Sunday, October 03, 2010

Progressing from Social Media to 'Social Medicine'

Listen to the podcast from CBC Radio and then voice your opinion on this latest phenomenon called 'social medicine'.
What is 'social medicine'?
"That's when health professionals blog and tweet and text, not only to each other -- but to their patients. Some even go as far as making friends on Facebook ..."
CBC Radio program "White Coat, Black Art" presents the pros & cons.

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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Is Health Care Policy-Making Facilitated or Trapped by EBM?

Has the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) movement "driven the study of health care policy-making into a conceptual cul-de-sac"?
The goal of EBM has always been to find and implement the best medical research evidence to ensure best patient outcomes. In effect 'bridge the know-do gap'. A smooth unimpeded path for new research knowledge to be translated to patient care and beyond to health care policy, has been the default expectation.
Should this be, or does this have to be a 'cul-de-sac' situation? This has been a growing argument in some circles (no pun intended), and one put forward by an interdisciplinary research group based out of the UK. Studying the science and nature of evidence with a wide-angle lense, this group takes policy studies in general and health care policy-making in particular, beyond simple 'decision science'.
"...we have argued that it is time to problematize the notion of 'evidence' in the heath care policy-making process and to legitimize rather than devalue the place of practical judgement."
Login to the EBSCO database for the full text of this interesting article from the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy (UK) .
Citation:
Russell, J., Greenhalgh, T., Byrne, E., & McDonnell, J. (2008). Recognizing rhetoric in health care policy analysis. (pp. 40-46). doi:10.1258/jhsrp.2007.006029.
This all brings to my mind the infamous word's of Inspector Clouseau, "Facts Hercule, nothing matters but the facts..."

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Emerging Health Threats Forum

"The Emerging Health Threats Forum is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, established with support from the UK’s Health Protection Agency.
Their mission is to make a significant contribution to the preparedness for and response to emerging health threats by:
~ identifying and tracking emerging health threats.
~ publishing original research and critically reviewing other published research on emerging health threats.
~ providing early and accurate risk assessments for policymakers, fund-holders, and other public-health officials, particularly those charged with emergency planning and crisis management.
~ identifying and highlighting for policymakers and fund-holders potential deficiencies in present or future resource allocation.
~ providing an international forum for health-protection officials, scientists, and policymakers to debate emerging health threats.
~ publishing the latest best thinking on disaster preparedness and crisis management.
~ uniquely publishing strategic lessons learned in disaster and crisis response.
~ interpreting scientific developments for the media and general public.
~ providing an international forum for scientists concerned about the dual use of science."
Read the latest Emerging Health Threats Journal issue, the latest weekly newsletter, and sign up for RSS feeds from this informative site.

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What are NTD's and What do they have to do with me?



Read the latest editorial from
PLoS ~ The Public Library of Science
and their ~ Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Journal

Waging Peace through Neglected Tropical Disease Control: A US Foreign Policy for the Bottom Billion
by Peter J. Hotez1 & Tommy G. Thompson. [click on main title]

The Public Library of Science or PLoS provides this and other excellent open access peer-reviewed journals such as:

PLoS Medicine.
PLoS Pathogens
PLoS Genetics
PLoS ONE
PLoS Biology

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