Movie mogul Steven Spielberg says the future of gaming is virtual reality. He thinks that virtual reality, which experimentally came and went in the eighties, is going to be redeveloped, just like 3D is being redeveloped today. Spielberg believes that virtual reality will be the new platform for our gaming future. I believe this. Virtual reality is as inevitable as everyone’s been saying for decades. Technology today is constantly bringing new surprises and things are moving very quickly. Virtual reality had many kinks in it and there were many things that needed to be revised and fixed with the virtual system. But technology has come a long way. Since we now have the I-phone, I believe that we can finally fix and figure out virtual reality.
This game system will make a lot of money and hopefully revitalize the economy. Every year, a game system makes a lot of money, especially around the holidays. Virtual reality will become a record holder once it is fixed. The closest game we currently have to virtual reality is the Nintendo Wii. When I tried to buy my little brother a Nintendo Wii for Christmas a couple of years ago, it was completely sold out. This leads me to believe that a virtual reality game system will sell out and there will be more demand for it than any of the existing games. The existing games are all basically the same, they all have a controller and move things on the screen. A virtual reality game system will be radically different. A virtual reality game system will allow people to believe that they are actually in the game. Nothing can beat real life. Virtual reality comes as close to real life as we can imagine. I hope that virtual reality games come into popular use soon. I hope that they are readily available soon. This will redefine fun. A virtual reality game can also revitalize learning. Professions can use virtual reality to practice their profession. This includes doctors, pilots, and the armed forces. Chapter 13 talked about virtual reality and how it can be used by professionals to practice their skill. Virtual Reality is the future!!
Reference: Peckham, Matt. (May 20, 2009). Spielberg: The Future of Gaming is Virtual, Surprise! Retrieved May 31, 2009 from PC magazine. Website: http://www.pcworld.com/article/165274/spielberg_the_future_of_gaming_is_virtual_surprise.html
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Chapter 12: Can Information Systems Make Your Doctor Better?
1) Hospitals and physicians are facing many problems in diagnosing diseases and prescribing medications. More than 1.5 million Americans are injured each year by drug errors In hospitals, nursing homes, and doctor’s offices. More than 7,000 Americans are killed each year because of inappropriate prescriptions. A preventable drug error adds more than $5,800 to the hospital bill of a single patient, and preventable drug errors occurring in hospitals may amount to $3.5 billion annually. There are some management, organizational, and technological factors responsible for these problems. Many of these errors are the result of human factors such as poor handwriting, memory lapses, fatigue, and distractions, compounded by the sheer volume and complexity of available medications. There are more than 10,000 prescription drugs on the market and 300,000 over the counter products. Many have vastly different dosage and usage instructions depending on the patient’s age, weight, and risk factors.
2) CPOE and DDS are appropriate solutions. The CPOE tries to reduce prescription and dosage errors for medications, keep physicians updated on treatment guidelines, and prevent physicians from ordering superfluous tests or drugs that are not part of the standard formularies. The value of decision support lies in its ability to remember thousands of details and bring the right ones to the attention of doctors at the right times. Communications between doctors and nurses can run much more smoothly. The hospital staff members can avoid literally running back and forth to consult each other because the system contains all of the pertinent information. Doctors save time on their rounds by visiting patients with laptops. They can ender orders for drugs and labs, as well as view lab results, without having to return to their offices. The orders are less likely to contain errors or be misread by labs or pharmacies because they are not handwritten. Some studies have shown that CPOE systems can prevent one-fourth of all adverse drug effects. DDS will make healthcare more efficient and save money for patients and insurance companies. The system can help prevent costly malpractice cases. It can serve as a “diagnosis reminder.” There are management, technological, and organizational issues involved in the use of these systems. Physicians must be willing to incorporate the use of these systems in their workflow. CPOE systems must support sophisticated decisions, such as drug choice, dosages, and patient-monitoring strategies, and they must be well designed.
3) There are many obstacles that prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry. Doctors and nurses must trust the system. If they do not trust the system, they are more likely to ignore the automated prompts. Using decision-support software might be hard for doctors to get used to because doctors prefer to trust their experience and training. Some doctors resist the idea that they need help remembering procedures and treatments. Many physicians argue that diagnosing medical conditions is as much an art as it is a science, and DDS systems have not proved to be more successful than human diagnostics. Therefore, estimates place the percentage of doctors in the U.S. who use such systems at no higher than 2%. Doctors feel that the cost of the system is too high. They also feel that the time that it takes to input the data into the system is too much. There are things that can be done to remove these obstacles. As the technology improves and doctors become more involved in the development of DDS systems, the systems may become more desirable. As doctors learn more about the CPOE and DDS systems, they may embrace them more. Physician education is key to removing the many obstacles that these systems face.
2) CPOE and DDS are appropriate solutions. The CPOE tries to reduce prescription and dosage errors for medications, keep physicians updated on treatment guidelines, and prevent physicians from ordering superfluous tests or drugs that are not part of the standard formularies. The value of decision support lies in its ability to remember thousands of details and bring the right ones to the attention of doctors at the right times. Communications between doctors and nurses can run much more smoothly. The hospital staff members can avoid literally running back and forth to consult each other because the system contains all of the pertinent information. Doctors save time on their rounds by visiting patients with laptops. They can ender orders for drugs and labs, as well as view lab results, without having to return to their offices. The orders are less likely to contain errors or be misread by labs or pharmacies because they are not handwritten. Some studies have shown that CPOE systems can prevent one-fourth of all adverse drug effects. DDS will make healthcare more efficient and save money for patients and insurance companies. The system can help prevent costly malpractice cases. It can serve as a “diagnosis reminder.” There are management, technological, and organizational issues involved in the use of these systems. Physicians must be willing to incorporate the use of these systems in their workflow. CPOE systems must support sophisticated decisions, such as drug choice, dosages, and patient-monitoring strategies, and they must be well designed.
3) There are many obstacles that prevent computer systems from improving the medical industry. Doctors and nurses must trust the system. If they do not trust the system, they are more likely to ignore the automated prompts. Using decision-support software might be hard for doctors to get used to because doctors prefer to trust their experience and training. Some doctors resist the idea that they need help remembering procedures and treatments. Many physicians argue that diagnosing medical conditions is as much an art as it is a science, and DDS systems have not proved to be more successful than human diagnostics. Therefore, estimates place the percentage of doctors in the U.S. who use such systems at no higher than 2%. Doctors feel that the cost of the system is too high. They also feel that the time that it takes to input the data into the system is too much. There are things that can be done to remove these obstacles. As the technology improves and doctors become more involved in the development of DDS systems, the systems may become more desirable. As doctors learn more about the CPOE and DDS systems, they may embrace them more. Physician education is key to removing the many obstacles that these systems face.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Hidden Secrets of Online Quizzes
This article relates to Chapter 10 because this article talks about e-commerce. There are quizzes all over the internet that will tell you something about your personality. These quizzes are very tempting and I have taken many of them. They are fun and you hope that they will reveal something to you. You hope that they might help you find yourself, in some small way, or give you new insight about your repressed self.
However, internet quizzes are also a tool for companies to collect data and even money. Online quizzes require you to give much information about yourself. Consequently, these quizzes get you to pay attention to advertisements. For example, RealAge, a quiz that assigns you a biological age based on family history and heath, sells your answers to questions to drug companies who want to market medications. This is unethical. Web quizzes should have full disclosures before people take the quiz that tells them that their information will be sold to advertisers. If people knew the full consequences of their actions, they would make different choices. Many people would not choose to take part in the RealAge quiz if they knew that their private information was being sold. There needs to be sweeping legislation that mandates full disclosure. There should also be public awareness campaigns that informs people that this is taking place. Had I not read this article, I would not know that the information that I enter into little quizzes is being sold. I will now think twice before taking the quiz that tells me which Care Bear I am. The reason that I now know that personal information is being sold on the internet via tricks is because I am in this class. Information is not free, and it should be, especially if it protects people from financial predators.
Some online quizzes even surprise you with required payments or purchases before you can access your results. Test-IQ, a quiz advertised on Facebook has this payment model. You have to look up the privacy policy and read in very fine print to even know they charge. They do not disclose this on their main page and it is difficult to find this out.
CheckMyPersonality.com allows its owners to track down information about you such as your household income, buying habits, and sells that data to marking agencies. The site also periodically accesses your credit card once you’ve signed up. It also can verify that your credit card account is valid and has credit available by charging fees and later crediting them off. This has happened to me also on a website that I visited. This disclosure is very hard to find and buried under the privacy policy in fine print. This is clearly unethical. Companies should have full disclosures that are very easy to understand and transparent. They should not be able to trick people into giving them money. This is unethical and the government should do something about it. It reminds me of credit card companies because they too have terms that are constantly changing, difficult to understand, and in fine print. Both of these type of companies rely on tricking the customer.
On Facebook, opening an application automatically grants its developer access to your entire profile. Many policies need to be re-evaluated when it comes to maintaining privacy in this age of e-commerce.
Reference : Raphael, JR. (May12, 2009). The Hidden Secrets of Online Quizzes. Retrieved May 17, 2009 from PC magazine. Website: http://www.pcworld.com/article/164527-2/the_hidden_secrets_of_online_quizzes.html
However, internet quizzes are also a tool for companies to collect data and even money. Online quizzes require you to give much information about yourself. Consequently, these quizzes get you to pay attention to advertisements. For example, RealAge, a quiz that assigns you a biological age based on family history and heath, sells your answers to questions to drug companies who want to market medications. This is unethical. Web quizzes should have full disclosures before people take the quiz that tells them that their information will be sold to advertisers. If people knew the full consequences of their actions, they would make different choices. Many people would not choose to take part in the RealAge quiz if they knew that their private information was being sold. There needs to be sweeping legislation that mandates full disclosure. There should also be public awareness campaigns that informs people that this is taking place. Had I not read this article, I would not know that the information that I enter into little quizzes is being sold. I will now think twice before taking the quiz that tells me which Care Bear I am. The reason that I now know that personal information is being sold on the internet via tricks is because I am in this class. Information is not free, and it should be, especially if it protects people from financial predators.
Some online quizzes even surprise you with required payments or purchases before you can access your results. Test-IQ, a quiz advertised on Facebook has this payment model. You have to look up the privacy policy and read in very fine print to even know they charge. They do not disclose this on their main page and it is difficult to find this out.
CheckMyPersonality.com allows its owners to track down information about you such as your household income, buying habits, and sells that data to marking agencies. The site also periodically accesses your credit card once you’ve signed up. It also can verify that your credit card account is valid and has credit available by charging fees and later crediting them off. This has happened to me also on a website that I visited. This disclosure is very hard to find and buried under the privacy policy in fine print. This is clearly unethical. Companies should have full disclosures that are very easy to understand and transparent. They should not be able to trick people into giving them money. This is unethical and the government should do something about it. It reminds me of credit card companies because they too have terms that are constantly changing, difficult to understand, and in fine print. Both of these type of companies rely on tricking the customer.
On Facebook, opening an application automatically grants its developer access to your entire profile. Many policies need to be re-evaluated when it comes to maintaining privacy in this age of e-commerce.
Reference : Raphael, JR. (May12, 2009). The Hidden Secrets of Online Quizzes. Retrieved May 17, 2009 from PC magazine. Website: http://www.pcworld.com/article/164527-2/the_hidden_secrets_of_online_quizzes.html
Ch. 9 Case Study. Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy
Limited Brands Consolidates Its Supply Chain Management
2) Limited Brands had many supply chain management problems. They all had great business impact. Problems with the supply chain led to a catastrophe. A combination of circumstances created a traffic jam of 400 merchandise trailers at the parking lot of a distribution center that was designed to hold only 150 trailers. The logistics disaster clogged up a main highway and was a public relations nightmare. The environment was one in which planning systems crashed, corporate executives made assumptions, and different segments of the enterprise were not maintaining proper communication with each other. No one had knowledge of the origin of inventory or where it was going. The logjam was a symptom of a larger problem.
Limited Brand’s information technology infrastructure included a mishmash of systems and software from the various retailers that Limited Brands had bought. Sixty major systems were in place with hundreds of applications running on a variety of platforms, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Tandem. Redundancies were common. It was very hard to make supply chain information flow between the applications and coordinate their supply chain.
The impact of these supply chain problems was that discount retailers were pushing Limited stores out of their market space.
Limited Logistics Services ran into resistance from brand executives when it first tried to integrate the supply chain logistics operations of all the Limited companies.
3) Limited Brands faced technical and business process obstacles. Limited Brands was struggling with scheduling issues and processing delays. These problems were due to overly simple point-to-point interfaces that linked one system to another. The infrastructure did not have flexibility because its software applications were hard-wired point-by-point to different application programming interfaces. Changing one API resulted in a chain reaction that caused changes to all the APIs in communication with the connected applications.
Limited Brands needed a reusable framework to enable the replication of software solutions and an enterprise resource planning deployment.
Supply chain management was far away from the boardroom.
4) Limited Brands solved the problems by establishing better control over the supply chain. Limited Brands incorporated “integrated brand delivery.” It obtained improved supply chain technologies that integrate and leverage the supply chain technologies that integrate and leverage the supply chain and logistics. Limited Brands upgraded its software and eliminated the legacy systems. This increased sales, gave better flexibility to respond to market trend and customer needs, freed up employees to concentrate on sales rather than on tasks related to supply chain and logistics. Legacy developed an enterprise-view of the supply chain.
Rick Jackson won the brand executives over by showing them how supply chain transformation would produce significant savings and strategic benefits. Jackson also developed a customer service agreement and metrics for evaluating results. Jackson and his team built regional docking centers on the East and West Coasts to funnel products directly to stores, reducing costs and time to get products to market by as much as 10 days. This helped brand managers make much quicker decisions about which products to reorder.
Tibco worked with Limited Brands to install real-time reporting and communications with delivery agents. They also integrated the outbound supply chain accountability and reporting application with the logistics applications. Tibco’s installation introduced real-time communications between Limited Brands and its suppliers, and provided a secure environment for transmitting documents. It also enhanced the shipment tracking and order visibility capabilities of Limited Brand’s partmers using a booking information module.
Tibco enabled Limited Brands to support future business initiatives and reduce development time and the cost of solutions. Limited Brands was able to unite all of its brands’ technology operations under a central entity.
In 2005, Limited Brands adopted Web-based demand and supply chain management tools from Manugistics to improve collaboration for both the inbound and outbound chains.
Matthews became more involved with supply chain management. The company was able to focus on improving revenue rather than simply keeping costs down when the boardroom was more involved.
2) Limited Brands had many supply chain management problems. They all had great business impact. Problems with the supply chain led to a catastrophe. A combination of circumstances created a traffic jam of 400 merchandise trailers at the parking lot of a distribution center that was designed to hold only 150 trailers. The logistics disaster clogged up a main highway and was a public relations nightmare. The environment was one in which planning systems crashed, corporate executives made assumptions, and different segments of the enterprise were not maintaining proper communication with each other. No one had knowledge of the origin of inventory or where it was going. The logjam was a symptom of a larger problem.
Limited Brand’s information technology infrastructure included a mishmash of systems and software from the various retailers that Limited Brands had bought. Sixty major systems were in place with hundreds of applications running on a variety of platforms, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Tandem. Redundancies were common. It was very hard to make supply chain information flow between the applications and coordinate their supply chain.
The impact of these supply chain problems was that discount retailers were pushing Limited stores out of their market space.
Limited Logistics Services ran into resistance from brand executives when it first tried to integrate the supply chain logistics operations of all the Limited companies.
3) Limited Brands faced technical and business process obstacles. Limited Brands was struggling with scheduling issues and processing delays. These problems were due to overly simple point-to-point interfaces that linked one system to another. The infrastructure did not have flexibility because its software applications were hard-wired point-by-point to different application programming interfaces. Changing one API resulted in a chain reaction that caused changes to all the APIs in communication with the connected applications.
Limited Brands needed a reusable framework to enable the replication of software solutions and an enterprise resource planning deployment.
Supply chain management was far away from the boardroom.
4) Limited Brands solved the problems by establishing better control over the supply chain. Limited Brands incorporated “integrated brand delivery.” It obtained improved supply chain technologies that integrate and leverage the supply chain technologies that integrate and leverage the supply chain and logistics. Limited Brands upgraded its software and eliminated the legacy systems. This increased sales, gave better flexibility to respond to market trend and customer needs, freed up employees to concentrate on sales rather than on tasks related to supply chain and logistics. Legacy developed an enterprise-view of the supply chain.
Rick Jackson won the brand executives over by showing them how supply chain transformation would produce significant savings and strategic benefits. Jackson also developed a customer service agreement and metrics for evaluating results. Jackson and his team built regional docking centers on the East and West Coasts to funnel products directly to stores, reducing costs and time to get products to market by as much as 10 days. This helped brand managers make much quicker decisions about which products to reorder.
Tibco worked with Limited Brands to install real-time reporting and communications with delivery agents. They also integrated the outbound supply chain accountability and reporting application with the logistics applications. Tibco’s installation introduced real-time communications between Limited Brands and its suppliers, and provided a secure environment for transmitting documents. It also enhanced the shipment tracking and order visibility capabilities of Limited Brand’s partmers using a booking information module.
Tibco enabled Limited Brands to support future business initiatives and reduce development time and the cost of solutions. Limited Brands was able to unite all of its brands’ technology operations under a central entity.
In 2005, Limited Brands adopted Web-based demand and supply chain management tools from Manugistics to improve collaboration for both the inbound and outbound chains.
Matthews became more involved with supply chain management. The company was able to focus on improving revenue rather than simply keeping costs down when the boardroom was more involved.
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