According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

An informational cascade occurs when it is optimal for an individual, having observed the actions of those ahead of him, to follow the behavior of the preceding individual without regard to his own information. We argue that localized conformity of behavior and the fragility of mass behaviors can be explained by informational cascades.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1405027_code2024.pdf?abstractid=1286306&mirid=1&type=2

A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change as Informational Cascades

The widespread use of standardized health surveys is predicated on the largely untested assumption that scales constructed from those surveys will satisfy minimum psychometric requirements across diverse population groups. Data from the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) were used to evaluate data completeness and quality, test scaling assumptions, and estimate internal-consistency reliability for the eight scales constructed from the MOS SF-36 Health Survey. Analyses were conducted among 3,445 patients and were replicated across 24 subgroups differing in sociodemographic characteristics, diagnosis, and disease severity. For each scale, item-completion rates were high across all groups (88% to 95%), but tended to be somewhat lower among the elderly, those with less than a high school education, and those in poverty. On average, surveys were complete enough to compute scales scores for more than 96% of the sample. Across patient groups, all scales passed tests for item-internal consistency (97% passed) and item-discriminant validity (92% passed). Reliability coefficients ranged from a low of 0.65 to a high of 0.94 across scales (median = 0.85) and varied somewhat across patient subgroups. Floor effects were negligible except for the two role disability scales. Noteworthy ceiling effects were observed for both role disability scales and the social functioning scale. These findings support the use of the SF-36 survey across the diverse populations studied and identify population groups in which use of standardized health status measures may or may not be problematic.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3766189.pdf

The MOS 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): III. Tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability across diverse patient groups.

Background The extent to which renal allotransplantation — as compared with long-term dialysis — improves survival among patients with end-stage renal disease is controversial, because those selected for transplantation may have a lower base-line risk of death. Methods In an attempt to distinguish the effects of patient selection from those of transplantation itself, we conducted a longitudinal study of mortality in 228,552 patients who were receiving long-term dialysis for end-stage renal disease. Of these patients, 46,164 were placed on a waiting list for transplantation, 23,275 of whom received a first cadaveric transplant between 1991 and 1997. The relative risk of death and survival were assessed with time-dependent nonproportional-hazards analysis, with adjustment for age, race, sex, cause of end-stage renal disease, geographic region, time from first treatment for end-stage renal disease to placement on the waiting list, and year of initial placement on the list. Results Among the various subgroups...

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM199912023412303

Comparison of Mortality in All Patients on Dialysis, Patients on Dialysis Awaiting Transplantation, and Recipients of a First Cadaveric Transplant

2014 AHA/ACC Guideline for the Management of Patients With Non–ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines

An economic analysis of liver transplantation. Costs, insurance coverage, and reimbursement

https://www.surgical.theclinics.com/article/S0039-6109(05)70640-X/pdf

An economic analysis of kidney transplantation

Before 1973, selection of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) for treatment was necessary because of inadequate medical and financial resources. Patients were selected based partly on social worth rather than medical suitability. In 1973 ESRD patients became eligible for Medicare benefits, eliminating the financial barrier to treatment. Using data from two national surveys of hemodialysis patients in 1967 and 1978, two social and demographic profiles of patients illustrate the effect of extension of Medicare benefits on composition of the dialysis patient population. These data indicate that problems of patient selection have been resolved, and ESRD patients now have equal access to medical care. Nevertheless, there is growing pressure for cost efficiency for the ESRD program in the tightening economic climate. This may lead again to some form of restriction for future access to dialysis therapy. (JAMA1981;245:487-491)

Implications for Health Care Policy: A Social and Demographic Profile of Hemodialysis Patients in the United States

Cost-effectiveness analysis of transplantation.

https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hep.510280106

Roger W. Evans

Papers

An economic analysis of liver transplantation. Costs, insurance coverage, and reimbursement

An economic analysis of kidney transplantation

Implications for Health Care Policy: A Social and Demographic Profile of Hemodialysis Patients in the United States

Cost-effectiveness analysis of transplantation.

Optimal timing of liver transplantation for primary biliary cirrhosis