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Biomedical subjects

G Pickett

Publications and source records attributed to G Pickett.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Bay Area Young Positives: a model of a youth-based approach to HIV/AIDS services.

Bay Area Positives, Inc. (BAY Positives), founded by and for youth living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is a peer-run, peer-based organization including the board of directors, the executive director, staff, and volunteers, and was funded in part by the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program. It responds to the unique needs of HIV-positive adolescents and young people 26 years old and younger (n = 108) and targets gay and bisexual youth, youth of color, and young women. The organization has found that when young people are brought together to help one another and to mentor their peers, living with HIV becomes more manageable. It serves as an entry point into the HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) service system, using member advocates (peer case managers) to guide members to youth-sensitive services and to help them through the delivery system. BAY Positives' goals are to provide emotional and other support to youth with HIV and to empower infected young people to get information about and access to the services they need. Its success also depends on the ability to provide as much support and development for staff as provided to members.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1998

Accrediting local health departments: potentials and pitfalls.

A 1990 study was undertaken to determine if the public health infrastructure at the community level could be used to evaluate a health department. Characteristics of the infrastructure were defined and criteria were developed to see if these characteristics would enable one to differentiate between health departments. The appropriateness of a process of accreditation in carrying out the assessment was also examined. The infrastructure concept had a validity, utility, and composition that can be employed to make reasonable distinctions between health departments. Further, use of an accreditation protocol to assess the performance of local health agencies was found to be feasible.

Accreditation↗
PubMed1996

Timeliness and use of antibiotic prophylaxis in selected inpatient surgical procedures. The Antibiotic Prophylaxis Study Group.

BACKGROUND: Twenty-five percent of all nosocomial infections are wound infections. Professional guidelines support the timely use of preoperative prophylaxis for prevention of postoperative wound infections. Barriers exist in implementing this practice. IPRO, the New York State peer review organization, as part of the Health Care Financing Administration's Health Care Quality Improvement Program, sought to determine the proportion of patients receiving timely antibiotic prophylaxis for aortic grafts, hip replacements and colon resections in 44 hospitals in New York State. METHODS: IPRO conducted a retrospective medical record review of 44 hospitals through out New York State stratified for teaching, nonteaching status. A sample was drawn of 2651 patients, 2256 from Medicare and 395 from Medicaid, undergoing either abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, partial or total hip replacement or large bowel resection. The study determined the proportion of patients who had documentation of receiving antibiotics and those who received antibiotics timely, that is less than or equal to 2 hours preoperatively. RESULTS: Eighty-six percent of patients had documentation of receiving an antibiotic. Forty-six percent of aneurysm repairs and 60% of hip replacements had evidence of receiving timely antibiotic prophylaxis, that is within 2 hours prior to surgery. For colon resections, 73% of cases had either oral prophylaxis or timely parenteral therapy. An increased proportion of patients had received parenteral antibiotics prematurely as the surgical start time occurred later in the day. A total of 44 different antibiotics were recorded for prophylaxis. CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic prophylaxis was performed in 81% to 94% of cases, however, anywhere from 27% to 54% of all cases did not receive antibiotics in a timely fashion. By delegating implementation of ordered antibiotic prophylaxis to the anesthesia team, timing may be improved and the incidence of postoperative wound infections may decrease.

Antibiotic Prophylaxis↗
PubMed1996

In vitro RNA selection identifies RNA ligands that specifically bind to eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4B: the role of the RNA remotif.

Translation initiation factor elF-4B is an RNA-binding protein that promotes the association of the mRNA to the 40S ribosomal subunit. One of its better characterized features is the ability to stimulate the activity of the DEAD box RNA hilicase elF-4A. In addition to an RNA recognition motif (RRM) located near its amino-terimus, elF-4B contains an RNA-binding region in its carboxy-terminal half. The elF-4A helicase stimulatory activity resides in the carboxy-terminal half of elF-4B, and the RRM has little impact on this function. To better understand the role of the elF-4B RRM, it was of interest to identify its specific RNA target sequence. To this end, it vitro RNA selection/amplifications were performed using various portions of elF-4B. These experiments were designed to test the RNA recognition specificity of the two elF-4B regions implicated in RNA binding and to assess the influence of elF-4A on the RNA-binding specificity. The RRM was shown to bind with high affinity to an RNA stem-loop structure with conserved primary sequence elements. Discrete point mutations in an in vitro-selected RNA identified residues critical for RNA binding. Neither the carboxy-terminal RNA-interaction region, nor elF-4A, influenced the structure of the high-affinity RNA ligands selected by elF-4B, and elF-4A by itself did not select any specific RNA target. Previous studies have demonstrated an interaction of elF-4B with ribosomes, and it was suggested that this association is mediated through binding to ribosomal RNA. We show that the RRM of elF-4B interacts directly with 18S rRNA and this interaction is inhibited by an excess of the elF-4B in vitro-selected RNA. ElF-4B could bind simultaneously to two different RNA molecules, supporting a model whereby elF-4B promotes ribosome binding to the 5 untranslated region of a mRNA by bridging it to 18S rRNA.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Licit and illicit drug policies: a typology.

To foster comparison of policy interventions across the various categories of licit and illicit drugs, we develop a typology of policies intended to address drug abuse problems. The principal dimensions of the typology are policy type and intervention channel. While the typology has important limitations, as a mechanism to organize information and stimulate thought it holds the potential to improve understanding of commonalities and distinctions among policies applying to widely discrepant drug problems, both within and across cultures. As such, it could contribute to the development of more effective approaches to grappling with a diverse set of drug policy issues.

Alcoholism↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevention, declining mortality rates, and the cost of Medicare.

It is commonly assumed that with declining adult mortality rates, the elderly population will continue to increase and become a major fiscal problem for the Medicare program. However, this population, like other age groups, consists of a small number of frequent medical-care users and a large number of low-frequency users. If the decline in mortality rates occurs as a result of primary and secondary prevention efforts rather than tertiary interventions, a 26.4 percent increase in the population 65 years of age and older could result in only a 19.4 percent increase in gross Medicare expenditures and a slight decline in net Medicare expenditures.

Aged↗