Positionality, intersectionality, power dynamics in community participatory research to define public safety in Black communities.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is necessary for shifting knowledge and empowering community members to establish ownership over research. It was used in this current project to study safety in predominately Black communities. Findings illustrate how the embodiment of power was a present theme and impacted the partnerships among the academics and community, as well as defining "who" could speak on the issues the project was attempting to address.

Sales Representatives in the Operating Room: Conflict of Interest or Clinical Support?

Background: The Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which became federal law in January 2012, mandated that medical device manufacturers must disclose any financial support provided to individual physicians on a publicly available Web site. The law reflects increasing concern about physician-industry relationships.

Methods: The connection between surgeon and sales representative creates possibilities for both financial and non-financial conflicts of interest (COIs).

The Enforceability of Noncompete Clauses in the Medical Profession: A Review by the Workforce Committee and the Medicolegal Committee of the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies.

Background: In both academic and private practice, noncompete clauses are common in many neurological surgery contracts. Noncompete agreements vary, depending on various factors, including the surgeon's subspecialty, location, and business-related considerations. Each individual state's law on contracts determines the extent to which noncompete clauses are enforceable.

Introducing Law Students to Public Health Law through a Bed Bug Scenario.

As the scientific evidence emerges, individuals and institutions faced with bed bug infestations find themselves without the legal protections that are available against legally recognized nuisances and threats to the public's health, such as rats or mosquitos. As a result, they are a good example of how individuals, institutions and municipalities struggle to use the patchwork of public and private legal remedies that are often inadequate to face an emerging threat. This unit is designed to help students gain an awareness that often no one statute or case can be invoked as a complete solution to a legal problem, as well as the inherent limits of legal solutions in addressing public health problems that stem from poverty and powerlessness.

US Food and Drug Administration Regulation of Medical Devices and Radiation Oncology: Can Reform Improve Safety?

Although radiation therapy is highly safe and effective in treating cancer, recent reports of dangerous radiation-related errors have focused a national spotlight on the field of radiation oncology and, more specifically, on the rapidly evolving and complex nature of radiation devices and how they are regulated. The purpose of this review is to explore the issues involved in medical device regulation in radiation oncology. We start with a general review of federal medical device regulation, including explanations of the legal and regulatory framework, and then discuss issues specific to radiation oncology with real-world examples.

Occupational health nursing interventions to reduce third-party liability in workplace injuries.

This article explores general principles of workers' compensation law and the ability to sue third parties for employee injuries by using case law and the treatise Larson's Workers' Compensation Law. This overview provides occupational health nurses with a background on workers' compensation law, who is liable for employee injuries, and how recovery from third parties is distributed between the employer or insurer and the employee. The author then explores interventions that occupational health nurses can implement to reduce employee injury and employer costs for providing workers' compensation.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the First Amendment: why a substantial interest in protecting public health won't save some new restrictions on tobacco advertising.

Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009 with the aim of reducing tobacco-related illnesses and deaths by curbing tobacco's appeal to and use by children and adolescents. Legislators considered provisions of the FSPTCA restricting tobacco advertising and labeling key to realizing the law's intended health benefits. But a lawsuit now before the U.

Quantifying the accuracy of forensic examiners in the absence of a "gold standard".

This study asked whether latent class modeling methods and multiple ratings of the same cases might permit quantification of the accuracy of forensic assessments. Five evaluators examined 156 redacted court reports concerning criminal defendants who had undergone hospitalization for evaluation or restoration of their adjudicative competence. Evaluators rated each defendant's Dusky-defined competence to stand trial on a five-point scale as well as each defendant's understanding of, appreciation of, and reasoning about criminal proceedings.

Let's think about human factors, not human failings.

Doctors typically think about medical errors as potential causes of malpractice litigation, as failures by individuals, and as evidence of personal incompetence that may deserve sanctions. Other professions take a different view: designing of safer systems, rather than criticism and punishment, is the way to prevent unintentional mishaps. In his article, Jeffrey Janofsky shows how psychiatrists can think about making care systems safer for patients.