Displaying publications 41 - 60 of 88 in total

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  1. Zaidi SZ, Abidi SS, Manickam S
    PMID: 15460713
    This paper presents a case for an intelligent agent based framework for knowledge discovery in a distributed healthcare environment comprising multiple heterogeneous healthcare data repositories. Data-mediated knowledge discovery, especially from multiple heterogeneous data resources, is a tedious process and imposes significant operational constraints on end-users. We demonstrate that autonomous, reactive and proactive intelligent agents provide an opportunity to generate end-user oriented, packaged, value-added decision-support/strategic planning services for healthcare professionals, manages and policy makers, without the need for a priori technical knowledge. Since effective healthcare is grounded in good communication, experience sharing, continuous learning and proactive actions, we use intelligent agents to implement an Agent based Data Mining Infostructure that provides a suite of healthcare-oriented decision-support/strategic planning services.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational
  2. Chan NW
    Disasters, 1997 Sep;21(3):206-22.
    PMID: 9301137
    Institutional aspects of flood hazards significantly affect their outcomes in Malaysia. Institutional arrangements to deal with floods include: legislative activity, organisational structures, attitudes and sub-culture, and policies and instruments. When assessed in terms of four specific criteria, institutional aspects of flood hazards are found to be largely inadequate. Disaster reduction programmes are over-dependent on a reactive approach based largely on technology and not even aimed at floods specifically. Structural flood reduction measures are the predominant management tool and, although the importance of non-structural measures is recognised, thus far they have been under-employed. Current laws and regulations with regard to flood management are also insufficient and both the financial and human resources of flood hazard organisations are generally found to be wanting. Finally, economic efficiency, equity and public accountability issues are not adequately addressed by institutional arrangements for flood hazards.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational
  3. Hammad Farhi Mohd Saudi, Jamal Abdul Nassir Shaari
    MyJurnal
    The purpose of this case study is to look at how “Lean Techniques and Principles” can be successfully introduce and implement in the higher education institution or university context. In the last two decades, Lean techniques and principle has been applied to improve production system in manufacturing processes. Lean was introduced in the 1950s by Womack and Jones known as the Toyota Production System (TPS) by the legendary car manufacturer Toyota, the world’s most profitable automaker and have spent decades perfecting lean practices in the production. The method used was to produce more productivity while using fewer resources and identifying activities which creates value for customers, activities which do not create value but are required and actions which do not create value and can be eliminated. This case study demonstrates how “Lean Principles” can be adopted to the administration services particularly in the registration process for new student intake in USIM. The objective of this case study includes : to identify the needs of improving the registration process by eliminating the waste (Muda) such as time wastage, human resource wastage, to introduce the apparatus required to reduce and eliminate waste, to redesign the process using the lean techniques and principles to eliminate waste and to continually improve the process with the goal to achieve perfection for customer satisfaction and university’s reputation. How Lean Principles can transform the work process in the registration procedure, process efficiency, the reasons for implementing Lean in the process, minimize the lead time, minimize the financial cost and the role of management. This paper contains a comprehensive discussion and findings of the development of Lean principles and management through one of the models, namely; Value Stream Mapping (VSM) process which can enhance the operational process in the university environment to improve the process, particularly in the new student registration process.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  4. Fazeli, A., Bakhtvar, F., Jahanshaloo, L., Nor Azwadi, C. S.
    MyJurnal
    Evidence on rising global temperature, melting of ice caps, and withdrawal of glaciers
    brings attentions to the enhancement of energy efficiency in energy intensive industries. Having a
    realistic comparison between one plant and the best practice technology (BPT) in operation in the field
    helps significantly to distinguish and diagnose the potentials where measures towards energy efficiency
    improvement would be applicable. In this regard, for manufacturing industries, one of the most widely
    used energy benchmarking tools is the Energy Benchmark Curve. An energy benchmark curve plots the
    efficiency of plants as a function of the total production volume from all similar plants or as a function
    of the total number of plants that operate at that level of efficiency or worse. This paper reviews the
    methodology through which the benchmark curve is obtained for a specific industry followed by a
    comparison of energy intensity for the iron and steel industry among China and the US. According to
    the international energy benchmark curve for the iron and steel industry, the savings potentials per ton
    of crude steel for the US. and China have been respectively 4.1 and 7.1 gigajoule comparing with the
    BPT in the field. Finally, an overview over certain measures to enhance efficiency of such plants is
    presented.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  5. Banta HD
    Int J Technol Assess Health Care, 2018 Jan;34(2):131-133.
    PMID: 29609663 DOI: 10.1017/S0266462318000107
    I have worked in health technology assessment (HTA) since 1975, beginning in the United States Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), where we were charged with defining "medical technology assessment". My main concern in HTA has always been efficacy of healthcare interventions. After years in OTA, I was invited to the Netherlands in 1985, where the Dutch government invited me to head a special commission concerning future healthcare technology and HTA. From there, I became involved in over forty countries, beginning in Europe and then throughout the world. My most intense involvements, outside the United States and Europe, have been in Brazil, China, and Malaysia. During these 40-plus years, I have seen HTA grow from its earliest beginnings to a worldwide force for better health care for everyone. I have also had some growing concerns, outlined in this Perspective article. Within HTA, I am most disappointed by a narrow perspective of cost-effective analysis, which tends to ignore considerations of culture, society, ethics, and organizational and legal issues. In the general environment affecting HTA and health care, I am most concerned about the need to protect the independence of HTA activities from influences of the healthcare industries.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational
  6. Nurul Hudani Md N, Ma'rof R, Noor Hisham Md N
    Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia, 2016;30:102-112.
    This study aims to identify the relationship between personality traits and job performance among educator leaders in High Performance Schools (HPS). Two sets of questionnaires were used in this study, namely questionnaire Five-Factor Model of Personality (NEO PI-R) for measuring personality and instrument of job performance for measuring the performance of individual work. These questionnaires were distributed to 306 head teachers (89%) in 15 HPS in Malaysia. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between personality traits such as Conscientiousness (r = .740, p
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  7. Rashid WE, Jusoff HK
    Int J Health Care Qual Assur, 2009;22(5):471-82.
    PMID: 19725368
    This paper attempts to explore the concept of service quality in a health care setting.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational/standards*; Efficiency, Organizational/statistics & numerical data
  8. Zafirah SA, Nur AM, Puteh SEW, Aljunid SM
    BMC Health Serv Res, 2018 01 25;18(1):38.
    PMID: 29370785 DOI: 10.1186/s12913-018-2843-1
    BACKGROUND: The accuracy of clinical coding is crucial in the assignment of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) codes, especially if the hospital is using Casemix System as a tool for resource allocations and efficiency monitoring. The aim of this study was to estimate the potential loss of income due to an error in clinical coding during the implementation of the Malaysia Diagnosis Related Group (MY-DRG®) Casemix System in a teaching hospital in Malaysia.

    METHODS: Four hundred and sixty-four (464) coded medical records were selected, re-examined and re-coded by an independent senior coder (ISC). This ISC re-examined and re-coded the error code that was originally entered by the hospital coders. The pre- and post-coding results were compared, and if there was any disagreement, the codes by the ISC were considered the accurate codes. The cases were then re-grouped using a MY-DRG® grouper to assess and compare the changes in the DRG assignment and the hospital tariff assignment. The outcomes were then verified by a casemix expert.

    RESULTS: Coding errors were found in 89.4% (415/424) of the selected patient medical records. Coding errors in secondary diagnoses were the highest, at 81.3% (377/464), followed by secondary procedures at 58.2% (270/464), principal procedures of 50.9% (236/464) and primary diagnoses at 49.8% (231/464), respectively. The coding errors resulted in the assignment of different MY-DRG® codes in 74.0% (307/415) of the cases. From this result, 52.1% (160/307) of the cases had a lower assigned hospital tariff. In total, the potential loss of income due to changes in the assignment of the MY-DRG® code was RM654,303.91.

    CONCLUSIONS: The quality of coding is a crucial aspect in implementing casemix systems. Intensive re-training and the close monitoring of coder performance in the hospital should be performed to prevent the potential loss of hospital income.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational/economics; Efficiency, Organizational/standards*
  9. Mak, Joon-Wah
    MyJurnal
    The research mentorship programme is unique in that it is a planned journey undertaken by the mentor and mentee, preferably with well-defined milestones along the journey. During the journey, familiar landmarks will be pointed out by the mentor. In path-finding situations the experience and wisdom of the mentor and the critical appraisal of both mentor and mentee will contribute to learning from the encounter. In most mentor-mentee partnerships, a formal acceptance to the relationship, well-defined landmarks measuring progress in the journey, regular appraisal of the skills developed and acquired, and phased, judicious modification in the individual roles of that relationship will be required. Although there is no consensus on the elements of mentorship, there are some strategies which can contribute to the success of the relationship. Critical success factors include convergence of the research area within the broad expertise of the research mentor. The research mentor should have a proven research track record and is committed to serve in that official capacity. The research mentoring process is dynamic and characteristics of both mentor and mentee contribute to the robustness of that relationship. The mentee would have identified some attributes of the mentor that are desirable and is willing to work hard to achieve, build on, and improve upon. In the research setting endpoint measurements of success will be based on recognition of the research standing of the mentee, measurable outcomes such as number of papers in top tier journals, citation indices, etc. consultancies attracted as well as invitations to deliver plenaries in scientific conferences, patents filed and research findings translated and applied, and other measures of research productivity. In the pursuit of research excellence the mentee would have imbibed values of professionalism and ethics in research and would have constantly kept in mind that to be successful, the mentee would be able to excel beyond his mentor and that the next generation of researchers will seek mentorship from him.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  10. Zafir M.M., Fazilah M.H.
    MyJurnal
    Ergonomics management is a process that will have a significant, positive effect on a company’s profits through cost reduction, quality improvement, performance improvement and productivity enhancement. Also known as human factors of human engineering, it basically describes the interaction between an employee and his/her job functions, with the emphasis being on reducing unnecessary physical stress in the workplace. The goal of ergonomics is to enable workers to be more effective by matching the requirements and demands of the job to the abilities and limitations of the workers rather than trying to force the workers to fit the job. This paper theoretically describes the benefits of understanding the ergonomics to the workplace. The components and activities required to implement ergonomics management also have been discussed. Besides that, the practical approach of ergonomics has been described by giving practical workplace improvement suggested by scholars. By approaching work practices (stretching, reaching, and sitting) from an ergonomically correct point of view, a worker actually becomes stronger, healthier and more productive.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  11. Guharajan N
    MyJurnal
    Health promotion, a discipline fast growing, deals with the prevention of illness and injury at the workplace. This article review defines health promotion and suggests the means for planning an effective, organized and well-structured program. A properly executed program will benefit both employer and employee in managing workplace absenteeism, reducing staff turnover, improving morale and productivity and keeping health care costs at an acceptable level.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  12. Mohd Suhaimi NAB, de Mey Y, Oude Lansink A
    Br Food J, 2017;119(12):2788-2803.
    PMID: 29720740 DOI: 10.1108/BFJ-11-2016-0549
    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the technical inefficiency of dairy farms and subsequently investigate the factors affecting technical inefficiency in the Malaysian dairy industry.

    Design/methodology/approach: This study uses multi-directional efficiency analysis to measure the technical inefficiency scores on a sample of 200 farm observations and single-bootstrap truncated regression model to define factors affecting technical inefficiency.

    Findings: Managerial and program inefficiency scores are presented for intensive and semi-intensive production systems. The results reveal marked differences in the inefficiency scores across inputs and between production systems.

    Practical implications: Intensive systems generally have lowest managerial and program inefficiency scores in the Malaysian dairy farming sector. Policy makers could use this information to advise dairy farmers to convert their farming system to the intensive system.

    Social implications: The results suggest that the Malaysian Government should redefine its policy for providing farm finance and should target young farmers when designing training and extension programs in order to improve the performance of the dairy sector.

    Originality/value: The existing literature on Southeast Asian dairy farming has neither focused on investigating input-specific efficiency nor on comparing managerial and program efficiency. This paper aims to fill this gap.

    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational
  13. Rubayah Yakob, Zulkornain Yusop, Alias Radam, Noriszura Ismail
    Sains Malaysiana, 2014;43:1439-1450.
    The objective of this study was to identify the exogenous variables of risk and investment management efficiency by using a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The first stage involves obtaining the efficiency scores of risk and investment management via DEA that requires only the traditional inputs and outputs. In the second stage, the Tobit regression analysis is conducted in which the efficiency score obtained from the first stage is treated as a dependent variable, while the exogenous factors are considered to be independent variables. The exogenous factors consist of operating systems, organizational form, consumer preference and size. The results showed that the mutual company as well as the takaful system demonstrate better risk management performance than their stock and conventional system counterparts. In addition, size is also a significant indicator for risk management efficiency in which the larger insurer/takaful operator exhibits better risk management performance than the smaller one. However, consumer preference is found to be insignificantly correlated with the efficiency of risk management. In contrast, with risk management, organizational form, operating system and size are not indicators of the investment management efficiency, but consumer preference is significantly and positively associated with investment management efficiency.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  14. Müller M, Igarashi A, Hashiguchi K, Kappel M, Paolini F, Yoshisue H, et al.
    J Med Econ, 2022 1 25;25(1):220-229.
    PMID: 35072591 DOI: 10.1080/13696998.2022.2033051
    AIMS: Japanese cedar pollinosis (JCP) is a form of seasonal allergic rhinitis that affects 38.8% of the Japanese population. Particularly severe and most severe symptoms among JCP patients can lead to impairments of paid work productivity and unpaid work activities. Indeed, the current standard of care (SoC) is not always able to relieve these symptoms. Omalizumab, a novel JCP treatment recently approved in Japan, provides an effective add-on therapy to the SoC. This study estimates the effect of omalizumab on paid and unpaid work activities (i.e. its social impact) in patients with severe and most severe JCP symptoms in Japan.

    METHODS: The impact of omalizumab was estimated through a one-year static cohort model using the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Allergy Specific (WPAI-AS) questionnaire derived from a clinical trial on omalizumab enrolling patients with severe and most severe JCP symptoms, which had been conducted in Japan. This effect was quantified using Japanese official statistics on employment and time use. The human capital approach and the proxy good approach were employed to monetize paid and unpaid work activities, respectively. A sensitivity analysis was implemented to account for modeling structural uncertainties.

    RESULTS: Our results show that the use of omalizumab might reduce the paid and unpaid work productivity losses due to severe and most severe JCP by nearly one-third. In the severe symptom period of three weeks, 36.6 million hours of lost paid and unpaid work hours could be avoided, which sums up to a monetized productivity loss of 728.3 million USD.

    CONCLUSIONS: Omalizumab could provide substantial benefits in terms of paid and unpaid work activities in patients with severe and most severe JCP. Our results also highlight the importance of considering unpaid work in estimating productivity costs due to poor health.

    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  15. Kuah CT, Koh QY, Rajoo S, Wong KY
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2023 Jun;30(28):72074-72100.
    PMID: 35716302 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-21377-6
    Human usage of non-renewable energy resources has caused many environmental issues, which include air pollution, global warming, and climate irregularities. To counter these issues, researchers have been seeking after alternative renewable energy sources and ways to manage energy more efficiently. This is where energy recovery technologies such as waste heat recovery (WHR) come into play. WHR is a form of waste to energy conversion. Waste heat can be captured and converted into usable energy instead of dumping it into the environment. In the more recent years, the WHR research field has gained great attention in the scientific community as well as in some energy-intensive industries. This article presents a bibliometric overview of the academic research on WHR over the span of 30 years from 1991 to 2020. A total of 5682 documents from Web of Science (WoS) have been retrieved and analyzed using various bibliometric methods, including performance analysis and network analysis. The analyses were performed on different actors in the field, i.e., funding agencies, journals, authors, organizations, and countries. In addition, several network mappings were done based on co-citation, co-authorship, and co-occurrences of keywords analyses. The research identified the most productive and influential actors in the field, established and emergent research topics, as well as the interrelations and collaboration patterns between different actors. The findings can be a robust roadmap for further research in this field.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  16. Zainal H, Zainab AN
    Health Info Libr J, 2011 Sep;28(3):216-25.
    PMID: 21831221 DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2011.00943.x
    BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine Malaysian contributions in the field of biomedical and health sciences.
    METHODS: In this study, 3697 publications affiliated to Malaysian addresses from the sci database between 1990 and 2005 were sampled. This study also explored publication productivity trends, authorship and collaboration pattern, core journals used, and citations obtained.
    RESULTS: Main contributions were journal articles (73.3%). Most authors (63.7%) contributed only one article and 16.1% produced over 30-68 publications. Multi-authored works were the norm. The productive authors were named either first or second in publications. There were active collaborations with authors from Asia-Pacific countries (35%) and Europe (30%). The majority of publications were contributed by institutions of higher learning (87%). Core journals used follow quite close to Bradford's zonal ratios of 44:152:581. The active research areas were identified. About 71.3% of publications received citations especially those published from 1995 to 1999.
    CONCLUSION: This study helped librarians identify active researchers, active research areas and journals relevant to biomedical and health sciences researchers and useful when producing reports to university management and planning medical collection policies and deciding on journal subscriptions and cancellations.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  17. Weatherall J, Simonsen J, Odlaug BL
    J Med Econ, 2020 Oct;23(10):1186-1192.
    PMID: 32573296 DOI: 10.1080/13696998.2020.1786393
    AIM: To compare the health economic efficiency of health care systems across nations, within the area of schizophrenia, using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach.

    METHODS: The DEA was performed using countries as decision-making units, schizophrenia disease investment (cost of disease as a percentage of total health care expenditure) as the input, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per patient due to schizophrenia as the output. Data were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study, the World Bank Group, and a literature search of the PubMed database.

    RESULTS: Data were obtained for 44 countries; of these, 34 had complete data and were included in the DEA. Disease investment (percentage of total health care expenditure) ranged from 1.11 in Switzerland to 6.73 in Thailand. DALYs per patient ranged from 0.621 in Lithuania to 0.651 in Malaysia. According to the DEA, countries with the most efficient schizophrenia health care were Lithuania, Norway, Switzerland and the US (all with efficiency score 1.000). The least efficient countries were Malaysia (0.955), China (0.959) and Thailand (0.965).

    LIMITATIONS: DEA findings depend on the countries and variables that are included in the dataset.

    CONCLUSIONS: In this international DEA, despite the difference in schizophrenia disease investment across countries, there was little difference in output as measured by DALYs per patient. Potentially, Lithuania, Norway, Switzerland and the US should be considered 'benchmark' countries by policy makers, thereby providing useful information to countries with less efficient systems.

    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  18. Touhidul IASM, Sorooshian S
    Sci Eng Ethics, 2019 10;25(5):1605-1607.
    PMID: 29717466 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-018-0055-z
    Communication is an essential part of all activities of organizations. However, it is affected by technology. Today, email and social media are popular methods of communication in organizations. Each of the listed methods has advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed in this letter which tries to drive the attention of organizations to the need for a standard and balanced approach toward communication.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  19. Zare H, Tavana M, Mardani A, Masoudian S, Kamali Saraji M
    Health Care Manag Sci, 2019 Sep;22(3):475-488.
    PMID: 30225622 DOI: 10.1007/s10729-018-9456-4
    Performance measurement plays an important role in the successful design and reform of regional healthcare management systems. In this study, we propose a hybrid data envelopment analysis (DEA) and game theory model for measuring the performance and productivity in the healthcare centers. The input and output variables associated with the efficiency of the healthcare centers are identified by reviewing the relevant literature, and then used in conjunction with the internal organizational data. The selected indicators and collected data are then weighted and prioritized with the help of experts in the field. A case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed model. The results reveal useful information and insights on the efficiency levels of the regional healthcare centers in the case study.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  20. Md Hamzah N, Yu MM, See KF
    Health Care Manag Sci, 2021 Jun;24(2):273-285.
    PMID: 33651316 DOI: 10.1007/s10729-020-09539-9
    Malaysia was faced with a life-threatening crisis in combating COVID-19 with a number of positive cases reaching 5305 and 88 deaths by 18th April 2020 (the first detected case was on 25th January 2020). The government rapidly initiated a public health response and provided adequate medical care to manage the public health crisis during the implementation of movement restrictions, starting 18th March 2020, throughout the country. The objective of this study was to investigate the relative efficiency level of managing COVID-19 in Malaysia using network data envelopment analysis. Malaysia state-level data were extracted from secondary data sources which include variables such as total number of confirmed cases, death cases and recovered cases. These variables were used as inputs and outputs in a network process that consists of 3 sub processes i) community surveillance, ii) medical care I and iii) medical care II. A state-level analysis was performed according to low, medium and high population density categories. The efficiency level of community surveillance was highest compared to medical care processes, indicating that the overall inefficiency is greatly influenced by the inefficiency of the medical care processes rather than the community surveillance process. Results showed that high-density category performed well in both community surveillance and medical care II processes. Meanwhile, low-density category performed better in medical care I process. There was a good overall performance of the health system in Malaysia reflecting a strong preparedness and response level to this pandemic. Furthermore, resource allocation for rapid response was distributed effectively during this challenging period.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
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