What Happens When Genomics Meets Politics?
The number of people having their genomes sequenced
could reach more than 100 million by 2025, researchers estimated. Policy-makers around the world started to realize
the incredible potential in genomics for population health in the last 3-5
years, but there are huge question marks whether they can manage the use of this
incredibly useful pool of data in an appropriate framework, with well-thought-out
means, for the right purposes, meaning for the well-being of humans and
communities in the present and the future. Here, we launched an article series
to look at the countries with the most experience. Let’s start with a t...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 28, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Genomics Healthcare Policy data data privacy data security Estonia ethics Gene genetic genetics Genome genome sequencing health data personal genomics Personalized medicine population population genomic Source Type: blogs
What donor offspring seek when they do DNA testing
I wrote previously about parents who fear that their donor-conceived children might uncover long-held secrets through DNA testing. Many were unsettled by Dani Shapiro’s memoir Inheritance, which told of how a DNA test done for no particular reason dismantled a family story. Now let’s consider reasons why some people who know they were donor-conceived might pursue DNA testing.
Why might people who were donor-conceived seek DNA testing?
Donor-conceived adults who embark upon DNA testing may, like Shapiro, stumble upon information accidentally. Their experience with DNA testing is not explored in this post, which focuses ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 25, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ellen S. Glazer, LICSW Tags: Infertility Mental Health Relationships Source Type: blogs
Before Brexit: Were Cameron ’ s EU concessions full of holes
Swiss researchers have looked at the pre-Brexit settlement negotiated by then UK Prime Minister David Cameron with the European Union and suggest that this was very much a missed opportunity for all parties that might have avoided the need for a referendum on the UK leaving the EU and all that ongoing problems to which that has led, despite the referendum being technically only advisory.
The voting turnout for the referendum in June 2016 was not particularly high and the result was almost equally split with a very narrow margin for the leavers rather than the remainers. Nobody was more shocked by the result than many of th...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - September 7, 2019 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
How It Takes Courage to Build Healthy Relationships
The word “courage” is often reserved for entering a battlefield or facing difficult circumstances. But there’s a more subtle aspect to courage that is needed in our close relationships.
The word “courage” comes from the word meaning “heart.” The French word “la coeur” means “heart.” To open our heart to another human being is the ultimate act of courage.
Being courageous doesn’t mean being a fearless warrior. It means being a warrior of the heart. We allow ourselves to have fear, to wrestle with it, and find our way through without being crippled by it. In a relationship, this means expres...
Source: World of Psychology - August 27, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John Amodeo, PhD Tags: Communication General Happiness Mindfulness Perfectionism Relationships Self-Help Boundaries Emotional Safety Healthy Relationships Intimacy Resilience Source Type: blogs
Referral forms - barrier to timely patient care
James Booth reacts as a referral form is cited as a contributory factor in a patient death Related items fromOnMedica Northern Ireland GP patients encourage self-care NHS Scotland pressures ‘need urgent action now’ Online triage ‘not a solution’ to GP workload pressures BMA calls for maximum number of patients per GP GP patient care quality sliding into ‘state of emergency’ (Source: OnMedica Blogs)
Source: OnMedica Blogs - August 22, 2019 Category: General Medicine Source Type: blogs
Context and Nuance, Part 4
We have reviewed the labels sociologists use for various socially constructed categories. I have not yet mentioned gender, which is obviously at least equally important, but I want to keep the number of moving parts manageable for now.Racial categories can vary from time to time and place to place, but because the theory of race is that it ' s inherited they are generally pretty rigid -- you ' re stuck in the category you were born into -- and they can also be more or less coextensive with caste. For example, people imported from Africa and their descendants were categorized both by race and caste throughout much of the na...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 10, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Context and Nuance: Part Three
Having said something about race, I will now turn to the concepts of caste, class and ethnicity. These intersect with race in complicated ways, but we need to unpack the individual parts and try to get a shared understanding of them before we try to put them back together.A caste is a socially constructed category that is strictly inherited, and assigns people to differential status. The caste system of India is well known. Historically, people inherited quite specific occupations, including priest, warrior, and waste collector. People whose caste assigned them to menial jobs were otherwise despised and ritually unclean. B...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 7, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Tackling loneliness
House of Commons Library - The government's Loneliness Strategy was published in October 2018. It set out a wide variety of cross-departmental measures that the government would take to provide'national leadership' to tackle loneliness in England. This briefing: explains the Strategy; the steps taken so far by the government; looks at research into the causes and impact of loneliness and possible interventions; and briefly outlines the situation in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The briefing is accompanied by a reading list.BriefingMore detail (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - August 4, 2019 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Local authorities, public health and health inequalities Source Type: blogs
Review Body on Doctors ’ and Dentists’ Remuneration: forty-seventh report 2019
This report sets out the DDRB ’s analysis of evidence given by relevant organisations and makes recommendations for doctors’ and dentists’ pay and associated issues in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.ReportMore detail (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - July 22, 2019 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Workforce and employment Source Type: blogs
How Large Is American Government?
America ’s strong economic growth and high living standards were built on our relatively smaller government. U.S. per capita income is higher than nearly all major countries and our government spending is still somewhat less.However, America ’s lower-spending advantage has diminished. TheOECD publishes data on total federal-state-local government spending as a percentage of GDP for its member countries. The chart shows spending for the United States and for the simple average of 30 OECD countries which have data back to 1995. These are high-income countries such as Canada, Germany, and Japan.The chart shows that the Un...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 18, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Scientists Develop New Probe to Light Up Cancer
A team of researchers in Ireland has collaborated on developing a new fluorescent molecular probe that can hone in on and light up cancer in an exciting new way. The technology will hopefully have important consequences for cancer resection surgeries, allowing physicians to remove tumors while sparing healthy tissues.
Previously developed fluorescent molecular probes are hampered by the fluorescence of some naturally-occuring molecules within our bodies. The signal-to-noise ratio is not very high and it takes a while for such probes to accumulate in and sufficiently illuminate a tumor. However, this team created what th...
Source: Medgadget - July 11, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Diagnostics Materials Oncology Pathology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Change or collapse: lessons from the drive to reform health and social care in Northern Ireland
This report examines the factors that may be helping or hindering efforts to improve the health and social care system in Northern Ireland today. It aims to be of interest to health leaders across different countries, especially in the rest of the UK.ReportNuffield Trust - publications (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - July 10, 2019 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Changing configuration of health services Source Type: blogs
Barriers to good pain rehabilitation
This is a long…… readooops, sorry, not.
Low back pain is, we know, the greatest contributor to days lived with disability (Rice, Smith & Blyth, 2016). And no-one anywhere in the world has found a good mix of services to reduce the number of days lived with disability as a result of this problem. And yet billions of dollars are used to fund research into the many contributors to a shift from acute low back pain to ongoing disability associated with low back pain.
At the same time, treatments that directly target disability, rather than pain (a target considered the most important outcome by Sullivan an...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - June 9, 2019 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Low back pain Pain conditions Research Science in practice health funding health systems models of care Source Type: blogs
Communication and cross-examination in court for children and adults with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review - Joanne Morrison, Rachel Forrester-Jones, Jill Bradshaw, Glynis Murphy, 2019
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1365712719851134AbstractCourts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have identified children and adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) as vulnerable witnesses. The call from the English Court of Appeal is for advocates to adjust questioning during cross-examination according to individual needs. This review systematically examined previous empirical studies with the aim of delineating the particular communication needs of children and adults with ID during cross-examination. Studies utilising experimental methodology similar to examination/cross-examination processes, or ...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - June 9, 2019 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Link Between Teens ’ Time On Digital Devices And Lower Wellbeing Is “Too Small To Merit Substantial Scientific Discussion”
By Christian Jarrett
My friends and I would often be so hooked on the latest Sega Mega Drive video game that we’d play all day long, breaking only for munchies or when nature called. Our parents would urge (plead with) us to get outside, especially when it was sunny. “The fresh air and exercise will do you good”, they would say, or similar. Fast forward to now, and the anxiety over all the time that children and young people spend in front of screens, be it playing video games, watching TV or using social media, has of course only intensified. Surely it can’t be mentally or physically healthy, can i...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 31, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Mental health Technology Source Type: blogs
