A roadmap for bio‐medical waste management research

Abstract

Bio‐Medical waste is solid or liquid waste generated from healthcare activities. Bio‐Medical waste management (BMWM) is necessary to protect local community health and environment, to reduce its financial loss and to preserve its social and aesthetic values. BMWM encompasses the waste generation, segregation, collection, transportation, processing and disposal. The BMWM system is complex and challenging. The research on BMWM must address the complexity for the solutions to be effective. We present an ontology of BMWM to visualize the complexity of the system and analyse it systematically. The research corpus of all the 184 articles from Scopus on BMWM is mapped onto the ontology. Ontological and theme maps are generated to highlight the emphases and gaps in the research. The results show the roadmap of BMWM research with the dominant emphasis on its functional elements and outcomes. There is little emphasis on the composition of the waste, the stakeholders and the policy instruments that guide and regulate the system. Correcting the biases in the present research corpus will help develop effective research and practice. This review results can be used to develop a roadmap for research to improve the BMWM system.

The role of university Knowledge Transfer Offices: Not just commercialize research outputs!

“…En lo referido al componente ontológico, se pretende estudiar el ser y cada uno de las características que lo conforman; además, describir el fenómeno de estudio a partir de los elementos que lo conforman y las relaciones que se establecen entre ellos (Pidò et al, 2021). Asimismo, la ontología brinda una perspectiva holística y comprensiva sobre el fenómeno de investigación, discriminando dimensiones, fronteras y complejidad (Shwetmala et al, 2021). La selección del enfoque de investigación desde el componente ontológico facilita conocimiento del objeto de estudio y abarca fundamentos teóricos de la realidad.…”

Definition of Food Consumption, Loss, and Waste

“…As a scientific theory it can be 2 used to describe, explain, predict, and control [7] FLW through feedback and learning [8,9] systemically as part of a broader ecosystem, and systematically by exploring the innumerable pathways within it. The authors have used ontologies to study solid waste management [10], biomedical waste management [11], air pollution management [12], and similar topics. In the study we: (a) present an ontology of food consumption, loss, and waste (the addition of consumption is necessary to make the construct logically complete, although we shall continue to use the common FLW acronym), (b) demonstrate how it encapsulates the present definitions of FLW, (c) discuss how it extends the present definitions to be "comprehensive and globally applicable" [1] (p. 1), and (d) delineate its implications for research on, policies for, and the practice of FLW.…”

Definition of Food Consumption, Loss, and Waste

“…As a scientific theory, it can be used to describe, explain, predict, and control [7] FLW through feedback and learning [8,9] systemically as part of a broader ecosystem and systematically by exploring the innumerable pathways within it. The authors have used ontologies to study solid waste management [10], bio-medical waste management [11], air pollution management [12], and similar topics. In this study, we (a) present an ontology of food consumption, loss, and waste (the addition of consumption is necessary to make the construct logically complete, although we shall continue to use the common FLW acronym); (b) demonstrate how it encapsulates the present definitions of FLW; (c) discuss how it extends the present definitions to be "comprehensive and globally applicable" [1] (p. 1); and (d) delineate its implications for research on, policies for, and the practice of FLW.…”