The contemporary science of drug safety seeks not only to identify the risks associated with the use of medicines but also to quantify these risks, identify their risk factors, and assess strategies to minimize them. It monitors the use of medicines in actual practice to understand how the medical care ...

Background Due to the projected increase of medical graduates and general practice registrars, a rapid increase in new trainers and practices is required. The resulting mix of relatively inexperienced trainers and trainees makes the examination of the important question of patient safety even more pertinent. Objective To describe practical techniques ...

The new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance cites genitourinary (GU) medicine clinics as one setting where screening for alcohol-use disorders should be part of routine clinical practice. Northumberland GU medicine service has routinely used the Fast Alcohol Screening Tool (FAST) since June 2009. An audit of ...

Oncology Metrics, a division of Altos Solutions, has been conducting organized surveys of practicing oncologists since 2005. In this article, we present data that represent trends in community oncology practice over a 6-year period, 2005 to 2010, and make projections on the basis of these data. Over the next 3 ...

Inappropriate use of oxytocin is an important patient safety issue. In this article, the authors describe success in "tackling tachysystole" using an evidence-based algorithm for oxytocin administration. Monthly audits (N = 1160) reached 100% compliance. An algorithm posted at the bedside, multidisciplinary follow-up, education, and widely disseminated results helped counter resistance and ...

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) published guidelines in 2003 which aimed to standardise and improve the safety of sedation in the modern Radiology department. As sedation requirements increase, we decided to audit our own departments understandings and practice with respect to sedation. A repeat audit cycle was performed following ...

To document urodynamic practice in Wales in relation to newly released National Minimum Standards with a view to influencing organisational change. Three questionnaires, evaluating respectively, departmental practice, individual practice and the last 10 studies performed in that department, were sent to all departments performing urodynamics in Wales. Results 19/20 departments ...

Drawing on George Ritzer's sociological concept of McDonaldization, this article explores the transformation of burial practices in Kuwait. It is argued that traditional, religious, and private ways of dealing with death have been modernized using the fast-food model of McDonald's. This article examines Islamic teachings on burial and how that ...

Diarrhoea accounts for 20% of all paediatric deaths in India. Despite WHO recommendations and IAP (Indian Academy of Paediatrics) and Government of India treatment guidelines, few children suffering from acute diarrhoea in India receive low osmolarity oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc from health care providers. The aim of this ...

Rationale, aim and objective  In 2009, the UK Department of Health formalized recommended National Health Service practices for the management of tinnitus from primary care onwards. It is timely therefore to evaluate the perceived practicality, utility and impact of those guidelines in the context of current practice. Methods  We surveyed ...

QUALITY PROBLEM: There is no simple tool to assess compliance with common national and European directives, guidance and professional advice on the management of healthcare institutions. Despite evidence of unacceptable variations in the protection of patient and staff safety little attention has been given to harmonizing the way services are ...

Last year saw the publication of IS0 31000:2009, a new globally accepted standard for risk management together with a new, associated vocabulary in ISO Guide 73:2009. These were developed through a consensus-driven process over four years, through seven drafts, and involving the input of hundreds of risk management professionals around ...

Motor schemas are very attractive concepts; however, their development and internal structure appear difficult to probe and identify. The present study focuses on the development of a motor schema in constant practice. In four experiments, participants practiced bimanual juggling with three standard balls. During retention tests they were asked to ...

International medical graduates (IMGs) comprise approximately 25% of the US physician workforce, with significant representation in primary care and care of vulnerable populations. Despite the central role of IMGs in the US healthcare system, understanding of their professional experiences is limited. To characterize the professional experiences of non-US born IMGs ...

A description of the International Criminal Police Organization and its role in disaster victim identification is provided along with a summary of the standards developed and circulated to responders in INTERPOL member countries (188 throughout the world) to insure evidence-based DVI practices. Following the INTERPOL-mediated DVI response in 2005 to ...

OBJECTIVE: The Japanese Committee for Stentgraft Management (JACSM) was established with the aim of ensuring the safe and proper reach of commercial stent grafts following their regulatory approval. This study examines the validity of the practice standards developed by JACSM. METHODS: JACSM comprises 10 associations related to endovascular treatment. Based ...

OBJECTIVE: 'Health for All by the Year of 2000' was a motto of the World Health Organization (WHO). The aim of this study was to briefly review recent efforts to standardize and improve traditional medicine including acupuncture with a focus on the WHO activities for the abovementioned motto, acupuncture and ...

The enhancement of professionalism in surgery and medicine is an important goal for all healthcare providers, both at the individual level of the physician and at the large-scale level of the healthcare system. Recently, much has been written about the challenges in implementing the concept of professionalism within healthcare delivery. ...

Many serious medical errors result from violations of recognized standards of practice. Over time, even egregious violations of standards of practice may become "normalized" in healthcare delivery systems. This article describes what leads to this normalization and explains why flagrant practice deviations can persist for years, despite the importance of ...

OBJECTIVES: To review the literature on individual community professionals' caseload management (behaviours related to assessment, treatment and discharging of clients) to identify the main themes and concepts, and to synthesize the findings to inform practice, policy and research. METHODS: Publications were systematically identified from electronic databases, hand searches of bibliographies, ...

This article discusses mail-order trade in medicines. It explains why this trade has developed and why there is a need for strict safety standards. The European Court of Justice obliged member states to allow such trade in non prescription medicines but did not specify any safety standards. The 2007 resolution ...

OBJECTIVE: Considerable variation in radiologic procedures, protocols, policies, and workflows exists across the nation, sometimes even within departments. This lack of standardization fosters idiosyncratic behavior and outcomes, undermining the effort to implement best practices across institutions. The purpose of this article is to discuss the need for rapidly implementing recognized ...

The manner in which healthcare and medical professionals serve their athlete patients is governed by a variety of relevant codes of conduct. A range of codified rules is presented that refer both the welfare of the patient and the maintaining of confidentiality, which is at the heart of trustworthy relations. ...

Professionalism is at the heart of risk management in complex, dangerous work such as medicine, aviation, and military operations. Professionalism is closely connected to expertise and is therefore closely connected to the ability to prevent and mitigate errors. But there are two paradoxes in this connection. First, professionalism can increase, ...

OBJECTIVE: To provide recommendations for the standardized use of the Antral follicle count (AFC) which is used to predict ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation during assisted reproductive technology treatment. However, the nature of the follicles that are visualized by ultrasound and the competence of the oocytes held within are largely ...

The measurement of gastrointestinal functions by the use of scintigraphy is established in clinical practice and research. The most commonly used test is the gastric-emptying test, which is acknowledged as the gold standard to measure gastric motility and is conducted according to a consensus statement from the national nuclear medicine ...

Of the various sources of information about medicines used by healthcare professionals, the summary of product characteristics (SPC; sometimes abbreviated as SmPC) has a low profile, despite being a definitive document. This may be because many professionals do not know what an SPC is or what it contains. Here, we ...

Nutritional supplementation is becoming the standard of practice in equine medicine, although there are minimal data on nutritional support in critically ill horses and its association or effect on morbidity and mortality or length of hospital stay. Horses can be fed orally and when that is not possible, intravenously or ...

From 1 January 2007, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) 2003 code of practice (COP) for electron dosimetry replaces the old air kerma-based Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Biology 1996 COP as the recommended protocol for the UK. The IPEM 2003 COP requires a ...

AIMS: The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) has for several years published guidance on good autopsy practice. However, pressures such as time, cost and the introduction of the Human Tissue Act have generated suggestions that there is a discrepancy between the published guidelines and what can realistically be achieved in ...

HIM professionals have always been actively involved in various aspects of healthcare quality management. In the decade since publication of To Err Is Human, the scope and volume of quality management activities have accelerated. Having quality at the forefront of the national agenda has inevitably created employment opportunities as well ...

In an era in which healthcare practices are striving to provide better customer service, reduce staff turnover, increase referrals, and build stronger revenues, we need a standard of excellence upon which to base our expectations, model our behaviors, and hold our team members accountable. This article lays a foundation for ...

Although hospitals planning to install facilities that will use radioactive sources need not currently notify their national environment agency, the Environment Agency's senior manager for effective regulation of radioactive substances in England and Wales, Dr Chris Englefield, warned at the recent Healthcare Estates conference that subsequent failure to comply with ...

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the completion of the Human Genome Project and other rapid advances in genomics have led to increasing anticipation of an era of genomic and personalized medicine, in which an individual's health is optimized through the use of all available patient data, including data on the individual's ...

In Australia, there are two categories of non-prescription medicines: pharmacy medicines and pharmacist only medicines. Standards were developed to define and describe the professional activities required for the provision of these medicines at a consistent and measurable level of practice. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to implement nationally a quality improvement ...

The International Safety Management (ISM) Code defines a broad framework for the safe management and operation of merchant ships, maintaining high standards of safety and environmental protection. On the other hand, ISO 14001:2004 provides a generic, worldwide environmental management standard that has been utilized by several industries. Both the ISM ...

BACKGROUND: Clinical decision support tools (CDSTs) on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and online databases assist healthcare practitioners who make decisions about dietary supplements. OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the content of PDA dietary supplement databases and their online counterparts used as CDSTs. METHODS: A total of 102 question-and-answer pairs were ...

Management of acute and chronic pain has always been a key area of clinical research. Enkephalinase inhibitors (EIs) seem to be promising as therapeutic agents having antinociceptive action. They additionally possess anticraving, antidiarrhoeal and antidepressant actions. The antinociceptive action of EIs has been reported for over a decade however, their ...

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to assess and improve the management of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) in maternity units in Malawi. The main objective was to determine whether criteria-based audit can improve adherence to standards for the management of PPH. METHODS: We used a before-and-after design and univariate statistics ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess and improve the management of obstructed labour in maternity units in Malawi. METHODS: A criterion based audit of the management of obstructed labour was conducted in 8 hospitals in three districts in Malawi. Management practices were: (a) assessed by a retrospective review of 44 cases notes, and ...

The practice of injecting phosphatidylcholine/sodium deoxycholate compounds into subcutaneous fat is growing rapidly. As with any new procedure, a standard of practice should be developed so that practitioners maintain patient safety as the primary goal. Efficacy and predictability of outcome are another priority. As injection lipolysis, also known as "lipodissolve," ...

Located at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) headquarters in Melbourne, Victoria, this internationally significant collection was founded in 1935 by renowned Australian anaesthetist Dr Geoffrey Kaye (1903 to 1986). Although it has always been referred to as a museum, it lacked the necessary management structure and ...

In the era of evidence based medicine, proof of clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness need to be firmly based on transparent comparisons between various therapeutic alternatives. Standards for reports are a prerequisite for comparisons across reports and should reflect the patient's perspective. According standards have been successfully introduced in many fields ...

It is significant to arrange suitable design and placement of best management practices (BMPs) for reaching the aim that can not only satisfy environmental quality standards, but also decrease the total cost of BMPs. This study applied WinVAST model to predict watershed responses. The objective of this work was to ...

BACKGROUND: The risk factors and incidence of anastomotic leak following colorectal surgery are well reported in the literature. However, the management of the multiple clinical scenarios that may be encountered has not been standardized. METHODS: The medical literature from 1973 to 2007 was reviewed using PubMed for papers relating to ...

Humanitarian organisations operate in increasingly hostile environments. Although authoritative statistics are scarce, anecdotal evidence suggests that aid workers face life-threatening risks that are exacerbated by the growing number of humanitarian organisations operating in the field, the diversity of their mandates, the lack of common professional security standards, and limited success ...

Advanced Multicenter Research (AMR) is a Web-based information technology infrastructure, fully integrated to manage every single part of a clinical trial, but with 'independent' and 'customizable' components to wholly meet each team's requirements. The AIEOP group utilizes AMR for the management and analyses of the majority of the expected nationwide ...

The developing of innovative solutions in the emerging eHealth market requires strong economic efforts which may be justified only in presence of particularly suitable boundary conditions. Among the factors retained of primary importance for the development of eHealth, a correct approach to id-management is unanimously considered fundamental. Three keywords in ...

Practice refers to a characteristic way professionals use common standards to customize solutions to a range of problems. Practice includes (a) standards for outcomes and processes that are shared with one's colleagues, (b) a rich repertoire of skills grounded in diagnostic acumen, (c) an ability to see the actual and ...

Most Australian livestock are transported at some stage in their lives and the attendant risks must be managed. Like other countries, Australia has location-specific challenges for the land transport of animals that derive from general geography and history, quality of the road and rail systems, design of vehicles and handling ...