Biomedicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biomedicine - Essay Example Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomedicine The basic underlying principle of the health care system is to treat disease on the basis of diagnoses arrived at by using symptoms and investigations. However, the effectiveness of treatment based on this rationale has been questioned. This process, which often overlooks patients' specific environments, everyday experiences, social conditions and the external environment, has been reviewed with a different angle. During the last few decades, there has been much criticism associated with this rationale. A number of 'new' concepts have been introduced in the medical discussions, such as illness, health, life quality and function. This has heralded a need for change in the everyday practices of parts of the health care system. This healthcare system that consists of general practitioners, public health personnel, nurses and paramedics has been changing so subtly, that it has not kept pace with the momentum of change in the medical arena made more complex by the population explosion and healthcare issues. This is especially true of the initial diagnostic visits between the patient and the doctor where the primary encounters occur. This is also ripe for change in the preventive health care segment where a lot of earlier sidelined concepts have now started to emerge. Recently, concepts of health and illness have been changing from before. The comprehension of health and illness has been changing due to input fuelled by perspectives from many disciplines. Health has now become a more holistic concept and has benefited by the increasing acknowledgement of other sources like biology, environment, social position, and the role of the mind, culture, spirituality, race, and sex, that influence health and well bein g. These have served to widen the realm of focus on the issues of health and illness. The health care systems are now more of a social model of health and this could explain the reasons for the increasing use of alternative therapies such as homeopathy, natural healing methods, acupuncture etc. Last, but not the least, stress has been accepted to be a major causative factor, and prevention and stress management methods seem to be a great approach to managing health proactively. This creates more focus on prevention than cure and more reasons to treat the causative factors rather than the symptoms of the disease. The main influences that have initiated a need for the reformulation of biomedicine may be attributed to a number of causes, some of which have been discussed as follows. Rising costs of health care are not matched by corresponding gains in population health; in particular health inequalities seem to take an upward trend. (Hallam, 2003) Managed health care has become so commercialised that it has become a luxury rather than basic need to be able to access medical care when essential. Modern investigative medical tests and treatments are expensive, rendering it unaffordable to a lot of people in the society. Individuals are bereft when they are unable to afford the huge insurance premiums, especially, the lower socio economic groups. This results in postponement of a visit to the doctor until really chronic, thereby not only missing opportunities to diagnose serious illnesses earlier than later but adding to the burden of the healthcare system by the extensive treatment that would now be required. Since

Management Strategies Wal-Mart should undertake for Successful Global Essay

Management Strategies Wal-Mart should undertake for Successful Global Presence - Essay Example Decrease in government restriction resulted in increased opening up of the China retail market. Global retailers such as Wal-Mart took advantage and opened store in China. Though Wal-Mart started as a small, store in Arkansas, it spread rapidly and dominated the retail sector in United States. Wal-Mart’s founder, Walton, believed that discounting was crucial in retail business. He opened stores in neglected areas and sold goods at considerably cheap prices (Glass, 2012). The use of â€Å"Everyday low prices† gave Wal-Mart a competitive advantage over its competitors. Additionally, Wal-Mart developed a strong marketing culture such that it remained popular even when its competitors, Kmart and Woolco, closed down. However, Wal-Mart’s entry into China was not successful. China opened up its market for foreign retailers in 2005, which Wal-Mart saw as a great opportunity. This is because China’s thriving economy provided a great opportunity for profitable retailing. Despite Walton’s insistence on discount prices, Wal-Mart remained less popular in China (Farhoomand & Wang, 2006). One of the main drawback was the resignation of Cassian Chueng, the president of Wal-Mart China, which happened at the time when the entry plan was at the initial stages of implementation. Irrespective of being the world largest retailer, Wal-Mart is ranked at position twenty in China in terms of its sales (Glass, 2012; Wang, & Jha, 2011). One of issues facing Wal-Mart is managements’ refutation of employee’s unionization. Sam Walton opposed formation of union by War-Mart employee’s rights from the initial stages. ... The Wal-Mart employees have attempted to demand for salary increment and they feel that such grievances have not been clearly addressed (Wang, & Jha, 2011). To create a successful global presence and ensure the success of Wal-Mart in meeting its goals and mission, the management must address the issue of Unionization. This issue has been criticized strongly, which could affect Wal-Mart performance. Additionally, the success of any organization greatly depends on the level of satisfaction among the employees. It is thus inevitable that Wal-Mart should consider accommodation unionization to ensure the employees’ grievances are addressed accordingly (Glass, 2012; Farhoomand & Wang, 2006). Another issue that has affected Wal-Mart’s entry into China is their expansion strategy. In United States, Walton preferred opening stores in small towns, which gave Wal-Mart a competitive advantage. However, Chinas economic growth is more rampant in large cities, particularly those along the coastal region. It is thus significant for Wal-Mart to reconsider the positioning of its store in China. Although there are existing barriers such as resistance from China authorities to let Wal-Mart expand in large cities, the management should consider forming venture in such regions (Glass, 2012; Farhoomand & Wang, 2006). An alternative that would enable Wal-Mart to retain cheap prices and expand its operations would be to change their marketing strategies. The US market environment is quite different from that of China. This is mainly due to cultural differences. Wal-Mart should thus consider exposing its employees to Chinese culture to understand the needs of their consumer appropriately. As opposed to US where the