Health information technology: standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for electronic health record technology, 2014 edition; revisions to the permanent certification program for health information technology. Final rule

With this final rule, the Secretary of Health and Human Services adopts certification criteria that establish the technical capabilities and specify the related standards and implementation specifications that Certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology will need to include to, at a minimum, support the achievement of meaningful use by eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs beginning with the EHR reporting periods in fiscal year and calendar year 2014. This final rule also makes changes to the permanent certification program for health information technology, including changing the program's name to the ONC HIT Certification Program.     

Religious belief, perceptions of human suffering, and support for reproductive genetic technology

Reproductive genetic technologies are becoming more controversial as they become more ubiquitous. The opponents of these technologies are largely religious groups, a fact that leads to the question of why religious groups would be more opposed to these technologies than others. Since all of these technologies are justified by their ability to relieve suffering of some kind, it is hypothesized that the actively religious have a notion of suffering different from that of advocates for these technologies, and this different notion of suffering leads to opposition to the technologies. In this article I report on a qualitative interview study of the religiously active in the United States. I find that the religiously active do have views of suffering that are distinct from the medical consensus, and these views are related to people's conclusions about the advisability of reproductive genetic technologies.     

Medicare coverage, Medicare costs, and medical technology

One possible approach to containing Medicare costs involves explicit changes in Medicare's coverage policy with respect to medical technology. This paper first describes the development and diffusion of medical technology in general and then describes how technologies are identified, assessed, and approved for payment by Medicare. Currently, cost is neither a criterion nor an explicit issue in coverage decisions, although coverage policy is an integral part of payment policy. A combination of policies to reduce the rates of adoption and use of certain technologies is needed--including cost considerations in technology assessments for coverage decisions, limiting diffusion of technology to certain providers and sites, limiting utilization to certain indications, and tightening administrative processes. Finally, the interaction between coverage policy and DRG payment needs to be explored more thoroughly.     

Japanese biotechnology: Government,corporations, and technology transfer

In the newly emerging field of biotechnology, Japan so far is generally considered to be lagging somewhat behind the US. Through the judicious application of industrial policy to encourage the growth of the industry, however, Japan is rapidly gaining on the US lead. Joint ventures between large Japanese companies specializing in areas such as chemicals and food and new American biotechnology companies play a key role in the technology-transfer process. This paper analyzes the dynamics and potential of Japanese efforts in biotechnology. Certain structural features of the Japanese economy, such as extensive corporate financial resources, traditional fermentation expertise, and, in particular, government policy to encourage high-technology research and development, serve to increase Japanese competitiveness in the field.     

Japanese biotechnology: Government,corporations, and technology transfer

In the newly emerging field of biotechnology, Japan so far is generally considered to be lagging somewhat behind the US. Through the judicious application of industrial policy to encourage the growth of the industry, however, Japan is rapidly gaining on the US lead. Joint ventures between large Japanese Companies specializing in areas such as chemicals and food and new American biotechnology companies play a key role in the technology-transfer process. This paper analyzes the dynamics and potential of Japanese efforts in biotechnology. Certain structural features of the Japanese economy, such as extensive corporate financial resources, traditional fermentation expertise, and, in particular, government policy to encourage high-technology research and development. serve to increase Japanese competitiveness in the field.     

Managing global change for sustainable development: technology,community and multilateral environmental agreements

The purpose of this paper is to consider how international law has sought to mediate between the promotion of environmentally sound technologies and local community participation. It will be suggested that the paradigm of sustainable development presents the most sensible framework through which to consider these issues. The paper will then present three short case studies centred around various aspects of the ongoing implementation of the Rio Conventions, namely the endorsement of sequestration activities within the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the development of an access and benefit sharing framework under the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and further encouragement of community participation in the 1994 UN Convention to Combat Desertification. In conclusion, the paper will suggest that community participation must be given comparable status with the promotion of technological advances if long-term success is ever likely to be attained.

A technology network for economic development

A technology delivery system designed to provide small and medium-sized businesses with improved access to technological resources for enhancing their productivity and competitiveness has been tested under controlled conditions in the southeastern United States. The demonstration project involved federal research laboratories, state universities, National Information Service and Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and technology users in the private sector. The results of the 18 month project are reported and assessed to identify the conditions for the establishment of a national technology network for small and medium sized firms.     

Estimating intersectoral technology spillovers for Brazil

This paper aims to evaluate the main intersectoral R&D flows in the Brazilian economy, determining their direction and magnitude. Unlike other studies that focus exclusively on rent spillovers flows of R&D, this paper also calculates spillovers with total spending on innovation in addition to R&D expenditure. In the case of developing countries, where R&D is of lower relative importance, we assume that technological effort is measured more accurately if it is considered as different types of innovative expenditure. We used data from the Technological Innovation Survey, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics with the support of Ministry of Science and Technology and data from an input–output matrix for the Brazilian economy, calibrated by Laboratório de Analises Territoriais e Setoriais—LATES of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The analysis is from the year 2011 and covers 32 sectors of economic activity resulting from the compatibility of the two databases. The main results show a mapping of the intersectoral flow of knowledge embodied both by the total expenditure on innovation and by in-house R&D to Brazil for the year 2011. It is important to highlight the wealth of detail of such a mapping, as it characterizes not only by sectoral interdependence of these aspects, but it also shows the direction of flows, the sectoral hierarchy in terms of “donation” of technical knowledge and the intersectoral flows in terms of technological intensity.     

Research expenditures,technology transfer activity,and university licensing revenue

In this paper we relate university licensing revenues to both university research expenditures and characteristics of the university and the university technology transfer office. We apply the Hausman–Taylor estimator for panel data with time-invariant explanatory variables and the Arellano–Bover dynamic panel model to unbalanced panels for the years 1991–2003 and balanced panels for the years 1995–2003. We find conflicting evidence regarding the short-term impacts of research expenditures on licensing revenues. On the other hand, both early initiation of technology transfer programs and staff size increase expected licensing revenues. Staff size and early entry appear to be substitutes, however. One-year lagged licensing revenue has strong predictive power for current licensing revenue. Further research is necessary to analyze changes in technology transfer office efficiency over time and the contribution of technology transfer to larger university missions.     

Law versus technology: Blockchain,GDPR, and tough tradeoffs

Inconsistency between the way in which the law is structured, and the way in which technologies actually operate is always an interesting and useful topic to explore. When a law conflicts with a business model, the solution will often be changing the business model. However, when the law comes into conflict with the architecture of hardware and software, it is less clear how the problem will be managed.In this paper, we analyze the contradiction of blockchain technology and the requirements of GDPR. The three contradictions we examine are (i) right to be forgotten versus irreversibility/immutability of records, (ii) data protection by design versus tamper-proofness and transparency of blockchain, and (iii) data controller versus decentralized nodes. We highlight that the conflicts can be handled through focusing on commonalities of GDPR and the blockchain, developing new approaches and interpretations, and tailoring the blockchain technology according to the needs of data protection law.     

Determinants of software piracy: economics,institutions, and technology

This paper determines the various influences on software piracy using a large sample of countries. In particular, our cross-sectional study estimates the effects of economic, institutional and technical factors on the piracy of software. A more comprehensive look at potential determinants of software piracy, including economic and non-economic factors, may be considered as the main contribution to a literature that is still in its infancy. Results show that a country’s stage of development and the quality of governance have the largest impact on the incidence of software piracy. Greater economic and political freedoms are shown to have opposite effects on piracy. Further, greater diffusion of the Internet and of computer technologies, other things equal, actually promote the legal use of software. Higher access prices also reduce piracy, with the impact of telephone charges being more pronounced than that of Internet access fees. There are significant variations in the impacts of different types of legal institutions and of fractionalization on piracy. The influence of digital divide between rural and urban areas does not significantly affect the piracy of software. Overall, economic, institutional, and technological factors exert important influences on software piracy, albeit with some qualitative and quantitative differences. Policy implications are discussed.     

Facial recognition technology,democracy and human rights

On 4 July 2023, the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered the first judgment on the compatibility of facial recognition technology with human rights in Glukhin v. Russia. The case concerned the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) against Mr Glukhin following his solo demonstration in the Moscow underground. The Court unanimously found a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Regarding FRT, the Court concluded that the use of highly intrusive technology is incompatible with the ideals and values of a democratic society governed by the rule of law. This case note analyses the judgment and shows its relevance in the current regulatory debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in Europe. Notwithstanding the importance of this decision, we argue that the Court has left crucial questions unanswered.     

Searching for graves using geophysical technology: field tests with ground penetrating radar,magnetometry, and electrical resistivity

Field experiments were conducted using three types of geophysical equipment in a variety of situations. The goal of the study was to ascertain the relative utility of this technology for non-geophysical expert forensic professionals searching for buried human remains. The study concludes that the equipment should be used with caution after a critical evaluation of specific field conditions, and more refinement of technical methods and skills should be developed.     

Finance,technology transfer,and national security: A preliminary survey

Concern has been expressed within and outside the United States government about the implications for national security of foreign ownership of and control over aspects of the US defense industrial base and the transfer of militarily sensitive technology to other countries. The focus has rightly been placed on direct contact, through over or clandestine means, between US organizations that are engaged in the development or manufacture of such technology and foreign countries. Avenues of indirect contact and/or access have, however, received less attention. This survey is a review of the various elements of one such avenue-foreign control over or presence in the US financial community. Since finance is an essential element of economic activity and US policy strongly endorses the unfettered freedom of movement of all aspects of economic activity across national borders, a strong foreign presence in the American financial sector is expected and welcomed. Yet the obvious use of finance to control and channel production and distribution leads to consideration of the ways in which foreign interests in acquiring or affecting sensitive technologies can be advanced through financial means.