scholarly journals What’s he building? Activating the utopian imagination with Trump

Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 671-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian De Cock ◽  
Sine N. Just ◽  
Emil Husted

Can one sell any positive value of Trump’s presidency to an academic audience? The editors of this special series invited polemical essays, but maybe asking readers to consider the merit of Trump is going a little too far? We put forward the argument here that as critical scholars we simply cannot allow ourselves to be swept up in the bien-pensant tide of Trump-trashing, which has almost become as addictive as the current reality-TV quality of the US presidency itself. As Roitman has suggested in a different context, ‘the concept of crisis is crucial to the “how” of thinking otherwise’. Thus, we believe it crucial to seize the crisis of the Trump presidency as an opportunity to activate the utopian imagination, rather than an occasion for moralizing judgements or regressive nostalgia which would effectively mean aligning ourselves with the neo-liberal consensus many of us spent our careers critiquing. We further argue that Fredric Jameson’s notion of the dialectic may refresh our critical conceptual arsenal in these disorienting times. This dialectical approach is meant to alter not only how we see reality, but also what we think we can do with it. It enables us to see the traumatic event of Trump’s election as providing a form and space through which contradictions that have been locked firmly into place in our socioeconomic set-up over the past few decades have become much more malleable, partly because of their increased visibility.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Park ◽  
Hussam S Suradi

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of hospitalisation and healthcare costs worldwide. Acute decompensated heart failure accounts for more than 1 million hospitalisations in the US. Despite advances in the quality of acute and chronic HF disease management, gaps in knowledge about effective interventions to support the transition of care for patients with HF remain. Despite multiple trials of promising therapies, standard care consists of decongestion with IV diuretics and haemodynamic support with vasodilators and inotropes and this has remained largely unchanged during the past 45 years. Newer advances in medical innovations and structural heart disease interventions have now given promise to improved survival, outcomes and quality of life for patients with advanced HF of multiple aetiologies. In this article, we focus on structural interventions in the treatment of patients with HF.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Marcin Piatkowski

The article argues that China has achieved a remarkable progress in promoting technology absorption and innovation over the past decade. China today spends 2.1 percent of GDP on R&D, more than the OECD average. By 2020, China together with the US will be responsible for more than half of the world’s R&D spending. These two countries may thus largely de-cide about the speed and direction of mankind’s technological progress. Despite the pro-gress, however, China still faces several challenges to becoming a global technological giant. To face these challenges, China would be well advised to increase the quality of innovation outputs, strengthen efficiency of public support for innovation, further strengthen intel-lectual property rights, and help enhance managerial practices of Chinese firms.


2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Weil

During the past decade, ‘merger mania’ has been a striking trend in the US health field as a strategy to improve the integration of services, to reduce expenses, and to increase the ability of providers to manage risk-based payment. However, during the past quarter of a century limited operational and fiscal evidence has been published in both the health and general management literature that strongly supports the efficacy of horizontal mergers. This article further argues that a likely scenario over the next decade, in spite of disappointments among these mergers in effecting significant cost reductions, is for the US health networks to continue acquiring additional providers and insurers. After these alliances gain significant market penetration, they are expected to behave as oligopolists. For these mergers to eventually achieve their earlier projected savings, the health field's leadership will be forced to implement cost-cutting measures such as: more vigorously coordinating the network's key clinical services to reduce competition for revenues among the partners within an alliance, closing superfluous hospitals and centralizing expensive tertiary services, encouraging surplus physicians to relocate to under-served areas, and providing direction to carefully integrate the best elements of what the competitive and regulatory strategies are able to offer to improve access, social equity, quality of care, and to reduce total health expenditures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (82) ◽  
Author(s):  
Humberto De Moraes Novaes

Esta resenha histórica pretende recordar os desafios para implementar qualidade na assistência nos hospitais brasileiros. Várias iniciativas foram propostas nos últimos 30 anos, mas a realidade atual ainda demonstra a grande necessidade de que muitas ações se têm por fazer. Esperamos que o alerta trazido pelo coronavírus possa estimular as mudanças necessárias para estas transformações.Palavras-chave: Gestão de qualidade em saúde; Acreditação hospitalar; Pandemia pelo novo coronavíruis (2019-nCoV) ABSTRACTThis historical review intends to recall the challenges to implement quality of care in Brazilian hospitals. Several initiatives have been proposed in the past 30 years, but the current reality still demonstrates the great need for many actions to be done. We hope that the alert brought by the coronavirus can stimulate the necessary changes for these transformations.Keywords: Quality Management; Hospital accreditation; New Coronavirus Pandemic (2019-nCoV)


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annik M. Sorhaindo

Abstract Objective Although medication abortion has become more common in high-income countries, the procedure has not yet met early expectations for widening access to abortion. High-quality evidence can serve as a catalyst for changes in policy and practice. To direct research priorities, it is important to understand where quality evidence is concentrated and where gaps remain. High-income countries have developed a body of evidence that may have implications for the future of medication abortion. This literature review assesses the characteristics and quality of published studies on medication abortion conducted in the last 10 years in high-income countries and indicates future areas for research to advance policy and practice, and broaden access. Study design A structured search for literature resulted in 207 included studies. A framework based upon the World Health Organization definition of sub-tasks for medication abortion was developed to categorize research by recognized stages of the medication abortion process. Using an iterative and inductive approach, additional sub-themes were created under each of these categories. Established quality assessment frameworks were drawn upon to gauge the internal and external validity of the included research. Results Studies in the US and the UK have dominated research on MA in high-income countries. The political and social contexts of these countries will have shaped of this body of research. The past decade of research has focused largely on clinical aspects of medication abortion. Conclusion Researchers should consider refocusing energies toward testing service delivery approaches demonstrating promise and prioritizing research that has broader generalizability and relevance outside of narrow clinical contexts. Plain English summary Although medication abortion is more commonly available worldwide, it is not being used as often as people thought it would be, particularly in high income countries. In order to encourage changes in policy and practice that would allow greater use, we need good quality evidence. If we can understand where we do not have enough research and where we have good amounts of research, we can determine where to invest energies in further studies. Many high-income countries have produced research on medication abortion that could influence policy and practice in similarly resourced contexts. I conducted a literature review to be able to understand the type and quality of research on medication abortion conducted in high-income countries in the past 10 years. I conducted the review in an organized way to make sure that the papers reviewed discussed studies that I thought would be important for answering this question. The literature review found 207 papers. Each of these papers were reviewed and organized them by theme. I also used existing methods to determinine the quality of each study. Most of the research came from the US and the UK. Furthermore, most of the research conducted in the past 10 years was focused on clinical studies of medication abortion. In future studies, researchers should focus more on new ways of providing medication abortion to women that offers greater access. Also, the studies should be designed so that the results have meaning for a broader group of people or situations beyond where the study was done.


Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 4077-4077
Author(s):  
Ruben A. Mesa ◽  
Carole B. Miller ◽  
John O. Mascarenhas ◽  
Maureen Thyne ◽  
Sara Goldberger ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Patients with the myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) polycythemia vera (PV) require treatment to manage blood cell counts and reduce the risks of cardiovascular/thromboembolic events. Hydroxyurea (HU) is a common cytoreductive treatment; however, some patients discontinue HU treatment because of resistance, intolerance, or frequently a combination of both limitations. Patients may also continue to receive HU despite diminishing or nonexistent clinical benefit, sometimes in combination with persistent need for phlebotomy procedures. This analysis of MPN Landmark survey data examined patient-reported quality of life (QoL) outcomes in patients with PV who were naive to HU (HU-N), were continuing HU (HU-C), or had discontinued HU (HU-D). Methods: Patients with an MPN under active management in the US were eligible to complete an online survey (fielded May - July 2014). This is a report of responses given by patients with PV to questions about symptom burden, QoL, activities of daily living (ADL), and work/productivity. PV-related effects on patients feeling depressed/discouraged, patients feeling anxious/worried, or interference with ADLs were considered to be at high levels if the patient-reported score was ≥4 on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (a great deal). Symptom severity was rated on a scale of 0 (absent) to 10 (worst imaginable). Results: The survey respondents included 380 patients with PV (HU-N, n=159; HU-C, n=181; HU-D, n=40). Mean age was 62.2 years, 65.1 years, and 64.2 years in the HU-N, HU-C, and HU-D groups, respectively. Mean duration of PV was 8.3 years, 10.3 years, and 13.9 years in the HU-N, HU-C, and HU-D groups, respectively. Patients who had not received HU were currently or previously treated with phlebotomy (87.4%), interferon (11.3%), or anagrelide (9.4%); 66.0% of HU-N patients were classified as high-risk based on information provided by the patients in the survey (ie, age 60 or older or history of thrombosis). Among HU-C and HU-D patients, treatment history included phlebotomy (89.5% and 100%, respectively), interferon (7.2% and 52.5%), or anagrelide (15.5% and 35.0%); 79.6% and 82.5%, respectively, were classified as high-risk. Ruxolitinib was not FDA-approved for PV at the time of this survey. Patients reported high levels of feeling anxious/worried and depressed/discouraged as a result of their PV across all subgroups: HU-N, 27.7% and 15.1%, respectively; HU-C, 22.7% and 15.5%; HU-D, 32.5% and 22.5%. Many patients also experienced a high level of PV-related interference with ADLs, which was more common in the HU-D group (30.0%) than the HU-N (11.3%) or HU-C (18.2%) groups. HU-D patients were more likely to have reported ever reducing their work hours (54.2% of the patients who responded) compared with the HU-N (33.3%) and HU-C groups (36.8%). Among all patients, HU-D patients reported a mean of 8.3 doctor visits in the past 12 months, compared with 5.6 in the HU-N group and 6.6 in the HU-C group. Most patients had experienced PV-related symptoms in the past 12 months (Table 1), particularly fatigue, itching, and day/night sweats; fatigue was ranked first as the symptom that patients would most like to resolve. Conclusion: Patients with PV in a large retrospective real-world survey across the US are found to experience burdensome PV-related symptoms and reduced QoL. The findings from this study also show that standard treatments do not address these aspects of PV in many patients, and patients who have discontinued HU may experience an even greater disease burden, possibly because of a lack of effective and/or safe alternative treatment options. Importantly, while 66.0% of the patients in the HU-N group were classified as high-risk, the majority of the high-risk patients in the HU-N group (81.0%) were not treated with cytoreductive agents, suggesting a potential knowledge deficit regarding recommendations for PV management. Collectively, these results illustrate the adverse impact of PV-related symptom burden on patient QoL and reinforce the importance of unmet control of PV-related symptoms in choosing PV therapy. Disclosures Mesa: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Consultancy; NS Pharma: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; CTI Biopharma: Research Funding; Incyte Corporation: Research Funding; Promedior: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding. Miller:Incyte Corporation: Honoraria, Research Funding. Mascarenhas:Promedior: Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding; CTI Biopharma: Research Funding; Incyte Corporation: Research Funding; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Research Funding; Kalobios: Research Funding. Thyne:Incyte Corporation: Speakers Bureau. Paranagama:Incyte Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Parasuraman:Incyte Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Fazal:Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Ariad: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Naim:Incyte Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Mangan:Incyte Corporation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


BMJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. n1855
Author(s):  
Priyanka Kanth ◽  
John M Inadomi

Abstract Mortality from colorectal cancer is reduced through screening and early detection; moreover, removal of neoplastic lesions can reduce cancer incidence. While understanding of the risk factors, pathogenesis, and precursor lesions of colorectal cancer has advanced, the cause of the recent increase in cancer among young adults is largely unknown. Multiple invasive, semi- and non-invasive screening modalities have emerged over the past decade. The current emphasis on quality of colonoscopy has improved the effectiveness of screening and prevention, and the role of new technologies in detection of neoplasia, such as artificial intelligence, is rapidly emerging. The overall screening rates in the US, however, are suboptimal, and few interventions have been shown to increase screening uptake. This review provides an overview of colorectal cancer, the current status of screening efforts, and the tools available to reduce mortality from colorectal cancer.


US Neurology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R Insel ◽  
Michael Schoenbaum ◽  
Philip S Wang ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

Mental disorders impose considerable socioeconomic costs due to their episodic/chronic nature, their relatively early ages at onset, and the highly disabling nature of inadequately treated mental illness. Despite substantial increases in the volume of mental health treatment for disorders in the past two decades, particularly pharmacotherapies, the level of morbidity and mortality from these disorders does not appear to have changed substantially over this period. Improving outcomes will require the development and use of more efficacious treatments for mental disorders. Likewise, implementation of cost-effective strategies to improve the quality of existing care for these disabling conditions is required.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-113
Author(s):  
Dave Rogers

The US Freedom of Information Act is a tool that can be used with success, but the current climate makes it less effective than it has been in the past. Privacy Acts are set up to protect the citizenry from untoward governmental scrutiny, but even with current legislation in place private collection of information from governmental public record resources and a variety of private resources can compile a relatively complete picture of many individuals in the U.S, from where Dave Rogers from Sidley Austin in Chicago sends us this report.


2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Channell

This is a great book. In it, Shuy describes some of the applied linguistics consultancy work he has undertaken in the past twenty years, mostly involving legal cases and public institutions in the US. He sets out to show how linguistics is a valuable tool in the analysis of bureaucratic language, in the hopes that that through this, “the intersection of law and linguistics may be furthered” (x), and that more fellow linguists will become involved in similar consultancy. Shuy gives a clear exposition not only of what he and colleagues have done but also of how they have negotiated working relationships. He is particularly strong on the ethics of consultancy, and his clear exposition of how the consultancy relationship should be set up merits attention from people well beyond the area of language study. Shuy's case studies and ethical points would be good preliminary reading for students undertaking language project work (for more on ethics, see BAAL 1994).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document