Virtual and Real Enterprises

The necessity to dehver state-of-the-art comprehensive care requires either the formation of large vertically integrated health providers, e.g., in the dialysis field, or the creation of a federation of complementary companies (respectively, organizations) which together command the range of competencies required. 

The possibility of telemedicine , i.e. the provision of diagnosis and therapy at a distance by use of telecommunication systems, and the access to databases for medical knowledge plus the existence of, for example, automated analytical devices and robot surgeons (obviating the physical presence of the surgeon in the operating theater) will facilitate the provision of the best expertise anywhere, anytime. 

Mastering the technologies is the task of the organizations having the core competence of dmg discovery and development as well as marketing. 

Over the last approximately 15 years, the biotechnology industry has dehvered, together with bio-oriented academia, the major biophaimaceutical discoveries and the technologies which shape the discovery process. 

This shift in the source areas for discovery and technologies away from the big pharma corporations (integrated global phaimaceutical companies) necessitates the creation of R D networks and alliances to captiue those innovations and bring them through the development phase to the patient and maiket.  

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