Rare case of ballooning herniation of the tympanic membrane

Herniation of the tympanic membrane is a rare benign malformation of the tympanic membrane into the external auditory canal. It may be asymptomatic or associated with symptoms such as aural fullness, tinnitus, otalgia or hearing loss. We present a case of a symptomatic herniation of the tympanic membrane and its surgical therapy with hernia excision and tympanoplasty. An internal review board exemption was obtained.

Spotlight

The HUMAN Project was initiated in 2014 by the Kavli Foundation in partnership with New York University’s Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Decision Making. 1 Its goal was to collect vast amounts of data from a representative sample of 10,000 New York City residents in 4,000 households over 20 years. Lacking both internal review board approval and sustainable funding, the HUMAN Project was suspended in 2018. Nonetheless, the ambitious scope of the study and what it revealed about the possibilities for collecting and using data in the digital age are intriguing. It is possible that this type of model could eventually be revived, perhaps with additional privacy protections built in....

Neurology Telemedicine as Virtual Learning: A Student’s Perspective

Small rural regional medical school campuses can be challenged to provide the breadth of learning opportunities required in some specialties. Here we report our initial experience with a telemedicine stroke consultation service that addressed one of our concerns. We share an essay from the student perspective as well as those of the regional dean and remote neurology faculty and encourage others to try this technology and report their findings. The authors have no conflict of interest to report and this study was found to be exempt by the Baptist Health Madisonville Internal Review Board.

Is Vascularized Composite Allograft Transplantation Experimental or an Accepted Surgical Procedure: Results from a National Survey

Background More than 85 patients have received over 100 hand/arm transplants and more than 35 patients have received full or partial face transplants at institutions around the world. Given over two decades of experience in the field and in the light of successful outcomes with up to 17 years follow up time, should we still consider vascularized composite allograft (VCA) as a research/clinical investigation? We present the results of a nationwide electronic survey whose intent was to gather institutional bias with regard to this question. Methods An 11 question survey that was developed by VCA advisory committee of American Society of Transplantation was sent to all identified Internal Review Board chairs or directors in the United States. Results We received a total of 54 responses (25.3%) to the survey. The majority (78%) of responses came from either the chairperson, director, or someone who is administratively responsible for an IRB. Conclusion Though certainly not an exhaustive investigation into each institution's preference, we present a representative sampling. The results of which favor VCA as an accepted clinical procedure given the appropriate setting. Further research is needed to fully ascertain practices at each individual institution.

Reformulating Discretion in the Mid-to Late Nineteenth Century

The idea that individual failings—moral, physical, and mental—must dictate each criminal’s penal treatment gained currency in penal circles by the late 1800s. Starting in the Elmira Reformatory, prison managers acquired discretion over the release of prisoners and the surveillance of inmates after release, and reports of resounding success earned admiration in international forums. This chapter focuses on the shortcomings that occurred once those ideals were put into practice. Prisoners complained of appraisals by an unaccountable internal review board, and they went public with charges that the Elmira regime was cruel and arbitrary. In response, chief executives used their power to remedy administrative abuse, yet the same governors continued to respond to political pressures and personal ambitions every time they granted or withheld mercy.

Ethics Requirement Score: new tool for evaluating ethics in publications

Objective To analyze ethical standards considered by health-related scientific journals, and to prepare the Ethics Requirement Score, a bibliometric index to be applied to scientific healthcare journals in order to evaluate criteria for ethics in scientific publication.Methods Journals related to healthcare selected by the Journal of Citation Reports™ 2010 database were considered as experimental units. Parameters related to publication ethics were analyzed for each journal. These parameters were acquired by analyzing the author’s guidelines or instructions in each journal website. The parameters considered were approval by an Internal Review Board, Declaration of Helsinki or Resolution 196/96, recommendations on plagiarism, need for application of Informed Consent Forms with the volunteers, declaration of confidentiality of patients, record in the database for clinical trials (if applicable), conflict of interest disclosure, and funding sources statement. Each item was analyzed considering their presence or absence.Result The foreign journals had a significantly higher Impact Factor than the Brazilian journals, however, no significant results were observed in relation to the Ethics Requirement Score. There was no correlation between the Ethics Requirement Score and the Impact Factor.Conclusion Although the Impact Factor of foreigner journals was considerably higher than that of the Brazilian publications, the results showed that the Impact Factor has no correlation with the proposed score. This allows us to state that the ethical requirements for publication in biomedical journals are not related to the comprehensiveness or scope of the journal.