What “Community Building” Activities are Nonprofit Hospitals Reporting as Community Benefit?

In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revised and standardized the reporting policy for community benefit expenses for nonprofit hospitals. These expenses are required for tax exemption. At that time, the IRS designated some categories of activities as non-eligible as a community benefit, but still mandated their reporting on hospitals’ Form 990, the annual tax filing for nonprofit organizations. One such category was community building, which encompasses a broad range of nonmedical determinants of health and an important potential source of population health revenue. This is the first study to analyze community-building dollars at any level, examining New York State’s nonprofit hospitals during the 2010 and 2012 tax year. Forty-six percent of hospitals reported any amount for such activities in both years, totaling 17.8 million dollars in 2010 and 16.4 million dollars in 2012. We believe this category deserves additional attention from policymakers and researchers, and should be considered by the IRS an eligible community benefit activity

The InterAcademy Partnership's Young Physician Leaders: A Leadership Training and Networking Program

AbstractThe research, clinical, public health, and health policy areas of the health sector all need effective leaders. However, many young professionals learn their leadership skills by trial and error as they advance through their careers. Though some countries are making efforts to incorporate leadership training programs into their medical curricula, the provision of such training is available in too few countries.To fill this gap and contribute to building capacity for future leadership among health professionals worldwide, the InterAcademy Partnership for Health launched its Young Physician Leaders (YPL) program in 2011. The program provides a tailored workshop on leadership; the opportunity, via the World Health Summit, to engage with global leaders in the field of medicine and health; a matchmaking mentorship scheme; a network of peers with whom to share experiences and exchange best practices; and an interactive website to post real-time professional information and gain visibility both nationall..

Effect of Project Lead the Way Participation on Retention in Engineering Degree Programs

A key goal of pre-college engineering programs is to increase the number and retention of students pursuing engineering degrees. The researchers conducted a transcript analysis in order to compare the retention of entering engineering majors at a university based on whether or not they participated in Project Lead the Way (PLTW) in high school. PLTW Engineering is a high school pre-engineering curriculum that offers a series of courses to increase student awareness and scaffold an understanding of engineering design. The findings from this study offer little support regarding the impact of students’ PLTW participation on engineering degree completion. However, findings do suggest some support for the impact of PLTW participation on retention from freshmen to sophomore year, particularly among minority freshmen

COVID-19 reveals the systemic nature of urban health globally

Statement by the scientific committee* of the International Science Council’s Programme on Urban Health and Wellbeing, on critical elements of urban health action in response to the epidemic

Using GFP as a biomarker to visualize the process of bacterial infection in black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus)

As one of the most critical pathogens, Aeromonas hydrophila (AH) can cause motile aeromonad septicemia (MAS) in freshwater fish. In recent decades, a myriad of studies had been done for bacterial infect fish. However, the mechanism of bacterial infects fish especially freshwater fish was scanty. This study was conducted for investigating the invasion pathway of A. hydrophila in vivo of black carp. We have performed A. hydrophila 4332 transformed with a plasmid encoding the green fluorescent protein (pGFPuv) (AH4332GFPuv) in black carp. The AH4332GFPuv had similar growth properties and virulence as the wild-type strains under the simulated natural condition. In this study, black carp were divided into five groups: IM (challenged via immersion), IBD (increased stocking density), SAW (skin artificially wounded by scalpel), MR (mucus removed from the body surface), and C0 (control group). The number of AH4332GFPuv in gill, liver, spleen, intestine, mid kidney, head kidney, muscle, eye, brain, heart, and blood were examined after 72 h post-infection from all groups. Significantly high bacterial numbers were observed in the gills and intestine. The number of bacteria was significantly higher in IBD group than IM group. In conclusion, the gill, intestines, and injured skin are likely to be the primary infection routes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified