Recent theoretical analyses of domestic violence have posited the complicity of medical communities in erasing and obfuscating the cause of injuries. Although medical cultures have engaged in progressive initiatives to address and treat domestic violence, these medical and clinical models can render domestic violence invisible by framing the battered woman ...

Even though significant technological advances have been achieved and applied in the medical field from a computational point of view, there is still a significant lag in effectively correlating diverse information sources towards the facilitation of clinical reasoning and improved decision making. In order to address this gab, the biopattern ...

Results of a survey of medication safety technology in community hospitals are presented. A written questionnaire was mailed to pharmacy directors at 88 hospitals located in 21 states. Items in the questionnaire addressed current and planned use of technology intended to improve medication safety. Fifty-six usable responses were received for ...

Reductions in traffic-related fatalities in developed industrialized countries have been substantial in the last 30 years. Most analyses have attributed this reduction to changes in vehicle design, better road design, increased seat-belt use, and reductions in driving under the influence of alcohol. This paper analyses the impact of improvements in ...

Poor developing countries cannot afford expensive technologies such as incineration for management of infectious biomedical waste. We assessed solar heating as an alternative technology. We immersed simulated infectious waste with added challenge bacteria in water in a box-type solar cooker, which was left in the sun for 6 h. In ...

This paper illustrates a bio-inspired approach to effective, smooth and safe navigation in the human body and, in particular, in the gastrointestinal tract. This idea originates from the medical need to develop more powerful tools for microendoscopy, which is one of the most challenging frontiers of modern medicine. Understanding motion ...

The artificial organ museum established in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1979 organized by the International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation (ICAOT), was moved to Houston, Texas, in 1999. The museum with expanded and renewed artificial organ exhibits was officially opened on the 8th and 9th of November, 2002, at the ...

Neurologists have retold a story about the discovery of multiple sclerosis (MS) in essentially the same form from the 1870s to the present. Upon close analysis this narrative was found to be problematic. Once the nosological category of MS came into existence in 1868, physicians reread the scientific past through ...

DNA microarrays are used to study simultaneous gene expression in thousands of genes. This tool has moved beyond proof-of-principle and its integration into medical practice is slowly becoming a reality. This technology has enabled unparalleled progress into the study of complex polygenic diseases. Although cancer research introduced DNA microarrays into ...

Published evidence on the effects of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), automated dispensing machines (ADMs), bar coding, and computerized medication administration records (CMARs) on medication errors and adverse drug events (ADEs) were reviewed. Emerging technologies have been recommended as potential mechanisms for reducing medication errors. Critical evaluations of the impact ...

In a recent Health Affairs article, David Cutler and Mark McClellan found that new medical technology confers positive net benefits for several conditions, including heart attacks, cataracts, and depression. We estimate the extent to which uninsured Americans ages 55-64 use these technologies and compute access gaps for each. Based on ...

Medical technology is the driving force behind the current transformations of medical practice. Doctors are required to think and to act as managers and technologists. Management of medical technology is a new intellectual space that integrates business, engineering, and medicine. MMT is the most appropriate field of study for the ...

'Telemedicine' can be defined in various ways, but the underlying concept is based on the simple fact that, thanks to modern telecommunications links, diagnostic and therapeutic medical information can be passed between patient and doctor without either of them having to travel. Initially and for quite a long period, voice ...

Fetal ultrasound screening has become routine practice in many western countries. During the last decade, such screening has led to frequent situations characterised by clinical uncertainty due to the disclosure of soft markers in the unborn child. Soft markers are minor anatomical variations indicating a somewhat increased likelihood that the ...

Medical technology is a two-edged sword, capable of saving and improving life but also of ending and harming life. Finding the right stance toward technology requires great balance and sensitivity. It has seductive powers because of its expected benefits, the social and professional pressures to use it, and a frequent ...

In recent debates on novel procedures of molecular medicine pharmacogenomics is attracting more and more attention as a genotype-based approach for improving safety and efficacy of the use of therapeutic substances. Promoted by basic knowledge generated in the field of medical genomics, facilitated by novel technological tools for mapping genetic ...

India has amongst the worst gender ratios in the world. Preconception gender selection can aggravate this situation. This procedure is costly and has a moderate success rate. No moral theory supports this procedure. It demeans human beings and commodifies gender. The medical profession should not invest resources in this procedure ...

Current VAD technology has enabled patients to be safely discharged from hospital, awaiting transplantation in the setting of their home. The results of recent studies have proven that patients on LVADs as destination therapy fare better than their medical counterparts and enjoy a higher quality of life. The lessons learned ...

C (2) to C (4) chloroalkanes have been used for a wide range of industrial applications. Consequently, numerous leaks to the environment have occurred. It is generally observed that the lower chlorinated members of the group, containing 1-3 chlorine atoms, accumulate in environments where reductive conditions prevail. Their half-lives under ...

A technological community framework can be used to explain and manage new medical technologies. It describes emergence, commercialization, and standardization of an innovation or technology within the context of its whole network (or community) of stakeholders. This framework is used to illustrate the emergence, commercialization, and standardization of a relatively ...

A great deal of effort has been expended on trying to determine whether traditional instruction, online learning, or some combination of the two is of greater educational effectiveness.1, 2 This may be the wrong question. Rather than determining whether one delivery mechanism is superior to another, it is more important ...

The German chamomile is an old herbal medicine, which is widely used in medical practice. The water and ethanol extracts of matricaria flowers are mainly used for their anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and spasmolytic properties. It is possible to prepare tea of pulverized matricaria flowers with 0.2 mm sized particles packed in ...

Stethoscopes, x-rays and other medical technologies are two-edged swords. They make medical treatment and diagnosis more accurate and effective, but do at the same time reveal our perceptual inadequacy. By transcending our senses, these technologies reveal that we can be seriously diseased without experiencing any symptoms at all. This situation ...

A bagging ensemble consists of a set of classifiers trained independently and combined by a majority vote. Such a combination improves generalization performance but can require large amounts of memory and computation, a serious drawback for addressing portable real-time pattern recognition applications. We report here a compact three-dimensional (3D) multiprecision ...

The "systems" approach to reducing medical errors is increasingly viewed as dependent upon technology. Issues with the legal system, however, may impede needed reforms. Historically there has been a pervasive disconnect between the legal system and changes in healthcare business models and structures. Further, difficult legal issues will accompany care ...

Mayo Clinic Scottsdale has extended the concept of an integrated, multispecialty clinical practice to the management of information technology. This adaptation of a traditional patient care model has been highly successful in a recent decade of extensive technology investment and deployment that has culminated in a paperless, filmless multicampus electronic ...

This study looked at the effect of information technology on rural medical practice. Eight GPs in rural medical practice in Victoria were interviewed, and World Wide Web sites were accessed for information relevant to the rural GPs use of information technology. The results indicated that rural GPs are developing their ...

In this article, we review 25 years of sociological scholarship published in Sociology of Health and Illness on medical technologies. We divide the literature into three theoretical perspectives: technological determinism views medical technology as a political force to shape social relationships, social essentialism emphasizes how medical technologies are neutral tools ...

This article outlines the progression of topics used to highlight gender in a clinical medical anthropology class. As the class moves through themes such as the use of high-technology medicine and doctor-patient communication, issues of the socially constructed nature of gender are brought to the fore. Included in this article ...

The paper explores the relationship between medical innovation and cost of treatment. The methodology used by Murphy and Topel to calculate the statistical value of a life is examined. The authors discuss possible confounding factors, such as the general trend of decreasing mortality, and consider the possibility that non-medical sources, ...

The informatical revolution in computer age, which gives significant benefit in transfer of medical information requests to pay still more attention for aspect of network security. All known advantages of network technologies--first of all simplicity of copying, multiplication and sending information to many individuals can be also dangerous, if illegal, ...

The new millennium has seen the introduction of an array of new Current Procedural Terminology(R) (CPT) codes and the expansion of interventional techniques. Among the many issues of interest to physicians practicing interventional pain management in 2003 are CPT coding, correct coding issues, and utilization. The CPT developed and updated ...

This paper focuses on the issue of the extent to which the present mainstream risk adjustment (RA) methodology for measuring outcomes is a valid and useful tool for quality-improvement activities. The method's predictive and attributional validity are discussed, considering the confounding and effect modification produced by medical care over risk ...

In 1922 the Québec government appropriated $100,000 for the purchase of radium to found an Institut du Radium at the University of Montreal. Opened largely through the initiative and drive of Dr. Joseph-Ernest Gendreau, the institut was the first organization devoted to radium therapy and cancer treatment in Canada. This ...

Determinations of patentability over the prior art are often thought to raise questions that are so technologically complex that they require special training and judgment to answer, especially in fast-moving fields like modern biotechnology. This essay explores the somewhat counterintuitive argument that under the U.S. system they do not and ...

Digital technologies are gaining wider acceptance within the medical and dental professions. The lure of increased productivity and improved quality entice practices to adapt. These systems are beginning to have a profound impact on the workflows within the practice, as well as putting new demands on existing resources. To successfully ...

BACKGROUND: We examined clinical records of combat casualties that died subsequent to reaching a medical treatment facility in an effort to determine whether new medical technologies or enhanced training might contribute to a reduction in combat deaths. METHODS: Hospital records of 210 fatal combat casualties were independently reviewed by four ...

This research explored the reasons for women's preferences for cesarean section births in Pelotas, Brazil. It is argued that women strategize and appropriate both medical knowledge and the technology of cesarean sections as a creative form of responding to larger public debates (and the practices that produced them) on the ...

The potential medical applications of microarrays have generated much excitement, and some skepticism, within the biomedical community. Some researchers have suggested that within the decade microarrays will be routinely used in the selection, assessment, and quality control of the best drugs for pharmaceutical development, as well as for disease diagnosis ...

Medical technology itself, including minimally invasive surgery, has no morals; our morality revolves around when and how we use technology. This often involves the individual clinician's assessment of their own abilities and an awareness of two aspects of the technology: its proven efficacy and its safety. Is technology outpacing knowledge? ...

The undigestable disaccharide lactulose has been in medical use for over 40 years, mainly in the treatment of portosystemic encephalopathy and of constipation. Pharmacodynamics of lactulose make it an efficacious and safe drug in these indications. But the reason for its numerous potential benefits are under research now. The major ...

The technology sector of healthcare is entering a new evolutionary phase. The medical community has an obligation to the public to provide the safest, most effective healthcare possible. This is more achievable with the use of computer technology at the point of care, and small, portable devices could fulfil this ...

During the 20th century, the field of radiology experienced extraordinary growth and became an essential component of the practice of clinical medicine. In the 21st century, it is likely that radiology will continue to grow by interfacing with new and important domains such as information technology and molecular biology and ...

In medical investigation there is a need for non-invasive methods. Moreover, patients ask for easy methods that are simple to perform and medical doctors demand reliable techniques. With the advent of stable isotopes a new area of tracer technology became available. In gastroenterology, 13CO2 breath tests are used which fulfill ...

Numerous advanced technologies, both medical and nonmedical, are emerging faster than their social, behavioral, political, moral, and ethical implications can be understood. Some of these technologies will fundamentally challenge the practice of surgery: human cloning, genetic engineering, tissue engineering, intelligent robotics, nanotechnology, suspended animation, regeneration, and species prolongation. Because of ...

The textile roots of yeast microencapsulation technology was introduced as were the wide range of applications in food and other business sectors. In microencapsulation in general the number of commercial applications in the textile industry continues to grow particularly in the textile industries of Western Europe, Japan and North America. ...

Medical assessment and treatment of crews during spaceflight is primarily perfomed by the Earth-based medical staff analyzing information received by telemetry and onboard preventive and medical treatment facilities. In the coming decades, the building of the International Space Station (ISS) will be the most important near-Earth space exploration project. Remote ...

The stethoscope represents the physician perhaps more than any other symbol, except the shaft of Aesculpaius of Kos Island, Greece (birthplace of Hippocrates) - the god of Temple medicine of the Greek antiquity. In early modern ear of the 19th century, it was spectacular product of developing synthetic chemical technology ...

Telemedicine refers to the delivery of medical care through telecommunications and has been utilized by many medical specialists. In its basic form, telemedicine can involve the use of a telephone or fax. More advanced forms are the transmission of still images, often referred to as "store-and-forward" technology, or real-time two-way ...

The fulfillment of a pharmaco-economical analysis of the treatment with antibiotics is an important task in the conditions of a transition period, that is currently in Bulgaria. The great problem with the insufficient financial sources prevents the supply with drugs, medical supply and technology. This analysis is a kind of ...