Therapeutic potential of Smilax fluminensis ethanolic extract: antitumoral activity in murine melanoma cells.

The aim of the study was to investigate the in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity of leaves ethanol extract from Smilax fluminensis on murine melanoma. The extract was performed by ethylic alcohol and submitted to classical chemical analysis. Cytotoxicity test were performed on neoplastic cells, where antitumor activity was expressed in GI (concentration that inhibits 50% of cell growth) and the determination of selectivity index using a normal cell line.

Wisconsin Blues' conversion: the privatization of a health insurer.

Wisconsin Blue Cross was chartered in 1939 as a "charitable and benevolent corporation" to cover hospitalization costs at a time when most Americans did not have health insurance. In order to promote the protection that insurance afforded, the Wisconsin legislature exempted the company from most state and local taxes. During World War II, the federal government created tax deductions for both employers and employees, which created new demand for health insurance.

Origins and elaboration of the national health accounts, 1926-2006.

The National Health Statistics Group (NHSG) has managed to keep the national health accounts (NHA) apolitical and highly respected. NHSG strategies have included the careful acquisition and presentation of statistics relating to health costs and payers; the use of scholarly journals to disseminate ideas to other government offices and, beyond them, to industry, labor, the professions, and universities; and the promotion of cooperation with related U.S.

Performance-based contracting in Wisconsin public health: transforming state-local relations.

In 2000, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health reorganized its allocation of federal and state funds by basing contracts on performance rather than audited costs. This created a quasi market in which the state acted as the buyer and the local health departments as the sellers of public health services. In its first year of operation, the program more effectively defined public health objectives to its funders and constituencies, linked its fiscal accountability more closely to attainment, and documented performance more carefully.

Evaluation and comparison of histopathologic grading systems of epithelial carcinoma of the uterine cervix: Gynecologic Oncology Group studies.

The subjects of this study are 445 patients with advanced cervical cancer treated by standardized radiation therapy. Upon entry into one of two Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) protocols, original pathologic diagnoses and histologic tumor descriptions for each patient were compared with separate evaluations made by a consensus opinion of two GOG pathologists. A review diagnosis using grade, cell type, and the Stendahl scoring system was then made by the first author (R.