Cardiovascular Disease in Women.

Cardiovascular disease in women as a distinct disease entity is underappreciated relative to other female-specific diseases. A perception that cardiovascular disease affects men more commonly and a lack of understanding about the underlying pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in women contribute to this phenomenon. Hormonal changes, pregnancy-related conditions, and cancer therapies have an impact on endothelial function, vascular anatomy, and myocardial contractility.

Lost in translation. Homer in English; the patient's story in medicine.

In a series of previous articles, we have considered how we might reconceptualise central themes in medicine and medical education through 'thinking with Homer'. This has involved using textual approaches, scenes and characters from the Iliad and Odyssey for rethinking what is a 'communication skill', and what do we mean by 'empathy' in medical practice; in what sense is medical practice formulaic, like a Homeric 'song'; and what is lyrical about medical practice. Our approach is not to historicise medicine and medical education, but to use thinking with Homer as a medium and metaphor for questioning the habitual and the taken-for-granted in contemporary practice.

The embodiment of lyricism in medicine and Homer.

Improving the quality of communication between doctors and their patients and colleagues is of vital importance. Poor communication, especially within and across clinical teams working around patients in pathways of care, leads to avoidable medical error, where an unacceptable number of patients are severely harmed or die each year. The figures from such iatrogenesis have now reached epidemic proportions, constituting one of the major killers of patients worldwide.

Marketing social marketing: getting inside those "big dogs' heads" and other challenges.

Social marketing provides a powerful process for planning and implementing public health programs. Although often applied to the promotion of healthier lifestyles, social marketing can also be used to promote utilization of direct services or policy changes. Despite growing popularity among public health professionals, resistance by senior management, community advocates, policy makers, and others can create barriers to the use of the social marketing model.

Public health response to bioterrorism with Bacillus anthracis: coordinating public health laboratory, communication, and law enforcement.

In October 2001, public health departments across the United States were part of an intensive response to a bioterrorism event using anthrax spores delivered by mail. It is useful to examine this experience as an unscripted exercise of bioterrorism response capacity, more realistic than scenarios of planned exercises. The event particularly challenged public health laboratory and communications capacity, but it also tested surveillance and training capacity.

Control of West Nile virus, Rhode Island, 2003.

Thanks largely to systematic larviciding by the State's 39 municipalities, and aided by the public's destruction of "backyard" mosquito habitats and adoption of personal protective measures (clothing, repellant), Rhode Island minimized the potential human burden of WNV during the 2003 mosquito season (six serious WNV cases, one death, and no reports of WNV-tainted blood donations). The potential burden of WNV on domestic animals was also reduced through immunization. Nonetheless, the State's first WNV death reminds us of the danger this disease poses for the very young, for elders, and for people of all ages who are immune-compromised.