Consultation room at an abortion clinic

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Abortion in progress

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Elderly demonstration for socialized medicine

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Mammography Unit mobile sponsored by YWCA

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Screening for Sexual Trauma, Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health Symptoms among HIV Positive South African Women

Background: The psychological sequelae of sexual trauma and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure can lead to poor HIV care outcomes, including poor treatment adherence. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of and factors associated with mental health symptoms and trauma among HIV positive women. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of screening for trauma and mental health symptoms among HIV positive South African women. Finally, the study aimed to elicit healthcare workers’ perceptions related to sexual trauma and the provision of care and services for HIV positive women with trauma histories.

Methods: The study utilized a mixed-methods approach that included a cross-sectional survey of 70 HIV positive women recruited through referral sampling and key informant interviews with seven healthcare workers (HCWs). A study-screening instrument consisting of 24 items from standard measures was used to screen women for sexual trauma, physical intimate partner violence (IPV), depression and PTSD. Sexual trauma and IPV were assessed across the lifetime, while depression and PTSD were current assessments. Logistic regression models were used to explore the relationship between trauma exposure and mental health symptoms, while controlling for age and education. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed for emergent themes on HCWs perceptions on sexual trauma and HIV care.

Results: Among participants, 51% had sexual trauma experience and 75% had intimate partner violence (IPV) experience. Among participants, 36% met screening criteria for major depression; among those with traumatic experiences (n=57), 70% met screening criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Compared to having no sexual trauma or IPV exposure, having both sexual trauma and IPV was significantly associated with higher odds of depression (OR = 8.11; 95% CI 1.48-44.34), while having either IPV or sexual trauma individually was not significantly associated with increased odds of depression. Compared to having either IPV or sexual trauma, having both sexual trauma and IPV was not significantly associated with PTSD. Responses from participants’ feedback on screening process suggest that screening was feasible and acceptable to participants. Some of the health care workers (HCWs) did not perceive dealing with trauma to be part of their duties, but instead viewed social workers or psychologists as the appropriate health cadre to provide care related to trauma and mental health.

Conclusions: High levels of sexual trauma, IPV and mental health distress were reported among HIV positive women in this setting. Screening for trauma and mental health symptoms was acceptable to the participants, but several challenges were encountered in implementing screening. Given the potential impact of trauma and mental health on HIV care engagement, interventions to address trauma and its psychological sequelae are needed.

Host gene expression classifiers diagnose acute respiratory illness etiology.

Acute respiratory infections caused by bacterial or viral pathogens are among the most common reasons for seeking medical care. Despite improvements in pathogen-based diagnostics, most patients receive inappropriate antibiotics. Host response biomarkers offer an alternative diagnostic approach to direct antimicrobial use. This observational cohort study determined whether host gene expression patterns discriminate noninfectious from infectious illness and bacterial from viral causes of acute respiratory infection in the acute care setting. Peripheral whole blood gene expression from 273 subjects with community-onset acute respiratory infection (ARI) or noninfectious illness, as well as 44 healthy controls, was measured using microarrays. Sparse logistic regression was used to develop classifiers for bacterial ARI (71 probes), viral ARI (33 probes), or a noninfectious cause of illness (26 probes). Overall accuracy was 87% (238 of 273 concordant with clinical adjudication), which was more accurate than procalcitonin (78%, P < 0.03) and three published classifiers of bacterial versus viral infection (78 to 83%). The classifiers developed here externally validated in five publicly available data sets (AUC, 0.90 to 0.99). A sixth publicly available data set included 25 patients with co-identification of bacterial and viral pathogens. Applying the ARI classifiers defined four distinct groups: a host response to bacterial ARI, viral ARI, coinfection, and neither a bacterial nor a viral response. These findings create an opportunity to develop and use host gene expression classifiers as diagnostic platforms to combat inappropriate antibiotic use and emerging antibiotic resistance.

The Evolution of Chimpanzee Sanctuaries in the United States

Chimpanzees are native only to the jungles of equatorial Africa, but for the last hundred years, they have also lived in captivity in the United States, most commonly in biomedical research laboratories, but also at Air Force bases for experiments for the space program, at accredited and unaccredited zoos, at circuses, as performers in Hollywood and even in private homes and backyards as pets. But that has been gradually evolving over the last few decades, as more and more chimpanzees move to newly-established chimpanzee sanctuaries. That transition was already underway even before the announcement by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last year that it will retire all of its remaining chimpanzees from labs to sanctuaries. By thoroughly examining the evolution of these sanctuaries leading up to that seminal decision, along with the many challenges they face, including money, medical care, conflicting philosophies on the treatment of animals and the pitfalls that have led other sanctuaries to the brink of ruin, we can take away a better understanding of why chimpanzee sanctuaries are needed and why caretakers of other animal species are now looking to the chimpanzee sanctuary movement as a model to show how animals can be cared for in retirement.

La Salud Pública frente a un Estado centralizado : establecimientos y servicios asistenciales en la provincia de Mendoza durante el primer peronismo

La presente investigación analiza la acción del Estado en materia de salud pública durante el primer peronismo e incursiona sobre algunos factores que condicionaron el éxito o fracaso de las políticas a nivel provincial. El trabajo remite además, a través de algunos ejemplos concretos, a unidades territoriales más reducidas como son los municipios, en tanto ámbitos de aplicación de las políticas públicas o bien ejecutores de las mismas. Algunas de las preguntas que se intentaron responder fueron ¿En qué medida los nuevos cambios en la estructura del Estado fueron acompañados de acciones concretas que incidieran en las condiciones de vida de la población? ¿Qué obstáculos limitaron la acción gubernamental? Se incluirá en este análisis la realización de obra pública por parte del Estado, personal a cargo, como así también las inversiones en otros recursos necesarios para una adecuada atención médica.

La Salud Pública frente a un Estado centralizado : establecimientos y servicios asistenciales en la provincia de Mendoza durante el primer peronismo

La presente investigación analiza la acción del Estado en materia de salud pública durante el primer peronismo e incursiona sobre algunos factores que condicionaron el éxito o fracaso de las políticas a nivel provincial. El trabajo remite además, a través de algunos ejemplos concretos, a unidades territoriales más reducidas como son los municipios, en tanto ámbitos de aplicación de las políticas públicas o bien ejecutores de las mismas. Algunas de las preguntas que se intentaron responder fueron ¿En qué medida los nuevos cambios en la estructura del Estado fueron acompañados de acciones concretas que incidieran en las condiciones de vida de la población? ¿Qué obstáculos limitaron la acción gubernamental? Se incluirá en este análisis la realización de obra pública por parte del Estado, personal a cargo, como así también las inversiones en otros recursos necesarios para una adecuada atención médica.

La Salud Pública frente a un Estado centralizado : establecimientos y servicios asistenciales en la provincia de Mendoza durante el primer peronismo

La presente investigación analiza la acción del Estado en materia de salud pública durante el primer peronismo e incursiona sobre algunos factores que condicionaron el éxito o fracaso de las políticas a nivel provincial. El trabajo remite además, a través de algunos ejemplos concretos, a unidades territoriales más reducidas como son los municipios, en tanto ámbitos de aplicación de las políticas públicas o bien ejecutores de las mismas. Algunas de las preguntas que se intentaron responder fueron ¿En qué medida los nuevos cambios en la estructura del Estado fueron acompañados de acciones concretas que incidieran en las condiciones de vida de la población? ¿Qué obstáculos limitaron la acción gubernamental? Se incluirá en este análisis la realización de obra pública por parte del Estado, personal a cargo, como así también las inversiones en otros recursos necesarios para una adecuada atención médica.

Graded Exercise Therapy Guided Self-Help Trial for Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (GETSET): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial and Interview Study

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), is characterized by chronic disabling fatigue and other symptoms, which are not explained by an alternative diagnosis. Previous trials have suggested that graded exercise therapy (GET) is an effective and safe treatment. GET itself is therapist-intensive with limited availability. Objective: While guided self-help based on cognitive behavior therapy appears helpful to patients, Guided graded Exercise Self-help (GES) is yet to be tested. Methods: This pragmatic randomized controlled trial is set within 2 specialist CFS/ME services in the South of England. Adults attending secondary care clinics with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)-defined CFS/ME (N=218) will be randomly allocated to specialist medical care (SMC) or SMC plus GES while on a waiting list for therapist-delivered rehabilitation. GES will consist of a structured booklet describing a 6-step graded exercise program, supported by up to 4 face-to-face/telephone/Skype™ consultations with a GES-trained physiotherapist (no more than 90 minutes in total) over 8 weeks. The primary outcomes at 12-weeks after randomization will be physical function (SF-36 physical functioning subscale) and fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire). Secondary outcomes will include healthcare costs, adverse outcomes, and self-rated global impression change scores. We will follow up all participants until 1 year after randomization. We will also undertake qualitative interviews of a sample of participants who received GES, looking at perceptions and experiences of those who improved and worsened. Results: The project was funded in 2011 and enrolment was completed in December 2014, with follow-up completed in March 2016. Data analysis is currently underway and the first results are expected to be submitted soon. Conclusions: This study will indicate whether adding GES to SMC will benefit patients who often spend many months waiting for rehabilitative therapy with little or no improvement being made during that time. The study will indicate whether this type of guided self-management is cost-effective and safe. If this trial shows GES to be acceptable, safe, and comparatively effective, the GES booklet could be made available on the Internet as a practitioner and therapist resource for clinics to recommend, with the caveat that patients also be supported with guidance from a trained physiotherapist. The pragmatic approach in this trial means that GES findings will be generalizable to usual National Health Service (NHS) practice.

La palabra en el camino

Cada relato proviene de un encuentro con un anciano terminando su vida en una institución geriátrica. Es también el eco de un momento intenso compartido durante cuidados médicos donde verdaderos trozos de vida son revelados, testigos de su sufrimiento, abandono y amor. Están presentadas en su versión original en francés.

La Salud Pública frente a un Estado centralizado : establecimientos y servicios asistenciales en la provincia de Mendoza durante el primer peronismo

La presente investigación analiza la acción del Estado en materia de salud pública durante el primer peronismo e incursiona sobre algunos factores que condicionaron el éxito o fracaso de las políticas a nivel provincial. El trabajo remite además, a través de algunos ejemplos concretos, a unidades territoriales más reducidas como son los municipios, en tanto ámbitos de aplicación de las políticas públicas o bien ejecutores de las mismas. Algunas de las preguntas que se intentaron responder fueron ¿En qué medida los nuevos cambios en la estructura del Estado fueron acompañados de acciones concretas que incidieran en las condiciones de vida de la población? ¿Qué obstáculos limitaron la acción gubernamental? Se incluirá en este análisis la realización de obra pública por parte del Estado, personal a cargo, como así también las inversiones en otros recursos necesarios para una adecuada atención médica.

Modeling Hospital Readmissions in Dalarna County, Sweden

Unplanned hospital readmissions increase health and medical care costs and indicate lower the lower quality of the healthcare services. Hence, predicting patients at risk to be readmitted is of interest. Using administrative data of patients being treated in the medical centers and hospitals in the Dalarna County, Sweden, during 2008 – 2016 two risk prediction models of hospital readmission are built. The first model relies on the logistic regression (LR) approach, predicts correctly 2,648 out of 3,392 observed readmission in the test dataset, reaching a c-statistics of 0.69. The second model is built using random forests (RF) algorithm; correctly predicts 2,183 readmission (out of 3,366) and 13,198 non-readmission events (out of 18,982). The discriminating ability of the best performing RF model (c-statistic 0.60) is comparable to that of the logistic model. Although the discriminating ability of both LR and RF risk prediction models is relatively modest, still these models are capable to identify patients running high risk of hospital readmission. These patients can then be targeted with specific interventions, in order to prevent the readmission, improve patients’ quality of life and reduce health and medical care costs.