Developing a sustainability index for public health supply chains

Researchers and practitioners alike have become increasingly aware and interested in the sustainability of supply chains. The majority of the research in this area includes the triple-bottom approach of sustainability understanding the economic, social, and environmental outcomes of supply chain functions. Several sustainability measures have been presented in the literature to recognize the sustainability of supply chains helping stakeholders in making strategic decisions. However, most of these studies analyze supply chains in developed nations and the research on sustainable supply chains in developing countries is scarce. The existing studies cover only the triple-bottom approach of sustainability in supply chains and there is a need to delve deeper into research to identify and quantify additional aspects of supply chain sustainability. Moreover, there is very little evidence of research on the sustainability of public health supply chains. Greater attempts in doing so will gain more comprehension of the emerging scope of sustainability practices in healthcare and help the various stakeholders improve their actions. Under this background, the main contribution of the paper is to devise a sustainability measure applicable to supply chains in public health. To this end, we develop a Supply Chain Sustainability Index which in addition to measuring the economic, social, and environmental footprints, also measures the stakeholder collaboration, health outcomes, and product/service and process quality initiatives. The index is comprised of a set of quantitative sub-indicators assessing multiple dimensions of sustainability across the supply chain participants concerning their role, location, capacity, etc. The sustainability index is modelled as a multi-dimensional vector and follows a hierarchal structure breaking down the different dimensions of sustainability to sets of sub-indicators and metrics. Although the current conceptual study does not provide any empirical evidence, it aims to propose this index to improve the evaluation and health coverage of public health supply chains. It will act as a foundation for further research and enable practical testing of the index in public health supply chains

Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling in Pediatric Drug Development, and the Importance of Standardized Scaling of Clearance.

Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling is important in the design and conduct of clinical pharmacology research in children. During drug development, PKPD modeling and simulation should underpin rational trial design and facilitate extrapolation to investigate efficacy and safety. The application of PKPD modeling to optimize dosing recommendations and therapeutic drug monitoring is also increasing, and PKPD model-based dose individualization will become a core feature of personalized medicine. Following extensive progress on pediatric PK modeling, a greater emphasis now needs to be placed on PD modeling to understand age-related changes in drug effects. This paper discusses the principles of PKPD modeling in the context of pediatric drug development, summarizing how important PK parameters, such as clearance (CL), are scaled with size and age, and highlights a standardized method for CL scaling in children. One standard scaling method would facilitate comparison of PK parameters across multiple studies, thus increasing the utility of existing PK models and facilitating optimal design of new studies

Corporate governance in Russia: concept and reality

The national system of corporate governance as reflected in the norms and provisions required to raise external finance is a key component of the institutional set-up in any market economy. Such systems may have different configurations but they have one crucial commonality: the task of providing means that help to institutionalize, i.e., regulate according to certain established rules, economic conflict between investors in companies and managers, facilitate information flows, and procure a solid and cost-efficient foundation for the growth of publicly held corporations. In other words, corporate governance is responsible for reassuring individual investors that the money they invest in a public company will be handled with due care by the management of the company, so that the interests of investors are protected. Seen in this perspective, corporate governance presents itself as one of the fundamental institutes of modern Western democracy, acting as a guarantor of sustainable economic growth (Sullivan, 2002). In countries with a long-lasting tradition of private corporate management, reliable and functional corporate governance is taken pretty much for granted, which is obvious from the degree of public outrage and concern when the system misfires, as the cases of ENRON and Parmalat vividly illustrate

Task and Institutional Influences on Managers' Mental Models of Competition

From institutional theory, we argue (a) that the competitive, or task environment may encourage divergence of management cognition between organizations, management functions and amongst senior managers, and (b) that the institutional environment may encourage cognitive convergence at the level of the industry, the strategic group and within institutionalized practices linked to management functions and level. Using management cognition of competition as a vehicle and two cognitive mapping methods, we test a series of competing propositions amongst 32 managers in the UK personal financial services industry, an industry that evidences both task and institutional characteristics. Our findings indicate neither the superiority of exclusively task nor institutional explanations of management cognition. However, the results do indicate some influence of the institutional environment, most noticeably through the convergence of mental models within middle managers across the industry. The results also indicate some influence of the task environment, through cognitive differences across organizations and greater differentiation amongst senior managers' mental models. We interpret our results by referring to the usefulness of distinguishing between task and institutional environments in management cognition and strategic management research