The current role of economic appraisal in health policy and medical practice is outlined, emphasizing the pharmaceutical sector where developments are most marked. General health policy in the Netherlands and pharmaceutical policy in Australia are presented as examples of how economic appraisal may diffuse further as a decision-support tool for health authorities. This can be promoted by studyi...

 In order to simulate human beings’ thinking, this study is dedicated to proposing a novel fuzzy neural network (FNN) to cluster the fuzzy data being collected from the fuzzy questionnaires. The proposed FNN is the integration of adaptive resonance theory 2 (ART2) neural network and fuzzy sets theory. It can handle the fuzzy inputs as well as the fuzzy weights. A case study for mobile phone ma...

in this paper we study a representation of a fuzzy subgroup $mu$ of a group $g$, as a product of indecomposable fuzzy subgroups called the components of $mu$.  this representation is unique up to the number of components and their isomorphic copies. in the crisp group theory, this is a well-known theorem attributed to remak, krull, and schmidt. we consider the lattice of fuzzy subgroups and som...

Fuzzy set theory has been studied extensively over the past 30 years. Most of the early interest in fuzzy set theory pertained to representing uncertainty in human cognitive processes (see for example Zadeh (1965)). Fuzzy set theory is now applied to problems in engineering, business, medical and related health sciences, and the natural sciences. In an effort to gain a better understanding of t...

Fuzzy systems, including fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic, provide a rich and meaningful improvement, or extension of conventional logic. The mathematics generated by this theory is consistent, and fuzzy set theory may be seen as a generalisation of classic set theory. Applications in soil science, which may be generated from, or adapted to fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic, are wide-ranging: nu...

Industrial renewal in the bio/nanopharma sector is important for the long term strength of the Australian economy and for the health of its citizens. A variety of factors, however, may have caused inadequate attention to focus on systematically promoting domestic generic and small biotechnology manufacturers in Australian health policy. Despite recent clarifications of 'springboarding' capacity...

The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology that is useful for analysing from a microeconomic perspective the incentives to entry, permanence and exit in the market for pharmaceutical generics under fuzzy conditions. In an empirical application of our proposed methodology, the potential towards permanence of labs with different characteristics has been estimated. The case we deal with is ...

Modern general system theory proposed a holistic integrative approach based on input-state-output dynamics as opposed to the traditional reductionist detail based approach. Information complexity and uncertainty required a fuzzy system theory, based on fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. While successful in dealing with analysis, synthesis and control of technical engineering systems, general system th...

We are happy to announce the metamorphosis of the Southern Med Review (SMR) into the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice [1-3]. As an open access journal published by BioMed Central [4-7], Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice (JoPPP) will reach a greater number of readers. Open access will lead to a wider readership, higher downloads, higher citations, and a higher Impact Fac...

We argue that the field of Health Policy and Management (HPAM) ought to confront the gap between theory, policy, and practice. Although there are perennial efforts to reform healthcare systems, the conceptual barriers are considerable and reflect the theory-policy-practice gap. We highlight four dimensions of the gap: 1) the dominance of microeconomic thinking in health policy analysis and desi...