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Complementary & alternative
Complementary & alternative medicine (CAM) and Health Policy Change
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Complementary & alternative medicine (CAM) refers to the various ways of treating and helping cure disease and prevent illness in patients (or healthy individuals) through alternative methods. CAM practices include the use of acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathic manipulation, and exercise therapy. Some research has shown that certain forms of CAM such as chiropractic and cranial osteopathy can help relieve pain and discomfort in some cases (though one can’t assume that any form or method will work for everyone). CAM is often seen as a supplement to traditional medicine so it is not always covered by insurance (Fjær, Landet, McNamara, & Eikemo, 2020). Though many people online have expressed doubts about whether or not this form of medicine is safe and effective, others claim it has helped them with their chronic conditions or emotional issues. The main categories of CAM are physical, behavioral, and energy techniques. Physical techniques are modalities that are applied to the human body to relieve symptoms. Behavioral techniques are basically coping skills or tools that can help you deal with stress. And lastly, energy therapies focus on your moods and emotions by stimulating your body’s natural healing system.
Integrative health coverage refers to the coverage of health care services that are made available through different healthcare providers. Outcomes research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine surveyed 1,873 adults between 2011 and 2013 to find out if integrative health coverage helped improve healthcare outcomes for individuals with chronic physical conditions. Results showed that integration rates increased significantly after three years of implementation, suggesting a need for sustainable integrative health coverage to help provide meaningful benefits. The study’s findings suggest the importance of ensuring integrative health coverage remains on the radars, as opposed to being relegated to smaller-funded state programs or regional initiatives which could decrease detection rates over time (Khalil, Al-Eidi, Al-Qaed, & AlSanad, 2018). This integrative health coverage is very vital in enhancing the health of a person and the health of society as a whole. The US spends on healthcare about 16% of GDP, which is only exceeded by Japan and Switzerland. In addition to that, about 18% of GDP goes towards health care costs for insurance alone with out-of-pocket expenses estimated at $150 billion. There has been an even greater increase in spending on medical services, spanning from general practitioners to specialists for over 45%. This does speak volumes as to the need for such coverage and its necessity in improving overall healthcare accessibility and safety.
Improvements can be made through healthcare policy change or health programming to include integrative health. This will improve the number of people in healthcare with this type of treatment offering. Integrative health is about not only improving the quality of health care but also implementing it in a way that will make sense for the patient. This will increase access to practitioners who are trained in integrative medicine, including natural nutrition, acupuncture, herbalism, and spiritual approaches. By promoting these practices, it can also improve health care results by reducing mortality rates due to medical issues. It’s thought that if more patients had access to integrative providers through policy changes or programming improvements they could have improved outcomes for themselves and with their loved ones. Another improvement that will be as a result of this healthcare policy change would be that there would be less negative health behaviors among the general public. A majority of the population in the US has high levels of obesity, so to decrease this could be another way to improve healthcare results. Along with less negative health behaviors, there would also be less self-medication through natural sources, such as herbal remedies or alternative medicine, because it is easier to find prescription medicine to treat any complaint.
An example of a health program that offers alternative or complementary medicine is the one offered by the college of medicine. The College of Medicine offers many alternative forms of medicine, including acupuncture, chiropractic care, and herbalism to name a few. They even offer sessions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which are given by licensed clinical social workers. At the College of Medicine’s various offices around town, you can find everything from preventative care to holistic treatment options that can help you heal physically or emotionally (Herman, Sorbero, & Sims-Columbia, 2017). Come to either their campus or satellite offices today!
References
Fjær, E. L., Landet, E. R., McNamara, C. L., & Eikemo, T. A. (2020). The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Europe. BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 20(1), 1-9.
Herman, P. M., Sorbero, M. E., & Sims-Columbia, A. C. (2017). Complementary and alternative medicine services in the military health system. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(11), 837-843.
Khalil, M. K., Al-Eidi, S., Al-Qaed, M., & AlSanad, S. (2018). The future of integrative health and medicine in Saudi Arabia. Integrative medicine research, 7(4), 316-321.
Data Analysis and Design
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Data Analysis and Design
Introduction
Databases and data models have attracted the interest of many organizations globally. By definition, a database is an immense, constant and integrated collection of active data that offers some operations describing, establishing, manipulating, and accessing the data. Organizations, institutions, individuals and governments use database technology to organize, store, and retrieve data. Data forms the principal resource of an organization and is stored in a computer within the organization. It may be organized into bits, fields, records, files, or databases (Bergholt et al 10-12). Database technology plays a critical role in the information management field. This technology is applied using the World Wide Web (WWW). WWW has grown at a very high rate because of its simplicity (Lu & Feng 1).
In order to ensure effective and efficient operations, organizations use data flow models. A Data Model is a documentation of existing processes and actions that take place during an application software design and development. Data models are represented inform of data flow diagrams (Donald 2). A data flow model is a representation of the processes involved in a business operation. The flow diagram represents business processes and data flowing between them (FitzGerald & Dennis 209).
Organizations aim at making profits and as such they must come up with effective strategies for attracting customers. The use of database technology is one of the most commonly utilized methods of conducting business operations using online purchases. An organization comes up with a data flow process model that allows customers to purchase and pay for goods and services online. The following paper represents a database analysis and design of an online DVD sales information system. The database design will consist of data flow diagrams showing customer details, DVD details and order details. The objective of this paper is to create a data flow model for online DVD sales.
Benefits of implementing on-line markets
On-line presence gives the business a benefit of exploring an external market. Through this, the business benefits in that, creation of new customers takes place and marketing of its goods and services occurs globally. In addition, the businesses benefits from the opportunity of knowledge sharing and global interaction. The 20th century has developed a remarkable change of technology advancement and adoption in most the key sectors of the economy. As such, all businesses need to embrace technology and exploit all the benefits inherent with technology change. Considering physical and on-line presence for the businesses, there is a need of all the businesses to incorporate these two factors in order to synchronize business operations effectively. The integration of the two factors in the business operations results in creation of the business reputation.
Integrated database environment versus the traditional file processing environment
Before the emergence of the integrated database environment, people used to work with the traditional file processing environment. An integrated database environment is a well organized collection of interrelated data that takes care of a number of applications in a system. The traditional file processing environment forms the first computer-based approach used in storage and transfer of information. These two methods of data management have their own similarities and differences as shown below.
Similarities
Firstly, both systems are used to store information. A company using the integrated database environment and the one that uses the traditional file processing environment both end up acquiring the same information. Secondly, both systems make use of computers in file processing operations (Coronel, Steven, & Peter 11).
Differences
The integrated database environment and the traditional file processing environment differ in the following ways. Firstly, the integrated database environment uses the modern technologies hence making it more convenient and fast compared to the traditional file processing that uses less advanced systems. Secondly, the traditional file processing environment cannot share data. An organization using this processing environment must have different systems with different data. On the other hand, the integrated database environment has the capacity of sharing different data in a single system. In addition, the traditional file processing environment has a problem in changing data from one system to the other, but the integrated database environment can change data and show consistency (Coronel, Steven, & Peter 12-15).
Approaches to database design
Database design approaches may occur in two forms, the top-down design method and the bottom-up method. These two approaches are different but share a common purpose of uniting systems through proper description of all interactions between processes (Ullman 22-24).
The top-down design approach
In this method, the database designer starts from the general and moves to the specific. Generally, general ideas needed for the system are put on top while working down to more specific details showing the interaction between processes in the system. The process involves identifying and defining different entity types. An example is shown on figure 1 below.
Conceptual model
Entity
Entity
Attribute
Attribute
Attribute
Attribute
Figure 1: An example of a top-down design approach
Bottom-up design approach
Attribute
Attribute
Attribute
Attribute
This approach is the opposite of the top-bottom approach. It begins with the specific details moving to the general details. Firstly, the designer starts by identifying the data items and, grouping them into data sets. Generally, attributes are grouped to form entities as shown in figure 2.
Entity
Entity
Conceptual model
Figure 2: An example of a bottom-up design approach
Data mining and data warehousing
A business strategic level of decision making never uses business information daily but, it uses cumulative and derivative data from specific period of time. In order to ensure everyone is satisfied with the quality of decision-making, an organization should consider large amounts of data. To achieve this, data mining and data warehouse concepts are imposed, which form a good base for business decision-making. Data warehouse is a modern technological concept that plays a great role in incorporating related data from essential functions of organizations in the most appropriate and effective form.
Data mining is the process of digging through massive amounts of data in order to find hidden patterns. Data mining provides some of the following results. Firstly, an individual can identify factors that are more associated with a target attribute. Secondly, one can predict individual behavior, and also find targeted things, people and their profiles. In addition, an organization will conduct data mining process in order to segment a population and determine the important relationships between the populations.
The following is a case study on data mining and data warehouse implementation on Fast Food industries in Summerwood. The Fast Food forms the most highly competitive sector in the business world today. A very small change in operations has a significant impact on the total operations of an organization. In order to avoid serious effects, a quick access to comprehensive information is essential. Summerwood’s data warehouse was designed to address various IT requirements. The data warehouse was implemented in Microsoft SQL Server 2000, incorporating data from two main sources.
Daily sales information automatically polled by the TACO system
Period based accounting information from dynamics accounting database.
The above data is always available whenever needed and is maintained over several years for comparative reasons.
The following figure shows an example of output from the data warehouse showing the daily report card. The management uses this information to identify daily transactions and how the store performed on a particular date. Daily sales, week-to-date sales, period-to-date sales and year-to-date sales are represented on the report card. It also contains the average check, which is an important aspect of cost control. The information shown on this report card is made available to all stores in the area, for easier comparison of different companies in terms of sales and profits. The card also records speed-of-service (SOS), at the counter and at the drive-thru (Exclusive Ore Inc. 1-4)
Figure 3: Summerwood daily report card (source: Exclusive Ore Inc)
In this example, the Summerwood Fast Food industries implement data mining processes to extract hidden information concerning operations of various restaurants, their sales margins, and profit levels. The extracted information is stored in a data warehouse where managers can easily access it. The information assists managers in making comparisons of daily sales, monthly sales and yearly sales and makes the necessary adjustments. In addition, it assists in identifying the potential market by determining areas where more customers shop from.
The online DVD sales database
Before designing the data flow diagram, a database design is essential. The life cycle of our online DVD sales database design will falls under six stages. These stages must keep the customer informed and in control always.
Requirement analysis
The store works closely with its customers using various analytical techniques in order to gather requirements for the intended solution. The intended solution is to come up with online DVD sales process that will ensure customers order for DVDs online.
Design and functionality specifications
A detailed functional specification of the system is required from the agreed requirements. Detailed designs of all required components including their technology specifications are required on this stage.
Implementation
On this stage, the system developers take the functional specifications and develop the database system. Customers will be given a chance to test prototypes during the application development process and provide feedbacks on its effectiveness.
Testing and acceptance
Once the database system passes the quality assurance tests, it will be released to applicable stores for a second testing including formal customer testing acceptance.
Deployment
The customers will determine the best method of deployment for the system.
Support and maintenance
Once the design gets to work, support and maintenance practices should be done on the system to ensure it works effectively and meets its requirements. Information Technology experts will be employed to ensure the system works according to the specifications.
Online DVD sales data flow model
Requirements
When developing a data flow model, it is important to analyze its requirements. Data flow model requirements is a set of descriptions of the system’s constraints and services. A data flow diagram requires many essential operating systems for it to perform its intended use. In addition, the requirement catalogue provides a depth explanation of the process functional requirements (Spagnoletti 20).
REQUIREMNT CATALOGUE
Apply DVD purchase card Customers apply for DVD purchase card by filling out a form and provide a way of verifying their identity.
A DVD purchase card is issues later.
Buy DVD using the account/visa card A customer buys a DVD by giving the card to the clerk
The clerk makes a total of all DVDs sold, received from the customer via any means of payment agreed.
The customer is issued with a receipt containing name and amount paid for DVD(s).a record for each item sold is created
The customer is given back the DVD purchase card.
Monthly bonuses In case a customer has rented DVD more than the monthly bonus level (set at $100).
Annual bonuses Each customer record is examined annually and those who have attained the annual rental amount of $450 are given a bonus.
Table 1: Requirement catalogue for on-line DVD sales
There are two key entities in our database design of online DVD sales. These are the customer and the DVD.
Title
Video Id
Date acquired
Length
Last name
First name
Account No.
Balance
Address
CUSTOMER DVD
Entity relationship (E-R) diagram
Database designs are represented in form of Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagrams. They enable a designer to express an understanding of the intended database in terms of its functions and communication with other databases. Figure 4 (a) and 4(b) shows the relationship between these entities and their attributes. In figure 4 (a), an E-R of an entity class customer is shown. Entities are represented by triangles while attributes by ovals. This is a top-down design of a database as previously represented in figure 1. At the center of the diagram is an entity “customer” surrounded by single-valued attributes last name, first name, account No. and balance. The account No. is the key attribute on this E-R diagram.
Figure 4 (a): Entity Customer diagram
Figure 4 (b) represents an E-R diagram with entity class DVD.
Figure 4 (b): E-R diagram with class entity DVD
Online DVD sale data flow diagram
The context diagram
Figure 5 shows the context diagram for online DVD sales. The context diagram consists of the following external entities:
DVD purchase system
Provide information about DVD
Management: requires management reports in managing and decision making
Accounting-cash acceptance
Figure 5: The online DVD sales context diagram
The top-level data flow diagram
Figure 6: The top level data flow diagram
The top level diagram for online DVD sales has seven major operational processes. The data flow diagram on figure 6 shows the following:
The function of the system
Who is responsible for giving inputs and
Who received the outputs
Descriptions of processFigure 6 shows 7 major processes involved in the sales of a movie.
Process 1: sold DVD items
This is the process where the customer buys a DVD from the store. In this process, the customer is provided with an online shopping basket selects the DVD of choice. The selection is made by either using an internet enabled phone or a computer. As each item is selected, it is placed on the shopping cart. The information is then sent to the cashier. Secondly, the cashier on the desk finds the customer records using the customer’s DVD purchase card. The cashier then produces receipts for all DVDs bought by the customer. The customer gives out credit cards that are thoroughly verified. Finally, the transport management arranges for the delivery of DVDs to the address provided.
Process 2: Produce management report
After updating customers’ records for the day, the cashier make an update of all items rented, the remaining and the ones that missed in the kiosk. A report is made and sent to the management for review. The report includes number of copies sold, cash reviews, customer and complaints. The management report serves as useful information for managing the business and making decisions (Sen 2).
Process 3: Check customer DVD complains
The clerk received the DVD from the customer and checks customer’s record past complaints. The DVD is played and if it contains some problems the customer is issued with another copy at no extra cost.
Process 4: summarize cash received
During this process, the system makes a total of all received cash for the day and updates the accounting system are made weekly. All the records are stored in the database warehouse.
Process 5: Add new customer
Since the system uses an integrated database environment, it has a way of adding new customers. The new customer provides his or her information in order to produce a DVD purchase card. The customer is allowed to select a DVD and his or her information is recorded and the system updated any time a DVD sold.
Process 6: Produce Monthly bonus letter
The system checks a customer’s record after one month to check the total amount of movie purchased and the amount paid. All customers who have attained a total of $40 are issued with a bonus letter.
Process 7: Produce yearly bonus letter
Customer records are reviewed after one year. Those customers who have attained a payment of $220 are issued with a yearly bonus letter and a free coupon for renting DVDs.
Description of data flows
Figure 7: Online DVD purchase data flow diagram
Data flows are represented with letters (D) as shown in figure 7. The model must be designed in an efficient way in order to avoid delays in delivering information to the required destinations (Kotok & Webber 14-17). Firstly, (D1) shows the customer ID being represented as a customer ID bar code that emphasizes on physical implementation of the process. The following data flow process occurs between the time the customer registers for the card and the time of shopping. The second process (D2) shows cash transactions. This process is necessary because it helps keep financial records of the DVDs sold daily. Process three (D3) shows the video/DVD purchase system that has been replaced with a Video Master File. This file communicates between systems. Finally, data flow process 4 (D4) represents the sale transaction file that stores information on all purchases and payments made on daily bases.
Description of data stores (data warehouse)
The data store is the area where the process stores data for later use by the same system or another one. The data stores are represented with files and tables (Donald n.d). Figure 7 above shows 4 data stores used in the online DVD sales store. The first store shows the customer profile. This shows cash store keeps all the information relating to the customer on name, location, number of DVDs shopped, and the amount of money and paid. The second store shows cash transactions. This keeps all the accounting information for the movie store. The third store is the video store. This area keeps record of all video DVDs available in the store. It gives the clerks easier time locating a certain DVD. Finally, store D4 shows information contained in the shopping basket. The database has the capacity if determining the most frequently sold videos and increases their stocks.
Conclusion
The high rise of technology and globalization requires organizations to be prepared with the current technology in order to win the global competition. The following practice assists in capturing important business processes and ensures an effective means of carrying out business operations (Curtis, Kellner & Over 76-79). In addition, the use of data flow modeling helps in eliminating major human errors. The above data flow process enables the management to keep quality business records and avoid instances of staff members misusing finances. In addition, it eliminates cases of cash losses because the system is automated and there is no physical cash involved this, hence, accounts for every transaction.
Works cited
Ambely, S. W. Data Modeling. 2006. Web:
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/dataModeling101.htmlBergholt Lisbeth, Due Steen J. et al. Database Management Systems: Relational, Object –
Relational, and Object-Oriented Data Models. The Centre of Object Technology (COT). 1998.
Coronel, Carlos, Steven Morris, and Peter Rob. Database principles: fundamentals of design, implementation, and management. 9th ed. Australia: Course Technology Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Curtis, W., Kellner, M.I., & Over, J., Process Modelling, Communications of the ACM,
35(9), 2009. pp. 75-90
Donald, S. Understanding Data Flow Diagrams. n.d. Web:
http://ratandon.mysite.syr.edu/cis453/notes/DFD_over_Flowcharts.pdfExclusive Ore Inc. Data Warehouse case study: Fast Food. Web:
http://www.xore.com/casestudies/case_study_fastfood.pdfFitzgerald, J., & Dennis, A. Business data communications and networking (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley. 2005. Print
Kotok, A. & Webber, D.R. EbXML: the new global standard for doing business over the Internet. Indianapolis: New Riders. 2011
Lu Hongjun & Feng Ling. Integrating Database and World Wide Web Technologies, 2012. Web: https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/ake/ec/activities/rev-form.pdfSen, M. Business management. Jaipur, India: Oxford Book Co. 2008. Print
Ullman, J. D.: Principles of Database and Knowledge-base Systems, Volume 3: Classical
Database Systems, Computer Science Press, 2010
Competitor analysis is a procedure that an organization tends to advance the definition and understanding of its industry by
Competitor analysis is a procedure that an organization tends to advance the definition and understanding of its industry by pinpointing its competitors, defining the strengths and weaknesses of their rivals, demographics and forestalling their intended moves. Thus includes the competitor’s intelligence to gather data on their rivals and analyze as well as interpret data for strategic decision making to prevent the rivals from eroding the organization in its market place. Competitor analysis skills is the center of strategy as competitor’s activities determine the failure or success of a company. External analysis gives the perspective by pinpointing the overall and manufacturing issues that may impact on sum sang. Competitive analysis emphases on the exact competitive market as well as the competitors within that market.
Competitive analysis on sum sang galaxy s8 is essential to the mobile industry since competition will help to define sum sang galaxy s8 market position as well as to get benchmarks as well as determine the revenue and profitability prospects. Doing this analysis shall help sum sang to: Increases service provided, reduce cost, increase efficiency as well as Increase in the variety sum sang products. In addition this acts as a guiding competition from unfriendly competitors, new organizations entering markets and Changes in perspective concerning competition as well as knowing what are the Barriers to mobility within the organization
.
Elements of competitive analysis include the following:
Definition of competitors compromises the effectiveness of competitive analysis. Sum sang galaxy s8 competitors include iPhone 8, LG that is planning to launch an LG6 phone.
A company should do an analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses.
The objective features of sum sang product is relatively a small part of the competitive picture. Apart from identifying the components of customer preference, such as price, service, and location, there is also the need to examine internal strength of sum sang galaxy competitors’ companies. Generally, companies that have major financial resources, highly motivated personnel, and other operating assets will prove to be tough, continuing competition.
Swot analysis
This outlines the main advantages the competing businesses have in the realms of invention management, service reputation, marketing, as well as other aspects of business operation. It also outlines the strategic weaknesses the competing firms have within the same areas.
SWOT Analysis on Samsung and its competitors:
Strengths of Samsung
There is always a new product concept that rolls out in five months hence grasping the consumers pulse, providing good designs & appreciating Emotions large venture in technology, creating design, and the work force focuses on innovative products for the high-end market, As compared to its competitors that have backwards technology compatibility
Weaknesses
Samsung is has Not been pro-actively coming out with newer models often. They Lack differentiation of product as they have various models at categorized price points which focuses on mass market instead of niche markets that are less user friendly designs,
Opportunities
Samsung has always distinguished its service from competitors. They offer various products as the demand for cell phone driven by service providers can be rated relatively equal to service providers hence lowering the price of a phone with 20% in most countries can increase its affordability by 43% from a research.
Threats
The dominance of Motorola a competitor and the popularity of Nokia in the US and European markets respectively controls more than half of the world market aggressive competitors such as Siemens, Sony counting in for share as it does not keep track of new trends within the market as an accessory and fashion report.