Attributes Desired in a General Practitioner by Adults: Implications for Humanization in Medicine and Enhancement of the Patient Experience.

Background: Progress in medical education is reflected in healthcare quality and patient satisfaction. However, there are still gaps in knowledge regarding the patients' expectations of general practitioners (GPs), even though patients' interactions with GPs are among the most frequent in healthcare. Accordingly, this study investigated the qualities desired by adults in GPs, intending to include them in future medical humanization education to enhance the patients' experience.

Pharmaceutical Industry Payments to Patient Organizations in Poland: Analysis of the Patterns, Evolution, and Structure of Connections.

Drug company funding can create conflicts of interest that compromise the integrity of patient organizations, a problem studied primarily in Western Europe and North America. To address this research gap, we conducted a case study in Poland, a Central European country. Between 2012 and 2020, 33 companies reported payments worth €13 729 644 to 273 patient organizations in Poland.

Opinions of Polish postgraduate nursing students on medical humanization courses in relation to age, years of service, and nursing specialty.

Background: The Polish educational system for nurses has undergone a substantial transformation over the past two decades, with the introduction of a mandatory university education that encompasses humanization in medicine. Consequently, nurses who had been licensed to practice before the implementation of the reform returned to universities to pursue master's degrees alongside their younger colleagues who had only recently obtained bachelor's degrees. This distinctive learning environment, in which nurses of varying ages and years of practice study together, offers an opportunity to gain insight into their perspectives on the educational process.

Impact of lipidation site on the activity of α-helical antimicrobial peptides.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) display advantages over traditional antibiotics due to their broad spectrum of activity against various pathogens, and may even overcome bacterial drug resistance. However, despite their potential therapeutic benefits, widespread application of AMPs is limited by their instability, sensitivity to high salt concentrations, toxicity, and immunogenicity. Lipidation is a promising strategy in overcoming these drawbacks and potential problems for drug candidates.

Generational Differences in Food Choices and Consumer Behaviors in the Context of Sustainable Development.

(1) Background: This study examines diverse food choices and sustainable consumption behavior across four generations of Poles: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z. (2) Methods: The research employed an online survey with a quota sample of 1000 individuals, representing the Polish population in terms of gender, residence, and education (categorized into two groups). (3) Results: For Poles, the crucial factors in food selection were product quality (69.

Expectations of Polish undergraduate medical students for medical humanities classes: a survey-based pilot study.

Background: Medical schools teach Medical Humanities (MH) to provide students with knowledge about the human experience related to health, illness, disease, medicine, and healthcare. Due to the previously observed negative opinions about MH courses, we examined the expectations of medical students in Poland toward humanities subjects.

Methods: We conducted a voluntary, anonymous electronic survey in one medical school (single-center study) and collected data from 166 medical students.

Lipidation of Naturally Occurring α-Helical Antimicrobial Peptides as a Promising Strategy for Drug Design.

In this paper, we describe the chemical synthesis, preliminary evaluation of antimicrobial properties and mechanisms of action of a novel group of lipidated derivatives of three naturally occurring α-helical antimicrobial peptides, LL-I (VNWKKVLGKIIKVAK-NH), LK6 (IKKILSKILLKKL-NH), ATRA-1 (KRFKKFFKKLK-NH). The obtained results showed that biological properties of the final compounds were defined both by the length of the fatty acid and by the structural and physico-chemical properties of the initial peptide. We consider C-C length of the hydrocarbon chain as the optimal for antimicrobial activity improvement.

Perception of Medical Humanities among Polish Medical Students: Qualitative Analysis.

Medical humanities (MH) courses are a critical element of the medical curriculum influencing the establishment of a physician in the medical profession. However, the opinion about MH among medical students remains unknown. Interviews from seven focus groups were analysed.

Changes in intensification of religious involvement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.

Introduction: The emergence of the virus Sars-CoV-2, and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic, caused a global threat to public health. In such challenging and worrying situations it can be expected that people will seek comfort in religion. However, before the pandemic there were never such wide world disruptions of religious practice-because of social distancing regulations, religiosity cannot be practiced in the same way as it was before the pandemic.

Trust in Medicine as a Factor Conditioning Behaviors Recommended by Healthcare Experts during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland.

Objective: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts have faced the challenge of convincing people to change their everyday habits. This study aims to evaluate the impact of trust in medicine on Polish citizens' adherence to recommended behaviors.

Methods: An online survey was conducted on a quota sample of adult Poles ( = 1072) during the second wave of COVID-19.

A Qualitative Study of the Mistreatment of Medical Students by Their Lecturers in Polish Medical Schools.

Objective: To describe experiences of mistreatment among Polish medical students.

Methods: Nine focus groups were carried out with 92 students from three medical universities in Poland (in Gdansk, Krakow, and Warsaw).

Results: The mistreatment of medical students included verbal abuse, disregard, and obstacles to pass exams.

A study of opinions about the Polish constitutional tribunal's judgement strengthening Polish abortion laws.

Objective: In October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (CT) ruled that in cases where there are indications of irreversible impairments of a foetus or incurable life-threatening diseases, abortions violate the Polish Constitution. Despite the fact that it was issued during the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Poland, this judgement caused numerous protests. The current study sought to ascertain Poles' opinions regarding the CT's judgement, and the ensuing threat to public health presented by the protests against it.

Application of Alanine Scanning to Determination of Amino Acids Essential for Peptide Adsorption at the Solid/Solution Interface and Binding to the Receptor: Surface-Enhanced Raman/Infrared Spectroscopy versus Bioactivity Assays.

The article describes the application of the alanine-scanning technique used in combination with Raman, surface-enhanced Raman, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared, and surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopies, which allowed defining the role of individual amino acid residues in the -terminal 6-14 fragment of the bombesin chain (BN) on the path of its adsorption on the surface of Ag (AgNPs) and Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). A reliable analysis of the SEIRA spectra of these peptides was possible, thanks to a curve fitting of these spectra. By combining alanine-scanning with biological activity studies using cell lines overexpressing bombesin receptors and the intracellular inositol monophosphate assay, it was possible to determine which peptide side chains play a significant role in binding a peptide to membrane-bound G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Transparency or restricting gifts? Polish medical students' opinions about regulating relationships with pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) often create conflicts of interest, not least because of the various benefits received by physicians. Many countries attempt to control pharmaceutical industry marketing strategies through legal regulation, and this is true in Poland where efforts are underway to eliminate any practices that might be considered corrupt in medicine. The present research considered Polish medical students' opinions about domestic laws restricting doctors' acceptance of expensive gifts from the industry, the idea of compulsory transparency, and the possibility of introducing a Polish Sunshine Law.

How Polish medical students are socialised to cooperate with the pharmaceutical industry: a focus group study of the importance of informal, hidden and null curricula.

This study analysed how Polish medical students are socialised to cooperate with the pharmaceutical industry via informal, hidden, and null curricula. Nine focus groups were run with medical students in their second year and upwards at three Polish medical universities. Initially, most students had difficulty in discerning pharmaceutical companies' presence in their education, but on reflection they all recognised this presence.

A Typology of Poles' Attitudes toward COVID-19 during the First Wave of the Pandemic.

(1) Objective: To explore Poles' attitudes during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as a contribution toward the creation of effective health policies. (2) Method: Computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) was used to survey a sample of 1001 Poles selected using quota sampling. (3) Results: Using cluster analysis, three types of attitudes were distinguished, people being classified as "involved" (48.

Double-Headed Cationic Lipopeptides: An Emerging Class of Antimicrobials.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) constitute a promising tool in the development of novel therapeutic agents useful in a wide range of bacterial and fungal infections. Among the modifications improving pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of natural AMPs, an important role is played by lipidation. This study focuses on the newly designed and synthesized lipopeptides containing multiple Lys residues or their shorter homologues with palmitic acid (C) attached to the side chain of a residue located in the center of the peptide sequence.

Self-Medication-Related Behaviors and Poland's COVID-19 Lockdown.

(1) Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has changed the functioning of Polish health systems. Telemedicine has been developed and access to prescription drugs (Rx) has been facilitated. This study examined whether these changes and the imposition of a three-month lockdown caused Polish people to engage in more self-medication-related behaviors.

[Characteristic of AMP and the effects of chemical modifications on the modulation of their antimicrobial properties].

Antibiotics have revolutionized the pharmacology market but their "golden area" passed away. The urgent need to develop new medicins with the mechanism of action different than those already used is constantly growing because of the drug-resistance of pathogenic microorganisms. The observed increasing resistance of microbes motivates scientists to design innovative strategies based on the natural peptides that exhibit antimicrobial activity.

A discussion of the unresolved 2016/17 plans for regulating the Polish dietary supplements market.

The Polish dietary supplement market is growing steadily. However, even though these products may have an impact on health they are not as strongly regulated as pharmaceuticals. In 2016/17 the introduction of new regulations covering the marketing of dietary supplements in Poland was proposed.

[The role of proprotein convertases in cancer diseases with particular focus on PACE4].

Cancer is one of the most common cause of death nowadays. Thorough knowledge of the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and invasiveness of tumor cells is crucial for the development of molecular targeted therapies, which are believed to be future treatment of this type of diseases. Proteolytic enzymes are one of the factors involved in the development of cancer cells, very often used as markers of tumor progression.

Polish physicians' cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry and its potential impact on public health.

Objective: This article aims to describe how Polish physicians cooperate with the pharmaceutical industry and show how this relationship may pose a threat to public health.

Methods: It considers the results of an online survey of 379 physicians. The survey was hosted by surveymonkey.

Does growing up with a physician influence the ethics of medical students' relationships with the pharmaceutical industry? The cases of the US and Poland.

Background: Medical schools have a major impact on future doctors' ethics and their attitudes towards cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry. From childhood, medical students who are related to a physician are exposed to the characteristics of a medical career and learn its professional ethics not only in school but also in the family setting. The present paper sought to answer the research question: 'How does growing up with a physician influence medical students' perceptions of conflicts of interest in their relationships with industry?'

Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was completed by 451 medical students from four Philadelphia medical schools and 554 medical students from Warsaw Medical University during 2013.

TELEVISION ADVERTISING OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PRODUCTS IN POLAND AND IN THE UNITED STATES - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED TELEVISION COMMERCIALS.

The aim of the analysis was to establish the differences between television commercials of OTC drugs broadcast in Poland and in the U.S. The study covered 100 commercials of medicinal products of various producers applied to treat a variety of symptoms and diseases.

Interactions between doctors and pharmaceutical sales representatives in a former communist country. The ethical issues.

An anonymous survey distributed to doctors in Poland revealed the troublesome relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical sale representatives in terms of the frequency of visits, the trust of physicians in information supplied by sales reps, gifts accepted, and the general influence of marketing strategies on physician decisions. Challenges remain, despite laws enacted to address the problem.