NICE’s recent guidelines on “the size of your waist” unfairly penalizes shorter people

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has just released its latest guidelines to assess and predict health risk, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease. Their latest advice is “Keep the size of your waist to less than half of your height”. We believe this advice is flawed and will seriously and unfairly penalize shorter people and lull taller people into a false sense of security. In this short communication, we provide this evidence. We consider this a serious oversight by NICE and feel strongly that this evidence needs to be made available in the public domain.     

2035年中国入围科技期刊“世界第一方阵”:基础、差距与推进思路

【目的】 在“中国科技期刊卓越行动计划”实施三周年之际,有必要对我国科技期刊2035年迈入“世界第一方阵”目标的具体任务进行重新审视和预判,以进一步明确发展方向,动态调整推进思路。【方法】 采用国内外科技期刊、科技论文、科技期刊评价成果的系统性发展数据对科技期刊“世界第一方阵” 国家(或地区)在高水平科技期刊数量与质量层面的入围标准进行界定,在深入总结现有基础和优势的同时,对我国科技期刊综合实力与“世界第一方阵”国家(或地区)的现实差距进行逐一梳理和剖析,并对实现目标的可行性和推进思路进行研判和设计。【结果】 必须继续加强高水平英文科技期刊创办和培育力度、持续加大优秀中文科技期刊的建设强度、快速推进国内外科技期刊论文等质同效评价制度的建设与引导,并积极探索建立科学家和科研机构办好一流科技期刊的责任制度和贡献激励机制、创新发展编辑人才队伍培养与激励管理思路、深入实践灵活多样的期刊出版市场资本运作模式、稳步推进期刊出版市场机制和管理制度改革,为我国科技期刊事业的高质量发展提速增效。【结论】 虽然当前阶段目标任务艰巨,但迈入“世界第一方阵”未来可期。     

Quality indicators for breast cancer care: A systematic review

ObjectivesWe evaluated breast cancer (BC) care quality indicators (QIs) in clinical pathways and integrated health care processes.MethodsFollowing protocol registration (Prospero n^o: CRD42021228867), relevant documents were identified, without language restrictions, through a systematic search of bibliographic databases (EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE), health care valuable representatives and the World Wide Web in April 2021. Data concerning QIs, measurement tools and compliance standards were extracted from European and North American sources in duplicate with 98% reviewer agreement.ResultsThere were 89 QIs found from 22 selected documents (QI per document mean 13.5 with standard deviation 11.9). The Belgian (38 QIs) and the EUSOMA (European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists) (34 QIs) documents were the ones that best reported the QIs. No identical QI was identified in all the documents analysed. There were 67/89 QIs covering processes (75.3%) and 11/89 (12.4%) for each structure and outcomes QIs. There were 21/89 QIs for diagnosis (30.3%), 43/89 for treatment (48.3%), and 19/89 for staging, counselling, follow-up and rehabilitation (21.4%). Of 67 process QIs and 11 outcome QIs, 20/78 (26%) did not report a minimum standard of care. Shared decision making was only included as a QI in the Italian document.ConclusionMore than half of countries have not established a national clinical pathway or integrated breast cancer care process to achieve the excellence of BC care. There was heterogeneity in QIs for the evaluation of BC care quality. Over two-thirds of the clinical pathways and integrated health care processes did not provide a minimum auditable standard of care for compliance, leaving open the definition of best practice. There is a need for harmonisation of BC care QIs.     

膝骨关节炎中医药系统生物学研究述评＊

膝骨关节炎（Knee Osteoarthritis， KOA）属于临床难治性疾病，其高发病率、高致残性给国民健康、社会发展造成了沉重的负担。在这种不利局面下，中医药在KOA的临床防治上发挥了巨大的作用，其根据“辨证施治”理念的指导对患者采用个体化治疗往往能够取得良好的临床疗效 。然而中医学在传统认知上作为经验医学的集成，现有的KOA中医药基础研究结果尚未完全阐明其客观化、现代化的属性，阻碍了中医药防治KOA科学内涵的揭示以及全面、系统的临床研究的开展和新药研发，如何开展完善、合理、可行的基础研究以进行KOA中医药客观化和现代化探索成为研究者不得不解决的重大难题。随着系统生物学知识结构和研究手段的完善与更新，其与中医药的结合已经成为阐释并创新中医药理论内核、突破中医药研究瓶颈的重要方法。本文通过总结、分析目前KOA中医药基础研究的现状与不足，突出系统生物学在目前KOA中医药研究中的关键作用及应用趋势，以期为今后KOA的中医药研究和发展提供新的思路与对策。