Conditions for Implementing Innovating Telemedicine Procedures After Hip Arthroplasty

Telemedicine technology offers a wide range of possibilities for improving various forms of healthcare services. These technologies can support and economize healthcare service processes including medical consultations, preparation for medical treatment and in the post-operative period. The increasing number of older people in developed countries increases the importance of telemedicine as a way to economize the care of the elderly. Domestic healthcare is one such opportunity. This study focuses on the use of this technology as a networking achievement demanding integrated relationships and purposeful interaction to implement and use this technology including focus on use of domestic healthcare of elderly patients after total hip arthroplasty in Poland. This network of actors consists of importantly interaction between patients, healthcare service providers and technology providers. A combination of telematics technology, services theory and contingency theory creates a distinct network approach to understanding domestic healthcare as a particular form of service process provision implying development of the exchange economy to support the services production economy. The aim of the article is to analyze the conditions for innovative telemedicine procedures implementing after total hip arthroplasty. Due to the conducted considerations, a set of fundamental solutions in regards to network implementation and application in home healthcare of Polish elderly patients after total hip arthroplasty will be developed. Conclusions will also concern the potential market of telemedicine solutions for patients after hip arthroplasty in Poland. Attention will also be paid to restrictions on the implementation of new technologies and ways to overcome them

Urban Influence on Costs of Production in the Corn Belt

This article determines the relative technical efficiency of rural- and urban-influenced crop/livestock enterprises in the Corn Belt. Farmers in urban-influenced locations are less technically efficient than farmers in rural locations. During 1998–2000, stochastic production frontier procedures indicate that a 10% increase in urban influence leads to a close to 4% decrease in technical efficiency. The most successful urban-influenced farms have controlled costs as effectively as rural farms. They have tended to de-emphasize that nondairy livestock activities—particularly beef and hogs—do not rely extensively on off-farm income, and have relatively large, less residential/lifestyle operations compared to less successful urban-influenced farmers. However, our statistical analysis clearly bears out the refrain in popular literature that urban proximity raises the cost for, and decreases the viability of, traditional farms. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.