Language -- the barrier and the bridge between science and public.
(17/227)
What does modern science tell people? That life is ultimately DNA, and DNA is genes, and genes are just so many bits of Lego, little building blocks manipulated by Nature for 3.8 thousand billion years, rather economically, so that much the same genes pop up in a nematode worm, a fruit fly, a lettuce, and a thriller writer. And that genes can be transferred from one species, or genus, or phylum, or even one kingdom to another. That is why there is unease, and newspapers reflect that unease, they do not create it. By helping people confront that unease, they probably help people come to terms with it. In the course of history, people have felt pretty uneasy about blood transfusion, heart transplants, test tube babies, and AIDS, and over the years, have calmed down considerably about each, to the advantage of both society and science. It will be the same for the human genome project, in a while. (+info)
What are today's orphaned vaccines?
(18/227)
Development costs for new biological agents are increasing, and the time span from laboratory research to introduction of a product on the world market is becoming ever longer. Complex regulatory requirements add barriers and additional costs to early introduction abroad. This results in reluctance by manufacturers to undertake development of a vaccine that will be used for a tropical disease in only the public sector of a poor country. The chances of recovery of huge investment costs before patents expire are not good, unless such a new vaccine can also be sold at high cost in North America and Europe. These are some of the reasons that we still do not have a modern Japanese encephalitis vaccine or products against malaria and dengue fever. Many tropical countries must find a way to develop their own vaccine production facilities. Innovative help for technology transfer will have to be forthcoming, or many new life-saving products will never bridge the gap between research unit and production. (+info)
Communicating science: from the laboratory bench to the breakfast table.
(19/227)
If we are to maintain public appreciation and support for our scientific enterprise, we need to pay more attention to translating the benefits and grandeur of science into the language of broader society. Both educators and journalists have a role to play in communicating the achievements of science, but scientists must recognize that we have a responsibility to increase the availability and salience of science to the public. (+info)
Comparing health system performance in OECD countries. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
(20/227)
We present data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Health Organization on the performance of the health care systems in twenty-nine industrialized countries in 1998. We also compare the performance of the United States with the other industrialized countries for selected indicators in 1960, 1980, and 1998. On most indicators the U.S. relative performance declined since 1960; on none did it improve. (+info)
Qualitative study of evidence based leaflets in maternity care.
(21/227)
OBJECTIVE: To examine the use of evidence based leaflets on informed choice in maternity services. DESIGN: Non-participant observation of 886 antenatal consultations. 383 in depth interviews with women using maternity services and health professionals providing antenatal care. SETTING: Women's homes; antenatal and ultrasound clinics in 13 maternity units in Wales. PARTICIPANTS: Childbearing women and health professionals who provide antenatal care. INTERVENTION: Provision of 10 pairs of Informed Choice leaflets for service users and staff and a training session in their use. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants' views and commonly observed responses during consultations and interviews. RESULTS: Health professionals were positive about the leaflets and their potential to assist women in making informed choices, but competing demands within the clinical environment undermined their effective use. Time pressures limited discussion, and choice was often not available in practice. A widespread belief that technological intervention would be viewed positively in the event of litigation reinforced notions of "right" and "wrong" choices rather than "informed" choices. Hierarchical power structures resulted in obstetricians defining the norms of clinical practice and hence which choices were possible. Women's trust in health professionals ensured their compliance with professionally defined choices, and only rarely were they observed asking questions or making alternative requests. Midwives rarely discussed the contents of the leaflets or distinguished them from other literature related to pregnancy. The visibility and potential of the leaflets as evidence based decision aids was thus greatly reduced. CONCLUSIONS: The way in which the leaflets were disseminated affected promotion of informed choice in maternity care. The culture into which the leaflets were introduced supported existing normative patterns of care and this ensured informed compliance rather than informed choice. (+info)
Mortality study of pathologists and medical laboratory technicians.
(22/227)
Membership lists of professional bodies were used to establish study populations of British pathologists (1955-73) and medical laboratory technicians (1963-73). The standardised mortality ratio (SMR) for pathologists was 60 and for medical laboratory technicians 67. Twenty-seven of the 310 deaths were due to suicide. These numbers gave SMRs of 250 for pathologists and 243 for medical laboratory technicians. Suicide was the commonest cause of death in female technicians. Access to lethal chemicals at work is a possible factor explaining the high proportion of suicide by poisoning compared with the general population. Suicide rates for pathologists exceed those of all medical practitioners; similary medical laboratory have higher rates than all laboratory technicians. Excess deaths from lymphatic and haemopoietic neoplasms were noted in English male pathologists (observed 8, expected 3-3; P less than 0-01). This difference is not due to Hodgkin's disease or leukaemia and remains unexplained. No other neoplastic diseases were noted as causing excess mortality in either occupational group but a small, possibly spurious, excess number of deaths was noted for aortic aneurysm in male pathologists (observed 4, expected 1-8). (+info)
Characteristics of educational software use in 106 clinical laboratories.
(23/227)
The University of Washington, Seattle, has developed educational software for clinical laboratories. We used a 32-question survey to study software implementation. Of 106 clinical laboratories (response rate, 60%) that purchased the software and completed the survey, 89 laboratories (84%) that reported using the software formed the basis for the study. The most common software users were laboratory personnel, followed by medical technologist or medical laboratory technician students, residents, and medical students; the mean (SD) number of personnel categories using the software per laboratory was 1.8 (0.8). The most common reasons for use were initial instruction, cross-training, and competency assessment. The most frequent setting for software use was an area where laboratory testing occurred, followed by a dedicated training location, a location chosen by the employee, a classroom, and a distance learning mode. On a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), the average satisfaction rating as an instructional tool was 4.4 and as a competency assessment tool, 4.2. Compared with laboratories in hospitals with 400 beds or fewer, laboratories in hospitals with more than 400 beds used the software for more categories of users (P = .008), had a higher proportion of laboratories using it for residents (P = .003), and had a higher proportion of laboratories with dedicated training areas (P = .02). (+info)
Incidence of tuberculosis, hepatitis, brucellosis, and shigellosis in British medical laboratory workers.
(24/227)
A retrospective postal survey of 21 000 medical laboratory workers in England and Wales showed 18 new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1971, a five-times increased risk of acquiring the disease compared with the general population. Technicians were at greatest risk, especially if they worked in morbid anatomy departments. Of the 35 cases of hepatitis, the technicians were again the occupational group most likely to acquire the disease. Microbiology staff were twice as likely to report shigellosis as those in other pathology divisions but only one case of brucellosis was reported in the whole laboratory population. A similar survey carried out in 1973 of 3000 Scottish medical laboratory workers corroborates the results from England and Wales. Medical laboratory workers continue to experience a considerable risk of developing an occupationally acquired infection. Improvements in staff safety and health care seem to be necessary. (+info)