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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

What Future Democracy?, Aziz Rana Dec 2014

What Future Democracy?, Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana

The threat posed by Aids to the development of democracy in Africa plays no part in current discussions of the impact of the disease.


Forensic Training And Practice, Ira Packer, Randy Borum Oct 2014

Forensic Training And Practice, Ira Packer, Randy Borum

Ira K Packer

The recognition by the American Psychological Association (APA) of Forensic Psychology as a Specialty is a significant landmark for the field. This recognition has resulted from the development of a substantial body of professional literature and specialized knowledge. The foundation for these advances was laid in the decades of the 1970s, with the establishment of the American Psychology-Law Society (later recognized as Division 41 by APA) and the American Board of Forensic Psychology (which subsequently became a specialty board of the American Board of Professional Psychology). This chapter describes the state of the field in terms of both practice and …


Introduction: Obstacles To The Development And Use Of Pharmacotherapies For Addiction, Richard C. Boldt Sep 2014

Introduction: Obstacles To The Development And Use Of Pharmacotherapies For Addiction, Richard C. Boldt

Richard C. Boldt

No abstract provided.


Regulating The Placebo Effect In Clinical Practice, Tracey Chan Sep 2014

Regulating The Placebo Effect In Clinical Practice, Tracey Chan

Tracey E Chan

Recent research and ethical analysis have forced a clinical and ethical reappraisal of the utility of placebos in medical practice. The main concern of ethics and law is that using placebos in health care involves deception, which is antithetical to patient autonomy and trust in the physician-patient relationship. This paper reviews the various, more nuanced scientific conceptions of the placebo effect, and evaluates the ethical and legal objections to deploying placebos in clinical practice. It argues that the placebo effect may be legitimately accommodated on the basis that it does not engage the requirement for material or quasi-fiduciary disclosures of …


Insurance Mandates: Colorectal Cancer Screening Utilization And Racial/Ethnic Disparities, Michael Preston Aug 2014

Insurance Mandates: Colorectal Cancer Screening Utilization And Racial/Ethnic Disparities, Michael Preston

Michael Preston

Colorectal Cancer is the third most common cancer found in men and women in the United states. In 2014, the American Cancer Society estimates over 136,000 new cases of colorectal cancer and approximately 50,000 deaths. Although the overall death rate for colorectal cancer has decreased over the past 20 years, disparities remain among medically underserved populations.


The Separation Of Politics And Science, Joanna K. Sax Aug 2014

The Separation Of Politics And Science, Joanna K. Sax

Joanna K Sax

This article proposes that scientific inquiry regarding questions of fact should have an autonomous zone that is protected from politics. Although many scholars promote the idea that science is politicized, little empirical data exists to support this conclusion. This article contains an empirical study that demonstrates that the public received inaccurate information in the debate over a highly politicized and controversial area of scientific inquiry, embryonic stem cell research. This article utilizes the data from the empirical study and public choice theory to explain that there are process defects; this economic model can help explain, but cannot be used to …


Medicare: The Perpetual Balance Between Performance And Preservation, Craig B. Garner Aug 2014

Medicare: The Perpetual Balance Between Performance And Preservation, Craig B. Garner

Craig B. Garner

Passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon Johnson into law in 1965, Medicare has weathered storms from all directions, growing to be the preeminent standard for health insurance in the United States. The idea of losing Medicare as a vital public benefit still remains the single greatest fear with which each passing generation of Americans must contend, and yet, these challenges over the past fifty years, designed to fortify Medicare’s foundation and ensure its longevity, continue to take a toll on the program. The most recent climate of reform includes changes implemented by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care …


Evaluation Of Academic Scientists’ Responses To Situations That Pose A Conflict Of Interest, Joanna K. Sax Jul 2014

Evaluation Of Academic Scientists’ Responses To Situations That Pose A Conflict Of Interest, Joanna K. Sax

Joanna K Sax

The industry-academy relationship has many benefits, but it also has potential drawbacks, including potential conflicts of interest (e.g., when the profit motives of a private company unduly influence academic responsibilities). To date, policies intended to regulate or manage financial conflicts of interest appear to be unsatisfying and inadequate. The present study examined predictors of the responses of academic scientists and clinicians to hypothetical situations in which financial and other conflicts of interest may arise. Academic scientists and clinicians at five medical schools completed an anonymous survey that included vignettes that posed a potential conflict of interest. Participants indicated the likelihood …


Financial Conflicts Of Interest In Science, Joanna K. Sax Jul 2014

Financial Conflicts Of Interest In Science, Joanna K. Sax

Joanna K Sax

This article proposes that an analysis of behavior may be utilized to create an effective policy addressing financial conflicts of interest. Importantly, this article focuses on the academics that conduct basic science. An understanding of the background of the public-private interaction is critical to fully appreciate the rise of the financial conflicts of interest in biomedical science. Part II of this Article describes the rise of financial conflicts of interest and the types of harms that can occur in the absence of effective policy to regulate financial conflicts of interest. Part III describes the current system addressing conflicts of interest, …


Access To Prescription Drugs: A Normative Economic Approach To Pharmacist Conscience Clause Legislation, Joanna K. Sax Jul 2014

Access To Prescription Drugs: A Normative Economic Approach To Pharmacist Conscience Clause Legislation, Joanna K. Sax

Joanna K Sax

The goals of this Article are two-fold: (1) to explain that pharmacist conscience clause legislation may be expanded to areas concerning controversial biomedical research; and (2) to demonstrate that welfare economics can be applied to analyze pharmacist conscience clause legislation. Regarding the first goal, the broad language of existing and proposed conscience clause legislation creates an umbrella that allows a pharmacist to escape liability for refusing to fill a prescription for almost any type of medication. With respect to the second goal, this Article applies welfare economics to demonstrate that pharmacist conscience clauses are a part of tort law and …


Probiotics: Achieving A Better Regulatory Fit, Diane E. Hoffmann, Claire M. Fraser, Francis Palumbo, Jacques Ravel, Virginia Rowthorn, Jack Schwartz Jun 2014

Probiotics: Achieving A Better Regulatory Fit, Diane E. Hoffmann, Claire M. Fraser, Francis Palumbo, Jacques Ravel, Virginia Rowthorn, Jack Schwartz

Diane Hoffmann

In 2007, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative to characterize the microbial communities found at several different sites on the human body and to analyze the role of these microbes in human health and disease. Many lines of research have demonstrated the significant role of the microbiota in human physiology. The microbiota is involved, for example, in the healthy development of the immune system, prevention of infection from pathogenic or opportunistic microbes, and maintenance of intestinal barrier function. The HMP findings are helping us understand the role and variation of …


Probiotics: Achieving A Better Regulatory Fit, Diane E. Hoffmann, Claire M. Fraser, Francis Palumbo, Jacques Ravel, Virginia Rowthorn, Jack Schwartz Jun 2014

Probiotics: Achieving A Better Regulatory Fit, Diane E. Hoffmann, Claire M. Fraser, Francis Palumbo, Jacques Ravel, Virginia Rowthorn, Jack Schwartz

Virginia Rowthorn

In 2007, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative to characterize the microbial communities found at several different sites on the human body and to analyze the role of these microbes in human health and disease. Many lines of research have demonstrated the significant role of the microbiota in human physiology. The microbiota is involved, for example, in the healthy development of the immune system, prevention of infection from pathogenic or opportunistic microbes, and maintenance of intestinal barrier function. The HMP findings are helping us understand the role and variation of …


Health Care Reform: Colorectal Cancer Screening Disparities, Before And After The Affordable Care Act (Aca), Michael Preston Jun 2014

Health Care Reform: Colorectal Cancer Screening Disparities, Before And After The Affordable Care Act (Aca), Michael Preston

Michael Preston

Colorectal Cancer is the third most common cancer found in men and women in the United states. In 2014, the American Cancer Society estimates over 142,000 new cases of colorectal cancer and approximately 50,000 deaths. Although the overall death rate for colorectal cancer has decreased over the past 20 years, disparities remain among medically underserved populations.


Informed Consent, Psychotropic Medications, And A Prescribing Physician's Duty To Disclose Safer Alternative Treatments, Rita F. Barnett May 2014

Informed Consent, Psychotropic Medications, And A Prescribing Physician's Duty To Disclose Safer Alternative Treatments, Rita F. Barnett

Rita Barnett-Rose

The use of psychotropic medication to treat any presumed mental health disorder always involves serious risks of harm. Accordingly, before prescribing psychotropic medication to control the behaviors associated with a presumed mental health disorder, prescribing physicians are required, under various medical ethical guidelines and informed consent laws, to first disclose information regarding available alternative treatment options, and the risks and benefits of such alternative treatment options. Indeed, because psychotropic medications are themselves experimental treatments due to the concededly unknown etiology of most mental health disorders, disclosing safer alternative treatments would seem to be a particularly critical aspect of a prescribing …


Ebola And Bioterrorism, Joshua P. Monroe Jan 2014

Ebola And Bioterrorism, Joshua P. Monroe

Joshua P Monroe

This paper will be a comparison of the United States government’s reaction to the recent outbreak of Ebola and will compare this response with the potential response by the United States government toward an act of biological or chemical warfare. The paper will analyze these responses from a cultural, political, legal, and policy standpoint


Compelling Product Sellers To Transmit Government Public Health Messages, Stephen D. Sugarman Dec 2013

Compelling Product Sellers To Transmit Government Public Health Messages, Stephen D. Sugarman

Stephen D Sugarman

No abstract provided.