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'Taking Up A Dialogue' With The Brain: Letter Decoding From Single-trial Brain Signals
Brain-computer interfaces "translate" what a person is thinking in words or actions. Researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands performed functional MRI brain scans on healthy participants, instructing them to "type" by performing mental tasks corresponding to different letters in the English alphabet. Researchers were able to use signals from the participants" brain activation patterns to decode information about the intended letter that a participant was thinking about, and to use this in a conversation with the experimenters without any spoken words. It is hoped that such technology can enable communication with "locked-in" patients or assessment of consciousness in non-responsive patients.
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Dental Health Advocates Want To Sink Teeth Into Health Care Reform
The Washington Post reports many oral health professionals worry that dental issues have "a tenuous place at best in the national debate" regarding an overhaul of the health care system. Still, they emphasize that dental health is an integral part of health care and note the special burden untreated dental issues have on poor children. The paper also notes that "closing the gap between the worlds of dental care and medical care, with their separate histories and cultures, and their separate finance and delivery systems would be a formidable task."
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Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry's Health Contribution Presented To Special United Nations Session On Health In Africa And Other Countries
The IFPMA was invited to attend a special session of the United Nations (UN) in Geneva on health in Africa and other least developed countries, organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC). Michael D. Boyd, Acting Director General of the IFPMA, gave a briefing on the research-based pharmaceutical industry"s contribution to improving health in the developing world, speaking to an audience which included foreign ministers of UN Member States and senior UN officials.
Mental Health

Time To Consider Expanding Prescribing Rights

Governments and health professionals across Australia need to give full and detailed consideration to granting pharmacists and other non-medial health professionals the right to prescribe medications, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia says. President of the PSA, Warwick Plunkett, said today that some non-medical health professions have already been granted prescribing rights and it was time that this right was also granted to pharmacists. Mr Plunkett said pharmacists were ideally placed to prescribe because of their detailed knowledge of medications and their face-to-face interaction with consumers. "Pharmacists are guided by the principles of quality use of medicines and securing the optimum health outcomes for consumers and these are fundamental to the guidelines for prescribing," he said. Authorities should also consider extending prescribing nights to other non-medical health professionals but a focused approach was needed in any such decision. "In most cases the process has largely been driven by each health professional group and implemented on an ad hoc basis without the opportunity to consider uniformity, common goals and core principles across all health professions," he said. "It is time to formally consider prescribing by pharmacists and other non-medical health professionals as a major initiative to help facilitate a more efficient and effective health system." But Mr Plunkett said any approval must be based on some solid principles including: - Patient safety and access to high-quality care being of paramount importance in any such initiative - Prescribing rights being granted in a way that helps to enhance timely access to medicines - Prescribing rights being granted in a safe and cost-effective manner for the consumer - Health professionals having a full understanding of, and a commitment to, the principles of the Quality Use of Medicines - Prescribing and dispensing functions being clearly delineated. "The PSA believes such a framework must be focused on consumers and be underpinned by a primary concern for the delivery of safe and high-quality care," Mr Plunkett said. "It must also enhance the timely access to medicines and to maintaining a continuity of care; as well as promoting the quality use of medicines." Pharmaceutical Society of Australia


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