AMJ

The author concludes that it is important for all healthcare workers to understand and respond to the public’s desires and needs and routinely use consumer research to decide how best to help people to solve problems and realise aspirations. Any social marketing approach incorporates pre- and post-evaluative measures for their effectiveness. It is important to review and update the approaches on a regular basis.

 Picture by renjith krishnan  

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the only way to disseminate patient information beyond the walls of the hospital was through medical journals or presentations. The potential for damage to the patient was minimal and was offset by the learning potential offered by it.  With the advent of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and of course, personal blogs, breaching patient confidentiality is just the click of a button away.

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Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.

Picture by Jeroen van Oostrom

Recently some medical schools have moved away from using body donation programmes, citing the expense of maintaining these as a reason behind their decision.  However others have reinstated their dissection and body donation programmes as they found the level of anatomical knowledge displayed by their medical students became compromised.Given the challenge of maintaining donation numbers at teaching institutions, it is important that the existence of these programmes is promoted in some form in the public eye.

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This study suggests that the hospital-based removal of impacted teeth in Western Australia is associated with factors such as indigenous status, age, gender and private hospital access along with insurance status raising interesting questions over the equity of provision of this service.

Picture by Michal Marcol

This study offers insights into the factors influencing the timing and frequency of antenatal care seeking-behaviour of mothers in Uganda. Understanding these factors will inform policy makers on how to influence mothers to make an early booking for antenatal care as well as to record a minimum of four visits.

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Teleconferencing is a real-time and live interactive programme in which one set of participants are at one or more locations and the other set of participants are at another. The teleconference allows for interaction, including audio and/or video, and possibly other modalities, between at least two sites. Various methods are available for setting up a teleconferencing unit.  A detailed review of the trend in the use of teleconferencing in medical education was conducted through a literature search.

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Amitraz, a centrally acting alpha-2 adrenergic agonist, is increasingly being used for treatment of ectoparasitic infestation in cattle. Its effects in humans may mimic organophosphate poisoning. This paper documents a case of poisoning after suicidal ingestion of Amitraz.

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Mesenchymal   chondrosarcoma (MCS) is a rare tumour accounting for less than 1% of all chondrosarcomas.  The authors report the case of a 30-year-old female who presented with neck pain, weakness, tingling and numbness starting on the right side and later involving all four limbs.

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Ethical issues are inherent in research with vulnerable populations; researchers are encouraged to view these issues as challenges rather than obstacles. This paper details the request of a suicide prevention research collaboration to collect data in specific circumstances involving the waiver of consent.

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The first edition of the Nepalese National Formulary (NNF) was published in 1997. The formulary was well produced and we use it to teach  students about use of medicines and as a quick reference in the medicine information centre. In 2010 the NNF was updated and a second edition published taking into consideration the large number of new drugs registered in Nepal in the intervening 14-year period. The book is reviewed here. 

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