Enabling electronic medicine at Kiwicare : the case of video conferencing adoption for psychiatry in New Zealand

Telemedicine emerges as a viable solution to New Zealand health providers in reaching out to rural patients, in offering medical services and conducting administrative meetings and training. No research exists about adoption of telemedicine in New Zealand. The purpose of this case study was to explain factors influencing adoption of telemedicine utilizing video conferencing technology (TMVC) within a New Zealand hospital known as KiwiCare. Since TMVC is part of IT, tackling it from within technological innovation literature may assist in providing an insight into its adoption within KiwiCare and into the literature. Findings indicate weak presence of critical assessment into technological innovation factors prior to the adoption decision, thereby leading to its weak utilization. Factors like complexity, compatibility and trialability were not assessed extensively by KiwiCare and would have hindered TMVC adoption. TMVC was mainly assessed according to its relative advantage and to its cost effectiveness along with other facilitating and accelerating factors. This is essential but should be alongside technological and other influencing factors highlighted in the literature.

Multicultural education and racism: the case of Arab-Australian students in contemporary Australia

This paper discusses the social and cultural dimensions of the educational experiences of Arab-Australian students. It seeks to explore the cultural attitudes and the social experiences of Arab-Australian secondary school students from two schools situated in Melbourne's northern region. The paper seeks to examine how Arab-Australian students and their families understand and construct their own social and educational experiences in relation to schools' initiatives as well as wider social discourses. The empirical findings presented in this paper suggest that there are critical links between Arab-Australian students' perceptions of belonging, identity and citizenship on the one hand, and their attitudes to schooling and educational experiences on the other. The study's findings show the need for current patterns of multicultural education research and practice to incorporate more systematically socio-political dynamics beyond the confines of school and family factors.

Race, identity and education achievements among Arab-Australian students

This paper discusses the challenge of managing cultural diversity in secondary schools, focusing on key structural, ideological, cultural, attitudinal and identity factors affecting the educational experiences and outcomes of Australian students from Arabic-speaking background (ASB). Recent research indicates that there are complex processes at play that hinder the ability of non English-speaking background (NESB) students to access constructive and meaningful education, and that such processes need further systematic investigation. It has also been argued that Australian schools are failing the test of social equity and that the dominant approach to curriculum and pedagogy does not meet the needs of the growing numbers of students from divergent cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This paper focuses on identifying the social, cultural and attitudinal factors that affect the educational achievements of ASB students within a broad multidimensional approach to multicultural education. By linking thorough empirical research and innovative theory with practical, tested plans of action, this study proposes an in-principled approach to multicultural education that is extendable to a variety of schooling contexts while retaining its core focus on effecting positive learning outcomes. The key objectives of the larger study upon which this paper is based are to (a) address the disadvantages and barriers faced by NESB young people, particularly ASB young people, in achieving positive educational outcomes; (2) increase their chances for better life opportunities and self fulfilment; and (3) develop a good practice model for diversity management in Victorian schools. This latter objective will complement Victorian Government policies on cultural diversity and multicultural education.

The limits of medicine and the social consequences for sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) appears to be made up of several clusters of illness categories acting alone or in tandem to cause the decline of health through; fatigue/exhaustion, sensitivity/allergies, pain, general muscle and joint pains, cognitive impairment and gastrointestinal problems. This study investigated how patients interpret, evaluate and respond to the complex and varied symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. Data were collected from persons with CFS using a survey (n=90) and an interview (n=45). The researchers investigated how chronic fatigue syndrome is diagnosed by medical practitioners, how the label of CFS is determined and the social consequences for the patient. The results confirm the limited ability of the biomedical paradigm to diagnose adequately and treat effectively 'socially constructed' and medically ambiguous illnesses like CFS. In the absence of a legitimated regime of medical treatment for CFS, a range of often expensive treatments are employed by CFS sufferers, from formal use of pharmaceutical drugs through to 'alternative' therapies, including herbal, vitamin, homeopathic, esoteric meditative techniques, spiritual healing and general counselling are taken in no particular order.

Structural deficiency or cultural racism: the educational and social experiences of Arab-Australian youth

This paper discusses the cultural, attitudinal and structural factors that impact upon the social experiences and educational achievements of Arabic-speaking background (ASB) students in three Melbourne secondary schools with high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity. The paper makes the case for and then outlines a multidimensional approach to multicultural education to better integrate ASB students and their families into the schooling environment. Key strategies developed and tested include a model of school-community partnership, online and interactive teacher support material (TSM) as well as on-going teacher professional development workshops on reflexive approaches to cultural diversity and intercultural tension.

A new roadmap to life: media, culture, and modernity in the United Arab Emirates

Critical to the vision of a new United Arab Emirates is an educated, skilled workforce that fuels the intelligent growth needed in a knowledge-based economy. As the country begins developing its version of that economy, the mediated, transparent environment fundamental to this process will carry with it new visions of (and possibilities for) living life. If peaceful change is to be achieved, a transitional generation faces the conundrum of adapting the best that modernity can offer while retaining the best of tradition. As have others, this study suggests two things: that (1) media literacy, growing in part from education, is correlated with urbanization and a changing infrastructure, and that (2) media in all its forms is inseparable from the outcome of this drive to modernization.

What do we mean by the term "inflammation"? A contemporary basic science update for sports medicine

Most practicing sports medicine clinicians refer to the concept of "inflammation" many times a day when diagnosing and treating acute and overuse injuries. What is meant by this term? Is it a "good" or a "bad" process? The major advances in the understanding of inflammation in recent years are summarised, and some clinical implications of the contemporary model of inflammation are highlighted.

Causation in law and medicine

Causation is an issue that is fundamental in both law and medicine, as well as the interface between the two disciplines. It is vital for the resolution of a great many disputes in court concerning personal injuries, medical negligence, criminal law and coronial issues, as well as in the provision of both diagnoses and treatment in medicine. This book offers a vital analysis of issues such as causation in law and medicine, issues of causal responsibility, agency and harm in criminal law, causation in forensic medicine, scientific and statistical approaches to causation, proof of cause, influence and effect, and causal responsibility in tort law