Healthy Valleys : reversing decline in eight rural communities

Healthy Valleys is a community focused health improvement initiative and our operating principles are our strength – we adopt a community development approach, we are flexible, responsive to communities, effective and innovative. Healthy Valleys adds value when delivering services because we are effective at engaging with disadvantaged communities. Indeed Healthy Valleys engages local people and delivers services in local places, all of which contribute to making a positive difference

"More of an art than a science": Supporting the creation of playlists and mixes

This paper presents an analysis of how people construct playlists and mixes. Interviews with practitioners and postings made to a web site are analyzed using a grounded theory approach to extract themes and categorizations. The information sought is often encapsulated as music information retrieval tasks, albeit not as the traditional "known item search" paradigm. The collated data is analyzed and trends identified and discussed in relation to music information retrieval algorithms that could help support such activity

Where are the veterinarian shortage areas anyway?

This paper describes an econometric model to evaluate factors associated with a county’s likelihood of being designated as a private practice shortage area under the United States' Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). Study determinants of equilibrium food animal veterinarian location choices were also evaluated and used as a benchmark to assess the shortage designation process. On the whole the program appears to perform quite well. For several states, however, VMLRP shortage designations are inconsistent with the model of food animal veterinarian shortages. Comparative shortage is generally more severe in states that have no VMLRP designated private practice shortage counties than in states that do.economic externalities, food animal veterinarians, loan repayment program, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

Where Are the Veterinarian Shortage Areas Anyway?

This paper describes an econometric model to evaluate factors associated with a county’s likelihood of being designated as a private practice shortage area under the United States’ Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). Study determinants of equilibrium food animal veterinarian location choices were also evaluated and used as a benchmark to assess the shortage designation process. On the whole the program appears to perform quite well. For several states, however, VMLRP shortage designations are inconsistent with the model of food animal veterinarian shortages. Comparative shortage is generally more severe in states that have no VMLRP designated private practice shortage counties than in states that do

Treatment Decision Making for Incapacitated Patients: Is Development and Use of a Patient Preference Predictor Feasible?

It has recently been proposed to incorporate the use of a "Patient Preference Predictor” (PPP) into the process of making treatment decisions for incapacitated patients. A PPP would predict which treatment option a given incapacitated patient would most likely prefer, based on the individual's characteristics and information on what treatment preferences are correlated with these characteristics. Including a PPP in the shared decision-making process between clinicians and surrogates has the potential to better realize important ethical goals for making treatment decisions for incapacitated patients. However, developing and implementing a PPP poses significant practical challenges. The present paper discusses these practical challenges and considers ways to address the