-
Chinese Herbal Medicines Oct 2021Traditional medicine uses a multitude of plants to create medicinal formulations, some of which show antiviral properties that may be of benefit in treating emerging... (Review)
Review
Traditional medicine uses a multitude of plants to create medicinal formulations, some of which show antiviral properties that may be of benefit in treating emerging viral diseases, including Covid-19. Lanna, an ancient Kingdom in Northern Thailand, with a thriving culture that continues to this day and has a rich history of traditional medicine using local plants that is still practiced today. To find potential antiviral medicinal candidates, we examined ancient manuscripts, interviewed traditional healers practicing today, and inventoried current traditional medicines to catalogue 1400 medicinal formulations used in Lanna traditional medicine. We then narrowed this list to find those traditionally used to treat diseases that in their original use and descriptions most likely map to those we know today to be viral diseases. We identified the plants used in these formulations to create a list of 64 potential antiviral herbal candidates drawn from this ancient Lanna wisdom and matched these to the scientific literature to see which of these plants had already been shown to possess antiviral properties, generating a list of 64 potential antiviral medicinal candidates from Lanna traditional medicine worth further investigation for treating emerging viral diseases.
PubMed: 34567096
DOI: 10.1016/j.chmed.2021.09.006 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Nov 2022Medicinal cannabis is increasingly being used for a variety of physical and mental health conditions. Social media and web-based health platforms provide valuable,... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Medicinal cannabis is increasingly being used for a variety of physical and mental health conditions. Social media and web-based health platforms provide valuable, real-time, and cost-effective surveillance resources for gleaning insights regarding individuals who use cannabis for medicinal purposes. This is particularly important considering that the evidence for the optimal use of medicinal cannabis is still emerging. Despite the web-based marketing of medicinal cannabis to consumers, currently, there is no robust regulatory framework to measure clinical health benefits or individual experiences of adverse events. In a previous study, we conducted a systematic scoping review of studies that contained themes of the medicinal use of cannabis and used data from social media and search engine results. This study analyzed the methodological approaches and limitations of these studies.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to examine research approaches and study methodologies that use web-based user-generated text to study the use of cannabis as a medicine.
METHODS
We searched MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases for primary studies in the English language from January 1974 to April 2022. Studies were included if they aimed to understand web-based user-generated text related to health conditions where cannabis is used as a medicine or where health was mentioned in general cannabis-related conversations.
RESULTS
We included 42 articles in this review. In these articles, Twitter was used 3 times more than other computer-generated sources, including Reddit, web-based forums, GoFundMe, YouTube, and Google Trends. Analytical methods included sentiment assessment, thematic analysis (manual and automatic), social network analysis, and geographic analysis.
CONCLUSIONS
This study is the first to review techniques used by research on consumer-generated text for understanding cannabis as a medicine. It is increasingly evident that consumer-generated data offer opportunities for a greater understanding of individual behavior and population health outcomes. However, research using these data has some limitations that include difficulties in establishing sample representativeness and a lack of methodological best practices. To address these limitations, deidentified annotated data sources should be made publicly available, researchers should determine the origins of posts (organizations, bots, power users, or ordinary individuals), and powerful analytical techniques should be used.
Topics: Humans; Cannabis; Medical Marijuana; Social Media; Medicine; Mental Disorders
PubMed: 36383417
DOI: 10.2196/35974 -
European Review For Medical and... Nov 2023The objective of this study was to systematically evaluate the application of Chinese medicine in the treatment of neck and low back pain. The goal was to assess the... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to systematically evaluate the application of Chinese medicine in the treatment of neck and low back pain. The goal was to assess the efficacy, analgesic effect, and safety of Chinese medicine using Cochrane system evaluation standards and conduct a meta-analysis to provide high-quality, evidence-based medical data for clinical practice decision-making.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A comprehensive search was conducted in Chinese and English databases, including CBM, CNKI, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. The search encompassed randomized controlled trials on the use of Chinese medicine for pain treatment, with a time range from the establishment of each database to October 1, 2021. We have added the referred literature from the online databases for this research. Two researchers independently reviewed the literature, gathered data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies using the Cochrane Assistance Network risk of bias tool. Safety, reaction rate, and VAS pain score were of interest. To evaluate Chinese medicine's curative and analgesic benefits for pain illnesses, RevMan 5.4 and Stata 15.1 were used to analyze selected literature using forest plots, funnel plots, Egger and HarbORd linear regression plots, and star charts.
RESULTS
Chinese medicine treated pain in 57 investigations. The analysis yielded (1) a curative effect: Chinese medicine outperformed Western medicine, with no publication bias. The sensitivity analysis matched the meta-analysis that has been performed in this work, and it shows that Chinese medicine treated low back pain better than Western medicine. (2) Analgesic effect: Chinese medicine outperformed Western medicine in analgesia, although the literature is limited for such a claim. Chinese medicine was also more analgesic than Western medicine. (3) Safety: No major side effects were reported in 20 investigations on Chinese medicine's safety.
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that Chinese medicine can achieve better clinical efficacy and analgesic effects when comparing Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of neck and low back pain. Furthermore, Chinese medicine demonstrated a favorable safety profile. However, further research is required to explore the use of Chinese medicine specifically for neck pain and to enhance the evidence base for clinical decision-making in pain management.
Topics: Humans; Low Back Pain; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Treatment Outcome; Medicine; Analgesics; Drugs, Chinese Herbal
PubMed: 37975353
DOI: 10.26355/eurrev_202311_34304 -
JCO Global Oncology May 2021
Topics: COVID-19; Global Health; Humans; Medical Oncology; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 34077258
DOI: 10.1200/GO.21.00078 -
The Journal of Continuing Education in... Jul 2022Midcareer women faculty face unique career challenges that may benefit from mentorship and sponsorship, yet such programs focused on the needs of this career phase are...
Midcareer women faculty face unique career challenges that may benefit from mentorship and sponsorship, yet such programs focused on the needs of this career phase are scarce in academic medicine. Many midcareer faculty require intentional and individual career planning to choose a path from the broad array of options in academic medicine. Ambiguous promotion criteria, increased workloads because of service or citizenship tasks, and a lack of sponsorship are among the barriers that inhibit midcareer faculty's growth into the high-visibility roles needed for career advancement. In addition, issues faced by women midcareer faculty members may be further exacerbated by barriers such as biases, a disproportionate share of family responsibilities, and inequities in recognition and sponsorship. These barriers contribute to slower career growth and higher attrition among women midcareer faculty and ultimately an underrepresentation of women among senior leadership in academic medicine. Here, we describe how a mentoring program involving individuals (eg, mentors, mentees, and sponsors) and departments/institutions (eg, deans and career development offices) can be used to support midcareer faculty. We also provide recommendations for building a mentoring program with complementary support from sponsors targeted toward the specific needs of women midcareer faculty. A robust midcareer mentoring program can support the career growth and engagement of individual faculty members and as a result improve the diversity of academic medicine's highest ranks.
Topics: Faculty, Medical; Female; Humans; Leadership; Medicine; Mentoring; Mentors
PubMed: 35180741
DOI: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000419 -
Transfusion Clinique Et Biologique :... Nov 2020This essay aims to discuss some aspects of blood transfusion in the perspective of the changes that occurred over time as well as modifications of the paradigms that...
This essay aims to discuss some aspects of blood transfusion in the perspective of the changes that occurred over time as well as modifications of the paradigms that transformed the activities and the organization of blood transfusion services. Without specific knowledge, pioneers envisioned precision and personalized medicine, rendering transfusion medicine operational. Transfusion medicine is like The Picture of Dorian Grey: always young despite being old and sometimes appearing old-fashioned. Over the years, the transfusion medicine discipline has evolved, and major progress has been achieved, despite some troublesome periods (for example, the tainted blood scandal, and-at the time being-the offending plasma market and the selling of human parts). Transfusion medicine has at all times implemented the rapidly developing biomedical technologies to secure blood components. The safety of blood components has now reached an exceptional level in economically wealthy countries, especially compared to other health care disciplines. Strengthening of the safety has mandated that blood donors and recipients are unrelated, an issue which has eased preservation and fractionation practices; blood is no longer arm-to-arm transfused and neither is whole blood, the commonest component. However, it is interesting to note that a revival is occurring as whole blood is back on stage for certain specific indications, which is one among the many paradoxes encountered while studying this discipline.
Topics: Blood Component Transfusion; Blood Donors; Blood Transfusion; Humans; Transfusion Medicine
PubMed: 33035654
DOI: 10.1016/j.tracli.2020.10.001 -
JAMA Network Open Sep 2023Military medicine in the US was established to treat wounded and ill service members and to protect the health and well-being of our military forces at home and abroad....
IMPORTANCE
Military medicine in the US was established to treat wounded and ill service members and to protect the health and well-being of our military forces at home and abroad. To accomplish these tasks, it has developed the capacity to rapidly adapt to the changing nature of war and emerging health threats; throughout our nation's history, innovations developed by military health professionals have been quickly adopted by civilian medicine and public health for the benefit of patients in the US and around the world.
OBSERVATIONS
From the historical record and published studies, we cite notable examples of how military medicine has advanced civilian health care and public health. We also describe how military medicine research and development differs from that done in the civilian world. During the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, military medicine's focused approach to performance improvement and requirements-driven research cut the case fatality rate from severe battlefield wounds in half, to the lowest level in the history of warfare.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Although innovations developed by military medicine regularly inform and improve civilian health care and public health, the architects of these advances and the methods they use are often overlooked. Enhanced communication and cooperation between our nation's military and civilian health systems would promote reciprocal learning, accelerate collaborative research, and strengthen our nation's capacity to meet a growing array of health and geopolitical threats.
Topics: Humans; Public Health; Military Medicine; Military Personnel; Afghanistan; Communication
PubMed: 37733341
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35125 -
Basic & Clinical Pharmacology &... Jan 2021The means by which patients acquire their medications differ between countries, and a knowledge of this is essential when conducting and interpreting... (Review)
Review
The means by which patients acquire their medications differ between countries, and a knowledge of this is essential when conducting and interpreting pharmacoepidemiological studies. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of how patients obtain medicines in Denmark, to relate these to nationwide registries available for research and to discuss the implications for research. Health services are predominantly tax-funded in Denmark, with dentistry and some medicine bought at community pharmacies being exceptions, involving partial reimbursement of charges. The paper gives an overview of prescription medicines acquired from community pharmacies (including magistral preparations), over-the-counter medicines, vaccinations and in-hospital medicine including so-called "free medicine" (in Danish: "vederlagsfri medicin"). "Free medicine" is medicines for a defined list of diseases and indications that is provided free of charge to patients in outpatient clinics. The paper also describes the content of the various Danish data sources about medicine use, summarizes their strengths and limitations, and exemplifies the ways of evaluating their completeness. An example is provided of the regional variation in the means by which medicines are acquired.
Topics: Ambulatory Care; Community Pharmacy Services; Denmark; Health Services Accessibility; Health Services Research; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Immunization Programs; Inpatients; Nonprescription Drugs; Pharmacoepidemiology; Pharmacy Service, Hospital; Prescription Drugs; State Medicine; Vaccines
PubMed: 32657031
DOI: 10.1111/bcpt.13472 -
Science Progress 2022Professor Bajram Preza was a career neurologist with a strong background in research both in neurology and psychiatry. After a period of study in Sarajevo in the... (Review)
Review
Professor Bajram Preza was a career neurologist with a strong background in research both in neurology and psychiatry. After a period of study in Sarajevo in the immediate post-WWII period, he completed his studies in medicine and a fellowship in neuropsychiatry in Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky). A highly prolific author, he holds the laurels of the first medical dissertation sustained in the University of Tirana (1958) as well as for publishing the first student's textbook on medicine (Semiotics of nervous diseases, 1964) in Albania. He led the Clinic of Neurology in Tirana for more than three decades, while relentlessly lecturing, publishing and editing a diversity of medical papers, translations and original works that have shaped the professional education of entire generations of future Albanian physicians.
Topics: History, 20th Century; Humans; Neurologists; Neurology; Neuropsychiatry; Organizations; Psychiatry
PubMed: 36154521
DOI: 10.1177/00368504221128775 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2023
Topics: Data Science; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Evidence-Based Medicine; Plant Extracts
PubMed: 36860391
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1129399