I+ Pharmacy. Authors: Adolfo Castilla and José María González del Álamo
We begin to summarize in this post the recent Innovation Wars/CiBUC collaboration with a leading group of pharmacies and pharmacists. This is Farmacia I+, a remarkable and advanced collective based in Seville, formed by a number of important pharmaceutical businesses with a large staff of diverse individuals, including owners experts, managers and administrators. All of them are successfully carrying out an intense work for the benefit of the group. It is also a forward-looking group that has not hesitated to enter into something as novel and sophisticated as Collective Intelligence.. Relying for this, with great perspective, on the approach and methodology developed by Innovation Wars/CiBUC called [Artificial] Collective Intelligence. In previous posts you can see the summary of other applications
(This is the first post dedicated to Pharmacy I+, to be followed by one or two more summarizing the work done).
( Image above taken from the I+ Pharmacy Web Page )
What is I+ Pharmacy?
“Farmacia I+” is the name of a group of pharmacies, pharmacists and businesses related to this area of activity closely linked to health, based in Seville and nationwide.
The members of the group, which is now a large number despite their relative youth, receive various services in exchange for a monthly fee.
As indicated on its Web , “Farmacia I+ began its journey in 2010. The tenacity of a group of pharmacies and pharmacists was the driving force to launch a project with a very clear objective: we wanted to improve the management of pharmacies and ensure that our customers had a perfect health care! Combining the two aspects of integrated pharmacy management, without forgetting those aimed at making the pharmacy profitable, resulted in a concept that was totally innovative until then: the Pharmacy I+ Group was born!”
As a group of companies, businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs, it must combine the personal initiative and individual action of each participant with a collective action that benefits the whole and, in turn, and again, each of its members.
We insist on this aspect of association of “free men” or “free businesses” because we are going to talk in this post about Collective Artificial Intelligence (C[A]I) and the collective in our case has no relation with something close to “collectivization”.
The individual and the collective
Today we know that the individual creates and drives and the collective perfects and implements. In historical terms there is no idea or invention that did not come from the mind of an isolated man (sometimes from several minds at the same time with no connection between them). But neither do we find any case of something that has not been perfected by other individuals. Scientific knowledge in particular evolves continuously through the efforts of men and women over the years, and it is often group work that leads to innovations. Especially if innovation is distinguished from invention, creation and imagination. The last three tasks are more individual but the first one is definitely more collective.
The case of pure science
Perhaps the famous phrase of Isaac Newton (1642-1727), “If I have been able to see further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”, explains what we mean. It is a phrase repeated thousands of times, included in a letter from this father of modern science to Robert Hooke, another great scientist of the time with whom he had important controversies within the Royal Society. Royal Society of London.
The collective, in short, is as important as the individual, and the possibility of managing the communal has gained strength with the digital revolution, the Internet and the interconnectivity it enables. As well as with the information and knowledge that can now be handled better than ever before and the superior intelligence that emerges from it all.
Historically, it is known that man, or the species from which he came, advanced considerably when he learned to live in community and work together with others. It is true that towards the end of the 17th century the classical liberal revolution took place in Europe, initially in England, by the hand of John Locke. John Locke (1632-1704) and other thinkers, which highlighted and made personal freedom and individualism fashionable during the following centuries.
Intelligence [Artificial] Collective
With time and technology, especially digital technology, the strong collaboration of people in all human activities has once again become a basic requirement. Collaboration that in these times refers, with particular emphasis, to intelligence and to the achievement of goals superior to those of isolated individuals. At Innovation Wars, S.L./CiBUC we have been working for some time on Collective Intelligence, always with the idea of getting from the groups of people we work with an intelligence superior to that of individuals, as we say.
We have coined the expression Collective Intelligence [Artificial], under which there are years of work, research efforts and very varied applications. All of which has allowed the development of a powerful methodology, advanced techniques and the use of the Internet and diverse digital technology with a special focus on Artificial Intelligence.
We believe that I[A]C is the right approach for the new management needed in the Digital Era we are entering. We therefore speak of Collective Intelligent Management and to conceptualize it we use schemes such as the following:
The case of Pharmacy I +
In Innovation Wars, S.L./CiBUC we have been working for years with all kinds of companies and institutions and we have found that those who call us are dynamic, advanced groups with a great interest in being updated on everything that can be useful for a better overall management of their activities.
This is the case of Farmacia I+, a group of companies and individuals led by a team of highly competent people who have clearly seen the convenience of using Collective Intelligence.
They commissioned our company to carry out an I[A]C exercise in which a total of 105 experts participated, who are, in fact, responsible for the results achieved.
The knowledge and experience of the experts submitted to the I[A]C methodology of Innovation Wars, S.L./CiBUC, has resulted in a series of initiatives and commitments from the participants that is now being transformed into a rigorous action plan.
The work itself, about which we would like to give some additional information, started from the establishment of a challenge and two basic questions in relation to the general activity of Pharmacy I +. These are shown in the figure below:
(Continued in the next post)
