Ask any business, large or small, to identify one of its most important assets and it is bound to identify its confidential and proprietary information or ‘trade secrets’. This is because it is in the nature of businesses to try to secure a competitive advantage over rivals and inventing the proverbial ‘better mouse- trap’ is one way to do so. Frequently, businesses that invent or crea…
This third edition of the ICAO Safety Management Manual (SMM) (Doc 9859) supersedes the second edition, published in 2009, in its entirety. It also supersedes the ICAO Accident Prevention Manual (Doc 9422), which is obsolete. 1.1.2 This manual is intended to provide States with guidance on the development and implementation of a State safety programme (SSP), in accordance with the Internatio…
Enterprises, governments and societies at large have a new important agenda: tackling environmental issues and adopting environmentally sound practices. Over the years, information technology (IT) has fundamentally altered our work and life and improved our productivity, economy and social well-being. IT now has a new role to play – helping to create a greener, more sustainable environment wh…
In this essay, we investigate the dominant position of economics within the network of the social sciences in the United States. We begin by documenting the relative insularity of economics, using bibliometric data. Next we analyze the tight management of the field from the top down, which gives economics its characteristic hierarchical structure. Economists also distinguish themselves from…
This Manual is designed to be a quick-and-easy, user-friendly reference for the development of health management information systems (HMIS), with the focus on applications. It serves as a primer on HMIS development and provides a general overview of the basic principles, as well as the fundamental steps and issues involved in the different activities to be undertaken. The information is pre…
The knowledgeable health reporter for the Boston Globe, Betsy Lehman, died from an overdose during chemotherapy. Willie King had the wrong leg amputated. Ben Kolb was eight years old when he died during “minor” surgery due to a drug mix-up.1 These horrific cases that make the headlines are just the tip of the ice- berg. Two large studies, one conducted in Colorado and Utah and the other in …
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Managements of some companies and other entities have developed processes to identify and manage risk across the enterprise, and many others have begun development or are considering doing so. While considerable information on enterprise risk management is available, including much published literature, no common terminology exists, and there are few if any widely accepted pr…
Recent years have been tumultuous in the agricultural sector. Price volatility has increased, with sharp swings in product and input prices. Markets have been affected by macro-economic disturbances, disease outbreaks and adverse weather events such as floods and droughts. The latter may become more frequent through climate change. With agricultural policies that are more decoupled from product…
The quality of health care received by the people of the United States falls far short of what it should be (Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, 1998; Chassin and Galvin, 1998). A large body of literature documents serious quality problems. There is a gap (some say a “chasm”) between the health care services that should be provided based on cu…
The reader of this book is about to encounter a rare intellectual treat. Once every 20 to 25 years, a work appears on the scene that simultaneously integrates a field of knowledge and markedly advances that field. Two decades ago, such a book was Nico Frijda’s masterpiece, The emotions (1986), which was both a superlative though selective review of the literature on emotion, and a power…
As we approach the start of a new century, it is apparent that science and technology (S&T) will continue to play a pivotal role in modern life. Skilled workers will be needed at all levels. Many of these workers will be drawn from the pool of students presently passing through school systems around the world; the remainder represent workers already employed who will need to maintain their tech…
In response to a request from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Institute of Medicine convened a committee to produce a detailed plan to facilitate the development of data standards applicable to the collection, coding, and classification of patient safety in- formation. Americans should be able to count on receiving health care that is safe. To achieve this, a new health care d…
The United States faces the real possibility of a catastrophic public health event that involves tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of victims. Public health emergencies—such as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, an intentional anthrax release, infectious disease threats such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurri- canes—highlight the ever-changing t…
In June 2009 the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events held a workshop with the goal of convening many of the best minds in health preparedness for a wide-ranging update on preparations for a major public health threat. For the health community, a primary issue at hand before and during a catastrophic incident is how to prov…
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the United States is growing each year largely due both to advances in treatment that allow HIV-infected individuals to live longer and healthier lives and to a steady number of new HIV infections each year. The U.S. Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were 1.2 million people living with HIV infection in th…