Latest advances in topographic data acquisition techniques have greatly enhanced the possibility to analyse landscapes in order to understand the processes that shaped them. High-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), such as LiDAR-derived ones, provide detailed topographic information. In particular, if multi-temporal DEMs are available, it is possible to carry out a detailed geomorphic change detection analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis essay explores the viability of using the population health legal norm developed by Professor Wendy Parmet in her book as a basis for theorizing health law. Based on the application of five criteria, the essay concludes that a population health legal norm has potential as a framework for theorizing health law, especially in comparison to other proposed health law theories. Yet, its potential turns on the ability of theorists to provide a detailed account of individual rights under a population health framework.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNurse Kaci Hickox is among the "Ebola Fighters" honored by Time magazine as its 2014 Person of the Year, having treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone while volunteering with Médecins Sans Frontieres. When she returned to the United States in October 2014, she was quarantined in New Jersey for three days before returning home to Maine under the terms of a negotiated release. A year later, in October 2015, Hickox filed suit in federal court against Governor Chris Christie and New Jersey health officials, claiming that the quarantine violated her civil rights.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCan scientists self-regulate effectively? The controversial select agent regulations, the recent implementation of U.S. dual-use research of concern policies, the funding moratorium on gain of function experiments, and the 2014 incidents at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all seem to suggest that the answer is a resounding "no.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWake Forest Law Rev
June 2006
This essay identifies the bias that institutional sponsorship of medical mediation introduces and the probability that such bias undermines the ability of such mediation programs to generate trust by patients in physicians and health care institutions. Based on data from an emerging medical trust movement in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed Interface
August 1996
Practice guidelines, education, consensus building, and extensive communication were the tools used in developing a musculoskeletal care system. Primary care physicians directed patient care using practice guidelines for common musculoskeletal conditions. Patient education and empowerment were emphasized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBasic disagreements about what makes human life valuable hinder use of the concept of futility to decide whether it is appropriate to continue life support for one in a permanent state of unconsciousness, or to provide intensive medical care to one in the last stages of a terminal illness (the "paradigm cases"). Triage planning (the process of establishing criteria for health care prioritization) is an attractive alternative framework for addressing the paradigm cases. Triage planning permits society to see the cases in the context of diverse moral perspectives, limited resources, and competing health care demands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe efficacy of cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), as compared with placebo, was tested in a 12-week, double-blind, controlled trial of 120 patients with fibrositis. Of the patients who received placebo, 52% dropped out due to lack of efficacy of the drug, compared with 16% of patients taking cyclobenzaprine. The dropout rate due to adverse reactions was similar in the 2 groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo assess the short and longterm efficacy of intensive inpatient treatment of active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 16 patients, the test group, admitted to a hospital based rheumatic disease unit (mean length of stay 12.4 days) were studied, using clinical and laboratory variables. The comparison group was similarly evaluated, using 10 outpatients with active RA to whom hospitalization was recommended, but refused by the patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFibrositis (fibromyalgia) is best treated by attaining patient acceptance of and compliance with a comprehensive treatment program. This includes education, physical therapy, muscle and mental relaxation, examination and adjustment of goals and priorities, and pacing of activities, as well as pharmacotherapeutics. Of the medications in use, anti-inflammatory agents with a high degree of analgesia are more effective than "pure" anti-inflammatory agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 20-year-old man with Crohn's disease was seen as an outpatient for pain in the left hip and gait disturbance. Initially, arthritis of the hip was suspected, because of the absence of fever or abdominal abnormalities. Two weeks later, fever, malaise, and pneumaturia developed and urine culture grew Escherichia coli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Rheumatol
September 1975
Evaluation of 158 synovial fluids, mainly from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the crystal deposition fiseases (CDD), revealed differences in the differential white blood count and numbers of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies (CIB) present. Lymphocytes and CIB were increased in RA, suggesting a different pathologic mechanism from that of CDD. Lymphocyte-like cells contained CIB implying phagocytic capability.
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