Feminising a Cultural Issue: The case of informed consent

Commen

Antifragility Amid the COVID-19 Crisis: Making healthcare systems thrive through generic organisational skills

EDITORIA

Towards Culture-Oriented Medical Philosophy, Education, Research and Practice

Medicine is a sociotechnical system wherein culture manifests itself in all its aspects. Culture, however, is often intangible and is frequently neglected in formal healthcare education, research and practice. This sounding board article attempts to generate interest in making culture a serious component of healthcare systems at different levels, including its founding philosophical underpinnings, educational systems, research activities and clinical practice. It is recommended that a framework of culture-oriented medical philosophy, education, research and practice be implemented. Each component of this framework is briefly discussed in relation to healthcare. Culture should be reflected explicitly in healthcare through research activities, medical humanities, cultural competence, communication and ethics. Keywords: Medicine; Medical Education; Medical Philosophy; Biomedical Research; Communication; Bioethics; Culture; Policy Making

Emergency medicine in Oman: current status and future challenges

The Sultanate of Oman has a relatively young national health care system that could demonstrate its high performance at an international level. Emergency medicine as a specialty has developed rapidly in the country over the last decade. This has involved the parallel development of local emergency residency training, prehospital emergency care, and emergency nursing programs. This article reviews the progress of emergency care practice in this country from a general primary care system toward becoming an established specialty in hospital, prehospital, and private emergency care settings. It also describes aspects of undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuous emergency medicine education in the country. Further, a glimpse into academic emergency medicine and emergency nursing is provided. Since it describes a developing specialty, the article also attempts to address briefly major future challenges and their importance to the future development of the specialty in Oman

Sent to Explore, Conquer and Heal: History of the evolution of biomedicine in Oman during the 19th century

During the past four decades, Oman has transformed into a modern state with remarkable changes in all fields, including public health and the provision of medical services. Little attention has been paid so far to the history of the development of biomedicine in Oman. A history of healing practices, just like clinical patient histories, helps to diagnose problems, plan interventions and predict their future within a dynamic context. This study is the first to explore the beginnings and evolution of biomedicine in Oman during the 19th century, categorising it into three eras: from the casual system offered by occasional visiting biomedical practitioners to the more organised, but limited, British military hospital and, finally, to public missionary medical care toward the end of the 19th century. The study concludes by recommending further focus on medical humanities, including the history of medicine, as a contributing factor to improve and sustain the art and practice of medicine within the existing Omani health care system