Future of health care has top priority at CMA's 1995 annual meeting

The CMA Board of Directors has taken the unprecedented step of organizing a series of strategic-issue sessions focusing on the future of health and health care. They will be held during the annual meeting Aug. 13-16. The objective is to establish a set of principles that will guide the board in developing short- and midterm policies and give direction for a CMA action plan dealing with the future Canadian health care system.     

Canadian Paediatric Society discusses certification, neonatal and terminal care at annual meeting

Cholescintigraphy with N-substituted iminodiacetic acid (HIDA) labelled with technetium-99m is a new noninvasive technique for evaluation of the hepatobiliary system. The significance of nonvisualization of the gallbladder by this method in comparison with standard radiologic examinations was studied. In 43 healthy subjects the gallbladder was visualized by the two methods. By contrast, all 27 patients in whom the gallbladder was not visualized by cholescintigraphy had cholecystitis. When visualization failed to occur, a repeat cholescintigraphic study after an injection of cholecystokinin demonstrated the status of the cystic duct. Visualization excludes cystic duct obstruction and acute cholecystitis, whereas persistent nonvisualization indicates cystic duct obstruction.     

Publication rates of presentations at the Irish Orthopaedic Association annual meeting

Background

Presentation of scientific research at national and international meetings is an important forum for the dissemination of knowledge. Subsequent publication of a full-text paper in a peer-reviewed journal is the expected outcome of such presentations. The publication rate from these meetings is highly variable.

Aims

To determine the publication rate of abstracts presented at the Irish Orthopaedic Association’s Annual Conference and to determine which factors are associated with progression to full-text publication.

Methods

We reviewed the proceedings from the Irish Orthopaedic Association’s National Meeting over a 4 year period. We searched the Pubmed database using author names, institution names, and keywords from each abstract’s title, to determine how many presented articles progressed to full-text publication.

Results

Sixty-six of 203 were published, 97 % within 5 years of presentation. Laboratory based studies presenting novel or innovative findings were more likely to be published than clinical studies. Clinical studies were more likely to be published if they were prospective and had a longer period of follow-up. Retrospective audits were less likely to be published, even with a large cohort size. Changes in authorship of presented papers were related to a longer delay in time to full-text publication.

Conclusions

Thorough planning of research studies is essential to ensure a timely progression to full-text publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Most studies will be published within 5 years of initial presentation.