scholarly journals Continuous improvement in patient safety and quality in neurological surgery: the American Board of Neurological Surgery in the past, present, and future

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Marjorie C. Wang ◽  
Frederick A. Boop ◽  
Douglas Kondziolka ◽  
Daniel K. Resnick ◽  
Steven N. Kalkanis ◽  
...  

The American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) was incorporated in 1940 in recognition of the need for detailed training in and special qualifications for the practice of neurological surgery and for self-regulation of quality and safety in the field. The ABNS believes it is the duty of neurosurgeons to place a patient’s welfare and rights above all other considerations and to provide care with compassion, respect for human dignity, honesty, and integrity. At its inception, the ABNS was the 13th member board of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which itself was founded in 1933. Today, the ABNS is one of the 24 member boards of the ABMS.To better serve public health and safety in a rapidly changing healthcare environment, the ABNS continues to evolve in order to elevate standards for the practice of neurological surgery. In connection with its activities, including initial certification, recognition of focused practice, and continuous certification, the ABNS actively seeks and incorporates input from the public and the physicians it serves. The ABNS board certification processes are designed to evaluate both real-life subspecialty neurosurgical practice and overall neurosurgical knowledge, since most neurosurgeons provide call coverage for hospitals and thus must be competent to care for the full spectrum of neurosurgery.The purpose of this report is to describe the history, current state, and anticipated future direction of ABNS certification in the US.

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Kahle ◽  
René M. Stulz

We examine the current state of the US public corporation and how it has evolved over the last 40 years. After falling by 50 percent since its peak in 1997, the number of public corporations is now smaller than 40 years ago. These corporations are now much larger and over the last twenty years have become much older; they invest differently, as the average firm invests more in R&D than it spends on capital expenditures; and compared to the 1990s, the ratio of investment to assets is lower, especially for large firms. Public firms have record high cash holdings and, in most recent years, the average firm has more cash than long-term debt. Measuring profitability by the ratio of earnings to assets, the average firm is less profitable, but that is driven by smaller firms. Earnings of public firms have become more concentrated—the top 200 firms in profits earn as much as all public firms combined. Firms' total payouts to shareholders as a percent of earnings are at record levels. Possible explanations for the current state of the public corporation include a decrease in the net benefits of being a public company, changes in financial intermediation, technological change, globalization, and consolidation through mergers.


1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Friedland ◽  
Richard W. Valachovic

Current state laws regulating the licensure of dentists place severe restrictions upon the freedom of movement of practitioners. Most state laws were enacted during a period when a strong rationale for regulating public health and welfare existed. Today, these laws hamper the free movement of dentists and are anachronisms in an era of national standards and practices. The authors contend that the extant laws rest upon outdated assumptions and serve economic and protectionist goals rather than public health and safety.This Article examines the history and application of the traditional justifications for state licensure and their present ramifications. The authors suggest that replacing the current regulatory system with a national clinical examination and a national licensure program will best serve the interests of the public and the dental profession.


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
Francine Wenhardt

Abstract The speech-language pathologist (SLP) working in the public schools has a wide variety of tasks. Educational preparation is not all that is needed to be an effective school-based SLP. As a SLP currently working in the capacity of a program coordinator, the author describes the skills required to fulfill the job requirements and responsibilities of the SLP in the school setting and advises the new graduate regarding the interview process and beginning a career in the public schools.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Kear

Natural gas is an increasingly vital U.S. energy source that is presently being tapped and transported across state and international boundaries. Controversy engulfs natural gas, from the hydraulic fracturing process used to liberate it from massive, gas-laden Appalachian shale deposits, to the permitting and construction of new interstate pipelines bringing it to markets. This case explores the controversy flowing from the proposed 256-mile-long interstate Nexus pipeline transecting northern Ohio, southeastern Michigan and terminating at the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. As the lead agency regulating and permitting interstate pipelines, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also tasked with mitigating environmental risks through the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act's Environmental Impact Statement process. Pipeline opponents assert that a captured federal agency ignores public and scientific input, inadequately addresses public health and safety risks, preempts local control, and wields eminent domain powers at the expense of landowners, cities, and everyone in the pipeline path. Proponents counter that pipelines are the safest means of transporting domestically abundant, cleaner burning, affordable gas to markets that will boost local and regional economies and serve the public good. Debates over what constitutes the public good are only one set in a long list of contentious issues including pipeline safety, proposed routes, property rights, public voice, and questions over the scientific and democratic validity of the Environmental Impact Statement process. The Nexus pipeline provides a sobering example that simple energy policy solutions and compromise are elusive—effectively fueling greater conflict as the natural gas industry booms.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Runions

In her recent book Precarious Life, Judith Butler points out that not more than ten days after 9/11, on 20 September 2001, George W. Bush urged the American people to put aside their grief; she suggests that such a refusal to mourn leads to a kind of national melancholia. Using psychoanalytic theory on melancholia, this article diagnoses causes and effects of such national melancholia. Further, it considers how a refusal to mourn in prophetic and apocalyptic texts and their interpretations operates within mainstream US American politics like the encrypted loss of the melancholic, thus creating the narcissism, guilt, and aggression that sustain the pervasive disavowal of loss in the contemporary moment. This article explore the ways in which the texts of Ezekiel, Micah, Revelation, and their interpreters exhibit the guilt and aggression of melancholia, in describing Israel as an unfaithful and wicked woman whose pain should not be mourned. These melancholic patterns are inherited by both by contemporary apocalyptic discourses and by the discourse of what Robert Bellah calls ‘American civil religion’, in which the US is the new Christian Israel; thus they help to position the public to accept and perpetuate the violence of war, and not to mourn it.


Author(s):  
Igor Yurievich Rodchenko

The problematic issues of the development of self-ordering mechanisms in the public administration system are determined, with observance of their division into institutional, functional and evolutionary parts. The institutional part includes self-regulation mechanisms implemented in the models of subject-subject interaction at the levels of higher, central and local government bodies, as well as in models of object-object interaction between them. The most important in the institutional part of self-governing mechanisms are those that ensure: the separation of powers between branches of government; administrative reform of the government structure; separation of public spheres of government between central government bodies; administrative reform of the structure of central executive bodies; delimitation of territorial spheres of government between local authorities; administrative-territorial reform; formation and implementation of the structure of the power hierarchy; administrative reform of the structure of the power hierarchy. The functional part includes the mechanisms of self-regulation, realized in the model of object-object interaction “system of state power — social sphere, industry and relations”. The most important parts of the mechanisms of self-regulation are those that ensure: the formation and implementation of state policies in various spheres of society; formation and implementation of national projects; formation and implementation of state target programs; state budgeting. The evolutionary part includes the mechanisms of self-regulation, realized in the model of object-object interaction “system of state power — the creation of conditions for social development”. The most important parts of the evolutionary part of self-governing mechanisms are those that provide: strategic management and planning; realization of state programs of social and economic development; conducting constant economic and social reforms and transformations.


Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress


2019 ◽  
pp. 49-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. E. Belova ◽  
L. G. Vorona-Slivinskaya ◽  
E. V. Voskresenskaya

The presented study aims to examine the current state and development prospects of self-regulation in the Russian construction industry.Aim. The study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current state and development prospects of self-regulation as an institution of public administration, identify the problems of self-regulation in the construction industry, and formulate proposals on solving the identified problems.Tasks. The authors complete the following tasks to achieve the set aim: examine the regulatory framework of the activities of self-regulatory organizations in the construction industry — construction, design, and engineering surveying; analyze the current state and positive trends of self-regulation in the field of construction; identify problems in the activities of self-regulatory organizations in the construction industry — construction, design, and engineering surveying — and development prospects of the examined alternative to government regulation.Methods. The methodological basis of the study comprises the fundamental provisions of the modern economic theory, theories of public and municipal administration and legal sciences. The information base includes regulatory and legal acts of the Russian Federation on self-regulation in the construction industry, data from the State Register of Self-Regulatory Organizations, and statistics in the field of construction.Results. At the current stage of development of self-regulation in the construction industry, the most efficient mechanism for this institution involves guaranteed compensation for damage caused due to shortcomings in the works and services during construction, renovation, capital repairs of construction objects, engineering surveying, design. The victims should be compensated not out of insurance payments under civil insurance contracts, but rather out of the compensation funds of self-regulatory organizations.Conclusion. This study makes it possible to assess the institution of self-regulation in the construction industry — construction, design, and engineering surveying — as an efficient institution for proper protection of the interests of consumers of construction works and services and those of the government. 


Author(s):  
Farhan Zahid

Pakistan remains a country of vital importance for Al-Qaeda. It is primarily because of Al-Qaeda’s advent, rise and shelter and not to mention the support the terrorist organization found at the landscape of Pakistan during the last two decades. The emergence of in Pakistan can be traced back to the Afghan War (1979-89), with a brief sabbatical in Sudan the Islamist terrorist group rose to gain prominence after shifting back to Afghanistan. It then became a global ‘Islamist’ terrorist entity while based in neighboring Afghanistan and found safe havens in the erstwhile tribal areas of Pakistan in the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Prior to its formation in 1988 in Peshawar (Pakistan), it had worked as Maktab al-Khidmat (Services Bureau) during the Afghan War.2 It had its roots in Pakistan, which had become a transit point of extremists en route to Afghanistan during the War. All high profile Al-Qaeda leaders, later becoming high-value targets, and members of its central Shura had lived in Pakistan at one point in their lives. That is the very reason the Al-Qaeda in Pakistan is termed as Al-Qaeda Core or Central among law enforcement practitioners and intelligence communities. Without going into details of Al-Qaeda’s past in Pakistan the aim of this article is to focus on its current state of affairs and what future lies ahead of it in Pakistan.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
Emanuela Martina ◽  
Federico Diotallevi ◽  
Tommaso Bianchelli ◽  
Matteo Paolinelli ◽  
Annamaria Offidani

Background: Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) is a disease characterized by the onset of wheals and/or angioedema over 6 weeks. The pathophysiology for CSU is very complex, involving mast cells and basophils with a multitude of inflammatory mediators. For many years the treatment of CSU has been based on the use of antihistamines, steroids and immunosuppressive agents with inconstant and frustrating results. The introduction of omalizumab, the only licensed biologic for antihistamine- refractory CSU, has changed the management of the disease. Objective: The aim of this article is to review the current state of the art of CSU, the real-life experience with omalizumab and the promising drugs that are under development. Methods:: An electronic search was performed to identify studies, case reports, guidelines and reviews focused on the new targets for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria, both approved or under investigation. The search was limited to articles published in peer-reviewed journals in the English Language in the PubMed database and trials registered in Clinicaltrials.gov. Results:: Since the advent of omalizumab, the search for new therapies for chronic spontaneous urticaria has had a new impulse. Anti-IgE drugs will probably still be the cornerstone of therapy, but new targets may prove effective in syndromic urticaria or refractory cases. Conclusion:: Although omalizumab has been a breakthrough in the treatment of CSU, many patients do not completely get benefit and even require more effective treatments. Novel drugs are under investigation with promising results.


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