Indirect assessment of comprehensive care clinics course: Sixth year dental students perspective

BackgroundHealth care providers often lack a comprehensive approach towards treating patients. The comprehensive care clinics course model in dental curriculum is an integrated course which mainly focuses on the comprehensive oral health care of a patient. However, students have fear, apprehension and stress as the course involves significant amount of documentation, management and coordination with the patient.AimsThe aim of this study was to assess the students’ feedback on several aspects of the Comprehensive Care Clinics course from two academic year cohorts.MethodsThe present study is a questionnaire based study which has been conducted by collecting the data from two cohorts 2018-19 and 2019-20 final year students from the Dentistry program.ResultsThe respondents responded that the communication among the staff from various specialities in cohort 1 was excellent for 7.1 per cent, very good in 15.2 per cent, good for 14.7 per cent, fair for 6.5 per cent and poor for 1.6 per cent and in cohort 2 excellent for 6 per cent, very good for 12.5 per cent, good for 26.1 per cent, fair for 8.1 per cent and poor for 2.2 per cent.ConclusionThe study concludes that the students strongly agree that there was a shortage of allocated time for the course, the students disagree about the outcome of the result. The students have responded to have ease of laboratory access for the cases and they expressed to have a good satisfaction about the overall score for the course in all respects

Transforming global health education during the COVID-19 era:Perspectives from a transnational collective of global health students and recent graduates

Inspired by the 2021 BMJ Global Health Editorial by Atkins et al on global health (GH) teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of GH students and recent graduates from around the world convened to discuss our experiences in GH education during multiple global crises. Through weekly meetings over the course of several months, we reflected on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic and broader systemic inequities and injustices in GH education and practice have had on us over the past 2 years. Despite our geographical and disciplinary diversity, our collective experience suggests that while the pandemic provided an opportunity for changing GH education, that opportunity was not seized by most of our institutions. In light of the mounting health crises that loom over our generation, emerging GH professionals have a unique role in critiquing, deconstructing and reconstructing GH education to better address the needs of our time. By using our experiences learning GH during the pandemic as an entry point, and by using this collective as an incubator for dialogue and re-imagination, we offer our insights outlining successes and barriers we have faced with GH and its education and training. Furthermore, we identify autonomous collectives as a potential viable alternative to encourage pluriversality of knowledge and action systems and to move beyond Western universalism that frames most of traditional academia.</p

Primary health care policy and vision for community pharmacy and pharmacists in Jordan

Jordan is considered a low middle-income country with a population of 9.956 million in 2018. It is considered the training center for healthcare professions in the region, as the Jordanian healthcare sector has seen remarkable development. In 2017, the expenditure on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated to be around 8%. The healthcare sector is divided into two main sectors; the public and the private sector with both including hospitals, primary care clinics and pharmacies. The Jordanian government has a strong commitment to health and educational programs; hence, an increase in the number of pharmacy schools and pharmacy graduates has occurred in the past few years. Health authorities, such as the Jordan Food and Drug Association (JFDA) and the Jordan Pharmaceutical Association (JPA) have played an important role in ensuring the availability and affordability of medications, and has influenced the practice of pharmacists. Protecting the pharmaceutical market and professional interests, preserving pharmacists' rights, building needed cooperation with the internal federation, and maintaining professional ethics are some of the objectives for the JPA. Hence, the integration of community pharmacists into the primary healthcare system is considered vital to the different health authorities in Jordan, emphasizing the fact that community pharmacists are the most trusted, accessible, and affordable healthcare providers in the country. There have been many developments in the pharmacy practice in the past recent years, including the establishment of ‘Good Pharmacy Practice’, new curricular development based on the international accreditation (the ACPE), a new immunization program, and health services research aimed to save patients’ lives, influence expenses, and improve patients’ quality of life. Although these developments in pharmacy practice are promising, challenges continue to exist, specifically the establishment of an evidence base for pharmaceutical care services such as the medication management review service

Social Internet of Things (SIoT) localization for smart cities traffic applications

In recent years, many applications have appeared that use GPS systems extensively, especially in GPS data-based traffic monitoring systems for phones and smart vehicles as well. These systems help to provide information about movement, speed, geographical location, and some other information related to traffic. Currently, these systems interact with social networks (SNS) on several platforms to communicate between people to share different spatial and temporal information on social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. These systems can also provide users with information such as weather, traffic details, and several changes in smart cities. Many statistics show that there is massive activity in the use of social networks and benefit from them as sources of many information and exploration for some events related to places in real time. By analyzing social communication data using the machine learning technique (ML), the SNS can achieve the concept of the social Internet of things (SIoT). The concept of localization is social networking platforms allow obtaining location information for different objects through wireless sensor networks for both indoor and outdoor environments. This paper presents an explanation of technical details of localization in the social Internet of things (SIoT) and some applications in which the concept of localization is used

Primary Investigation of Low Back Pain among Saudi Arabians: A Cross-Sectional Study

Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent disease that affects all ages and is a symptom that induces immobility. Patients&rsquo; beliefs may influence LBP management, and adjusting detrimental beliefs is required to improve treatment outcomes. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence of LBP within the Saudi population and beliefs regarding LBP, physical activity, rest, imaging, and medication. People with LBP were targeted with a questionnaire containing sections on demographic information and the validated Back Beliefs Questionnaire (BBQ), in addition to questions regarding imaging, physical activity, rest and medication. A total of 651 responses were received, 559 of them (86%) experienced LBP. The most common age group was those aged 18&ndash;21 (n = 221), 80% from females. The average BBQ score was 27.8 (SD = 5.58). The majority of the respondents held the following beliefs, which are contrary to the best available evidence: back pain must be rested (77.1%) and X-rays or scans are required to gain the best medical care for LBP (73.2%). The Saudi population holds unhelpful beliefs that may affect their quality of life. Healthcare professionals working with patients with LBP have an important role in changing detrimental beliefs and behaviors about the condition

The global health community at international climate change negotiations

With 2023 shattering climate records across the world following decades of unprecedented warming,1 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties 28 (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai was the first UN climate change conference to feature an official ‘Health Day’ and witnessed the largest-ever turnout of the global health community. The threat of climate change to human well-being and planetary health2 3 has previously received little attention at the annual COPs, despite ever-growing scientific evidence warning of the increasing health dangers.</p

Does global health governance walk the talk? Gender representation in World Health Assemblies, 1948-2021.

Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: The authors thank Richard Arthur John Dear (Data scientist and PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, University of Cambridge) for his expert advice on data visualisation in R. We also thank Dr Amit Prasad (Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division WHO HQ) for reviewing the methodology, and thank Dr Magda Robalo and Dr Ann Keeling (Women in Global Health) for their feedback on the manuscript.BACKGROUND: While an estimated 70%-75% of the health workforce are women, this is not reflected in the leadership roles of most health organisations-including global decision-making bodies such as the World Health Assembly (WHA). METHODS: We analysed gender representation in WHA delegations of Member States, Associate Members and Observers (country/territory), using data from 10 944 WHA delegations and 75 815 delegation members over 1948-2021. Delegates' information was extracted from WHO documentation. Likely gender was inferred based on prefixes, pronouns and other gendered language. A gender-to-name algorithm was used as a last resort (4.6%). Time series of 5-year rolling averages of the percentage of women across WHO region, income group and delegate roles are presented. We estimated (%) change ±SE of inferred women delegation members at the WHA per year, and estimated years±SE until gender parity from 2010 to 2019 across regions, income groups, delegate roles and countries. Correlations with these measures were assessed with countries' gender inequality index and two Worldwide Governance indicators. RESULTS: While upwards trends could be observed in the percentage of women delegates over the past 74 years, men remained over-represented in most WHA delegations. Over 1948-2021, 82.9% of delegations were composed of a majority of men, and no WHA had more than 30% of women Chief Delegates (ranging from 0% to 30%). Wide variation in trends over time could be observed across different geographical regions, income groups and countries. Some countries may take over 100 years to reach gender parity in their WHA delegations, if current estimated trends continue. CONCLUSION: Despite commitments to gender equality in leadership, women remain gravely under-represented in global health governance. An intersectional approach to representation in global health governance, which prioritises equity in participation beyond gender, can enable transformative policymaking that fosters transparent, accountable and just health systems

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population