred in Europe, it has been confronted with many difficulties and conflicts between participating nations. But EU was organized after very long process of the movement and it has today a remarkable influence on the world economy. The purpose of this paper is to review the process of establishment and development of EU and to consider the reasons of its success

企業理論の確立に向けて : グーテンベルクの回想(2)

E. Gutenberg, one of the german representative business economists, tried to establish an original theory of the firm in 1920s and 1930\u27s. In this essay, based on his own recollection I intend to survey his efforts to establish the theory, its methodological characteristics, etc. Gutenberg had a great interest in explaining economic phenomena of firm theoretically in 1920\u27s. First of all, in his doctorial dissertation "Thunen\u27s Isolated Country as Fiction" (1922), he delt with the methodological problem to research on the economic phenomena through the Thunen\u27s book "Isolated Country"(1826) and found in the book the Application of "Construction of Als-Ob (As-If) " in terms of german philosopher, H. Faihinger. Gutenberg thought, that this method of abstraction and isolation through fiction is very useful to understand and explain economic phenomena of firm. Then he wrote the book "Firm as Object of the Theory of Business Economics" (1929) founded on this method. Though this book showed very new direction of theory of the firm, it attracted little attention in the german academic world of business economics in those days. In the process of framing and refining his theory, Gutenberg learned a great deal from practical experience und acquired methodological influence from E. Schmalenbach, and especially from many economists like A. A. Cournot, V. Pareto, J. A. Schumpeter, E. Schneider, H. Stackelberg, etc. Through the academic stimuli from them, Gutenberg gained confidence, that his research method of abstraction and isolation through fiction is effective to establish the new theory of the firm in his direction. In fact his theory by this method formed a main stream in german business economics in 1950s and 1960\u27s

経済的理性の批判的基礎反省としての経済倫理学 : ウルリッヒの所論を中心として

This paper intends to clarify a characteristic of P. Ulrich\u27s integrated economic ethics as critical reflection on the moral bases of economic reasonable ethics. For this purpose we deal with two problems, firstly his critique of the market principle and economism, and secondly his ethical opinions about vital meaning of economic activities with regard to the good life of the actors themselves and the legitimacy of the rules of an economy with regard to the living-together of all citizens in a well-ordered society

経済の道徳の場としての経済市民と市場秩序 : ウルリッヒの所論を中心として

According to P. Ulrich\u27 thought, economic citizen, market order and business enterprise are given as (loci) of morality of economic activities. In this paper, at first we outlined his opinions about the former two, that is economic citizen and market order, and the republicanism-liberalism on which they rest. Then we examined them from perspectives of philosophy, politics and economic ethics. (We will treat business ethics in our next paper.

日本的企業システム序説

Generally speaking, after ending World War II Japanese economy and many Japanese firms developed considerably well and fast. It is often thought, that one of the important reasons can be found in the characteristic corporate system of Japanese economy and firms, for instance, life time employment, seniority system, corporate groups -- new Zaibatsu, main bank system and subcontracting system. But are such corporate systems or institutions so characteristic only to Japanese firms? How did they contribute to the development of Japanese economy and firms? What problems did they cause? Investigating these problems is still very important, because various opinions about them have been insisted especially since 1990s. This paper is the first step for my following studies on the characteristics of Japanese corporate system and so aims to give some introductory considerations about it. At first general model of firm is built from economic, social and cultural viewpoint, and then the generally accepted ideas and some opinions about the characteristics of Japanese firm are shown and briefly examined

近代倫理学の基本構想と統合的経済倫理学 : ウルリッヒの所論を中心として

P. Ulrich (St.Gallen University in Switzerland) is one of the representative researchers of economic and business ethics in the German-speaking world. He and his study group in St. Gallen conceptualized the integrative economic ethics, that respects to a critical reflection on the normative foundations of the economic way of thinking. This paper aims to survey the framework in relation to various modern theories about ethics and to criticize some points