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Delay or queue length information has the potential to influence the decision of a customer to join a queue. Thus, it is imperative for managers of queueing systems to understand how the information that they provide will affect the performance of the system. To this end, we construct and analyze two two-dimensional deterministic fluid models that incorporate customer choice behavior based on delayed queue length information. In the first fluid model, customers join each queue according to a Multinomial Logit Model, however, the queue length information the customer receives is delayed by a constant $\mathrm{\Delta }$. We show that the delay can cause oscillations or asynchronous behavior in the model based on the value of $\mathrm{\Delta }$. In the second model, customers receive information about the queue length through a moving average of the queue length. Although it has been shown empirically that giving patients moving average information causes oscillations and asynchronous behavior to occur in U.S. hospitals, we analytically and mathematically show for the first time that the moving average fluid model can exhibit oscillations and determine their dependence on the moving average window. Thus, our analysis provides new insight on how operators of service systems should report queue length information to customers and how delayed information can produce unwanted system dynamics.

Cyber Physical System (CPS) has provided an outstanding foundation to build advanced industrial systems and applications by integrating innovative functionalities through Internet of Things (IoT) and Web of Things (WoB) to enable connection of the operations of the physical reality with computing and communication infrastructures. A wide range of industrial CPS-based applications have been developed and deployed in Industry 4.0. In order to understand the development of CPS in Industry 4.0, this paper reviews the current research of CPS, key enabling technologies, major CPS applications in industries, and identifies research trends and challenges. A main contribution of this review paper is that it summarizes the current state-of-the-art CPS in Industry 4.0 from Web of Science (WoS) database (including 595 articles) and proposes a potential framework of CPS systematically.

Medical 4.0 is now emerging as the fourth medical revolution. It represents the applications of electronically supported Information Technology, microsystem, high level of automation, personalized therapy, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled intelligent devices enabled through the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). In the current scenario, the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant effect on global healthcare, and this impact is also observed in associated fields. There is a requirement for proper telehealth management and remote monitoring systems in healthcare. Medical 4.0, if implemented, can adequately handle the ongoing situation in the medical field as it will provide applications of advanced technologies to take care of the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper studies Medical 4.0 exclusively and also in the context of COVID-19. The paper provides a brief of the significant medical revolution that has happened so far and identifies the significant supporting technologies of Medical 4.0. It also discusses the primary capabilities of Medical 4.0 for healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The roles of Medical 4.0 in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic are studied, and finally, this paper identifies 10 significant applications of Medical 4.0 in healthcare during COVID-19-type pandemics. We observe that the contemporary phase of development and mass-level production of intelligent medical devices has not happened in the same way as it has happened for smart electronic devices and application devices. Engineers will have a prominent role in taking up the healthcare challenges that can reach the common man.

Health information technology (HIT) refers to the concept of applying cloud-based services, internet, connected network, etc. in healthcare. It mainly utilizes electronic health records, information, and data related to the patients for providing the treatment and services in a more effective and advanced manner. This study attempts to propose roles and applications and identify the impact of the concept of HIT on serving the patients during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic period. This paper also assesses the significant impact of HIT in the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 crisis. The medical decision support, e-sign-off tools, bar-coding approach, advanced medicine dispensing, e-patient portals, etc. are numerous data-sharing and network system-based HIT services. It has many capabilities to shift the working culture of medical facilities while serving and treating patients with a higher care level and impressive satisfaction, especially so during this COVID-19 pandemic. Interoperability and tele-healthcare have also become practicable with the proposed HIT approach.

Bioengineering (BE) technology has significant influence on the healthcare environment. This has grown steadily particularly since the medical practice has become more technology based. We have tried to assess the impact of bioengineering in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of bioengineering principles in healthcare has been evaluated. The practical implications of these technologies in fighting the current global health pandemic have been presented. There has been a shared drive worldwide to harness the advancements of bioengineering to combat COVID-19. These efforts have ranged from small groups of volunteers to large scale research and mass production. Together the engineering and medical fields have worked to address areas of critical need including the production and delivery of personal protective equipment, ventilators as well as the creation of a viable vaccine. The fight against COVID-19 has helped highlight the work and contributions of so many professionals in the bioengineering fields who are working tirelessly to help our health services cope. Their innovation and ingenuity are paving the way to successfully beat this virus. We must continue to support these fields as we evolve our health systems to deal with the challenges of healthcare in the future.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the biggest challenges in the field of healthcare. Nanomedicine is a developing area that has the potential to treat various diseases and control infections. Now, its applications are open for the treatment of COVID-19. We have studied relevant papers through Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct and ResearchGate on nanomedicine in context of COVID-19. This paper provides detailed information about nanomedicine in the context of healthcare. It further identifies the primary challenges faced in the current situation. This study provides details about the advancements in the area of nanomedicine in healthcare for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we have identified and discussed various significant applications of nanomedicine in solving challenges thrown by the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers can work on developing applications of nanoparticles with the size of the novel Coronavirus. Nanomedicine is helpful to repair the cells of an infected patient the help of repair proteins. It also plays a vital role in testing medicine and helps many clinical trials get approval from healthcare agencies. In the future, nanomedicine will be helpful for fighting against this pandemic and creating advancements in healthcare.

3D printing applications help solve challenges in the field of healthcare. These technologies evolved to produce custom-made medical devices and implants for patients and enhance medical education and research. This paper aims to make readers aware of the role of 3D printing in the field of medical education. 3D printing technologies are part of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. 3D printing shows excellent potential with unconventional materials like different types of plastic, ketones, wood, human cells, metal powder, ceramics, composites, smart material, etc. This manufacturing method is suitable for producing complex and intricate shaped medical objects of the required property with lesser wastage of material. This paper introduces 3D printing technology and the need to carry out this study related to medical education and research. A brief literature review of 3D printing has been carried out. The paper further discusses the capabilities of 3D printing in the field of medicine. Patient-specific 3D models are being designed and then manufactured and implanted. 3D models of defective body parts help surgical planning and better part designing. Finally, the paper discusses significant roles of 3D printing in healthcare education in a tabular form. For the future, this technology has immense potential for medical education, surgical planning and support including for a clear understanding of the disease.

Healthcare improvement relating to basic hospital service attributes is one of the most fundamental driving forces to uplifting in economic and social transition for developing countries in an emerging context. The purpose of this paper is to measure patients’ trio need satisfaction toward doctor service quality (DSQ), nurse caring quality (NCQ), and hospital environment quality (HEQ) and compare the effects of perceived, expected, and service quality gap on patient satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis was used to explain the patient satisfaction. The result shows that the perceived service quality (67.3%) and the service quality gap (50.8%) can better explain patient satisfaction than the expected service quality (3.0%). Both perception and gap model show that DSQ, NCQ, and HEQ are significant predictors of patient satisfaction, where NCQ is the most important dimension in explaining patient satisfaction. This study focuses on patient need satisfaction research by being one of the few empirical studies relating to the most basic hospital service quality attributes, contributing to the development of hospital service quality in a developing context of Bangladesh.

The healthcare industry in India provides an essential service to everyone in society yet the costs involved have deterred access to the public. This is driven by the incompetent use of healthcare technology, an incomplete system of payments, additional medical services, and limited involvement by patients in the decision-making process of the healthcare system. The spread of COVID-19 vividly demonstrated these weaknesses associated with India’s healthcare system. Given this situation, this chapter identifies the causes of unsustainable healthcare expenditure in India and discusses how to curtail healthcare costs while contributing toward improving the environmental and social impacts of this sector. We conducted research by exploring how the healthcare companies can curtail costs by implementing new practices such as improving the efficiency of utilizing technology. In doing so, this study reveals that only limited efforts in research and development are taking place. The findings of this chapter signify that India’s healthcare is in a weak shape and requires massive transformation. Other developing countries should take India as an example of how to progress and improve their own healthcare sector.

In this chapter, we refine and extend the conceptualization of institutional work when it is linked to entrepreneurial agency engendering institutional change. This extension is conducted employing the method of collaborative autoethnography as we studied the formation of the James C. Kennedy Wellness Center. This Center was instituted through the entrepreneurial agency of outside actors who built and organized it in an impoverished and rural community in Charleston, Mississippi. We examine how the concept of institutional work is extended when linked through entrepreneurial agency. Based on our collaborative autoethnographic examination and analysis of the data collected through observations, interviews, site visits, electronic searches, and photographs, as well as the crucial dialogue conducted by researchers possessing both emic and etic perspectives, we identify a new fourth dimension, assessment, of institutional work linked to entrepreneurial agency. The work of assessment complements the previously identified dimensions of institutional work — creating, maintaining, and disrupting.

This paper analyzes data on approximately 30,000 women from a survey in Uttar Pradesh in 1995 together with the data from surveys of public and private providers of healthcare and family planning services. A framework was developed for analyzing the effects of quality of services on utilization, and for understanding the gradual evolution of the healthcare infrastructure. The empirical results from logistic regressions for use of female sterilization and IUD showed significant effects of quality of services in government and private hospitals, and of socioeconomic variables such as education, caste, and an index of household possessions. Secondly, models for infant mortality of children born in the preceding 3-year period showed significant effects of socioeconomic variables, quality of healthcare services and birth spacing. Lastly, analysis of data at a more aggregated (Primary Sampling Unit) level indicated differential effects of economic development on the quality of services available in the public and private facilities.

Healthcare is usually the first that comes to our minds when dealing with the consequence of major hazards to deal with the large numbers of casualties; however, this was not available due to the ineffective preparedness. Literature illustrates a significant number of publications covering the resilience of healthcare to major hazards; however these tend to be fragmented due to the complexity of this service which often gives an incomplete picture of the health service and thus leads to inadequate level of preparedness. This chapter addresses some of this fragmentation by shedding light on disaster-resilience in the healthcare sector with the view to enhance the understanding of this service and thus builds its capacity and ultimately mitigates disaster risks. The chapter covers the performance of healthcare post disasters; hospitals’ structural, non-structural and functional integrity; regulations and safety codes; and the integration of resilience and the sustainability agendas through an illustration of international case studies. This chapter also presents new dimensions for enhancing disaster-resilience in a healthcare setting. These dimensions are based on a new concept known as sustainable healthcare.