Research of the information security environment of pharmaceutical organizations in the context of the transformation of pharmaceutical practice

PurposeThis research aimed to investigate the information-seeking behaviour (ISB) and information needs of different professional groups within the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in the Republic of Ireland (i.e. for what purpose information is acquired), the information sources professional groups use (including in-house documentation, regulations, industry guidelines, standards and colleagues) and the factors, which influence professional groups' choice of information sources. Furthermore, the research explored the perceived level of support that exists towards knowledge and information sharing.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative non-experimental research design, comprising of a self-completion survey questionnaire, was used to examine a number of information-seeking variables: information triggers, information sources and source influencers as well as information sharing enablers. It was related to four professional tasks: process technology/process development, regulatory support and quality/compliance support and engineering.FindingsThe research provides new insights into the ISB of pharmaceutical professionals working within a highly regulated and high-performance production environment, including a greater understanding of the context in which professional groups experience information needs. The levels of agreement observed in relation to employees' perception of information-sharing enablers indicated an overall positive level of information sharing.Research limitations/implicationsThe study points to largely echoed previous findings which suggest that individual work role associated tasks prompt particular information needs. Further to this, work role associated tasks have a bearing on information source selection. Pharmaceutical professionals engaged in positive levels of information and knowledge sharing, relying on procedures, other colleagues and internal documentation as information sources. The participants also indicated a high level of agreement in respect to the value of available subject matter experts as information-sharing enablers.Practical implicationsOrganisations should aim to create opportunities for adequate time to share information and organisational structures, facilitating an overall organisational culture of sharing. A focus on information sharing through forums, seminars, meetings and working groups could enhance information sharing, through the development of communities of practice.Social implicationsPharmaceutical professionals relied on trustworthiness and quality as professional' top information source-influencing factors. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that working within a high-performance, target-driven and time-constrained production environment brings a particular contextual impact, where frequent urgent information triggers are experienced. These contextual factors warrant further investigation.Originality/valueA paucity of information exists with respect to the ISB of professionals, working within the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, which is a sector known for its high level of information use and production. This paper offered an original empirical investigation of the ISB of professionals, working within the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in the Republic of Ireland, focussing on key professional tasks. The research also addressed the level of support available for knowledge and information sharing.

Working in pharmacies entails a high level of professional responsibility and daily exposure to complex challenges. Employee satisfaction significantly influences the quality of pharmaceutical services, productivity, and staff retention. The aim of this study was to assess the level of job satisfaction among pharmacy employees in Montenegro, with a special focus on working conditions, interpersonal relationships, opportunities for professional development, and the presence of workplace stress. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among pharmaceutical professionals in Montenegro (N=262) using an anonymous questionnaire. The collected data included demographic and professional characteristics (gender, age, professional qualifications, work experience), as well as ratings of satisfaction with various aspects of work (working conditions, relationships with colleagues and patients, workload, work organization, working hours, financial compensation, management support, stress, and overall job satisfaction). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. The majority of respondents were female (92%), aged 26 to 35 years (36.6%), with the professional title of pharmacist (54.6%) or pharmaceutical technician (35.9%), primarily employed in the private sector (71%) and in the central part of the country. The highest levels of satisfaction were reported in relationships with colleagues (68% satisfied or very satisfied), organization of work tasks (63.3%), and task clarity (50.8%). Financial compensation and opportunities for professional development were rated lower, while more than 40% of respondents reported frequently experiencing stress at work. Statistically significant associations were found between age and work experience, as well as between professional qualifications and perceived stress. Age was also associated with overall job satisfaction, while longer work experience was associated with lower levels of stress. Gender did not show a statistically significant association with the examined variables. The results indicate that interpersonal relationships and work organization are key factors of satisfaction among pharmaceutical professionals in Montenegro, while lower results in the areas of financial compensation and professional development signal a need for improvement. The identified associations between age and professional qualifications with higher job satisfaction and lower stress levels suggest that experience contributes to greater professional stability. The absence of a significant effect of gender highlights the universality of the identified factors. Based on these findings, it is recommended that initiatives to increase employee satisfaction be directed towards strengthening professional development and reducing stress through institutional support and targeted human resource management approaches in the pharmaceutical sector.

Development of a new screening tool for neuromotor development in children aged two – the neuromotor 5 min exam 2-year-old version (N5E2)

Investigations on the ethical practices and information security variance perceptions between academic and administrative staff were confirmed in Public Universities in Uganda. Four data collection phases included: testing the impact of ethical practices on information security among administrative staff; their ranking of factors likely to improve loyalty; academic staffs’ perception on the highly ranked factors that impact loyalty and, key informant interviews to substantiate key findings. Results confirmed loyalty as a stronger predictor of information security among administrative staff, which finding was considered inconsequential in matters of examination security by the academic staff. Whereas job satisfaction, high salaries, training and development were reported to increase loyalty among administrative staff, academic staff ranked personal integrity and commitment to excellence as most important. The varying perceptions could be attributed to divergent personal values, different technical and or professional backgrounds and corporate cultures. Findings provide new information security policy interventions, highlight the departure from conventional approaches of fighting examination security vices and call for innovations that address diverse stakeholders’ work dynamics. Key recommendations include stringent recruitment practices, rapid re-skilling and regular sensitisation, improved remuneration, and high scores on examination security attributes in performance agreements for all staff handling examinations. Undertaking a single study to investigate the different perceptions of both administrative and academic staff using a four step procedural interrelated approach is a major methodological contribution to research quality. The conceptualised ethical practices’ dimensions could stimulate current debate in Universities.

This article discusses the actual issues of training mediators–translators in the light of the changes of the political situation in the country and overseas. The mediator–translator should use the digital environment, could possess knowledge of lingua-sociocultural and information security, and smooth out intercultural conflicts in the translation process. The goal of this research is to clarify the types of professional activity of the mediator-translator who functions in the digital environment with the focus on the information and lingua sociocultural security, and to define special skills of future mediators-translators for their development in the process of the university professional training. Methodology and research methods include the analysis and the synthesis of scientific literature on translation’s studies, cultural studies, psychology, linguistics, computer science, mediation and the analysis of Russian Federation government documents on the information security. Results. The main types of professional activity and requirements to the mediator-translator in the digital educational environment with focus on the information and lingua sociocultural security are clarified. The mediator-translator as “homo informaticus”- (human of information) within current changes is a specialist who values his or her sense of identity, permanently improves his or her mother tongue, protecting the Russian language from foreign influence, and critically tracks the information on translation machines within the digital environment. In conclusion the article presents the learning prospects of mediators-translators in Russia. The paper will be useful for teaching and learning foreign languages, intercultural communication, theory and practice on translation, pedagogy.

Objective . To assess inter-expert agreement among spine surgeons having different levels of clinical experience when working with the AOSpine classification (TLCS, 2013). Materials and Methods . The study involved nine surgeons divided into three equal groups depending on work experience. All respondents were asked to classify the MSCT data of 50 patients with acute injuries to the thoracic and lumbar spine pursuant to TLCS (2013) classification. To evaluate inter-expert agreement, a Kappa coefficient interpreted according to Landis – Koch criteria was used. Results. The overall coefficient of inter-expert agreement for all observations among all groups of respondents was 0.43, which reflects a moderate level of agreement. Moderate inter-expert agreement was revealed for injury types A (0.45) and C (0.56), and satisfactory – for type B (0.34). The highest levels of agreement were obtained for subtypes A1 (0.67) and A4 (0.80) in the group of advanced specialists and for type C (0.70) in the group of specialists with a basic level of experience. Conclusion. The study demonstrated predominantly moderate level of inter-expert agreement when working with the AOSpine classification (TLCS, 2013). The accuracy of its use increases with a gain in practical experience of a surgeon.

Current research on stress among academic university staff indicates that occupational stress is alarmingly widespread and increasing (Kinman/Jones 2004; Winefield et al. 2003; Bamps 2004; Tytherleigh et al. 2005). Therefore the work environment needs to be examined and more specifically organisational specific characteristics, like HR-practices. In line of Timmerhuis (1998), we believe that management of human resources in the academic sector is very useful and necessary. The aim of our study is to investigate (1) the well-being (job stress and job dissatisfaction) of academic staff at the University of Antwerp, (2) the specific factors of the work environment who have an impact on employee well-being, and (3) the interaction between HR practices and employee well-being. (4) Finally, suggestions of improvement of the work environment are to be formulated. In order to meet this purpose, we designed a conceptual model, based on the stress model developed in the Institute for Social Research (ISR) (University of Michigan), and on the HR-model of Peccei (2004). Central to the model is the idea that employee satisfaction and stress are a function of the subjective perception of the work environment which, in turn, is affected by the HR practices that are in place in organisations. The elements most likely to cause job stress, according to our participants, were workload and time pressures, uncertainty, lack of feedback and social support. Further, it appeared that the HR-related job characteristics cause job dissatisfaction: perceptions on participation, assessment, reward and support have an impact on job satisfaction of the academic staff. Finally, suggestions of improvement of the work environment were mentioned. Key words: Employee Well-being, Human Resource Management, Universities, Job Stress Introduction Until fairly recently, most of what was know about occupational stress among university academic staff was derived from a limited number of studies, conducted in the USA - like the pioneering study by Gmelch et al. (1984, 1986) and small-scale researches conducted in single institutions (e.g. Daniels/Guppy 1994; Abouserie 1996). Although these studies have yielded interesting and useful findings, relatively few larger-scale investigations of work stress among academic staff in the university context were carried out (Kinman 2001). This shortcoming is now being corrected: large-scale and/or longitudinal researches are being conducted in the UK (Kinman 1998, 2001; Kinman/Jones 2004) as well as in Australia (Gillespie et al. 2001; Winefield et al. 2002, Winefield et al. 2003) and New-Zealand (Boyd/Wylie 1994). Consequently, there is growing evidence that universities no longer provide the low stress working environments that they once did. These current researches on stress among academic (and general) staff of universities indicate clearly that the phenomenon of occupational stress in universities is alarmingly widespread and increasing (Winefield 2000 in Gillespie et al. 2001) and they've found that academic stress has become a cause for concern (Winefield et al. 2003). What causes this increase of job stress among academic staff? Political, economic and social changes cause a change in the organizational climate of most institutions of higher education (Doyle/Hind 1998). For example, the move towards mass higher education without a corresponding increase in resources has been another obvious symptom of change. The increased participation has been accompanied by the introduction of market-driven philosophies and growing government interest and intervention in the activities of universities. Demands for greater accountability, efficiency and quality have taxed the resources of the sector (De Jonghe/Vloeberghs 2001: 200, 204). Universities responded to this changing environment with strengthened and often more centralized systems (Kinman/Jones 2003). Consequently, staff had to cope with the imposition of new managerial and funding systems, and with research and quality assessment exercises (Doyle/Hind 1998). …

Researchers have long been interested in how social evaluations are made based upon first impressions of faces. It is also important to consider the level of agreement we see in such evaluations across raters and what this may tell us. Typically, high levels of inter-rater agreement for facial judgements are reported, but the measures used may be misleading. At present, studies commonly report Cronbach’s α as a way to quantify agreement, although problematically, there are various issues with the use of this measure. Most importantly, because researchers treat raters as items, Cronbach’s α is inflated by larger sample sizes even when agreement between raters is fixed. Here, we considered several alternative measures and investigated whether these better discriminate between traits that were predicted to show low (parental resemblance), intermediate (attractiveness, dominance, trustworthiness), and high (age, gender) levels of agreement. Importantly, the level of inter-rater agreement has not previously been studied for many of these traits. In addition, we investigated whether familiar faces resulted in differing levels of agreement in comparison with unfamiliar faces. Our results suggest that alternative measures may prove more informative than Cronbach’s α when determining how well raters agree in their judgements. Further, we found no apparent influence of familiarity on levels of agreement. Finally, we show that, like attractiveness, both trustworthiness and dominance show significant levels of private taste (personal or idiosyncratic rater perceptions), although shared taste (perceptions shared with other raters) explains similar levels of variance in people’s perceptions. In conclusion, we recommend that researchers investigating social judgements of faces consider alternatives to Cronbach’s α but should also be prepared to examine both the potential value and origin of private taste as these might prove informative.

The presence of radiological features on chest radiographs: How well do clinicians agree?

Videofluoroscopic assessment of swallowing is widely used in clinical settings. The interpretation of such assessments depends on subjective visual judgments but the reliability of these judgments has been poorly researched. This study measured interrater reliability of judgments, made by speech pathologists, of videofluoroscopic images of subjects swallowing liquid and semisolid boluses. A 5-point rating scale was used in three conditions: individually after careful reading; together with other speech pathologists in group discussion; and individually after the group discussion. Analysis of the ratings for the three conditions revealed that the level of agreement among raters was generally higher for semisolid swallows than for liquid swallows. The highest levels of agreement occurred for ratings made after group discussions. The levels of agreement were lowest when raters worked alone, relying only on reading the scale. Individual rating after group discussion resulted in higher levels of agreement than sole reliance on reading the scale. Factors influencing the levels of interrater agreement, including the timing of observations, bolus consistency, the quality of the image, and the complexity of the task, are discussed.

Most dietitians assume they know how to teach and educate because they are content experts. Most also assume that the process of teaching is equated with techniques, skills, and methods. Teaching techniques and skills are important; however, they do not represent the entire educational process. Educational beliefs are paramount and shape what dietitians say, do, and how they interact with their clients. Currently, only limited conceptual frameworks on teaching and education exist within dietetics. In this study, the five Educational Perspectives and general model of teaching developed by Pratt (1998) were used as conceptual frameworks to examine the educational beliefs of dietitians. An equally important goal was to reveal professional interests, roles and responsibilities, educational backgrounds and experiences, teaching influences, and international education and work experience - topics which have not been investigated on a large scale but which provide information on the interests and characteristics of dietitians. The study was also designed to determine if relationships existed between personal, professional and social-cultural characteristics and the five Educational Perspectives. To meet the research goals, a quantitative mail-out survey named the Educational Perspectives of Registered Dietitians was sent to 483 dietitians throughout British Columbia. Two hundred and forty or just over half of the total sample frame returned surveys and were analyzed using SPSS. Data from closed-ended questions were analyzed using frequency tabulations and other univariate statistical procedures to summarize demographic, work, and professional characteristics. Then correlational analyses tested for relationships between the educational perspectives and personal, professional and social-cultural characteristics. Open-ended questions were initially alphabetized using SPSS and were then thematically analyzed by the researcher. Results of the survey revealed that the vast majority of respondents were female, most were in their early thirties to late forties, over half had children, and the large majority were native speakers of English. A relatively small number of respondents had obtained Bachelor degrees outside of dietetics. Less than one-quarter of respondents had obtained or were in the process of obtaining graduate degrees, but a slightly greater number of respondents had either obtained or were in the process of obtaining certificates or diplomas. Most degrees were science or nutrition oriented and most certificates reflected either management or clinical specialties. Less than one-quarter of these dietitians had received some schooling outside of Canada in coursework that was taught mainly in English; a relatively small number of respondents had worked as dietitians outside of Canada. A small number of respondents had previous careers prior to dietetics. Respondents had practiced dietetics for an average of about fourteen years; and less than half worked full-time. Dietitians interact with…

Spatiotemporal parameters of walking are used to identify gait impairments and provide a tailored therapy program. Baropodometric platforms are not often used for measuring spatiotemporal parameters and walking speed and it is required to determine accuracy. The aim of this study was to compare FreeMed® Platform gait outcomes with a validated inertial measurement unit. There were 40 healthy adults without walking impairments enrolled. Each subject walked along a 15-m walkway at self and slow self-selected speed wearing an inertial measurement unit on the FreeMed® Platform. Stride length and time, right and left stance, swing time, and walking speed were recorded. Walking speed, stride length, and step time showed a very high level of agreement at slow walking speed and a high and moderate level of agreement at normal walking speed. FreeMed® Platform is useful to assess gait outcomes and could improve the exercise prescription.

Patient-Physician Agreement Using Summary Outcome Determination Scores

Grading system for retinal hemorrhages in abusive head trauma: Clinical description and reliability study

There are very few data on the molecular biology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in dialysis patients. 101 patients undergoing dialysis treatment in 4 units in the Lombardy, northern Italy, were analyzed by RT-PCR for HCV viremia, by line probe assay technology for HCV genotyping and by a serological analysis for detecting type-specific antibodies. 61 of 101 (60%) patients showed detectable HCV RNA in serum; HCV genotype 2a was dominant (30/53 = 57%), followed by HCV genotype 1b (20/53 = 37%). There was no relationship between HCV genotyping and the clinical or demographic features of the patients. The antibody response toward the c33-c, c100-3, and 5-1-1 antigens was more frequent in HCV genotype 1b compared with genotype 2a (p = 0.046, p = 0.001 and p = 0.0001, respectively). The antibody levels to NS-3 and NS-4 HCV proteins were significantly higher in patients with-HCV genotype 1b in comparison with HCV 2a-infected individuals (p = 0.0001). There was a high level (82%) of agreement between HCV genotyping by RT-PCR and the assessment of type-specific antibodies by serological analysis; further, it was possible to detect type-specific antibodies in 6 of 22 (27%) patients in whom PCR amplification was unsuccessful. In conclusion, HCV subtype 2a was dominant in our population of HCV-infected dialysis patients, dialysis patients infected by different genotypes showed similar demographic and clinical characteristics, the antibody response toward the NS-3- and NS-4-related antigen of HCV was genotype dependent. There was a high level of agreement between HCV genotyping by RT-PCR and the detection of type-specific antibodies by serological analysis. As significant biological differences may exist among HCV strains, the assessment of HCV types may be very useful in the routine clinical activity of nephrologists in dialysis units.