Risk assessment and analysis of outcomes

Author(s):  
Peter F. Ludman

To ensure that patients receive optimal care, and to find ways to improve, we have to measure the therapy delivered and patient outcomes. Increasingly this happens in a public forum. This chapter deals with this complex process and potential pitfalls. To assess care a wide range of information needs to be collected for each patient, and must be as complete and accurate as possible. Analysis needs to take into account different patient characteristics to tease out differences in outcome that might be due to healthcare delivery rather than patient comorbidity. The methods used to display these results are pivotal in interpretation and triggering early warning of potential problems, and are discussed. In this era of transparency and openness, the central role of patients is acknowledged—patient involvement is now central to modern medicine. The benefits and potential undesirable consequences of public reporting of outcomes are also explored in this chapter.

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Farias Chagas Ferreira ◽  
Denise de Sousa Fleith

The purpose of this study was to describe family characteristics and dynamics of talented adolescents. Forty-two adolescents between 12 and 18 years old who attended a program for gifted students and their family participated in the data collection. A family characteristics questionnaire and the Parent Success Indicator Inventory, children's and parents' versions were used as instruments. The results indicated that more than half of the families with talented adolescents had a traditional figure: spouses with children born of their own conjugal union. These families prioritized education and the development of their children's talents. The family dynamics involved a wide range of routine and leisure activities, among which stand out those related to the rest, to school, watching television and movies and visiting relatives. Parents evaluated their parental performance in a more positive way when comparing to the adolescents considering all the categories measured by the PSI: communication, use of time, teaching, frustration, satisfaction, and information needs. The results of this study highlight the relevant role of the family regarding talent development.


Author(s):  
Simona Ferraro ◽  
Federica Braga ◽  
Mauro Panteghini

AbstractThe 21st century challenge is to redesign healthcare systems to be safe, efficient, effective, timely, equitable and patient-centred. Although laboratory medicine is integral to many of these objectives involving prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and managing disease of patients, it suffers from poor visibility as a medical discipline and as a profession and fewer rewards for educational efforts when compared to other medical disciplines. Laboratory scientists are often perceived as managing machinery and equipment, but conversely they need to take a position of shared clinical leadership, showing the role of laboratory tests to guarantee optimal care for patients. This is however challenging because of some reluctance by laboratory professionals to involve themselves in test structuring and requesting and in the inspection of work as it arrives because it is assumed that all requests are clinically necessary; there is a poor communication and integration between clinical wards and laboratory; and, importantly, there is the need for an excellent cultural and scientific background of laboratory professionals for implementing outcome research and to act as knowledge managers and skilled clinical consultants. By combining the unique talent of performing quality laboratory assays with knowledge of the pathophysiologic rationale behind the tests, laboratory professionals have the expertise to advise their clinical colleagues in regard to the appropriate test selection and interpretation of laboratory results, thereby creating opportunities to define the added value and the pivotal role of laboratory medicine on healthcare delivery.


Author(s):  
С.М. Кузин ◽  
Н.В. Чебышев ◽  
Д.В. Богомолов ◽  
И.А. Беречикидзе ◽  
Т.В. Сахарова ◽  
...  

Развитие генетики оказывает все большее влияние на современную медицину. На основе достижений в области структурной, функциональной геномики и эпигенетики сформировались новые наиболее перспективные направления - таргетная терапия, персонализированная и регенеративная медицина. Появились принципиально новые возможности для диагностики, прогнозирования, профилактики и лечения широкого спектра заболеваний. Все возрастающая роль генетики предъявляет принципиально иные требования к ее преподаванию в медицинских ВУЗах с использованием новых педагогических методик. Простого увеличения количества часов в рамках предмета «Биология» уже недостаточно для подготовки специалистов, чья профессиональная деятельность напрямую связана с генетикой: онкологов, вирусологов, иммунологов и многих других. The development of genetics has an increasing influence on modern medicine. Based on the achievements in the field of structural, functional genomics and epigenetics, new most promising directions have been formed - targeted therapy, personalized and regenerative medicine. There are fundamentally new opportunities for the diagnosis, prediction, prevention and treatment of a wide range of diseases. The increasing role of genetics imposes fundamentally different requirements for its teaching in medical Schools using new pedagogical methods. Simply increasing the number of academic hours in the subject “Biology” is no longer enough to train specialists whose professional activities are directly related to genetics: oncologists, virologists, immunologists, and many others.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Staci D. Bilbo ◽  
John P. Jones ◽  
William Parker

Several lines of evidence support the view that autism is a typical member of a large family of immune-related, noninfectious, chronic diseases associated with postindustrial society. This family of diseases includes a wide range of inflammatory, allergic, and autoimmune diseases and results from consequences of genetic/culture mismatches which profoundly destabilize the immune system. Principle among these consequences is depletion of important components, particularly helminths, from the ecosystem of the human body, the human biome. Autism shares a wide range of features in common with this family of diseases, including the contribution of genetics/epigenetics, the identification of disease-inducing triggers, the apparent role of immunity in pathogenesis, high prevalence, complex etiologies and manifestations, and potentially some aspects of epidemiology. Fortunately, using available resources and technology, modern medicine has the potential to effectively reconstitute the human biome, thus treating or even avoiding altogether the consequences of genetic/cultural mismatches which underpin this entire family of disease. Thus, if indeed autism is an epidemic of postindustrial society associated with immune hypersensitivity, we can expect that the disease is readily preventable.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Hofmann

Abstract Background The edge metaphor is ubiquitous in describing the present situation in the world, and nowhere is this as clearly visible as in medicine. “The edge of medicine” has become the title of books, scholarly articles, media headlines, and lecture series and seems to be imbued with hype, hope, and aversion. In order better to understand what is at stake at “the edge of medicine” this article addresses three questions: What does “the edge of medicine” mean in contemporary debates on modern medicine? What are the challenges “on the edge of medicine” (in these various meanings of “on the edge”)? How can philosophy and ethics contribute with addressing these challenges? Methods Literature searches in PubMed and Google Scholar are used to identify uses of the phrase “the edge of medicine” while conventional content analysis is used to analyze meanings of and challenges with “the edge of medicine.” These results are then investigated with respect to how philosophy and ethics can address the identified challenges. Results The literature reveals that “the edge of medicine” has many meanings, such as: Border; Margin (of life); Frontier; Forefront; Fringes; Plunge (abyss); Brink (verge); Conflict; and Balancing. In general, the various meanings address four basic challenges: setting limits, keeping control, make meaning, and handling conflicts or aporias. The analysis of each of the meanings of “the edge of medicine” identifies a wide range of important and urgent tasks for the humanities in general, and for philosophy and ethics in particular: 1) clarifying concepts; 2) clarifying assumptions and premises of arguments, methods, advice, and decisions; 3) elaborate new concepts and new theories; 4) conceptualize and handle uncertainty, moral regret, and residue; 5) reveal “the emperor’s new clothes;” 6) identify trends and reflect on their implications; 7) demarcation; and 8) reflecting on goodness in medicine. Conclusion The phrase “the edge of medicine” expresses a wide range of challenges for modern health care. Together with other disciplines philosophy and ethics can and should make crucial contributions at “the edge of medicine,” which is where the future of human beings and societies is created and formed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Wang ◽  
Sangwon Park ◽  
Daniel R. Fesenmaier

Mobile phones have evolved to be smart computers (smartphones) supporting a wide range of information services that can be accessed anytime and from (almost) anywhere. With the increasing number of users and greater incursion into people’s life, smartphones have the potential to significantly influence the touristic experience. This study explores the mediation mechanisms of smartphones by examining stories provided by travelers related to their use of smartphones (and associated applications) for traveling purposes. The results reveal that smartphones can change tourists’ behavior and emotional states by addressing a wide variety of information needs; in particular, the instant information support of smartphones enables tourists to more effectively solve problems, share experiences, and “store” memories. The implications of these findings are important in that they suggest a huge potential for smartphones in changing many aspects of the tourism business.


2008 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
A. Porshakov ◽  
A. Ponomarenko

The role of monetary factor in generating inflationary processes in Russia has stimulated various debates in social and scientific circles for a relatively long time. The authors show that identification of the specificity of relationship between money and inflation requires a complex approach based on statistical modeling and involving a wide range of indicators relevant for the price changes in the economy. As a result a model of inflation for Russia implying the decomposition of inflation dynamics into demand-side and supply-side factors is suggested. The main conclusion drawn is that during the recent years the volume of inflationary pressures in the Russian economy has been determined by the deviation of money supply from money demand, rather than by money supply alone. At the same time, monetary factor has a long-run spread over time impact on inflation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Sullivan ◽  
Marie Louise Herzfeld-Schild

This introduction surveys the rise of the history of emotions as a field and the role of the arts in such developments. Reflecting on the foundational role of the arts in the early emotion-oriented histories of Johan Huizinga and Jacob Burkhardt, as well as the concerns about methodological impressionism that have sometimes arisen in response to such studies, the introduction considers how intensive engagements with the arts can open up new insights into past emotions while still being historically and theoretically rigorous. Drawing on a wide range of emotionally charged art works from different times and places—including the novels of Carson McCullers and Harriet Beecher-Stowe, the private poetry of neo-Confucian Chinese civil servants, the photojournalism of twentieth-century war correspondents, and music from Igor Stravinsky to the Beatles—the introduction proposes five ways in which art in all its forms contributes to emotional life and consequently to emotional histories: first, by incubating deep emotional experiences that contribute to formations of identity; second, by acting as a place for the expression of private or deviant emotions; third, by functioning as a barometer of wider cultural and attitudinal change; fourth, by serving as an engine of momentous historical change; and fifth, by working as a tool for emotional connection across communities, both within specific time periods but also across them. The introduction finishes by outlining how the special issue's five articles and review section address each of these categories, while also illustrating new methodological possibilities for the field.


Author(s):  
C. Claire Thomson

The first book-length study in English of a national corpus of state-sponsored informational film, this book traces how Danish shorts on topics including social welfare, industry, art and architecture were commissioned, funded, produced and reviewed from the inter-war period to the 1960s. For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to the world, and shaped the careers of renowned directors like Carl Th. Dreyer. Examining the life cycle of a representative selection of films, and discussing their preservation and mediation in the digital age, this book presents a detailed case study of how informational cinema is shaped by, and indeed shapes, its cultural, political and technological contexts.The book combines close textual analysis of a broad range of films with detailed accounts of their commissioning, production, distribution and reception in Denmark and abroad, drawing on Actor-Network Theory to emphasise the role of a wide range of entities in these processes. It considers a broad range of genres and sub-genres, including industrial process films, public information films, art films, the city symphony, the essay film, and many more. It also maps international networks of informational and documentary films in the post-war period, and explores the role of informational film in Danish cultural and political history.


2020 ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Svetlana Alekseevna Raschetina ◽  

Relevance and problem statement. Modern unstable society is characterized by narrowing the boundaries of controlled socialization and expanding the boundaries of spontaneous socialization of a teenager based on his immersion in the question arises about the importance of the family in the process of socialization of a teenager in the conditions of expanding the space of socialization. There is a need to study the role of the family in this process, to search, develop and test research methods that allow us to reveal the phenomenon of socialization from the side of its value characteristics. The purpose and methodology of the study: to identify the possibilities of a systematic and anthropological methodology for studying the role of the family in the process of socialization of adolescents in modern conditions, testing research methods: photo research on the topic “Ego – I” (author of the German sociologist H. Abels), profile update reflexive processes (by S. A. Raschetina). Materials and results of the study. The study showed that for all the problems that exist in the family of the perestroika era and in the modern family, it acts for a teenager as a value and the first (main) support in the processes of socialization. The positions well known in psychology about the importance of interpersonal relations in adolescence for the formation of attitudes towards oneself as the basis of socialization are confirmed. Today, the frontiers of making friends have expanded enormously on the basis of Internet communication. The types of activities of interest to a teenager (traditional and new ones related to digitalization) are the third pillar of socialization. Conclusion. The “Ego – I” method of photo research has a wide range of possibilities for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the socialization process to identify the value Pillars of this process.


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