62,406 and Counting

What will we remember, as scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, educators, and citizens, about this acute phase of the catastrophe in the United States? The shocking federal failure concerning testing? That the first shortage was not of ventilators but protective gear? How infection rates and deaths in communities of color, immigrant neighborhoods, and nursing homes mercilessly exposed the relationship between social inequalities and health inequities? I hope we will remember that the field of bioethics did good work under pressure, learned that public health ethics and global health ethics are about securing the conditions for decent lives and decent work as well as saving lives, and committed ourselves to progress on the problem of inequality.     

临床护理人员面对人员配备不足的感受和反应

目的：探讨临床护理人员面对人员配备不足的感受和反应。方法：运用质性研究中的现象学方法对25位来自上海4个不同等级医院的护士进行深入访谈。结果：护理人员面对人员配备不足的反应为自行解决,尽力而为;报告领导,寻求帮助;服从安排,自我调整;耐心沟通,求得谅解;无奈接受,无力无助。结论：护理人员能积极有效应对人员配备不足带来的压力,护理管理者应合理配备人员,预防和减轻人员紧缺给护士和病人带来的负面影响。     

专科医院条形码技术应用中存在的问题与改进对策

本文分析了条形码技术在精神病专科医院应用中存在的问题及对实验室工作的影响,并提出了相应的改进措施,确保临床检验结果的准确性、可靠性。     

临床医生与医学伦理审查

医疗技术的迅速发展直接推动医学的发展,给患者带来福音,同时也引发诸多社会问题。开展医学伦理审查是现代医疗技术发展的需要,也是技术评估的重要内容;既是对患者的保护,也是对医生的保护,更是回归医学技术研究的本质的需要。建立区域性医学伦理委员会,采用统一标准开展伦理审查,提高伦理审查质量,有利于化解医患关系的冲突,建设和谐社会。     

Prehospital Care Research Forum/NAEMSE 2005

Objective. The Medical Priority Dispatch System is an emergency medical dispatch (EMD) system that is widely used to categorize 9-1-1 calls andoptimize resource allocation. This study evaluates the ability of EMD andnon-EMD codes (calls not processed by EMD) to predict prehospital use of medications andprocedures. Methods. All transported prehospital patients placed in an EMD or non-EMD category that exceeded 500 total calls from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2006, in a suburban California county were matched with their prehospital electronic patient care record. These records (N = 69,541) were queried for the following prehospital interventions: basic life support (BLS) care only, intravenous line placement only, medication given, andprocedures. Advanced life support (ALS) interventions were defined as the administration of a medications or a procedure. The numbers of medications andprocedures that were performed on patients in each EMD code were measured. Results. Thirty-one of 141 EMD andnon-EMD codes met inclusion criteria andcomprised 73% of all calls during the study period. Non-EMD codes accounted for 48% of all calls in this study. Patients with shortness of breath, chest pain, diabetic problems, andaltered mental status received the most medications. High rates of medication administration were also seen in the following codes: 17A (fall, 27%), 17B (fall, 14%), EMDX (unable to complete EMD process, 22%), MED (medical aid requested—details to follow, 26%), andMED3 (medical aid requested by police—code 3, 18%). Procedures were performed on only 0.9% of all calls, of which 75% were related to advanced airways. Higher rates of ALS interventions in higher-acuity categories (Alpha, Bravo, etc.) were seen in a number of EMD categories, including seizure, laceration/hemorrhage, sick, andtraffic accident, but not seen in many categories, including abdominal pain, falls, andchest pain. Conclusions. This study demonstrated only a modest ability of the EMD system to predict which patients would require ALS intervention. There were limited differences noted in the ALS rates between the different codes (Alpha, Bravo, etc.) in the same complaint category, bringing into question the utility of the multiple subgroups. Non-EMD codes made up a large portion of calls (48%) andshould be included in future studies.     

Associations between labial and whole salivary flow rates,systemic diseases and medications in a sample of older people

Smidt D, Torpet LA, Nauntofte B, Heegaard KM, Pedersen AML. Associations between labial and whole salivary flow rates, systemic diseases and medications in a sample of older people. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2010; 38: 422–435. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract – Objective: To investigate the associations between age, gender, systemic diseases, medications and labial and whole salivary flow rates in older people. Methods: Unstimulated labial (LS) and unstimulated (UWS) and chewing‐stimulated (SWS) whole salivary flow rates were measured in 389 randomly selected community‐dwelling Danish women and 279 men aged 65–97 years. Systemic diseases, medications (coded according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System), tobacco and alcohol consumption were registered. Results: The number of diseases and medications was higher and UWS lower in the older age groups. On average, women were slightly older, had more diseases, higher medication intake and lower UWS, SWS and LS than men. High number of diseases and medications was associated with low UWS, SWS and LS. In the healthy (14%) and nonmedicated (19%) participants, flow rates were not associated with age and gender, apart from SWS being lower in nonmedicated women. Low UWS were associated with psychiatric and respiratory disorders, type 2 diabetes and intake of psycholeptics, psychoanaleptics (especially SRRIs), respiratory agents, oral antidiabetics (particularly sulfonylureas), magnesium‐hydroxide, cardiac agents, quinine, thiazides, calcium channel blockers, statins, urinary antispasmodics, glucosamine, NSAIDs, opioids and ophthalmologicals. SWS were lower in participants with ophthalmological disorders using ophthalmologicals (especially antiglaucoma agents and miotics), but also in those taking antidepressants, cardiac agents (mostly digitalis glycosides) and calcium channel blockers. Cardiovascular diseases and intake of anti‐thrombotics (mainly low dose aspirins), calcium channel blockers and oral antidiabetics were associated with low LS. Conclusions: In older people, low salivary flow rates are associated with specific and high number of diseases and medications, but neither with age and gender per se nor with tobacco and alcohol consumption. Low UWS are associated with more diseases and medications than SWS and LS, which were primarily associated with cardiovascular diseases and medications including preventive agents such as low‐dose aspirins and statins. New insights into medications and their association with salivary gland function were achieved using the ATC classification system.     

Saving lives versus life‐years in rural Bangladesh: an ethical preferences approach

Using a random sample of individuals in rural Bangladesh, this paper investigates people's ethical preferences regarding relative values of lives when it comes to saving lives of individuals of different ages. By assuming that an individual has preferences concerning different states of the world, and that these preferences can be described by an individual social welfare function, the individuals' preferences for life‐saving programs are elicited using a pair‐wise choice experiment involving different life‐saving programs. In the analyses, we calculate the social marginal rates of substitution between saved lives of people of different ages. We also test whether people have preferences for saving more life‐years rather than only saving lives. In particular, we test and compare the two hypotheses that only lives matter and that only life‐years matter. The results indicate that the value of a saved life decreases rapidly with age and that people have strong preferences for saving life‐years rather than lives per se. Overall, the results clearly show the importance of the number of life‐years saved in the valuation of life. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.