India: "The traditional general practitioner is a dying breed and deficiency of doctors willing to work in community settings is rampant."

J Family Med Prim Care. 2014 Apr;3(2):91-3. doi: 10.4103/2249-4863.137603.

Helicopter Dropping of 50 Free Allopathic Medicines; Prescribed by Homoeopathic Doctors at Ground: Sorry this is not Universal Health Coverage.

Kumar R.

Author information

• President Academy of Family Physicians of India, Chief Editor, Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, New Delhi, India.

Abstract

The provision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is being discussed in India. Crippled by the charges of corruption and unethical practice by media and public at large, medical professionals are largely unaware, disinterested, isolated and edged out from this debate. The traditional general practitioner is a dying breed and deficiency of doctors willing to work in community settings is rampant. Is UHC model proposed in present form good for an ordinary Indian citizen? This editorial looks into the underlying politics of health care in India in the past and how this ongoing debate could impact the future of primary care and health care of people in India.

Near-misses: Time for some mitigation standardization? ("... 400 techniques were used to mitigate the near-misses, nearly one per causative factor identified.")

Plast Surg Nurs. 2014 July/September;34(3):114-119.

What Causes Near-misses and How Are They Mitigated?

Speroni KG1, Fisher J, Dennis M, Daniel M.

Author information

• 1At Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Va., Karen Gabel Speroni is a nursing research scientist, Judith Fisher is the former director of clinical operations, Marie Dennis is the former chief nursing officer, and Marlon Daniel is a biostatistician.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES::

The objectives of this study were to determine the reasons hospital RNs attribute to near-misses and the techniques they used to mitigate these near-misses to prevent serious reportable events.

BACKGROUND::

Our health system developed this definition for the study: A near-miss is a variation in a normal process that, if continued, could have a negative impact on patients.

METHODS::

Study participants were RNs who completed a survey about a self-reported near-miss or another RN's near-miss they'd witnessed. Data collected included participant demographics, near-miss occurrence by day of week and time, near-miss type, and attributed causes.

RESULTS::

A total of 144 near-miss types were self-reported or witnessed by 123 respondents; of these, 43 (35%) self-reported a near-miss event and 80 (65%) witnessed a near-miss event. The respondents identified medication administration (19%) and transcription errors (10%) as the most frequent types of near-misses (N = 144). Selecting from 412 factors related to near-misses, more RNs attributed near-misses to personal factors than institutional factors. Top personal factors were not following policy and inappropriate decision making or critical assumptions. Top institutional factors were work-related interruptions and distractions, and poor communication about a patient. A total of 400 techniques were used to mitigate the near-misses, nearly one per causative factor identified. Top techniques used were stop, think, act, review (STAR) and verification of proper procedures or actions.

CONCLUSIONS::

Hospital administrators should consider both personal and institutional factors when evaluating patient-safety programs. Education about mitigating techniques for near-misses is imperative for RNs.

From Tehran U: "...mothers consider immunizing children important and they have enough trust in the health system."

Issues Compr Pediatr Nurs. 2014 Sep 4:1-15. [Epub ahead of print]

Maternal concerns about immunization over 0-24 month children: a qualitative research.

Delkhosh M1, Negarandeh R, Ghasemi E, Rostami H.

Author information

• 1Department of Disaster Public Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran , Iran .

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the concerns of mothers referred to health center in south Tehran, Iran about immunizing children aged 0-24 months. Data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using content analysis. The mothers' concerns over immunizing their children fell into 5 main categories: (1) "Factors that cause mothers' concerns," (2) "Factors that influence mothers' concerns," (3) "Information, education, and communication barriers," (4) "Informational/educational needs and sources," and (5) "The necessity of childhood vaccinations." According to study findings, mothers consider immunizing children important and they have enough trust in the health system. A deep understanding of maternal concerns about immunizing their children at 0-24 months allows nurses to reduce mothers' concerns by removing communication barriers and providing appropriate and adequate information.

NIH-funded study: College student "alcohol consumption and other risk factors were related to pregaming and tailgating."

Subst Use Misuse. 2014 Sep 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Tailgating and Pregaming by College Students with Alcohol Offenses: Patterns of Alcohol Use and Beliefs.

Hustad JT1, Mastroleo NR, Urwin R, Zeman S, LaSalle L, Borsari B.

Author information

• 11The Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Mail Code A210, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.

Abstract

Research indicates that pregaming (drinking before a social event) and tailgating (drinking before a sporting event) are two culturally ingrained alcohol use behaviors by college students. We examined the prevalence of these two activities in a sample of college students (N = 354) who violated campus alcohol policy and were mandated to receive an alcohol intervention in fall 2010. Results indicated that alcohol consumption and other risk factors were related to pregaming and tailgating. These findings are discussed in the context of clinical implications and future directions for research. This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

US to provide $75M to expand Ebola care centers

Posted: Thu 9:51 PM, Sep 04, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- 

"The American aid agency announced Thursday it would donate $75 million to fund 1,000 more beds in Ebola treatment centers in Liberia and buy 130,000 more protective suits for health care workers.

West Africa's struggling health systems have buckled under the pressure of an Ebola outbreak that has already killed about 1,900 people. Nurses in Liberia are wearing rags over their heads to protect themselves from the dreaded disease, amid concerns that shortages of protective gear throughout the region are responsible for the high Ebola death toll among health workers."

A court-packing payoff for Obamacare

EDITORIAL: A court-packing payoff for Obamacare

A U.S. appeals court saves health care law again

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - - Thursday, September 4, 2014

"Whoever said cheaters never win never met a president with an unrestrained ambition to make big government bigger, and damn the Constitution. Three new judges of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rode to the rescue of Obamacare on Thursday. The judges newly appointed by President Obama and confirmed by Democrats are in the new 7 to 4 majority, which reversed last month’s well-reasoned decision of a three-judge panel that said the administration can’t rewrite provisions of the Obamacare law, however inconvenient to the president, without going through the proper legislative process."

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/4/editorial-court-packing-payoff/#ixzz3CPEB5WD1 
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Digital health care: Cementing centralization?

Health Informatics J. 2014 Sep;20(3):168-75. doi: 10.1177/1460458213494033.

Digital health care: Cementing centralisation?

Keen J.

Author information

• University of Leeds, UK J.Keen@leeds.ac.uk.

Abstract

This article reviews large-scale digital developments in the National Health Service in England in recent years and argues that there is a mismatch between digital and organisational thinking and practice. The arguments are based on new institutional thinking, where the digital infrastructure is taken to be an institution, which has been shaped over a long period, and which in turn shapes the behaviour of health professionals, managers and others. Many digital services are still being designed in line with a bureaucratic data processing model. Yet health services are increasingly based on a network model, where health professionals and service managers require information systems that allow them to manage risks proactively and to coordinate multiple services on behalf of patients. This article further argues that the data processing model is being reinforced by Open Data policies and by related developments in the acquisition of genomic and telehealth data, suggesting that the mismatch will persist. There is, therefore, an ongoing tension between frontline and central objectives for digital services. It may be that the tension can only be resolved when - or if - there is trust between the interested parties.

Sarcopenia: "From our 30s, we can lose up to about a half pound of muscle per year if we do not take action to sustain it."

Healthbeat: Use it or lose it

By Pam Stuppy

August 31, 2014 2:00 AM

"Although we cannot prevent aging, there are steps we can take to slow its progression. One of the key factors related to our quality of life, as well as our risk of many medical issues, is the amount of muscle we have. A common trend as we get older is a shift in body composition — less muscle mass and increased body fat. The good news is that, in many cases, there are steps we can take to counter this trend.

Sarcopenia is a term that refers to progressive muscle loss due to the aging process. It is estimated that about 30 percent of people over 60 and 50 percent of those over 80 years of age have some level of sarcopenia. From our 30s, we can lose up to about a half pound of muscle per year if we do not take action to sustain it."

Childhood Obesity On The Rise

Childhood Obesity On The Rise

It's Hunger Action Month, but another problem to be aware of with children is childhood obesity.

According to experts, one in five kids between the ages of 2 and 5 are already overweight. And 8 percent are already obese. As kids get older, those numbers increase.

"...people profit from a religious affiliation if they also actively practice their religion."

Front Psychol. 2014 Aug 14;5:876. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00876. eCollection 2014.

Satisfaction with life and character strengths of non-religious and religious people: it's practicing one's religion that makes the difference.

Berthold A, Ruch W.

Author information

• Department of Psychology - Personality and Assessment, University of Zurich Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract

According to systematic reviews, religious beliefs and practices are related to higher life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect (Koenig and Larson, 2001). The present research extends previous findings by comparing satisfaction with life and character strengths of non-religious people,religious people, who practice their religion and people that have a religious affiliation but do not practice their religion. We assessed life satisfaction (SWLS), character strengths (VIA-IS) and the orientations to happiness (OTH) in a sample of N = 20538 participants. People with a religious affiliation that also practice their religion were found to be more satisfied with their life and scored higher on life of meaning than those who do not practice their religion and than non-religious people. Also religious people who practice their religion differed significantly from those who do not practice their religion and non-religious people regarding several character strengths; they scored higher on kindness, love, gratitude, hope, forgiveness, and on spirituality. There were no substantial differences between people who had no religious affiliation and those with a religious affiliation that do not practice their religion (all [Formula: see text]s < 0.009). Altogether, the present findings suggest that people profit from a religious affiliation if they also actively practice their religion.

Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2014 Sep 1. [Epub ahead of print]

Sensory Reinforcement-Enhancing Effects of Nicotine Via Smoking.

Perkins KA, Karelitz JL.

Abstract

As has been found in nicotine research on animals, research on humans has shown that acute nicotine enhances reinforcement from rewards unrelated to nicotine intake, but this effect may be specific to rewards from stimuli that are "sensory" in nature. We assessed acute effects of nicotine via smoking on responding for music or video rewards (sensory), for monetary reward (nonsensory), or for no reward (control), to gauge the generalizability of nicotine's reinforcement-enhancing effects. Using a fully within-subjects design, dependent smokers (N = 20) participated in 3 similar experimental sessions, each following overnight abstinence (verified by carbon monoxide <10 ppm) and varying only in the smoking condition. Sessions involved no smoking or smoking "denicotinized" ("denic;" 0.05 mg) or nicotine (0.6 mg) Quest brand cigarettes in controlled fashion prior to responding on a simple operant computer task for each reward separately using a progressive ratio schedule. The reinforcing effects of music and video rewards, but not money, were significantly greater due to the nicotine versus denic cigarette (i.e., nicotine per se), whereas there were no differences between denic cigarette smoking and no smoking (i.e., smoking behavior per se), except for no reward. These effects were not influenced by withdrawal relief from either cigarette. Results that generalize from an auditory to a visual reward confirm that acute nicotine intake per se enhances the reinforcing value of sensory rewards, but its effects on the value of other (perhaps nonsensory) types of rewards may be more modest. 

Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2014 Aug 31;15:461-480.

Emerging Issues in Public Health Genomics.

Roberts JS1, Dolinoy DC, Tarini BA.

Author information

• 1Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and.

Abstract

This review highlights emerging areas of interest in public health genomics. First, we describe recent advances in newborn screening (NBS), with a focus on the practice and policy implications of current and future efforts to expand NBS programs (e.g., via next-generation sequencing). Next, we detail research findings from the rapidly progressing field of epigenetics and epigenomics, highlighting ways in which our emerging understanding in these areas could guide future intervention and research efforts in public health. We close by considering various ethical, legal, and social issues posed by recent developments in public health genomics; these include policies to regulate access to personal genomic information, the need to enhance genetic literacy in both health professionals and the public, and challenges in ensuring that the benefits (and burdens) of genomic discoveries and applications are equitably distributed. We also note needs for future genomic research that integrates across basic and social sciences.

From Rebecca Weintraub Brendel and colleagues: Voluntary psychiatric hospitalization and patient-driven requests for discharge

Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2014 Jul-Aug;22(4):241-9. doi: 10.1097/HRP.0000000000000044.

Voluntary psychiatric hospitalization and patient-driven requests for discharge: a statutory review and analysis of implications for the capacity to consent to voluntary hospitalization.

Garakani A1, Shalenberg E, Burstin SC, Weintraub Brendel R, Appel JM.

Author information

• 1From the Departments of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine (Dr. Garakani); Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Drs. Garakani and Appel), and Harvard Medical School (Dr. Brendel); Silver Hill Hospital, New Canaan, CT (Dr. Garakani); Visiting Nurse Service of New York, New York, NY (Dr. Shalenberg); Split Rock Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, Bronx, NY (Ms. Burstin); Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (Dr. Brendel).

Abstract

Along with the advances in civil rights protections for psychiatric patients since the 1970s, so-called voluntary inpatient psychiatric admissions have become common. In most U.S. states, however, these voluntary admissions abridge the rights of patients through legal provisions that limit the conditions under which patients can be discharged upon their request. This phenomenon, including variations in the state laws governing requests for discharge from voluntary psychiatric hospitalization, has received little attention in the psychiatry literature. Using Lexis-Nexis, PubMed, and Web of Science, we conducted a review of state laws regarding patients' legal rights to request discharge from voluntary hospitalization. Our hypothesis was that most states would have provisions limiting access to immediate discharge for patients whose psychiatric admission had been voluntary. Our findings from the review indicate that 49 of the 51 jurisdictions (50 states plus the District of Columbia) have provisions about patients requesting discharge from voluntary psychiatric admission. The majority of states employ a 72-hour period in which patients can be held following a request for discharge from hospitalization. As a general rule, after this evaluation period, either the patient must be discharged, or the facility must initiate involuntary commitment proceedings. Given these provisions, we explore the range of clinical admission procedures and whether voluntary admissions are truly voluntary. We also discuss the implications of our analysis for assessing the decisional capacity of patients seeking voluntary psychiatric admission.

Re-thinking the 'Two-Midnight' Rule: The Challenge of Regulating Hospital Admission

R I Med J (2013). 2014 Sep 2;97(9):13-15.

Re-thinking the 'Two-Midnight' Rule: The Challenge of Regulating Hospital Admission.

Silver BC.

Author information

• Doctoral Student in Health Services Research at the Brown University School of Public Health.

Abstract

Hospital observation services are meant to care for hospitalized patients with less severe conditions and the expectation of a short length of stay. In recent years, use of these services has increased and been highly variable; but it is often unclear whether they're appropriate for a particular patient. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) most recent attempt to address this was a policy known as the "Two Midnight" Rule which states that observation care should be provided to patients expected to be in the hospital for fewer than two midnights. Nearly one year after its passage, the rule has yet to be implemented and criticism is abundant. As CMS begins to reform these policies, factors such as clinical needs, cost, and post-acute care needs should be considered to maximize the utility and quality of care while also minimizing the costs incurred by CMS, patients, and providers.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest

Australas Psychiatry. 2014 Aug 17. pii: 1039856214545550. [Epub ahead of print]

Madness at the movies: prioritised movies for self-directed learning by medical students.

Wilson N1, Heath D2, Heath T3, Gallagher P4, Huthwaite M4.

Author information

• 1University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand nick.wilson@otago.ac.nz.
• 2Starship Hospital, Auckland District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand.
• 3Auckland, New Zealand.
• 4University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

We aimed to systematically compile a list of 10 movies to facilitate self-directed learning in psychiatry by medical students.

METHOD:

The selected areas were those of the top five mental health conditions from the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study. The search strategy for movies covered an extensive range of sources (published literature and websites), followed by closer examination and critical viewing of a sample.

RESULTS:

Out of a total of 503 potential movies that were identified, 23 were selected for viewing and more detailed critique. The final top 10 were: for depressive and anxiety disorders: Ordinary People (1980), Silver Linings Playbook (2012); for illicit drug use: Trainspotting (1996), Winter's Bone (2010), Rachel Getting Married (2008), Half Nelson (2006); for alcohol use disorders: Another Year (2010), Passion Fish (1992); and for schizophrenia: The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006), and An Angel at My Table (1990).

CONCLUSIONS:

The final selection of 10 movies all appeared to have relatively high entertainment value together with rich content in terms of psychiatric themes. Further research could evaluate the extent to which medical students actually watch such movies, by assessing the level of withdrawals from a medical school library and surveying student responses.

From Johns Hopkins: African American Girls' Characterization of Healthy Dating Relationships, A Qualitative Study

J Prim Prev. 2014 Aug 29. [Epub ahead of print]

"If You Don't Have Honesty in a Relationship, Then There Is No Relationship": African American Girls' Characterization of Healthy Dating Relationships, A Qualitative Study.

Debnam KJ1, Howard DE, Garza MA.

Author information

• 1Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Room 388, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA, kdebnam@jhsph.edu.

Abstract

The quality of dating relationships in adolescence can have long lasting effects on identity development, self-esteem, and interpersonal skills, and can shape values and behaviors related to future intimate relationships. The aims of this study were to: (1) investigate how African American adolescent girls characterize healthy relationships; and (2) describe the meanings of these characteristics in the context of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 12 healthy dating relationship qualities. We conducted semi-structured one-on-one in-depth interviews with 33 African American high school girls in the mid-Atlantic region. Trained staff transcribed interviews verbatim and entered the data into ATLAS.ti for coding and analysis. Participants' specified and vividly described eight healthy relationship characteristics: good communication, honesty, trust, respect, compromise, understanding, individuality, and self-confidence. Of these characteristics, three (good communication, compromise, and respect) were described in ways discordant with CDC's definitions. Findings highlight a need to better understand how girls develop values and ascribe characteristics of healthy relationships in order to reduce their risk for teen dating violence.

J Med Ethics. 2014 Jul;40(7):437-44.

Using informed consent to save trust.

Eyal N.

Abstract

Increasingly, bioethicists defend informed consent as a safeguard for trust in caretakers and medical institutions.This paper discusses an ‘ideal type’ of that move. What I call the trust-promotion argument for informed consent states:1. Social trust, especially trust in caretakers and medical institutions, is necessary so that, for example,people seek medical advice, comply with it, and participate in medical research.2. Therefore, it is usually wrong to jeopardise that trust.3. Coercion, deception, manipulation and other violations of standard informed consent requirements seriously jeopardise that trust.4. Thus, standard informed consent requirements are justified.This article describes the initial promise of this argument, then identifies challenges to it. As I show, the value of trust fails to account for some common sense intuitions about informed consent. We should revise the argument, common sense morality, or both.

From Columbia U: Critical care in pregnancy-Is it different?

Semin Perinatol. 2014 Aug 28. pii: S0146-0005(14)00075-5. doi: 10.1053/j.semperi.2014.07.002. [Epub ahead of print]

Critical care in pregnancy-Is it different?

Gaffney A.

Author information

• Department of Anesthesiology, Columbia University Medical Center, 622 W 168th St PH5-505, New York, NY 10032. Electronic address: ag2606@cumc.columbia.edu.

Abstract

In the first part of this review, the epidemiology of obstetric critical care is discussed. This includes the incidence of severe morbidity in pregnancy, identification of critically ill and potentially critically ill patients, the incidence of obstetric ICU admissions, the type of critical illness by stage of pregnancy, ICU admission diagnoses, the severity of illness in obstetric ICU patients compared to non-obstetric patients, ICU mortality of obstetric patients, the ICU proportion of total maternal mortality, and the causes of death for obstetric patients in ICU. In the second part, the management of obstetric patients who happen to be admitted to a general ICU is discussed. Rather than focusing on the management of particular obstetric conditions, general principles of ICU management will be discussed as applied to obstetric ICU patients. These include drug safety, monitoring the fetus, management of the airway, sedation, muscle relaxation, ventilation, cardiovascular support, thromboprophylaxis, and radiology and ethicalissues.

Fight brewing over liver donation ("...don't want their region to be an 'organ farm'")

Fight brewing over liver donation

By Jen Christensen, CNN

updated 7:17 AM EDT, Wed September 3, 2014

"These models worry doctors who live in the regions where the supply of donated organs is better. Doctors in Kansas benefit from ahighly successful donor outreach program and don't want their region to be an "organ farm" for the parts of the country where not as many donate, Kumer says.

"What they are attempting to do is say, 'Hey, those guys have all the organs. Let's go over and poach those' instead of having their own grass-roots campaign to identify new donors," Kumer said."

Cyberaddiction

Addict Behav. 2014 Aug 8;39(12):1914-1918. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.07.027. [Epub ahead of print]

Cyberaddictions: Toward a psychosocial perspective.

Suissa AJ.

Author information

• University of Quebec in Montreal, School of Social Work, Canada. Electronic address: Suissa.amnon@uqam.ca.

Abstract

The concept of cyberaddiction is far from being unanimously accepted by scientists (Ko, Yen, Yen, Chen, & Chen, 2012; Pezoa-Jares, Espinoza-Luna & Vasquez-Medina, 2012; Nadeau & et al. 2011; Perraton, Fusaro & Bonenfant, 2011. The same is true of addiction to videogames (Hellman, Schoenmakers, Nordstrom, & Van Holst 2013); Coulombe (2010); or to Facebook (Andreassen et al. 2012; Levard & Soulas, 2010). While certain researchers wished to see this condition included in the DSM-5, others question the operational and practical basis for the diagnostic criteria (Block, 2008). Through a review of litterature and results from research findings; the aim of this article is to propose a psychosocial perspective for the cyberaddiction phenomenon. By a psychosocial perspective, we mean the inclusion of social determinants (weak social ties, social exclusion, hyper individualism, poverty, unemployment, etc) and not only the individual characteristics associated with the disease model in the addiction field. To what extent social conditions and cyberaddiction behaviors constitute a potential pathology ? Can we include a psychosocial approach to gain a more general picture of this contemporary issue? In response to these questions, a contextualization and an attempt to define cyberaddiction will be followed by an analysis of some major issues in the development of this type of addiction.  As a conclusion, a demonstration of the cycle of addiction on how people develop addictions, including cyberaddictions, will be done within a psychosocial perspective in order to seize the multifactorial aspects of this addiction.

"Twitter is a very powerful tool that amplifies the content of scientific meetings..."

BJU Int. 2014 Aug 18. doi: 10.1111/bju.12910. [Epub ahead of print]

The social media revolution is changing the conference experience: analytics and trends from eight international meetings.

Wilkinson SE1, Basto MY, Perovic G, Lawrentschuk N, Murphy DG.

Author information

• 1Prostate Cancer Research Group, Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To analyse the use of Twitter at urology conferences to enhance the social media conference experience.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

We prospectively registered the hashtags of eight international urology conferences taking place in 2013, using the social media metrics website, Symplur.com. In addition, we prospectively registered the hashtag for the European Association of Urology Annual Meeting for three consecutive years (2012-14) to analyse the trend in the use of Twitter at a particular meeting. Metrics including number of tweets, number of participants, tweet traffic per day, and overall digital impressions were captured for five days prior to each conference, the conference itself, and the following two days. We also measured corresponding social media activity at a very large non-urology meeting (the American Society of Clinical Oncology) for comparative purposes.

RESULTS:

Twitter activity was noted at all eight conferences in 2013. In total, 12,363 tweets were sent generating over 14 million impressions. The number of participants tweeting at each meeting varied from 80 (#SIU2013) to 573 (#AUA13). Overall, the American Urological Association meeting (#AUA13) generated the most Twitter activity with over 8.6 million impressions and a total of 4,663 tweets over the peri-conference period. It also had the highest number of impressions and tweets per day over this period - 717 thousand and 389 respectively. The EAU Annual Meeting 2013 (#EAU13) generated 1.74 million impressions from a total of 1,762 tweets from 236 participants. Regarding trends in Twitter use, there was a very sharp rise inTwitter activity at the EAU Annual Meeting between 2012-2014. Over this three-year period, the number of participants increasing almost ten-fold, leading to an increase in the number of tweets from 347 to almost 6,000. At #EAU14, digital impressions reached 7.35 million with 5,903 tweets sent by 797 participants.

CONCLUSIONS:

Urological conferences, to a varying extent, have adopted social media as a means of amplifying the conference experience to a wider audience, generating international engagement and global reach. Twitter is a very powerful tool that amplifies the content of scientific meetings, and conference organisers should put in place strategies to capitalise on this.

From CEB's Dan Currell: Corporate Ethics: Bullying Doesn’t Stop At School, It Happens at Work Too

1 September, 2014 by Dan Currell

Corporate Ethics: Bullying Doesn’t Stop At School, It Happens at Work Too

A million people show that bullying continues into adulthood

"Bullying, harassment, intimidation, the procurement of silence, and the use of social status to avoid consequences are a painful part of nearly every school environment.  But they are a part of the work environment, too.  Bullying doesn’t end after high school.  It’s a perverse aspect of how people behave in groups.  It’s persistent, and like a social disease, it only grows in hospitable environments.  Hospitable environments are easy to detect: they have silence and inaction."

Rural Remote Health. 2014 Jul-Sep;14(3):2922. Epub 2014 Aug 29.

Differences in media access and use between rural Native American and White children.

Hswen Y1, Naslund JA2, Bickham DS3.

Author information

• 1Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Center on Media and Child Health, Department of Adolescent Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachuesetts, USA. yulin.hswen@childrens.harvard.edu.
• 2The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA. John.A.Naslund@Dartmouth.edu.
• 3Center on Media and Child Health, Department of Adolescent Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. David.bickham@childrens.harvard.edu.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

Native American children experience greater disparities in the number and magnitude of health-related diseases than White children. Multimedia-based health interventions may afford valuable opportunities for reaching this underserved demographic; however, limited data are available describing the use of media technologies among Native Americans. This study characterized diverse media access and use between rural Native American and White children.

METHODS:

Surveys were administered to students (<i>n</i>=477) aged 10-15 years in grades 6-8 across four public middle schools in the rural Upper Peninsula of the Midwestern USA state of Michigan.

RESULTS:

Native American children (<i>n</i>=41) were more likely than White children (<i>n</i>=436) to have a video game system in their bedroom (65.9% vs 45.4%; <i>p</i>=0.01) and watch more minutes of television on Saturdays (110.3±91.7 vs 80.7±80.8; <i>p</i>=0.03). Native American children also had fewer computers within the home (1.20±0.81 vs 1.68±1.21; <i>p</i>=0.01) than White children and less household internet access (75.6% vs 87.1%; <i>p</i>=0.04), but demonstrated more use in minutes after school (79.9±97.9 vs 51.1±71.6; <i>p</i>=0.02) and on Saturdays (92.6±107.4 vs 60.0±85.1; <i>p</i>=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS:

This represents the first cross-cultural comparison of media access and use between Native American and White children from rural Michigan. Greater computer and internet use observed among the Native American children surveyed in this study supports the use of web-based public health initiatives aimed at reducing health disparities within this vulnerable group.