AMJ

Drug shortages are a growing problem in developed countries. To some extent they are the result of technical and organisational failures, but to view drug shortages simply as technical and economic phenomena is to miss the fact that they are also “ethical” and political issues. This is important because it highlights both the moral and political imperative to respond to drugs shortages as vigorously as possible, and the need for those addressing shortages to do so in ethically and politically sophisticated ways.

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Suicide attempts are a major public health issue in Australia. For emergency physicians and acute psychiatric providers risk assessment of these patients has been difficult. Authors identified drug overdose as a strong predictor of ICU admission. For hospital admission they identified age, drug overdose and history of previous suicide attempts as predictors. Safer medication prescription practice must be implemented especially by those caring for at risk patients.

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Healthcare organisations can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to change. In the literature healthcare organisations have been described as complex adaptive systems, a description with limited actionability. This study differentiates between the formal and the informal organisation and identifies the latter as one of three generators of organisational fuzziness. Knowing the generators of fuzziness can in turn lead to actionable strategies to enable change.

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Ocular trauma is one of the commonest causes of unilateral blindness. Agricultural trauma is an important cause of ocular injury especially in a developing country like India. The counselling of farmers regarding the usage of protective glasses at work and the education of parents and teachers regarding the prevention of ocular injuries in children may reduce the visual morbidity from ocular trauma.

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Zinc Supplementation for Severe Bronchiolitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial;  Workshops on helping students learn medical ethics- brief report; Letter from the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists and European Public Health Alliance on the topic of medicines shortages.

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Menopause: Change, choice and HRT.

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