Acute neurorehabilitation versus treatment as usual.

Several clinical and government reviews have recommended specialised rehabilitation services for those recovering from neurological insult or neurosurgical intervention. Despite this, provision of 'rapid access'/acute neurorehabilitation units is extremely limited in the UK. In some areas, millions of people have no access to such facilities.

Cognitive and mental health difficulties following subarachnoid haemorrhage.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage frequently results in disabling psychological trauma, mental health difficulties and cognitive impairments that can persist beyond the first year of discharge. At Salford Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust a long-term follow up programme using both neuropsychology and specialist nurses identifies patients in need of neuropsychological intervention for ongoing problems that prevent a return to work and normal life. The result of an audit of patients seen during 2008 reveals that one in three patients requires referral.

Continuing medical education, professional development, and requirements for medical licensure: a white paper of the Conjoint Committee on Continuing Medical Education.

To provide the best care to patients, a physician must commit to lifelong learning, but continuing education and evaluation systems in the United States typically require little more than records of attendance for professional association memberships, hospital staff privileges, or reregistration of a medical license. While 61 of 68 medical and osteopathic licensing boards mandate that physicians participate in certain numbers of hours of continuing medical education (CME), 17 of them require physicians to participate in legislatively mandated topics that may have little to do with the types of patients seen by the applicant physician. Required CME should evolve from counting hours of CME participation to recognizing physician achievement in knowledge, competence, and performance.

Novel eye-specific calmodulin methylation characterized by protein mapping in Drosophila melanogaster.

Post-translational methylation of the epsilon-amino group of lysine residues regulates a number of protein functions. Calmodulin, a key modulator of intracellular calcium signaling, is methylated on lysine 115 in many species. Although the amino acid sequence of calmodulin is highly conserved in eukaryotes, it has been shown that lysine 115 is not methylated in Drosophila calmodulin and no other methylation site has been reported.

Effect of deleterious mutations on life span in Drosophila melanogaster.

Evolutionary theories of aging assume that the accumulation of deleterious mutations will reduce life span. We tested this assumption in Drosophila melanogaster by a newly designed mating scheme, in which mutations accumulate on the Binscy balancer X chromosome in heterozygous females in the absence of selection and recombination. We found that the life span of Binscy/RY(L) males from this cross decreased faster than the life span of their sibling controls over time in two of three runs, and that there was an age-specific increase in mortality in the Binscy/RY(L) males with time in one of three runs.

The future of medical licensure in the United States.

Medical licensure in the United States is undergoing significant change. With calls for greater accountability and transparency, state medical boards and their membership association, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), are seeking ways to assure the public that physicians are maintaining their competence throughout the lifetime of their practice of medicine. At present, competence in cognitive, clinical, and communicative skills is regularly measured only at initial licensure.

Role of state medical boards in continuing medical education.

The evaluation of physician competency prior to issuing an initial medical license has been a fundamental responsibility of medical boards. Growing public expectation holds that medical boards will ensure competency throughout a physician's career. The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) strongly supports the right of state medical boards to require physicians to demonstrate continuing qualification for medical licensure.

Obstacles to maintaining licensure in the United States.

Although relicensing of doctors is well established in the US, systems to evaluate competence rigorously are still some way off