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The Foundation for International Dermatologic Education was organized to improve dermatological education and care in developing countries. The accomplishments of the foundation over the past 25 years are reviewed.
OBJECTIVE: We analyzed laboratory results from corneal ulcers seen from 1976 to 1999 at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation, a referral center in San Francisco, to determine the relative frequencies of pathogens and to analyze for trends in frequencies of the most common pathogens. The results were compared with a previous study of corneal ulcers seen from 1948 to 1976 at the same institution. METHODS: Ulcers presenting to the Proctor Foundation were Gram stained and cultured using standard techniques. Herpetic corneal ulcers were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Organisms were isolated from 427 ulcers, 38% of all cases. Two hundred seventy-eight (59%) isolates were gram-positive bacteria, 145 (31%) gram-negative bacteria, 16 (3%) Acanthamoeba spp., and 36 (8%) fungi. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism, composing 20% of all isolates, followed by viridans group streptococci (12%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (11%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6%), Moraxella spp. (5%), and Serratia marcescens (4%). Over the 24-year study period the proportion of positive cultures decreased and the incidence of S. marcescens increased significantly. Comparing the period of 1948-1976 to 1976-1999, the frequency of S. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa decreased, and that of S. marcescens increased significantly. CONCLUSION: The common pathogens associated with corneal ulcers have changed over the past 50 years in Northern California, with S. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa being isolated relatively less often and S. marcescens being isolated with increasing frequency. The decrease in isolation of organisms over the 1976-1999 period may have resulted from increasing empiric antibiotic treatment by referring ophthalmologists.
The need for a more integrated public health system led the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to establish Turning Point (TP): Collaborating for a New Century in Public Health, with a goal of transforming and strengthening the current public health infrastructure. WKKF partners with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the University of Washington, the Lewin Group, and the New York Academy of Medicine to support activities of 41 community and tribal jurisdiction grantee partnerships in 14 states. Preliminary evaluation of partnerships participation indicate: (1) most have accomplished breadth; (2) many did not achieve depth prior to the end of initial recruitment and (3) when the mission was internalized, penetration occurred. Strengthening public health systems requires redevelopment of human, organizational, financial, educational and information resources, and as in the past, WKKF will work to this end.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) was founded in 1970 by parents of children with juvenile diabetes to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. The foundation was an early supporter of stem cell research, recognizing the promise of stem cells to quicken the pace of discovery for a cure for juvenile diabetes. The JDRF has committed considerable resources to supporting stem cell research in both the United States and abroad. In the United States, the organization has been an advocate on the state and national level for increased funding and for expansion of current federal policy restricting embryonic stem (ES) cell research.
Carried out as part of a staff development project, this study describes the experiences of work-related empowerment within a multidisciplinary team at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital in Finland. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of background variables and questions concerning verbal, behavioural and outcome empowerment. The questionnaire was sent to all members of the multidisciplinary team at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, with the exception of physicians, departmental secretaries and administrative personnel. The response rate was 58%. The data were examined using statistical methods. The multidisciplinary team felt quite strong verbal and behavioural empowerment, but was less confident in terms of outcome empowerment. Several factors were found to be associated with the different fields of empowerment. In conclusion, the multidisciplinary team felt quite strong work-related empowerment.
PURPOSE: This report summarizes background material presented to a consensus conference on visually provoked seizures, convened by the Epilepsy Foundation of America. METHODS: A comprehensive review of literature was performed. RESULTS: Photosensitivity, an abnormal EEG response to light or pattern stimulation, occurs in approximately 0.3-3% of the population. The estimated prevalence of seizures from light stimuli is approximately 1 per 10,000, or 1 per 4,000 individuals age 5-24 years. People with epilepsy have a 2-14% chance of having seizures precipitated by light or pattern. In the Pokemon cartoon incident in Japan, 685 children visited a hospital in reaction to red-blue flashes on broadcast television (TV). Only 24% who had a seizure during the cartoon had previously experienced a seizure. Photic or pattern stimulation can provoke seizures in predisposed individuals, but such stimulation is not known to increase the chance of subsequent epilepsy. Intensities of 0.2-1.5 million candlepower are in the range to trigger seizures. Frequencies of 15-25 Hz are most provocative, but the range is 1-65 Hz. Light-dark borders can induce pattern-sensitive seizures, and red color also is a factor. Seizures can be provoked by certain TV shows, movie screen images, video games, natural stimuli (e.g, sun on water), public displays, and many other sources. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations on reducing risk of seizures have been developed by agencies in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the International Telecommunications Union, affiliated with the United Nations. The Epilepsy Foundation of America has developed a consensus of medical experts and scientists on this subject, reported in an accompanying work.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dished up $200 million in grants for scientists in various fields late last month, including research into malaria and tuberculosis. The foundation kicked off its spending spree in mid-July at the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, by announcing several AIDS/HIV-related grants totaling $90 million.
OBJECTIVES: (1) To review the history of the tobacco industry supported Australian Tobacco Research Foundation (ATRF)(1970-1994) for evidence of the industry's use of the Foundation to further its objectives that "more research was needed" on smoking and health and to promulgate the view that nicotine was not addictive. (2) To review efforts by public health advocates to discredit the ATRF as a public relations tool used by the Australian industry. METHODS: Systematic search of previously internal industry documents released through the US Master Settlement Agreement. RESULTS: The ATRF was headed by prestigious Australian medical scientists, with at least one considered by the industry to be "industry positive". An international ATRF symposium on nicotine was vetted by the industry and heavily attended by industry approved scientists. Following sustained criticism from the health and medical community about the industry's creation of the ATRF to further its objectives, the ATRF's scientific committee was provoked to publicly declare in 1988 that smoking was a causative agent in disease. This criticism led to growing ATRF boycotts by scientists and substandard applications, causing the industry to see the ATRF as being poor value-for-money and eventually abandoning it. CONCLUSIONS: The raison d'etre for the ATRF's establishment was to allow the Australian industry to point to its continuing commitment to independent medical research, with the implied corollary that tobacco control measures were premature in the face of insufficient evidence about tobacco's harms. Sustained criticism of tobacco industry funded research schemes can undermine their credibility among the scientific community.
The leaders of national philanthropic foundations have long been active in informing public policy makers about their organizations' accomplishments and lessons learned in health care and other issues. The public policy context also is seen increasingly as an important factor influencing changes in the health care market. This article outlines how public policy was monitored and evaluated in a recent initiative in health care by a prominent national foundation. The markers of policy change in the evaluation of this initiative represented a mixture of the initiative's efforts to inform policy makers, the success the participant projects had in making policy makers aware of the initiative's goals, and actual changes in policy outcomes.
The British Heart Foundation was established 40 years ago with the aim of playing a major role in the fight against cardiovascular disease. Despite spectacular advances in the surgical treatment of congenital and ischaemic heart disease, there is a continued need for research into the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment. The Foundation will continue to support professors, training fellowships and individual project and programme grants to meet these needs.
Foundations have sought to influence health policy in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors for more than a century. Their effectiveness in this has been a result of reliability and relevance in seeking and disseminating information, responsiveness to policymakers' priorities and operating styles, circumspection in communicating with policymakers and the media, and ability to maintain continuity in the issues of policy that funders address. This paper draws evidence to support these points from the history of foundations and health policy and, in particular, the Milbank Memorial Fund.
Serum protein analysis has been the primary focus of the laboratories at the Foundation for Blood Research (FBR) since 1965. Designed by clinicians to assist in the diagnosis and management of their patients, the Foundation's serum protein analyses became tools to answer questions that were difficult or impossible to answer at the bedside or by traditional chemistry tests. Research on the subject quickly led to services that required computer assistance. Measurement of individual proteins expanded as need dictated and finances allowed. Serum protein electrophoresis was added as a necessary test early in the process. Research, expansion of the number of test offered, and test volumes have demanded automation of both testing and interpretation. Testing now includes assays of 15 serum proteins, serum iron, and autoantibodies and is tailored to meet the needs of general practitioners, pediatricians, several internal medical specialties, and paramedical personnel. Samples rather than patients are sent to the laboratory and reports are returned by mail or electronic means. Physicians review all complex reports.
Archival sources shed new light on and offer a fuller picture of the story of Norman Jolliffe's early, but finally unsuccessful, effort to interest the Rockefeller Foundation's Division of Medical Sciences in funding a comprehensive program of alcoholism research in the late 1930s. New documentation also casts doubt on Mark Keller's contention that the Research Council on Problems of Alcohol--the organizational flagship of the "new scientific approach" to alcohol-related problems in this period--emerged directly from Jolliffe's failed Rockefeller Foundation request.
A case study of the process of foreign intervention in medical education in the developing world is presented. Material collected from the Rockefeller Foundation Archives on a Foundation program in Thailand is used to analyze the conditions under which foreign agencies and their personnel intervene in the development of medical professionals in the Third World and to study the problems that may occur as a result of such intervention. The importance of value consensus and the competitive advantage foreigners have in the marketing of professional models are highlighted as reasons for the diffusion of Western models of medical education throughout the developing world.
Plant diseases destroy 20-40% of global food production annually, posing a critical threat to food security for a projected population of 9.7 billion by 2050. Conventional diagnostic approaches relying on expert visual assessment are slow, costly, and unsuitable for modern agricultural scales. While deep convolutional neural networks demonstrated early promise, single-modality, image-centric systems consistently fail under real-world field conditions characterized by variable lighting, co-occurring infections, and cultivar diversity. This review synthesizes a decade of progress across four interconnected frontiers: the evolution of deep learning architectures for plant disease detection; the adaptation of foundation models including CLIP, SAM, and DINOv2 to agricultural contexts; the development of multimodal fusion frameworks integrating imagery, environmental, genomic, and hyperspectral data; and the transition from static disease diagnosis to descriptive comparison of reported metrics, which suggested that multimodal approaches frequently reported improved diagnostic performance relative to corresponding single-modality baselines, although direct cross-study comparison was limited by methodological heterogeneity. A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines identifies eligible comparative studies. Descriptive comparison of reported performance metrics across these studies indicated that multimodal approaches generally achieved higher accuracy and sensitivity than single-modality models, particularly for pre-symptomatic disease detection. Eight critical research gaps are identified, including the absence of a unified agricultural foundation model and limited climate-aware forecasting under non-stationary climate projections. A structured research agenda is proposed to accelerate translation from laboratory performance to globally equitable, field-deployable crop protection systems.
MOTIVATION: Models deployed for genomic prediction of diseases perform unevenly across populations, limiting clinical utility. Two factors drive this limitation: large imbalances in sample availability across ancestry groups and non-stationarity of genotype-phenotype effect sizes across the ancestry continuum. While tabular foundation models with in-context learning (ICL) have shown strong sample efficiency in other domains, their effectiveness for genotype-to-phenotype prediction and their robustness to ancestry-driven effect heterogeneity remain unclear. RESULTS: Using large, ancestrally diverse biobank data, we show that ICL-capable tabular foundation models reduce performance degradation in under-sampled ancestry groups compared to conventional supervised approaches. However, we find that prevailing models trained on existing synthetic tabular tasks fail when allele effect sizes vary across ancestry space. Treating genetic ancestry as a continuous variable, we introduce an instruction-tuning framework that exposes models to synthetic tasks with ancestry-dependent non-stationary effects. Instruction-tuned models achieve improved and more stable predictive performance across the genetic ancestry continuum, including for individuals distant from in-context exemplars in ancestry space. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: All code for instruction-tuning models, synthetic task generation, data wrangling, and model evaluation, is publicly available at https://github.com/ai4pm/Bridging-Ancestry-Gaps-in-Genomic-Risk-Prediction-with-Tabular-Foundation-Models. The final instruction-tuned model (ICL-NS-G2P-proto) is also released in this repository. Detailed documentation is provided, including environment setup instructions and guidelines for running various parts. The instruction-tuning task datasets are available at https://zenodo.org/records/18309187.
This article explores the development of a foundation apprenticeship in care at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The benefits for recruitment and development of the workforce are discussed.
Frustrated with the lack of government leadership on healthcare reform issues, private foundations are refocusing their grantmaking strategies to tackle some of the broader issues in healthcare today. Foundations are targeting issues that reflect their individual priorities, but their goals appear to be the same: to enhance access, improve quality and reduce costs.