Geneva-Kurisaki Market Intelligence Lab

This is a bilingual article. Please click here!

This is a bilingual article. Please click here!

I have written this article in English & Japanese. Please click here!

I have written this article in English & Japanese. Please click Here!

“Vinton Cerf on the power of packets“, an online video program, “Tea with The Economist”, 5 Jan. 2011, was inspiring.

Vint said:

• The underlying technology of the Internet, packet communications, has unchanged.
• The ever-increasing speed of broadband network exceeded the speed for human beings to see videos.
• We can transform a wide variety of information, from print media to videos, in a packet form.
• Packets don’t recognise information contents. The just keep transmitting them.
• This means that future of communication will be performed by file transfer.

Vint Cerf

This would be a terrifying statement for existing players of telecommunications, media owners and contents producers, especially for large ones.

A long-lasting business model of telecommunications carriers that they make money from the hours during which users hold lines will not valid any more. Media giants have to create innovative ideas to distribute contents over smart and personalised ICT device, such as smart phones and tablets such as iPad.

It is not a coincidence that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is publishing an iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, and its image has been just published. What’s important in this newspaper is that it will be a paid subscription.

Will and how many readers are willing to pay for the contents over the iPad is an interesting question and worth following up. What I see here is a challenge of an established print media to ride on the changing media habit of readers. ICT is behind the change.

A paradigm change in is coming to be reality very fast.

In 2011, it will be interesting to see innovative ideas from old and emerging players in the fast-moving ICT and media industries, that involve telecom carriers, publishers, SNS innovators, a variety of contents produces and providers, and more.

This is what iPad-only newspaper will look like

I have just finished viewing a vodeo of a TV program of Dr. Joe Stiglitz. It was ” Future of Capitalism“, a live casting of C-Span, Washington Journal, on air on 27 June, 2010. Dr. Stiglitz is a former Chief Economist of World Bank and a Nobel Prise winner of Economics in 2001.

Despite limited  opportunities for me to encounter Dr. Stiglitz, I was impressed by him since the first time when I came to know him at the World Economics Forum (or Davos Conference) in 2009.

He has passion!

I felt the same in the video of “Future Capitalism”. After his lecture for 15 minutes or so, Dr. Stiglitz answered to a number of questions from the program viewers who called the studio. The viewers seemed to ne US citizens, not neccessarily professional economists. In a way to answer the quesitons, Dr. Stiglitz elaborated his point on pros and cons of policy instruments by the US Government to help the economy to turn to the growth path again.

He explained professional subjects in comprehensive words.

How nice it is anyone could ask questions to the first class economist!

How nice it is that those viewers appear not to hesitate to ask questons to Dr. Stiglitz!

Dr. Stiglitz answered to the questions from citizens very frankly and comprehensively.

I see here a valuable advantage of a society where there is little, if any, social hierarchy. Having little constraints in thinking is a source of innovative ideas. In this sense, I think the US society still healthy.

It is not the first time when I find his passion in his speeches and manuscripts.

I was taught at schools that economics was a pure science, and therefore it would mislead the understanding of macro and micro economies if one used emotional intelligence in the analyses economics. On the contrary, the arguments of Dr. Stiglitz are convincing as they were are on theory and his understanding of human feelings, e.g. mistrust to banks, fear to the future, etc. He explains the present economic situation based on theory and observation of the people in the real world, from consumers to office and blue-collar workers. I find in his arguments an underlying passion to save people by means of an appropriate economic policy.

A major reason why I respect Dr. Stiglitz is that he has a good mixture of passion and theory. I believe such mixture indispensable to make a theory works to help people and society.

ICT is used to enable inter-operability of medical and health information systems to serve citizens’ needs moving across countries, while adhering to regulations of different countries. The author has selected for the report three cases developed to serve practical end-user needs for delivery of medical services, and will analyze key issues for the vital development of the ICT applications. The cases are ; Smart Open Services for European Patients (epSOS) for mutual use of the patient data across Europe、the Clinical Information System (CIS, Geneva), a pioneer of an information system for medical workers in hospitals､ and Thrombosis Digital Logbook, a self monitoring system of Thrombosis patients that connects relevant medical service providers via information sharing.

These three cases indicate that connecting different stakeholders across geographies and organizations, and cost-reduction by the use of ICT systems available in the market place are becoming popular in the medical and public heath domains. Co-working between users and ICT engineers is the key to create ICT systems which are easy to use and which help the users.

Keywords:
EU, Medical Services, ICT, Electronic Prescription, Medical Care Information Systems, Interoperability, Case Study, Smart Card, HL7, ID, Security Management, Open Systems, Hospital, Co-working between users and ICT engineers,
Switzerland, Netherlands

Click here for the full report in Japanese

* The report has been published by KDDI Research Institute, Japan.