Publications by authors named "Fabio Salamanca-Buentello"

Research ethics review committees (ERCs) worldwide faced daunting challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a need to balance rapid turnaround with rigorous evaluation of high-risk research protocols in the context of considerable uncertainty. This study explored the experiences and performance of ERCs during the pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The rapid implementation of global COVID-19 vaccination programs has surfaced many challenges and inequities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, there continues to be a lack of consensus on which challenges are global priorities for action, and how to best respond to them. This study uses consensus-based methods to identify and rank the most important challenges and solutions for implementation of COVID-19 vaccination programs in LMICs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified pre-existing challenges to health promotion and care across the world, and particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This qualitative study draws on data from a panel of immunisation experts and uses a novel framework of vaccine delivery domains to explore perspectives from those who live and work in these settings on the challenges to implementing COVID-19 vaccine programs in LMICs.

Methods: We conducted a thematic content analysis of 96 participant free text replies to questions from Round I of a three-round Delphi consensus study amongst global experts on COVID-19 vaccine implementation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In January 2021, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, warned that the world was 'on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure [that] will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries'. We are now past the brink. Many high-income countries have vaccinated their populations (which, in some cases, includes third and even fourth doses) and are loosening public health and social measures, while low-income and middle-income countries are struggling to secure enough supply of vaccines to administer first doses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Opioid agonist therapy (OAT) has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The risks of opioid withdrawal, overdose, and diversion have increased, so there is an urgent need to adapt OAT to best support people who use drugs (PWUD). This review examines the views and experiences of PWUD, health care providers, and health system administrators on OAT during major disruptions to medical care to inform appropriate health system responses during the current pandemic and beyond.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This review synthesizes the literature on the perspectives and experiences of people who use drugs to better understand motivations and behaviors related to the extramedical use and diversion of buprenorphine. Given the particular social construction of buprenorphine against methadone, and the centrality of concerns around extramedical use in delivering opioid agonist therapies, a focus on extramedical buprenorphine use can provide an important lens through which to analyze treatment for opioid use disorder. This review is framed within persistent tensions between potential harm-producing versus harm-reducing effects of extramedical use that have long been described for opioid agonist therapies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Ras family of small Guanosine Triphosphate (GTP)-binding proteins (G proteins) represents one of the main components of intracellular signal transduction required for normal cardiac growth, but is also critically involved in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. The present review provides an update on the role of the H-, K- and N-Ras genes and their related pathways in cardiac diseases. We focus on cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, where Ras has been studied the most.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Continuing health provider education (HPE) is an important intervention supported by health policy to counter the opioid epidemic; knowledge regarding appropriate program design and evaluation is lacking. The authors aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of evaluations of opioid-related continuing HPE programs and their appropriateness as interventions to improve population health.

Method: In January 2020, the authors conducted a systematic search of 7 databases, seeking studies of HPE programs on opioid analgesic prescribing and overdose prevention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Task shifting and sharing (TS/S) is a strategy to redistribute health tasks to improve access to health services and address shortages in health workers, but a clear conceptual framework for it was previously lacking.
  • An international panel of experts utilized an online Delphi process to develop the COATS Framework, achieving consensus on key concepts and effective practices for implementing TS/S after three rounds of questionnaires.
  • The COATS Framework provides a refined definition and guidance for TS/S initiatives, outlining eight necessary conditions for successful implementation and aims to enhance policy and program development related to TS/S globally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite their burden and high prevalence, mental health disorders of children and adolescents remain neglected in many parts of the world. In developing countries, where half of the population is younger than 18 years old, one of every five children and adolescents is estimated to suffer from a mental health disorder. It is then essential to detect these conditions through screening in a timely and accurate manner.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the absence of scientific clarity about the potential health effects of occupational exposure to nanoparticles, a need exists for guidance in decision making about hazards, risks, and controls. An identification of the ethical issues involved may be useful to decision makers, particularly employers, workers, investors, and health authorities. Because the goal of occupational safety and health is the prevention of disease in workers, the situations that have ethical implications that most affect workers have been identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the absence of scientific clarity about the potential health effects of occupational exposure to nanoparticles, a need exists for guidance in decisionmaking about hazards, risks, and controls. An identification of the ethical issues involved may be useful to decision makers, particularly employers, workers, investors, and health authorities. Because the goal of occupational safety and health is the prevention of disease in workers, the situations that have ethical implications that most affect workers have been identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

How nanotechnology can be harnessed to address some of the world's most critical development problems

View Article and Find Full Text PDF