Brain, mind and consciousness in the history of neuroscience

From Platonic and Galenic roots, the first well developed ventricular theory of brain function is due to Bishop Nemesius, fourth century C.E. Although more interested in the Christian concept of soul, St. Augustine, too addressed the question of the location of the soul, a problem that has endured in various guises to the present day. Other notable contributions to ventricular psychology are the ninth century C.E. Arabic writer, Qusta ibn Lūqā, and an early European medical text written by the twelfth century C.E. author, Nicolai the Physician. By the time of Albertus Magnus, so-called medieval cell doctrine was a well-developed model of brain function. By the sixteenth century, Vesalius no longer understands the ventricles to be imaginary cavities designed to provide a physical basis for faculty psychology but as fluid-filled spaces in the brain whose function is yet to be determined

The Affordable Care Act and the Transformation of US Health Care

The neoliberal period was accompanied by a momentous transformation within the US health care system.  As the result of a number of political and historical dynamics, the healthcare law signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 ‑the Affordable Care Act (ACA)‑ drew less on universal models from abroad than it did on earlier conservative healthcare reform proposals. This was in part the result of the influence of powerful corporate healthcare interests. While the ACA expands healthcare coverage, it does so incompletely and unevenly, with persistent uninsurance and disparities in access based on insurance status. Additionally, the law accommodates an overall shift towards a consumerist model of care characterized by high cost sharing at time of use. Finally, the law encourages the further consolidation of the healthcare sector, for instance into units named “Accountable Care Organizations” that closely resemble the health maintenance organizations favored by managed care advocates. The overall effect has been to maintain a fragmented system that is neither equitable nor efficient. A single payer universal system would, in contrast, help transform healthcare into a social right.

Water-retaining hydrogels – the unsung heroes of medicine

Hydrogels, materials that can absorb and retain large quantities of water, could revolutionise medicine. Our bodies contain up to 60% water, but hydrogels can hold up to 90%. It is this similarity to human tissue that has led researchers to examine if these materials could be used to improve the treatment of a range of medical conditions including heart disease and cancer.

Genome-wide association study reveals greater polygenic loading for schizophrenia in cases with a family history of illness

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of schizophrenia have yielded more than 100 common susceptibility variants, and strongly support a substantial polygenic contribution of a large number of small allelic effects. It has been hypothesized that familial schizophrenia is largely a consequence of inherited rather than environmental factors. We investigated the extent to which familiality of schizophrenia is associated with enrichment for common risk variants detectable in a large GWAS. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data for cases reporting a family history of psychotic illness (N = 978), cases reporting no such family history (N = 4,503), and unscreened controls (N = 8,285) from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC1) study of schizophrenia. We used a multinomial logistic regression approach with model-fitting to detect allelic effects specific to either family history subgroup. We also considered a polygenic model, in which we tested whether family history positive subjects carried more schizophrenia risk alleles than family history negative subjects, on average. Several individual SNPs attained suggestive but not genome-wide significant association with either family history subgroup. Comparison of genome-wide polygenic risk scores based on GWAS summary statistics indicated a significant enrichment for SNP effects among family history positive compared to family history negative cases (Nagelkerke's R(2 ) = 0.0021; P = 0.00331; P-value threshold <0.4). Estimates of variability in disease liability attributable to the aggregate effect of genome-wide SNPs were significantly greater for family history positive compared to family history negative cases (0.32 and 0.22, respectively; P = 0.031). We found suggestive evidence of allelic effects detectable in large GWAS of schizophrenia that might be specific to particular family history subgroups. However, consideration of a polygenic risk score indicated a significant enrichment among family history positive cases for common allelic effects. Familial illness might, therefore, represent a more heritable form of schizophrenia, as suggested by previous epidemiological studies.

Adaptive regulation or governmentality: patient safety and the changing regulation of medicine

Studies from across the world have shown that clinical mistakes are a major threat to the safety of patient care (World Health Organisation 2004). For the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales it is estimated that one in ten hospital patients experience some form of error, and each year these cost the service over £2billion in remedial care (Department of Health 2000). Unsurprisingly, ‘patient safety’ is now a major international health policy priority, questioning the efficacy of existing regulatory practices and proposing a new ethos of learning. Within England and Wales, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has been created to lead policy development and champion service-wide learning, whilst throughout the NHS the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) has been introduced to enable this learning (NPSA 2003). This paper investigates the extent to which, in seeking to better manage the threats to patient safety, this policy agenda represents a transition in medical regulation.

Biobanks: Experience of the School of Medicine and the “Dr. José Eleuterio González” University Hospital of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Medical research has greatly beneited from molecular biology and increasingly relies on tools from the “omics” disciplines (mainly genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics). The availability of biological samples preserved with high quality standards is a sine qua non condition for such studies and their repositories are referred to as biobanks. Biobanks support the transportation, storage, preservation, and initial pathological and analytical examinations of biospecimens, as well as the protection of relevant information and the comparison of clinical and laboratory findings. A biobank facility is one of the most valuable tools the academic medicine organizations can offer to their researchers to improve the competitiveness of their current and future medical research. it acts as an essential bridge and an effective catalyst for research synergies between basic and clinical sciences, and it can be potentiated with efforts to raise funds for acquiring and maintaining cutting-edge analytical infrastructure to better serve its clinical, pharmaceutical and biotech clients.

2009 Annual Report of the Iowa Board of Medicine, April 1, 2010

The Iowa State Board of Medical Examiners submits the following annual report pursuant to the provisions of section 258A.4(2)of the Code of Iowa. The report relates to Board activities during the calendar year.

2012 Annual Report of the Iowa Board of Medicine, May 29, 2013

The Board of Medicine, through efficient and effective organization, will license, monitor, discipline, educate, and when appropriate, rehabilitate physicians to assure their fitness and competence in the practice of medicine. The Board protects and enhances the public’s health, safety and welfare by establishing and maintaining standards of excellence used in regulating the practices of medicine, surgery, and acupuncture and ensuring quality health care for Iowans.

2013 Annual Report of the Iowa Board of Medicine, May 19, 2014

The Board of Medicine, through efficient and effective organization, will license, monitor, discipline, educate, and when appropriate, rehabilitate physicians to assure their fitness and competence in the practice of medicine. The Board protects and enhances the public’s health, safety and welfare by establishing and maintaining standards of excellence used in regulating the practices of medicine, surgery, and acupuncture and ensuring quality health care for Iowans.

2014 Annual Report of the Iowa Board of Medicine, March 30, 2015

The Board of Medicine, through efficient and effective organization, will license, monitor, discipline, educate, and when appropriate, rehabilitate physicians to assure their fitness and competence in the practice of medicine. The Board protects and enhances the public’s health, safety and welfare by establishing and maintaining standards of excellence used in regulating the practices of medicine, surgery, and acupuncture and ensuring quality health care for Iowans.

História da fisioterapia em Portugal: da origem a 1966

Mestrado em Fisioterapia.