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Selected AbstractsEuropean best practice in blood transfusion: improvement of quality-related processes in blood establishmentsISBT SCIENCE SERIES: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTRACELLULAR TRANSPORT, Issue 1 2007Christian Seidl Transfusion medicine is an expanding field comprising the interaction between several medical disciplines. Looking at the ,vein to vein process' covering the donation of blood by the voluntary donor up to the application of blood components to patients, modern blood transfusion services comprise a large variety of sociomedical functions. The production of standard cellular blood components, such as erythrocyte and thrombocyte concentrates, plasmatic blood components as well as special cellular components such as blood stem cells, mesenchymal cells or granulocytes will require an extensive laboratory testing repertoire to monitor product quality and safety. The European blood legislation has defined several key quality elements to achieve good manufacturing practice in the field of blood transfusion. In addition, GMP/GLP and ISO standards are used inter alia by blood establishments. Following the call for proposal in the field of public health by the European Commission, a consortium of blood establishments from 16 European member, acceding and EFTA states has been established in order to survey the individual quality management systems used by the participants and to developed guidelines for quality systems. These guidelines are aimed at assisting blood establishments in preparing for government inspections as required by Directive 2002/98/EC. They could also be used to adapt existing procedures to comply with current EU requirements and/or to prepare for accreditation and certification of these institutions. Major benefits from those quality management systems are (1) the definition of an overall quality policy, (2) improved personnel responsibility, qualification and training, (3) error and risk assessment system, (4) continuous improvement, (5) improved resource management, (6) performance improvement. The definition of cost,benefit relation between certification and accreditation of blood establishments will depend on the individual institution itself and the amount of processes covered. With the release of the new EU Directive 2005/62/EC, there are currently EU requirements available that describe in detail relevant processes to be covered by quality system following good practice used in blood establishments. A future challenge for transfusion medicine would be optimizing the synergetic effects expressed by the EU directive, GMP and ISO standards. [source] 5.3 Global challenges in research and strategic planningEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 2002Bruce J. Baum Health sciences research is experiencing dramatic progress. How can dental schools throughout the world best make these research advances relevant for dental students, as well as providing them with the means to assess and utilize the research advances that will occur in the future? This complex question presents a critical challenge to the dental educational community. Research is clearly integral to the mission of dental education. By providing dental students with active learning strategies, dental educators can inculcate the ability for independent scientific thinking and thereby develop reflective as well as technically competent practitioners. However, there is a shortage of well-trained individuals to fill faculty and research positions in certain parts of the world. Global networks for mutual information exchange are imperative to overcome resource limitations in individual institutions, as is dedicated funding for research in the dental educational setting. [source] National study of information seeking behavior of academic researchers in the United StatesJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Xi Niu As new technologies and information delivery systems emerge, the way in which individuals search for information to support research, teaching, and creative activities is changing. To understand different aspects of researchers' information-seeking behavior, this article surveyed 2,063 academic researchers in natural science, engineering, and medical science from five research universities in the United States. A Web-based, in-depth questionnaire was designed to quantify researchers' information searching, information use, and information storage behaviors. Descriptive statistics are reported. Additionally, analysis of results is broken out by institutions to compare differences among universities. Significant findings are reported, with the biggest changes because of increased utilization of electronic methods for searching, sharing, and storing scholarly content, as well as for utilizing library services. Generally speaking, researchers in the five universities had similar information-seeking behavior, with small differences because of varying academic unit structures and myriad library services provided at the individual institutions. [source] The connection between the research of a university and counts of links to its web pages: An investigation based upon a classification of the relationships of pages to the research of the host universityJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2003Mike Thelwall Results from recent advances in link metrics have demonstrated that the hyperlink structure of national university systems can be strongly related to the research productivity of the individual institutions. This paper uses a page categorization to show that restricting the metrics to subsets more closely related to the research of the host university can produce even stronger associations. A partial overlap was also found between the effects of applying advanced document models and separating page types, but the best results were achieved through a combination of the two. [source] Ending Up in Pizza: Accountability as a Problem of Institutional Arrangement in BrazilLATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2007Matthew M. Taylor ABSTRACT Brazilians often complain that investigations of corruption by public servants drag on for years or bring few legal sanctions on the perpetrators. This lack of accountability is so pervasive that a slang phrase, acabou em pizza, is often invoked when investigations are inconclusive. This article investigates the role of four Brazilian public institutions charged with keeping public servants accountable. For analysis, it breaks the accountability process into its three component stages: oversight, investigation, and sanction. Through a study of six prominent cases of corruption, it shows that the weakness of the accountability process in Brazil is due not entirely to the toothlessness of individual institutions of accountability, but also to the independence of such institutions at each of the three stages. These findings suggest that institutional arrangements influence the degree of accountability, and thereby also public trust and confidence, in Latin America's largest democracy. [source] Alternate budgetary sources during budget rescissionsNEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES, Issue 129 2010Kurt Keppler This chapter describes revenue-generating and cost-saving strategies that student affairs divisions may consider during periods of budget rescissions and categorizes them according to the decision-making entities involved in each. The chapter also explains why particular examples are well suited to individual institutions. [source] Balloon valvuloplasty for congenital heart disease: Immediate and long-term results of multi-institutional studyPEDIATRICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 5 2001Shigeyuki EchigoArticle first published online: 21 DEC 200 AbstractBackground and Objectives: Several studies have been reported in Japan. However, the reports consist of small series at individual institutions. We evaluated the immediate to long-term results of balloon valvuloplasty (BVP) of congenital pulmonary and aortic stenosis at multi-institutions in Japan. Methods and Results: Immediate and follow-up data were obtained from eight institutions in Japan. In our series of 172 cases of pulmonary valuvuloplasty excluding critical pulmonary stenosis, the mean pressure gradient decreased immediately after BVP from 61~27 mmHg to 28~20 mmHg and the reduced gradient continued at follow-up in most cases. The BVP for critical pulmonary stenosis could be accomplished in 35 of 39 patients. The mean right ventricular systolic pressure decreased from 102~29 mmHg to 62~23 mmHg. One of them required the surgical operation for perforation of the right ventricular outflow tract. In BVP for congenital aortic valvular stenosis of 77 cases excluding critical aortic stenosis, the mean pressure gradient decreased immediately after BVP from 68~24 mmHg to 34~23 mmHg. Thirty-one cases (55%) were free from any interventions in long-term follow-up. The BVP for critical aortic stenosis was performed in 29 neonates. The overall mortality rate was 34% and 24% of the patients required repeat intervention. The remaining 42% was free from any interventions. Conclusions: Balloon valvuloplasty for congenital pulmonary valvular stenosis is a safe and effective procedure and the initial treatment of choice. In spite of an occasional major complication, BVP for critical pulmonary stenosis is effective in many infants. Balloon aortic valvuloplasty is palliative. However, this procedure has the efficacy in deferring the surgical intervention. Balloon valvuloplasty for neonatal critical aortic stenosis is a useful method to recover from serious conditions. [source] Review of anatomy education in Australian and New Zealand medical schoolsANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 4 2010Steven Craig Abstract Anatomy instruction at Australian and New Zealand medical schools has been the subject of considerable debate recently. Many commentators have lamented the gradual devaluation of anatomy as core knowledge in medical courses. To date, much of this debate has been speculative or anecdotal and lacking reliable supporting data. To provide a basis for better understanding and more informed discussion, this study analyses how anatomy is currently taught and assessed in Australian and New Zealand medical schools. A mailed questionnaire survey was sent to each of the 19 Australian and 2 New Zealand medical schools, examining the time allocation, content, delivery and assessment of anatomy for the 2008 academic year. Nineteen of the 21 (90.5%) universities invited to participate completed the survey. There was considerable variability in the time allocation, content, delivery and assessment of anatomy in Australasian medical schools. The average total hours of anatomy teaching for all courses was 171 h (SD ± 116.7, range 56/560). Historical data indicate a major decline in anatomy teaching hours within medical courses in Australia and New Zealand. Our results reveal that as there is no national curriculum for anatomy instruction, the curriculum content, instruction methodology and assessment is highly variable between individual institutions. Such variability in anatomy teaching and assessment raises an important question: is there also variable depth of understanding of anatomy between graduates of different medical courses? [source] Core Curricular Elements for Fellowship Training in International Emergency MedicineACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 7 2010Jamil Bayram MD ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:748,757 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Abstract Objectives:, The objective was to describe the common educational goals, curricular elements, and methods of evaluation used in international emergency medicine (IEM) fellowship training programs currently. IEM fellowship programs have been developed to provide formal training for emergency physicians (EPs) interested in pursuing careers in IEM. Those fellowships are variable in scope, objectives, and duration. Previously published articles have suggested a general curriculum structure for IEM fellowships. Methods:, A search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases from 1950 to June 2008 was performed, combining the terms international, emergency medicine, and fellowship. Online curricula and descriptive materials from IEM fellowships listed by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) were reviewed. Knowledge and skill areas common to multiple programs were organized in discrete categories. IEM fellowship directors were contacted for input and feedback. Results:, Eight articles on IEM fellowships were identified. Two articles described a general structure for fellowship curriculum. Sixteen of 20 IEM fellowship programs had descriptive materials posted online. These information sources, plus input from seven fellowship program directors, yielded the following seven discrete knowledge and skill areas: 1) emergency medicine systems development, 2) humanitarian relief, 3) disaster management, 4) public health, 5) travel and field medicine, 6) program administration, and 7) academic skills. Conclusions:, While IEM fellowships vary with regard to objectives and structure, this article presents an overview of the current focus of IEM fellowship training curricula that could serve as a resource for IEM curriculum development at individual institutions. [source] |