Medico Legal Awareness:Where are we? – A Survey among Health Professionals in Maharashtra and Haryana

Introduction: Medicine is a noble profession but there is also growing anxiety both within the medical profession and in the community regarding increasing trends of complaints and lawsuits against doctors. Knowledge about medical ethics is as fundamental to the practice of medicine as clinical skills. To assess the knowledge of health care professionals regarding medico-legal issues. Methods: The questionnaire study consisted of questions pertaining to basic knowledge of COPRA (Consumer Protection Act 1984), informed consent and Medicolegal courses. A total of 325 health care professionals enrolled for the study. Results: Most of the health care professionals were able to answer questions about informed consent. Almost 80% of health professionals were aware about informed consent, 41.84% of health professionals were not aware about consumer protection act 92%of health professionals don’t know about the courses regarding Medico-legal issues. Conclusions: The participants were knowledgeable about medical ethics and informed consent but when it came to Consumer Protection act, professional indemnity claim and medico- legal courses their information was basic, they lacked knowledge about finer details hence showed an immediate need to update the understanding of these issues to be on legally safer side

The Utility of Salivary Heme to Stratify Healthy Volunteers from Individuals with Gingivitis and Periodontitis: a Pilot Study

Gingival bleeding due to poor oral hygiene is reported globally. Assessment of blood in saliva may improve diagnostics, serve as an outcome measure in clinical trials and support patient education through point-of-care tests. This work analyzed salivary heme using a rapid test format and separately using a lateral flow immunoassay assay [LF] for chair-side implementation. Clinical examinations stratified adult subjects into healthy, gingivitis or periodontitis groups at baseline. Healthy subjects presented no periodontal pockets and whole mouth gingivitis scores of less than 1.0.  Gingivitis subjects registered gingival index scores greater than 1.0.  Included in the periodontal disease group were subjects with periodontal pockets greater than 4 mm.  The rapid test is based on the peroxidase activity salivary heme converting a colourless probe to a coloured compound for spectrophotometric analysis.  For the LF assay, saliva was placed in the test window of the device with reactions scored after room temperature incubation.  Average salivary heme concentrations in the healthy, gingivitis and periodontal disease groups were 27, 201 and 326 nM respectively, by the rapid test, representing significant differences by analysis of variance and Tukey’s-multiple comparison tests (p<0.05).  Similarly, results in the LF assay demonstrated increasing band intensity from the healthy to the periodontal disease groups and was quantifiable by image analysis.   This pilot study emphasizes the potential efficacy of rapid heme measurement in investigations of oral health

Cherubism: Case Report with Review of Literature

Cherubism is a rare hereditary fibro-osseous lesion characterized by painless expansion of jaws in childhood and is known to regress without treatment after puberty. Wait and watch approach has been advocated by many authors. The disease starts early in life manifesting itself fully in the second decade of life and is almost regressed in the third decade. Here, we report two cases of cherubism with clinico-radiographic presentation of its classical features in their third and fourth decade of life respectively and review the literature

Service user and family member perspectives on services for mental health, substance use/addiction, and violence: A qualitative study of their goals, experiences and recommendations

© 2016 Haskell et al. Background: Mental health and substance use disorders (MSD) are significant public health concerns that often co-occur with violence. To improve services that address MSD and violence [MSD(V)], it is critical to understand the perspectives of those most affected, people who have sought help for MSD(V) (i.e., "service users"), especially those with co-occurring issues, as well as their family members. Methods: We conducted structured interviews with 73 service users and 41 family members of service users in two Ontario communities (one urban, one rural) regarding their goals related to help-seeking, positive and negative experiences, and recommendations for improving systems of care. Results: Overall, participants expressed a need for services that: (1) are respectful, nonjudgmental, and supportive, help service users to feel more 'normal' and include education to reduce stigma; (2) are accessible, varied and publicly funded, thereby meeting individual needs and addressing equity concerns at a systems level; and (3) are coordinated, holistic and inclusive of family members who often support service users. Conclusions: The findings provide a rich understanding of how service users and their families perceive services for MSD(V) issues and identify key ways to better meet their needs