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Public Needs (public + need)
Selected AbstractsUkrainian Local Governments' Finance on the Threshold of a New Millenium: Will Interbudgetary Reform Meet Public Needs?PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 3 2002Sergii Slukhai Since independence, market,oriented reforms have been undertaken in Ukraine. Yet, intergovernmental relations are obsolete, remaining as they were in the Soviet time. In fact, Ukrainian subcentral governments have no significant discretion in revenues and expenditures. First, the article delivers an overview of the current system of intergovernmental finance in Ukraine. Second, the article reveals some negative trends in Ukrainian local governments' fiscal performance through the late 1990s that made a reform of intergovernmental fiscal arrangements timely. Third, the article analyzes recent reform steps as presented by the recent Budget Code, proposing policy options that could strengthen Ukrainian intergovernmental policy. [source] Possible Role of Pseudoephedrine and Other Over-the-Counter Cold Medications in the Deaths of Very Young ChildrenJOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 2 2007William E. Wingert Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office has reported a series of 15 deaths between February 1999 and June 2005 of infants and toddlers 16 months and younger in which drugs commonly found in over-the-counter (OTC) cold medications were present. A total of 10 different drugs were detected: pseudoephedrine, dextromethorphan, acetaminophen, brompheniramine, carbinoxamine, chlorpheniramine, ethanol, doxylamine and the anticonvulsants, phenobarbital, and phenytoin. The drugs were confirmed and quantified by gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry, with the exception of ethanol, which was analyzed by headspace GC and of phenobarbital and phenytoin that were quantified by GC with a nitrogen phosphorus detector. The most predominant drug was pseudoephedrine, which was found in all of the cases (blood concentration, n=14, range=0.10,17.0 mg/L, mean=3.34 mg/L) and was the sole drug detected in three cases. Acetaminophen was detected in blood from each of the five cases with sufficient sample. Other drugs (with frequency of detection) were dextromethorphan (five cases), carbinoxamine (four cases), chlorpheniramine (two cases) and brompheniramine, doxylamine, and ethanol (one case each). In the majority of the cases, toxicity from drugs found in easily available OTC medications was listed either as the direct cause of death or as a contributory factor. The manner of death was determined to be natural in only two of the cases. This postmortem study supports previous evidence that the administration of OTC cold medications to infants may, under some circumstances, be an unsafe practice and in some cases may even be fatal. The treating physicians and the general public need to be made more aware of the dangers of using OTC cold medications to treat very young children so that these types of tragedies might be avoided. [source] Reflexive Interdisciplinary Research: The Making of a Research Programme on the Rural Economy and Land UseJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2006Philip Lowe Abstract This paper provides an account of the origins and formation of the UK Research Councils' Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme and its approach to promoting interdisciplinary working between social and natural scientists. The programme is set in the context of broader developments in science policy, including a policy discourse centred upon sustainable development and the knowledge economy and associated demands for greater accountability in science. Interdisciplinarity promises research that will be more relevant and responsive to public needs and concerns. In describing the provenance of the RELU programme, therefore, the paper seeks to lay out the different stages in its initiation and design to show how, to varying degrees, these were open to external scrutiny and influence. The process of developing the programme illustrates that it is not straightforward to make research agendas and funding more transparent and accountable. It also provides insights into the challenges that interdisciplinarity and accountability present to established science institutions. [source] Canadian Dentists' Opinions on Publicly Financed Dental CareJOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DENTISTRY, Issue 2 2009Carlos R. Quiñonez DMD Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to inform policy leaders of the opinions of Canada's major dental care service provider regarding publicly financed dental care. Methods: Using provincial/territorial dental regulatory authority listings, a 26-item questionnaire was sent to a representative sample of Canadian dentists (n = 2219, response rate = 45.8 percent). Descriptive statistics were produced, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to assess what predicts dentists' responses. Results: Canadian dentists support governmental involvement in dental care, preferring investments in prevention to direct delivery. The majority of dentists have less than 10 percent of their practice represented by publicly insured patients, with a small minority having greater than 50 percent. The majority would accept new publicly insured patients, preferring fee for service remuneration. Dentists generally appear dissatisfied with public forms of third-party financing. Conclusions: Dentists prefer a targeted effort at meeting public needs and are influenced in their opinions largely in relation to ideology. In order to move forward, policy leaders will need to devote some attention to the influence and complexity of public and private tensions in dentistry. At the very least, public and private practitioners must come to appreciate each other's challenges and balance public and private expectations in public programming. [source] Assessment of the practicing physician: Challenges and opportunitiesTHE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue S1 2008Eric S. Holmboe MDArticle first published online: 4 DEC 200 Abstract Despite spending a substantial amount of time in structured educational settings during early medical training, most physicians will spend the majority of their career in clinical practice. In the clinical practice setting, physicians become responsible for determining and implementing their own educational program in order to maintain, at a minimum, competence. Pressure to change the nature of continuing medical education (CME) parallels pressure from patients, payers, and policymakers to hold individual physicians more accountable for the care they provide. How can these two forces be brought together more deliberately and effectively? Comprehensive physician assessment provides such an opportunity with the potential to benefit all parties involved in health care, especially patients and physicians. Many assessment methods and tools exist today that can facilitate the integration of CME and quality. Using a multifaceted physician-level performance assessment system has substantial potential to align the public's need and desire to ensure their physician is competent, at a minimum, with providing the physician with meaningful, actionable information and data to improve performance and engage in transformative learning. CME programs need to incorporate more robust assessment as part of the learning activity to facilitate improvements in health care more directly. [source] | |||||||||||||