Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Allocation and cooperation”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

New developments in international nursing ethics.

This article has described numerous activities in nursing ethics at international levels. It acknowledges the larger context within which nurses practice by focusing on selected issues involved in resource allocation and death and dying, cross-culturally. The questions raised about universally shared moral principles reflects the larger questions of cultural and ethical relativism. The discussions of new developments in international nursing ethics focuses on international conferences, the teaching of nursing ethics, national nursing associations, and other professional groups that are actively involved in health care or nursing ethics. Finally, the development of international nursing ethics research studies is providing new knowledge about the scope of ethics within nursing and the nature of nursing care worldwide. Nurses are involved in some aspects of these new developments in nursing ethics in all countries. As they examine and reflect on ethical principles, virtues, and on an ethics of caring, they bring a new dimension to their work as nurses. This new dimension stands as one of the oldest and most central foundations in professional nursing.

Advisory Committees↗

Training ophthalmology residents to treat patients with vision loss. Results of a demonstration program.

Ophthalmology residents attended a day-long training program designed to teach them about the rehabilitation needs of visually impaired and blind patients. A pretest measuring the participants' knowledge of rehabilitation services and their rehabilitation-oriented activities was administered before the training program and a posttest measuring the same items was administered 6 months after the program. Several of the rehabilitation-oriented measures that participants themselves take with visually impaired and blind patients increased substantially during the 6-month period as did their knowledge of rehabilitation services available in the community. The referrals made for these rehabilitation services and the participants' interactions with allied health professionals who serve visually impaired and blind patients increased only slightly. These findings suggest the need to institutionalize training for residents in the topic of rehabilitation and to allocate time within their schedules for making referrals and working cooperatively with allied health professionals.

Blindness↗

Cyathostome fecal egg count trends in horses treated with moxidectin, ivermectin or fenbendazole.

Commercial preparations of fenbendazole (Safe-Guard, Intervet), ivermectin (Eqvalan, Merial) or moxidectin (Quest, Fort Dodge) were administered once to horses scheduled for routine parasiticide treatment. In total, 93 horses from six cooperating farms were used in the study. Computer generated, random allocation of horses to treatment group was conducted at each farm. Fecal egg counts were determined for all horses on trial days 0, 56, 84 and 112, with corresponding calendar dates that were unique to each farm. Only strongyle egg counts from animals which were positive at day 0 were used for analysis of variance and comparisons. Counts for the three treatment groups were similar at day 0, moxidectin<ivermectin<fenbendazole for days 56 and 84, and moxidectin<ivermectin=fenbendazole on day 112 (P<0.05). Reductions of geometric mean egg counts from day 0 levels were 99.1, 97.6 and 94.9% for moxidectin, 16.4, -27.0 and -32.0% for fenbendazole and 85.9, 24.2 and -8.1% for ivermectin on trial days 56, 84 and 112, respectively. Adverse reactions to treatment were not observed for any of the parasiticides.

Animals↗

Variations in national health care practices and behaviours and their influence on international research.

Multinational clinical trials are valuable to the understanding of global health problems, but they pose special problems. Our experience with a multinational trial of isoniazid (INH) preventive therapy for tuberculosis revealed marked variation among the seven participating countries in the amount of tuberculosis screening prior to the trial; this variation contributed to the observed differences in the risk of tuberculosis among the countries. The incidence of 'uncooperativeness' and drug side-effects, and the proportion of participants who complied with and completed treatment also varied significantly from country to country. These differences in completion and compliance served to differentially alter the expected risk of tuberculosis among the three regimens being studied. For all factors investigated, variation from country to country was greater than variation from dispensary to dispensary within a country. This suggests that cultural and other national characteristics are more potent determinants of health care practices and behaviours than patient and health care practitioner characteristics.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

International issues in transplantation. Setting the scene and flagging the most urgent and controversial issues.

Organ transplantation is the primary technique for treatment of end-stage organ failure and has benefited more than one million persons world wide. A number of patients have survived for well over 25 years and survival rates at 5 years can be 70% or higher for many organ transplant programs. However, currently more than 40,000 patients are waiting for a kidney, and in western Europe mortality rates for patients waiting for a heart, liver, or lung range from 15 to 30%. The potential need for transplants is even greater and this imbalance between supply and demand creates technical and ethical problems including the risk of organ trafficking. Consequently the number of available organs must be increased. In some cases the organ shortage reflects a true lack of donors, but more often it results from the failure to turn potential into actual donors. The transplant commission of the Council of Europe has just approved a document recommending that member states ensure that all potential donors are identified and as many as possible converted to actual donors. Even with the highest organ donation rate, the indications for organ and tissue transplantation will continue to increase, perpetuating the gap between supply and demand. Organ transplantation, whether living or cadaveric, might be supplemented or replaced by the use of artificial organs, although problems such as power supply, thrombosis, infection, and biocompatibility pose obstacles to long-term function. The use of animals as an alternative source is considered, but so many problems still remain unresolved that xenotransplantation cannot be put forth as a solution at this time. This paper reviews these issues and, citing the Spanish experience, offers strategies to improve the organ donation rate.

Ethics, Medical↗

Ethics and governance of global health inequalities.

BACKGROUND: A world divided by health inequalities poses ethical challenges for global health. International and national responses to health disparities must be rooted in ethical values about health and its distribution; this is because ethical claims have the power to motivate, delineate principles, duties and responsibilities, and hold global and national actors morally responsible for achieving common goals. Theories of justice are necessary to define duties and obligations of institutions and actors in reducing inequalities. The problem is the lack of a moral framework for solving problems of global health justice. AIM: To study why global health inequalities are morally troubling, why efforts to reduce them are morally justified, how they should be measured and evaluated; how much priority disadvantaged groups should receive; and to delineate roles and responsibilities of national and international actors and institutions. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Duties and obligations of international and state actors in reducing global health inequalities are outlined. The ethical principles endorsed include the intrinsic value of health to well-being and equal respect for all human life, the importance of health for individual and collective agency, the concept of a shortfall from the health status of a reference group, and the need for a disproportionate effort to help disadvantaged groups. This approach does not seek to find ways in which global and national actors address global health inequalities by virtue of their self-interest, national interest, collective security or humanitarian assistance. It endorses the more robust concept of "human flourishing" and the desire to live in a world where all people have the capability to be healthy. Unlike cosmopolitan theory, this approach places the role of the nation-state in the forefront with primary, though not sole, moral responsibility. Rather shared health governance is essential for delivering health equity on a global scale.

Delivery of Health Care↗

European Cooperative Crohn's Disease Study (ECCDS): clinical features and natural history.

In the European Cooperative Crohn's Disease Study patients from 14 centers were included in whom diagnosis was made within 2 years before study entry on the basis of generally accepted radiological, endoscopical and/or histological criteria or a combination of all. Reasons for exclusion were: diagnosis older than 2 years in patients who did not require active treatment, age less than 18 years, duration of symptoms less than 3 months, presence of complications which potentially required emergency surgery. Data on clinical features were obtained in 633 patients, of whom 452 were eligible to participate in the study. In 110 patients randomized to placebo the natural course of Crohn's disease was studied. Patients with ileocolonic involvement were younger than patients with either colonic or small intestinal involvement only. Classic ileitis terminalis was present in 14% of the patients. 49% of the patients had combined involvement of both the small and large intestine. 30% of patients had only small intestinal involvement, and in 21% colonic disease was present. Small intestinal involvement was associated with a significantly lower Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) than other anatomical locations of the disease. Perianal disease was more often associated with colonic than with small intestinal involvement. 60% of placebo patients with active disease at entry achieved at least a transient remission within the initial 5 months of study. After 2 years, 23% of patients with active disease at entry and 68% of patients with quiescent disease had reached or maintained a remission, respectively. By stepwise multiple linear regression analysis long duration of disease between diagnosis and randomization, normal serum albumin and combined involvement of small intestine and colon were identified as predictors of a more favorable outcome of patients treated with placebo. In contrast, extensive small bowel disease, treatment with steroids and bowel resection prior to study entry correlated with a less favorable outcome. However, by life table analysis outcome of previously untreated and treated patients in the placebo group was similar.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗

Global disparities in health and human rights: a critical commentary.

Widening disparities in health and human rights at a global level represent the dark side of progress associated with escalation of economic and military exploitation and exponential population growth in the 20th century. Even the most basic universal human rights cannot be achieved for all under these circumstances. The goal of improved population health will be similarly elusive while medical care is commodified and exploited for commercial gain in the marketplace. Recognition of the powerful forces that polarize our world and commitment to reversing them are essential for the achievement of human rights for all, for the improvement of public health, and for the peaceful progress required to protect the "rational self-interest" of the most privileged people on earth against the escalation of war, disease, and other destructive forces arising from widespread poverty and ecological degradation.

Capitalism↗

Reasons for increasing administrative costs in hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate trends in administrative expenditures by examining changes in administrative costs compared with other areas of the hospital budget, changes in expenditures for patient care departments compared with nonpatient care departments, and departments with a greater number of regulatory requirements compared with those with fewer regulatory requirements. DESIGN: Annual hospital operating budgets submitted to Blue Cross were examined for an 8-year period from 1983 to 1990. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy hospitals in Western Pennsylvania. MEASUREMENTS: Annual operating expenditures. RESULTS: Total administrative expenditures showed a larger growth rate (90%) than service departments (29%), ancillary services (30%), professional care (52%), miscellaneous expenses (70%), and the total hospital budget (45%). Administrative costs increased from 10.6% as a proportion of the total hospital budget in 1983 to 13.9% in 1990. These increases were seen regardless of hospital size. Departments with a greater number of regulatory obligations had a greater increase in expenditures (84%) than did departments with fewer regulatory requirements (5%). However, overall expenditures in departments with direct patient care responsibilities did not increase appreciably faster (44%) than in departments not providing clinical services (46%), possibly reflecting the fact that administrative costs may be increasing equally in both areas. CONCLUSIONS: Administrative costs were found to be one of the fastest growing components of hospital budgets. Future research should determine the effect of these increases on the quality of patient care.

Budgets↗

[Cooperative research into the treatment of breast cancer].

The results of surgical treatment of early breast cancers are discussed. Radical mastectomy for stage I tumor and a modified mastectomy after Patey-for stage II were shown to be feasible. A cooperative randomized study on therapy of localized stage IIb and IIIb breast tumors made the case for application of polychemotherapy as a component of combined and complex therapy.

Breast Neoplasms↗

[Health promotion and prevention in the Lucerne canton--1995 analysis and prospects].

Considering the legal situation the canton of Lucerne is addressed to make his contribution to health promotion and prevention. His target groups are authorities on cantonal and community levels, specialised organisations and other health professionals, as for example physicians and pharmacists. The objectives of this study are to survey the health promotional and preventive activities, to evaluate the needs of the target groups as well as to focus on the opportunities of improved cooperation. Based on these results recommendations to the cantonal health authorities will be formulated. As far as the allocation of financial and personal resources are concerned health promotion and prevention do not figure as top priorities. Besides, the study results suggest to improve the cooperation between political representatives and health professionals. The cantonal health promotion authorities are well known among the target groups. However, cooperation could be intensified on all levels of action and is regarded as most desirable. A mutual forum focused on information and experience transfer would support these results and could stimulate joint projects. In addition, the needs of the communities have to be given special attention.

Health Planning↗

Interim analysis of a phase III trial comparing cisplatin, gemcitabine, and vinorelbine vs. either cisplatin and gemcitabine or cisplatin and vinorelbine in advanced non small-cell lung cancer. A Southern Italy Cooperative Oncology Group Study.

In a previous phase II randomized study, a cisplatin/gemcitabine/vinorelbine (PGV) regimen produced a 50-week median survival time (MST) in advanced non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The present trial was planned to randomly compare the outcome of patients treated with this new triplet regimen with those of patients receiving either cisplatin plus vinorelbine (PV) or cisplatin plus gemcitabine (PG) doublet combinations. One hundred eighty patients with stage IIIB (76) or IV (104) disease, aged <or= 70 years, and with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) <or= 1, were randomly allocated to receive: cisplatin, 50 mg/m2 plus gemcitabine, 1000 mg/m2 plus vinorelbine, 25 mg/m2 (PGV) on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks; cisplatin, 100 mg/m2 on day 1 plus gemcitabine, 1000 mg/m2 (PG) on days 1, 8, and 15 every 4 weeks; cisplatin, 120 mg/m2 on days 1 and 29 plus vinorelbine, 30 mg/m2/week (PV). At the planned interim analysis, the MST of patients in the PGV, PG, and PV arms was 51, 42, and 35 weeks, respectively. The hazard of death (Cox analysis) for patients receiving PGV compared with those receiving PV was 0.35 (95% confidence index [CI], 0.16-0.77, P = 0.0058). The response rate was 47% in the PGV arm, 30% in the PG arm, and 25% in the PV arm. Severe neutropenia (75% vs. 45%), and vomiting (50% vs. 15%) significantly affected more patients in the PV than in the PGV arm. Since the difference in survival met early stopping rules, accrual to the PV arm was suspended. Enrollment still continues in the PGV and PG arms to ascertain whether the triplet regimen has a more significant effect on survival than that produced with the PG regimen.

Clinical Trial↗