HEALTHCARE FORECASTING IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE).

This study has been designed to address the issue of the forecasting of the healthcare needs of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) from 1974 to 2011. This includes predicting the health system's need for hospitals and hospital beds, as well as the public health manpower (example, physicians, nurses) requirements. The analysis was based on historical data: the number of hospitals, number of nurses, number of hospital beds, which have been posited as the measures of life expectancy in the Emirate. The study found that, although significant changes designed to enhance public health outcomes in the UAE have been made, beds to population ratio was the most significant factor in enhancing healthcare and the public health.

A review of the effect of pharmaceutical firm drug announcements on stock option pricing.

Since the Black and Sholes published their work in option pricing in 1973, there have been a great number of dissertations, theses, and articles published on options pricing. Several articles discussed American options and European options. Many articles where empirical in nature. In this article, we review some of the literature in this area and then discuss in a descriptive way the effect of pharmaceutical companies' announcements of new drugs on the market or drug withdrawals from the market on their stock options. This article should be the beginning of the discussion on how stock prices might affect the cost of drugs and the affect of the affordability of drug prices, if any.

FDTD analysis of dielectric-loaded longitudinally slotted rectangular waveguides.

A versatile electromagnetic (EM) computational algorithm, based on the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) technique, is developed to analyze longitudinally oriented, square-ended, single slot fixtures and slot-pair configurations cut in the broad wall of a WR-975 guide operating at a frequency of 915 MHz. The finite conductivity of the waveguide walls is accounted for by employing a time-domain Surface-Impedance Boundary Conditions (SIBC) formulation. The proposed FDTD algorithm has been validated against measurements performed on a probe-excited slot cut along the center line of the broad wall of a WR-284 guide and available experimental data for energy coupled from a longitudinal slot pair in the broad wall of a WR-340 guide. Numerical results are-presented to exploit the influence of the constitutive parameters of the processed material as well as protective insulating window slabs mounted on the exterior surface of the slots. Particular attention is given to the resonant length, scattering parameters, and the electric field distribution within lossy objects placed in the near-field region over a range of slot offsets and workloads with extensive results being reported for the first time. It is shown that the FDTD technique can accurately predict the coupling and power absorption characteristics in loads located in the near field zone of the slotted waveguide structures and, therefore, should prove to be a powerful design tool applicable to a wide class of slotted waveguide applicators that may be difficult to analyze using other available techniques.

Perceptions of continuing medical education, professional development, and organizational support in the United Arab Emirates.

INTRODUCTION: This paper investigates the views of health care providers on continuous medical education (CME). To our knowledge, this is one of the first surveys to examine perspectives of CME in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS: A 6-part questionnaire focused on the following areas of CME: the workshop leaders/trainers, the training experience, the relevance of CME information provided in the training session, the training approach, the convenience of CME sessions, and organizational support. RESULTS: Results from 147 respondents indicated moderate satisfaction with these 6 CME areas. Respondents did not indicate satisfaction with organizational support received. Furthermore, participants agreed with the importance of CME to professional development. DISCUSSION: In our sample of UAE health care workers, they agree on the importance and relevance of CME to the development of their profession, even though the majority of health care workers are expatriates. However, several issues must be addressed, such as organizational, logistical, and financial support to attend CME programs. These issues must be addressed in order to sustain the viability of healthcare workers attending CME.

Ranking of priorities in employees' reward and recognition schemes: from the perspective of UAE health care employees.

A reward and recognition (RR) system is a tool widely applied by organizations to motivate their employees. Outstanding employees expect their effort to be acknowledged by the organization. However, the variety of rewards and recognitions systems used by organizations may be perceived differently by different employees. The diverse workforce structure in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) poses various challenges for organization managers. Managers need to implement the shrewd RR system which best fits their diverse workforce. This research studied how medical sector employees in the private and public health sector view the RR systems in the UAE. Two lists, comprising 26 major approaches to RR, were prepared and its items prioritized by taking inputs from 250 employees working in more than 30 varied public and private health care organizations in the UAE. The findings of the research are expected to provide guidelines for developing appropriate RR systems for organizations in general, and UAE health care organizations in particular.