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Block Henderson posted an update 1 week, 3 days ago
The birth of neuroendocrinology as a scientific discipline is traced back to 1900-1901, when Joseph Babinski, Alfred Fröhlich, and Harvey Cushing independently identified adiposogenital dystrophy (Fröhlich syndrome), and related gonadal underdevelopment and obesity to a tumor near the pituitary gland. This discovery prompted decades of research into the brain mechanisms responsible for the control of peripheral metabolism and endocrine functions. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Fröhlich’s birth, this study traces the origins of his intellectual formation and his association with renowned contemporaries in Austria, England, Italy, and finally Cincinnati, Ohio, where he sought refuge after Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany. Lipofermata Fröhlich interacted with seminal figures in biomedicine, including Lothar von Frankl-Hochwart, Hans Horst Meyer, Ernst Peter Pick, Harvey Cushing, John Newport Langley, and the Nobel laureates Charles Scott Sherrington and Otto Loewi. Alfred Fröhlich, one of the 20th century’s most emblematic physicians, left his mark on neurophysiology and neuropharmacology with important works, and published authoritative manuals of drug dispensing and clinical therapy. He confronted the calamities of two World Wars with remarkable resilience like many of his Viennese colleagues who, overcoming the constraints of National Socialism, settled overseas to fulfil their calling as physicians, researchers, and teachers.African Americans (AAs) are 20% more likely to develop serious psychological distress compared to Whites but are less likely to use mental health services. The study objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment strategies to engage AA fathers in a mental health intervention.Using the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, a community-academic partnership (CAP) developed and implemented direct and indirect referral strategies to engage AA fathers in a mental health intervention. Direct referral strategies focused on community partner identification of potentially eligible participants, providing information about the study (i.e., study flyer), and referring potential participants to the study. Indirect referrals included posting flyers in local businesses frequented by AA men, radio advertisements, and social media posts from community organizations.From January to October 2019, 50 direct and 1388 indirect referrals were documented, yielding 24 participants screened and 15 enrolled. Of all participants screened, 58% were referred through indirect referral, 38% were referred directly by community partners, and 4% of the participants were referred through both direct and indirect referrals. Twenty percent of those exposed to the direct referral methods and 1% of those exposed to the indirect referral methods were enrolled. The indirect referrals accounted for 60% of enrollment, whereas the direct referrals accounted for 33.3% of enrollment.Collaborating with the community partners to engage hard-to-reach populations in mental health studies allowed for broad dissemination of recruitment methods, but still resulted in low participant accrual. Additional focus on increasing direct referral methods appears to be a fruitful area of CBPR.
This article evaluates the evidence for the inclusion of patient narratives in patient decision aids (PtDAs). We define patient narratives as stories, testimonials, or anecdotes that provide illustrative examples of the experiences of others that are relevant to the decision at hand.
To evaluate the evidence for the effectiveness of narratives in PtDAs, we conducted a narrative scoping review of the literature from January 2013 through June 2019 to identify relevant literature published since the last International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) update in 2013. We considered research articles that examined the impact of narratives on relevant outcomes or described relevant theoretical mechanisms.
The majority of the empirical work on narratives did not measure concepts that are typically found in the PtDA literature (e.g., decisional conflict). Yet, a few themes emerged from our review that can be applied to the PtDA context, including the impact of narratives on relevant outcomes (knowledge, benarratives to be a necessary component of PtDAs.
Personalizing medical treatment decisions based on patient-specific risks and/or preferences can improve health outcomes. Decision makers frequently select treatments based on partial personalization (e.g., personalization based on risks but not preferences or vice versa) due to a lack of data about patient-specific risks and preferences. However, partially personalizing treatment decisions based on a subset of patient risks and/or preferences can result in worse population-level health outcomes than no personalization and can increase the variance of population-level health outcomes.
We develop a new method for partially personalizing treatment decisions that avoids these problems. Using a case study of antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia, as well as 4 additional illustrative examples, we demonstrate the adverse effects and our method for avoiding them.
For the schizophrenia treatment case study, using a previously proposed modeling approach for personalizing treatment decisions and using only a ments for patients should be done in a way that does not decrease expected population-level health outcomes and does not increase their variance, thereby resulting in worse risk-adjusted, population-level health outcomes compared with treatment selection with no personalization. Our method can be used to ensure this, thereby helping patients realize the benefits of treatment personalization without the potential harms.These global consensus recommendations on caries and cavities, as well as evidence that caries is the most prevalent noncommunicable disease (NCD) globally, should be shared throughout institutional, health care professional, industrial, civil society, and patient communities so that the recommendations can be incorporated into policies for achieving a dental cavity-free future. Appropriate inclusion within strategies and action plans globally and locally will accelerate progress toward Making Cavities History, as well as improving NCDs and wider health.