One health, one medicine

MU offers unmatched opportunities for collaboration in animal and human health. It is Missouri's major public research university with the state's only College of Veterinary Medicine; Colleges of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Engineering and Human Environmental Sciences; Bond Life Sciences Center; Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions; and the most powerful university research reactor in the country. The initiative also connects with research and instruction in health care delivery, policy, business models, medical ethics and the culture of healthy living

Earth benefits from NASA research and technology. Life sciences applications

This document provides a representative sampling of examples of Earth benefits in life-sciences-related applications, primarily in the area of medicine and health care, but also in agricultural productivity, environmental monitoring and safety, and the environment. This brochure is not intended as an exhaustive listing, but as an overview to acquaint the reader with the breadth of areas in which the space life sciences have, in one way or another, contributed a unique perspective to the solution of problems on Earth. Most of the examples cited were derived directly from space life sciences research and technology. Some examples resulted from other space technologies, but have found important life sciences applications on Earth. And, finally, we have included several areas in which Earth benefits are anticipated from biomedical and biological research conducted in support of future human exploration missions

Individualised medicine and health care system. Summary

There is already a medical need for increasing patient involvement in health care, and this is likely to increase in the future. Visions of technology suggest that an "individualised health care" could emerge from the combination of this trend with findings from the life sciences in about twenty years: Medical services that can be more specifically adapted to the individual than in the past are seen as having the potential to achieve more ambitious quality and cost targets in health care. Such individualised medicine could permeate all stages of service provision - from prevention and (early) diagnosis to therapy and follow-up monitoring. It is based on such diverse scientific and technological developments as genome analyses, nanomedicine, autologous cell therapies, molecular imaging, nutrigenomics or the determination of patient-specific protein expression patterns. Subject and objective of the project The Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment commissioned a report on the future of this topic, which is still predominantly in the research and development stage. Already in the early phase of the research and health policy discussion on the future option, the aim was to analyse > which lines of development in the life sciences can contribute to individualised medicine, > how the current state of science and technology and possible future developments are to be assessed, > what implications arise for technology development and the embedding of these technologies in the future health care system if they are to contribute to individualised medicine, and > what implications could arise from individualised medicine for medical care, for companies and health insurance

Monitoring asthma in childhood : symptoms, exacerbations and quality of life

Acknowledgements The Task Force members and their affiliations are as follows. Paul L.P. Brand: Princess Amalia Children’s Centre, Isala Hospital, Zwolle, and UMCG Postgraduate School of Medicine, University Medical Centre and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Mika J. Mäkelä: Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Stanley J. Szefler: Children’s Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA; Thomas Frischer: Dept of Paediatrics and Paediatric Surgery, Wilhelminenspital, Vienna, Austria; David Price: Dept of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, Academic Primary Care, Division of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK; Eugenio Baraldi: Women’s and Children’s Health Dept, Unit of Respiratory Medicine and Allergy, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Kai-Hakon Carlsen: Dept of Paediatrics, Women and Children’s Division, University of Oslo, and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Ernst Eber: Respiratory and Allergic Disease Division, Dept of Paediatrics and Adolescence Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; Gunilla Hedlin: Dept of Women’s and Children’s Health and Centre for Allergy Research, Karolinska Institutet, and Astrid Lindgren Children’s hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Neeta Kulkarni: Leicestershire Partnership Trust and Dept of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK; Christiane Lex: Dept of Paediatric Cardiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Division of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, University Hospital Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany; Karin C. Lødrup Carlsen: Dept of Paediatrics, Women and Children’s Division, Oslo University Hospital, and Dept of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Eva Mantzouranis: Dept of Paediatrics, University Hospital of Heraklion, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece; Alexander Moeller: Division of Respiratory Medicine, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Ian Pavord: Dept of Respiratory Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Giorgio Piacentini: Paediatric Section, Dept of Life and Reproduction Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; Mariëlle W. Pijnenburg: Dept Paediatrics/Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Erasmus MC - Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Bart L. Rottier: Dept of Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergology, GRIAC Research Institute, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Sejal Saglani: Leukocyte Biology and Respiratory Paediatrics, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK; Peter D. Sly: Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Steve Turner: Dept of Paediatrics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK; Edwina Wooler: Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, UK.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interprofessional basic life support.

This presentation focuses on the implementation of basic life support (BLS) for health and social care students. BLS is the first action taken to resuscitate a person who has become unresponsive. This interprofessional peer-teaching initiative used senior students from medicine, nursing and diagnostic radiography, from the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University. These students taught undergraduate students from schools that currently have minimal BLS teaching; health sciences, pharmacy and life sciences, and applied social studies. Student teachers were trained in pairs to teach their skills to first- and second-year students, facilitated by academic staff from both universities

Beyond dualism in the life sciences: implications for a feminist critique of gender-specific medicine

There are needed some alternative means of conceptualizing some of the central assumptions that support a dualist ontology in the life sciences. A reconceptualisation is crucial for an adequate understanding of the living body. Gender-specific medicine is important for women’s health, and it is making headway against internal conservatism and opposition. Men and women are different, what must be recognized and incorporated into health research, health care, and medical education. Sex hormones, featured as integral to the constitution of difference, are evidently influential in a multitude of sites of bodily function

The Translational Medicine Ontology and Knowledge Base: driving personalized medicine by bridging the gap between bench and bedside

Background: Translational medicine requires the integration of knowledge using heterogeneous data from health care to the life sciences. Here, we describe a collaborative effort to produce a prototype Translational Medicine Knowledge Base (TMKB) capable of answering questions relating to clinical practice and pharmaceutical drug discovery. Results: We developed the Translational Medicine Ontology (TMO) as a unifying ontology to integrate chemical, genomic and proteomic data with disease, treatment, and electronic health records. We demonstrate the use of Semantic Web technologies in the integration of patient and biomedical data, and reveal how such a knowledge base can aid physicians in providing tailored patient care and facilitate the recruitment of patients into active clinical trials. Thus, patients, physicians and researchers may explore the knowledge base to better understand therapeutic options, efficacy, and mechanisms of action. Conclusions: This work takes an important step in using Semantic Web technologies to facilitate integration of relevant, distributed, external sources and progress towards a computational platform to support personalized medicine. Availability: TMO can be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/translationalmedicineontology and TMKB can be accessed at http://tm.semanticscience.org/sparql

Comparing the effectiveness of small-particle versus large-particle inhaled corticosteroid in COPD

Dirkje S Postma,1 Nicolas Roche,2 Gene Colice,3 Elliot Israel,4 Richard J Martin,5 Willem MC van Aalderen,6 Jonathan Grigg,7 Anne Burden,8 Elizabeth V Hillyer,8 Julie von Ziegenweidt,8 Gokul Gopalan,9 David Price8,10 1University of Groningen, Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 2Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine, Cochin Hospital Group, APHP, Paris-Descartes University (EA2511), Paris, France; 3Pulmonary, Critical Care and Respiratory Services, Washington Hospital Center and George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington DC, USA; 4Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 5Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, USA; 6Dept of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine and Allergy, Emma Children's Hospital AMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 7Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University London, London, UK; 8Research in Real Life, Ltd, Cambridge, UK; 9Respiratory, Global Scientific Affairs, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Frazer, PA, USA; 10Academic Primary Care, Division of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK Purpose: Small airway changes and dysfunction contribute importantly to airway obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is currently treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and long-acting bronchodilators at Global initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) grades 2–4. This retrospective matched cohort analysis compared effectiveness of a representative small-particle ICS (extrafine beclomethasone) and larger-particle ICS (fluticasone) in primary care patients with COPD. Patients and methods: Smokers and ex-smokers with COPD ≥40 years old initiating or stepping-up their dose of extrafine beclomethasone or fluticasone were matched 1:1 for demographic characteristics, index prescription year, concomitant therapies, and disease severity during 1 baseline year. During 2 subsequent years, we evaluated treatment change and COPD exacerbations, defined as emergency care/hospitalization for COPD, acute oral corticosteroids, or antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infection. Results: Mean patient age was 67 years, 57%–60% being male. For both initiation (n=334:334) and step-up (n=189:189) patients, exacerbation rates were comparable between extrafine beclomethasone and fluticasone cohorts during the 2 year outcome period. Odds of treatment stability (no exacerbation or treatment change) were significantly greater for patients initiating extrafine beclomethasone compared with fluticasone (adjusted odds ratio 2.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.32–4.73). Median ICS dose exposure during 2 outcome years was significantly lower (P<0.001) for extrafine beclomethasone than fluticasone cohorts (315 µg/day versus 436 µg/day for initiation, 438 µg/day versus 534 µg/day for step-up patients). Conclusion: We observed that small-particle ICS at significantly lower doses had comparable effects on exacerbation rates as larger-particle ICS at higher doses, whereas initiation of small-particle ICS was associated with better odds of treatment stability during 2-years' follow-up. Keywords: COPD exacerbation, extrafine particle, matched cohort analysis, real life, small airway

The Concept of Health and Wholeness in Traditional African Religion and Social Medicine

African Traditional Religion and medicine are integral parts of life and culture of the Africans and have greatly influenced their conceptions about human health and wholeness. Their many realities that Africans have not been able to abandon, in spite of the allurements of western civilization, Christianity, Islam and the advances in the biomedical sciences. The aim of this paper is to highlight the meaning of health and wholeness as central issues of concern in African Traditional Religion and Medicine. The misconception, abuse and derogatory attitudes even from some notable Africans towards alternative medicine, as well as the all need of integrating both the alternative and orthodox medicine to bring about total wholeness, serves as the research problem. This paper argued that the biopsycho-socio-ecological model of health and wholeness is fundamental to the African Traditional Religion and Medicine. This model brings together the different aspects of human life and treats the human person as an integral and harmonious whole in perpetual relationship with the sacred, the human community and the environment. This paper therefore recommends that first, Africa has to open to modern medical discoveries and practices and secondly, African Traditional Religion and Medicine concern should be mainstreamed into the medical practice in health care services in contemporary Nigeria. It finally conclude that the alternative medicine despite the arrays of it inadequacies, objections and misconceptions, the practice has come to sta

Physical activity and sports sciences between European Research Council and academic disciplines in Italy

Also in Italy, as well as to be in all others states European Union, the academic disciplines in university system have to change to conform to the 3 areas: SH Social Sciences and Humanities, PE Physical Sciences and Engineering, LS (Life Sciences), 25 panel and 333 sub panel of European Research Council Panel Structure 2018. Nowadays, it is compulsory to have the same language within the European Union and its European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA). This change concerns the funding of research and the recruitment of professors; currently in Italy they follow two different procedures and the reform aims to pursue the unique way. Physical activity and sports sciences are in two different scientific areas: the human and social sciences and the life sciences. The problem is therefore to choose a single scientific area or to stay in two areas, to define the declaration of the academic discipline with the protection of the professors’ rights and the relationship with the ERC Area. The academic disciplines of Physical activity and Sport sciences field could be made by the following descriptors: Health, ageing - Social aspects of learning, curriculum studies, educational policies - Science and technology studies - Cognitive basis of human development and education, developmental disorders; comparative cognition - Personality and social cognition – Emotion - Clinical and health psychology – Neuropsychology - Attention, perception, action, consciousness - Learning, memory - Cognition in ageing - Reasoning, decision-making – Intelligence - Language learning and processing - Theoretical linguistics - computational linguistics - Comparative physiology and pathophysiology - Fundamental mechanisms underlying ageing - Sensation and perception - Neural bases of cognitive processes - Other medical technologies for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases - Epidemiology and public health - Environmental health, occupational medicine - Health services, health care research, medical ethics. In Italy its declaratory could be simplified: “Theories and methods of physical education, training, health and well-being” in Life sciences area with the exception for some professors to be structured in human and social sciences for educational profil