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Contur Software Adds Further Chemistry Tools To Web-Based ELN
Contur Software, a leading provider of electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) systems, announced added chemistry functionality in iLabber, the company"s recently launched high-end ELN system available as an online service. Using a software as a service (SaaS) model, Contur Software is making iLabber available to individual researchers and smaller R&D organizations that previously have not been able to utilize the advantages of high-end ELN systems due to investments in hardware, licenses and maintenance.
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BVA President Sets Out Successes And Challenges For Vets In Scotland
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the annual BVA Scottish dinner and a particularly warm welcome to our host this evening, John Scott MSP - we are incredibly grateful for your continued support to the BVA - and to the Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham for kindly agreeing to address us this evening.
News of the day
Shanghai To Relax One-Child Policy As China Faces Aging Population, Shrinking Work Force
Nearly three decades after China implemented its one-child policy, the city of Shanghai is planning to encourage young couples to have a second child in an effort to address the country"s aging population and shrinking work force, the New York Times reports. The city"s plan is the most public effort made by the government to counteract a program that is "considered both a tremendous success and a terrible failure," the Times reports. The policy has managed to keep population growth under control but also has led to forced abortions, according to the Times.The country is not abandoning the one-child policy, which applies mostly to residents in urban areas. Rather, the government is allowing more exceptions to the rule, with Shanghai -- where about 22% of its 20 million residents are older than age 60 -- leading the effort. China as a whole faces a similar problem seen in Shanghai, the Times reports. About 8% of the country"s population was older than age 65 in 2006. That figure is expected to increase threefold by 2050 to about 322 million people, or nearly 25% of the population, according to the United Nations.In Friday"s issue of China Daily, Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying, "We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of the aging people and alleviate a work force shortage in the future." City officials plan to visit homes, pass out leaflets, and offer counseling and financial incentives, the Times reports. Current exceptions to the one-child policy are in place for ethnic minorities and rural residents, who can have a second child if the first child is a girl. Couples made up of two parents who have no siblings have always been allowed to have a second child and are now being encouraged to do so (Barboza, New York Times, 7/24).
Mental Health

Physicians Frequently Fail To Inform Patients About Abnormal Test Results

New research shows that physicians failed to report clinically significant abnormal test results to patients -- or to document that they had informed them -- in one out of every 14 cases of abnormal results. In some medical groups, the failure rate is close to zero; in others it is as high as one in four abnormal results. The analysis of 5,434 patient records from 23 physician practices across the country was led by Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino, chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research in the Department of Public Health of Weill Cornell Medical College, and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Dr. Casalino and his co-investigators revealed that groups using simple processes to manage test results had lower failures rates. Groups that did not consistently use these processes had both higher failure rates and physicians who were dissatisfied with their group"s processes for managing test results. The study also found that having an electronic medical record did not reduce failure-to-inform rates -- and even increased them -- if the practice did not have good processes in place for managing test results. "Failure to report abnormal test results can lead to serious, even lethal consequences for the patient," says Dr. Casalino. "The good news is that physicians who use a simple set of systematic processes to deal with test results can greatly lessen their error rates." The study suggests that five simple, common-sense processes are useful for dealing with test results: (1) all test results are routed to the responsible physician; (2) the physician signs off on all results; (3) the practice informs patients of all results, normal and abnormal, at least in general terms; (4) the practice documents that the patient has been informed; and (5) patients are told to call after a certain time interval if they have not been notified. "We found that very few physician practices had explicit rules for managing test results," says Dr. Casalino, who is also associate professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College. "In many practices, each physician devised his or her own method. And in many cases, physicians and their staff told patients that "no news is good news" -- meaning they should assume that their tests are normal unless they are contacted. This is a dangerous assumption." "With the recent enactment of federal stimulus legislation to support greater adoption of health information technology, this study demonstrates why health IT hardware alone will not improve care," says Dr. Mark Smith, president & CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation, which funded the research. "Ensuring that processes are in place to efficiently notify patients of their lab results should be part of the meaningful use of electronic health records." "Dr. Casalino"s research provides concrete and immediately useful steps that can and should be put into place to improve the delivery of medical care," says Dr. Alvin I. Mushlin, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College. "With good processes, we can ensure that patients with abnormal lab results get proper follow-up." Study co-authors include Drs. Daniel Dunham of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Marshall H. Chin, David O. Meltzer, Emily O. Kistner, and Theodore G. Karrison, all of the University of Chicago; Rebecca Bielang of Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Michael K. Ong and Urmimala Sarkar of the University of California, Los Angeles; and Margaret A. McLaughlin of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Weill Cornell Medical College Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University"s medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Weill Cornell, which is a principal academic affiliate of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the teaching of basic and clinical sciences, problem-based learning, office-based preceptorships, and primary care and doctoring courses. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research in areas such as stem cells, genetics and gene therapy, geriatrics, neuroscience, structural biology, cardiovascular medicine, transplantation medicine, infectious disease, obesity, cancer, psychiatry and public health -- and continue to delve ever deeper into the molecular basis of disease and social determinants of health in an effort to unlock the mysteries of the human body in health and sickness. In its commitment to global health and education, the Medical College has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson"s disease, the first indication of bone marrow"s critical role in tumor growth, and most recently, the world"s first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital


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