Development and evaluation of a quality score for abstracts.
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BACKGROUND: The evaluation of abstracts for scientific meetings has been shown to suffer from poor inter observer reliability. A measure was developed to assess the formal quality of abstract submissions in a standardized way. METHODS: Item selection was based on scoring systems for full reports, taking into account published guidelines for structured abstracts. Interrater agreement was examined using a random sample of submissions to the American Gastroenterological Association, stratified for research type (n = 100, 1992-1995). For construct validity, the association of formal quality with acceptance for presentation was examined. A questionnaire to expert reviewers evaluated sensibility items, such as ease of use and comprehensiveness. RESULTS: The index comprised 19 items. The summary quality scores showed good interrater agreement (intra class coefficient 0.60 - 0.81). Good abstract quality was associated with abstract acceptance for presentation at the meeting. The instrument was found to be acceptable by expert reviewers. CONCLUSION: A quality index was developed for the evaluation of scientific meeting abstracts which was shown to be reliable, valid and useful. (+info)
International Conference on Harmonisation; revised guidance on Q3A impurities in new drug substances; availability. Notice.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of a revised guidance entitled "Q3A(R) Impurities in New Drug Substances." The revised guidance, which updates a guidance on the same topic published in the Federal Register of January 4, 1996 (the 1996 guidance), was prepared under the auspices of the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The revised guidance clarifies the 1996 guidance, adds information, and provides consistency with more recently published ICH guidances. The revised guidance is intended to provide guidance to applicants for drug marketing registration on the content and qualification of impurities in new drug substances produced by chemical syntheses and not previously registered in a country, region, or member State. (+info)
Webcasting videoconferences over IP: a synchronous communication experiment.
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A multipoint videoconference was webcast live to an audience who could communicate with conference panelists and each other via chat. The videoconference, webcast, and chat were done entirely over the Internet. Seven panelists at four conference sites that had Internet2 connectivity and were located in different time zones within the continental United States discussed the topic of "Evaluating Health Professions Education and Information Resources on the Web." This discussion was broadcast to individuals and groups at various U.S. locations who had expressed an interest in the topic and had sufficient connectivity for receiving the video stream. Webcast recipients could log on a chat server and type questions and comments to the panelists and other viewers. The experiment's rationale, procedures, and outcomes are described, and issues associated with the use of the technologies are identified. (+info)
New frontiers: the 2002 FASEB Summer Research Conference in Transplant Immunology.
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The first Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) summer research conference on transplantation immunology was organized by Angus Thomson (University of Pittsburgh), Robert Lechler (Imperial College London), Laurence Turka (University of Pennsylvania) and Megan Sykes (Massachusetts General Hospital). Over the past four decades, patient and graft survival rates for solid organ transplant recipients have improved dramatically; however, chronic rejection and the untoward effects of potent immunosuppressive drugs continue to loom. This symposium is a testament to the importance of bringing investigators from diverse biological backgrounds together in a single forum to discuss the fundamental issues of immune biology and advance the goal of transplant-specific tolerance. (+info)
How much science is there in injury prevention and control?
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OBJECTIVES: To determine what proportion of research papers at an injury prevention conference reported an evaluation. METHODS: A random sample of 250 abstracts from the 6th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control were classified by methodological type. Those that described any evaluation were further subdivided by whether the evaluation was of process or if it used an intermediate or "true" outcome. RESULTS: Of 250 abstracts, 20 (8%; 95% confidence interval 5.0% to 12.1%) showed evaluations with intermediate or true outcomes. Research designs were weak. Among the 20 reports, none was a randomized trial and only two conducted a before and after study with control group. The remaining 17 used before-after or "after only" designs. CONCLUSION: The conference papers included few evaluations. To ensure that resources are best used, those in the injury prevention field must increase their use of rigorous evaluation. (+info)
International Conference on Harmonisation; guidance on electronic common technical document specification; availability. Notice.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of a guidance entitled "M2 eCTD: Electronic Common Technical Document Specification." The guidance was prepared under the auspices of the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The guidance defines the means for industry-to-agency transfer of regulatory information that will facilitate the creation, review, life cycle management, and archiving of the electronic submission. The guidance is intended to assist industry in transferring electronically their marketing applications for human drug and biological products to a regulatory authority. (+info)
The National Nutrition Summit: history and continued commitment to the nutritional health of the U.S. population.
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Over the past several decades, great progress has been made in developing national nutrition policies and research agendas that address numerous problems faced by various segments of our population. Despite the success of these initiatives and our understanding of the importance of nutrition throughout the life cycle, ongoing nutrition-related problems have been identified and still need to be adequately addressed through research and policy. The recognition of these various issues inspired the development of an agenda for the National Nutrition Summit held in May 2000, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services. The major goal of the Summit was to forge partnerships among policy makers and program planners at the federal, state, and community levels to examine what accomplishments were made since 1969 and to identify existing gaps in the areas of food, nutrition and health. This review provides an overview of the purpose and overarching themes that emerged from the Summit, along with a review of additional resources from the Summit available on a website sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture. (+info)
Tobacco industry strategies to undermine the 8th World Conference on Tobacco or Health.
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OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate that Philip Morris and British American Tobacco Company attempted to initiate a wide ranging campaign to undermine the success of the 8th World Conference on Tobacco or Health held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992. DATA SOURCES: Publicly available tobacco industry documents housed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Guilford, UK; on-line document websites; and telephone interviews with informed parties. STUDY SELECTION: Those documents determined to be relevant to the companies' campaigns against the 8th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. DATA EXTRACTION: Revision of chapter VIII of the July 2000 WHO report by a committee of experts, entitled: Tobacco company strategies to undermine tobacco control activities at the World Health Organization: report of the committee of experts on tobacco industry documents. DATA SYNTHESIS: Internal documents describe proposed media and science orientated campaigns developed by BAT, Philip Morris, and their consultants to divert attention away from the conference. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This work shows that the tobacco industry has the resources and vested interest to combat perceived threats in its regional operating markets, in this case its Latin American market. It is important for the worldwide public heath community to become aware of the numerous ways in which the tobacco industry and its front groups can work against international tobacco control meetings, even including the manipulation of or working with other public health groups to oppose tobacco control efforts. Future world conference planners and participants should be aware that the tobacco industry is likely to continue to employ such methodology. There is no reason to think that the industry is paying less attention to such conferences in the present or future. Rather, it is likely the industry will adopt and expand strategies that were successful while abandoning those that were not effective. Required disclosure of financial support by all participants at all tobacco scientific conferences is recommended. For the tobacco control community, we also recommend careful coalition building and networking with other public health groups on the ways tobacco is implicated in other public health issues. (+info)