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The article offers several position papers related to dental education by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) in the U.S. The papers, approved by the 2003 House of Delegates, are presented as reference for dental education, dental educators and institution in the educational program. Specifically, it discusses freedom and responsibilities of individuals and institutions, health care, and due process for students in dental education.

The article presents the position papers approved by the 2003 House of Delegates of the American Dental Education Association. It discusses statement on peer review and statement on health care programs. It examines freedoms and responsibilities of individuals and institutions. It explains the due process for students in dental education.

Objective: The medical specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) has had a proven impact on persons with disability and on health care systems. Documents such as The White Book on Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in Europe have been important in defining the scope of practice within various regions. However, on some continents, the practice has not been well defined. Design: To explore the practice of PM&R in subSaharan Africa and Antarctica. Methods: Medline searches, membership data searches, fax survey of medical schools, Internet searches, and interviews with experts. Results: The continents are dissimilar in terms of climate and government. However both Antarctica and subSaharan Africa have no PM&R training programs, no professional organizations, no specialty board requirements, and no practicing physicians in the field. Because there are no known disabled children on Antarctica and adults are airlifted to world-class health care, the consequences of this deficit are minimal there. However, the 788,000,000 permanent residents of subSaharan Africa, including approximately 78 million persons with disability, are left unserved. Conclusions: Antarctica is doing fine. Africa is in a crisis. Local medical schools, hospitals doctors, and persons with disability; along with foreign volunteers, aid groups, and policymakers can impact the crisis. However government—specifically national ministries of health—is ultimately responsible for the health and wellbeing of citizens. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Telehealth refers to the use of telecommunication devices and other forms of technology to provide services outside of the traditional in‐person health care delivery system. Growth in the use of telehealth creates new challenges and opportunities for implementation in clinical practice. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) assembled an expert group to develop a white paper to examine telehealth innovation in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). The resultant white paper summarizes how telehealth is best used in the field of PM&R while highlighting current knowledge deficits and technological limitations. The report identifies new and transformative opportunities for PM&R to advance translational research related to telehealth and enhance patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few dental graduates are choosing to practice in rural areas, thereby aggravating the shortage of dentists in rural communities. The aim of this study was to identify factors that may motivate dental and dental therapy students to commit to rural practice. This qualitative study used a triangulation of data sources: students' reflection papers on their rural community experience, transcripts of focus groups with students, and personal statements submitted by three cohorts of student participants in a rural dentistry program in a U.S. dental school in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Common themes emerged in each data source, and a congruence of themes from the three data sources was identified: corrected misconceptions of rural dental practice, the gravity of lack of access to care, quality of relationships between practitioners and patients and within the dental team, and the role of dentists in alleviating health disparities. Students cited the critical role dentists play in stimulating interest to consider dentistry as a career and in inspiring rural practice after graduation. Immersion in a rural community under the mentorship of a rural dentist may correct misconceptions and attract students to rural practice. This study's results suggest that dental schools need to provide students with more opportunities to witness the practice of rural dentists and experience rural living in order to draw them towards rural practice after graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The high prevalence of dementia has a great impact on the formal care systems as well as on the situation for informal caregivers. Thus the question of cost effectiveness is crucial. This paper is based on the health-economic portion of the dementia project of the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Healthcare. After a database search and quality judgment of papers, 35 papers were included (22 were pharmacoeconomic studies, and 13 focused on programs, such as daycare, caregiver support, and living arrangements). No empirical drug study was regarded as a complete health-economic study. Of the four prospective, randomized, controlled trials, three yielded a nonsignificant difference regarding costs (all for donepezil), whereas there was a significant cost reduction in the Memantine study (favoring Memantine treatment), mainly due to reduction in caregiver time. The majority of the complete pharmacoeconomic modeling studies showed a dominance for drug treatment, indicating cost effectiveness. In conclusion, as regards the cost effectiveness of treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, no evidence could be stated in terms of empirical studies, mainly because of a lack of studies. Although most models indicated cost effectiveness, the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Healthcare did not regard this as sufficient evidence of cost effectiveness. There is a need for larger and longer empirical studies, and for enlarged sensitivity analyses, in terms of model studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Home appliance manufacturers have recently been trying to provide smart products capable of various Internet services. For example, one health care manufacturer provides a Wi-Fi-capable scale. Once users register their information with the manufacturer's server, their weight and body fat records are automatically uploaded to the server whenever they measure their weight. The users can then watch and check their weight log easily using a smart device, such as a smartphone or tablet. One of the biggest problems, however, is that the initial configuration of the appliances and the user registration process may be quite complicated to typical users who are unfamiliar with such IT devices. This paper proposes an autoconfiguration system structure and protocol for Internet-capable home appliances, which supports the initial configuration and remote maintenance service of the device with only little user effort. Manufacturers can develop their own information appliances and provide differentiated services using the proposed system and protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation care is provided by interdisciplinary teams including physicians, nurses, therapists, social workers, psychologists, and others. When there is disagreement or miscommunication among team members, progress toward patient goals can be thwarted. This paper will discuss differing models by which teams function, and what happens when a nonphysician member of the team disagrees with the plan of care. An analysis of the ethical issues embedded in two cases will be presented, and suggestions for resolution of team disagreement will be recommended. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a paper on how nurses can identify, treat and prevent preterm labor (PTL). It provides a background on PTL, gives a detailed explanation of the latest proof on pathways that start labor, gives an explanation on how to evaluate the risk of preterm delivery, and tackles the implications for nurses working with families experiencing PTL.

This article introduces a series of white papers developed by the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation (CCI) to explore the case for change in dental education. This preamble to the series argues that there is a compelling need for rethinking the approach to dental education in the United States. Three issues facing dental education are explored: 1) the challenging financial environment of higher education, making dental schools very expensive and tuition-intensive for universities to operate and producing high debt levels for students that limit access to education and restrict career choices: 2) the profession's apparent loss of vision for taking care of the oral health needs of all components of society and the resultant potential for marginalization of dentistry as a specialized health care service available only to the affluent; and 3) the nature of dental school education itself which has been described as convoluted, expensive, and often deeply dissatisfying to its students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a method that extracts interactively the lung tumor region from the chest X-ray image for detailed examination, while keeping the boundary shape information. Several methods have been proposed to extract the position and the rough shape of the tumor from the CT image; however, they were developed for screening purposes, and are not suited to the benign/malignant discrimination, where the tumor shadow itself should be used as the region for calculation of the features. In addition, there has been little development of a system that supports the diagnosis by extracting the lung tumor region in collaboration with the medical doctor. With this background, the authors developed an extraction method by an interactive operation, while preserving the boundary shape of the tumor. The method is mostly based on thresholding and the distance transformation. The method is applied to 78 cases of practical CT images, and the validity of the extracted tumor shape is verified. Then, the benign/malignant discrimination of the tumor is attempted by determination of various feature parameters from the extracted tumor region, and it is shown that the correct discrimination rate is improved. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 36(8): 90–101, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.20177 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical imaging is the general name given to the methodology in which a biological object's structure or function, which is usually invisible, is visualized by using physical media such as X-rays for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The method is divided into ultrasonic imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medical imaging, X-ray imaging, and the like, according to the physical media employed. These modalities have their own features and have been used to compete with and complement each other, offering indispensable techniques for medical care. Medical imaging is supported by highly developed engineering technologies, and the medical and engineering technologies in combination are referred to as medical imaging technology. This paper presents a survey of recent developments in medical imaging technology, focusing on magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medical imaging, and X-ray imaging. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 36(3): 1–17, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.20154 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care information systems developed by applying advancements in computer and high-speed network technologies have been clinically implemented recently. Such systems include systems that make hospital or clinical business efficient and systems that directly contribute to diagnoses. Medical organizations have sought systems that support efficient examinations and diagnoses by accurately grasping long-term care of chronic diseases related to daily habits etc. This paper presents a clinical support system that targets medium- to small-scale medical organizations. This system attempts to make diagnoses efficient by supporting grasping of long-term order data by aggregating and visualizing order data from the point of view of their contents characteristics and progress characteristics. Aggregation allows efficient expression of the variability of order data by taking combinations of order items based on their kinds as basic units. Visualization of aggregated order data allows expression of the continuity and periodicity of the data. In addition, it enables grasping of present and past orders etc. from the same screen. An order entry system constructed with the proposed clinical support system as its nucleus has been used clinically and its efficacy has been verified through a questionnaire study of doctors, analysis of the aggregating effects, a questionnaire study of the usage frequencies of input schemes, and measurements of the database access time. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 36(1): 12–24, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.10649 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a rich body of research exists regarding the safety and efficacy of resistance training, health care providers continue to caution patients with heart failure not to engage in this type of exercise. Research studies utilizing resistance training demonstrate improvements in muscular strength and endurance, New York Heart Association functional class, and quality of life. Despite the hemodynamic changes which occur during resistance exercise, no negative outcomes have been reported. The purpose of this paper is to review the most current research regarding the use of resistance training with heart failure patients to provide assistance to clinicians and enable them to provide education and appropriate recommendations to their patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of access to oral care is a severe problem in the United States with over one-third of the population lacking dental insurance. In this group, 32 million people lack dental insurance and access to public dental services (Medicaid or Medicare), and 7 million of them need dental care. In some high-risk populations, such as Native Americans, two-thirds have unmet dental needs. Only 1 percent of Medicaid-eligible babies have a dental examination before twelve months of age. In this paper the social covenant of the dental profession is examined and suggestions made for improving access to care through improved efficiency. It is proposed that 1) private dentists should accept 5 percent per annum of their patients for indigent care funded by improved efficiency from utilizing allied dental providers (ADP) in new roles, and 2) ADP should have their own independent state boards. If dentists refuse to honor their social covenant, then ADP should be allowed to practice independently, breaking the professional monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care is serving as a catalyst for the medical profession to re-examine the manner in which its institutions and training programs relate to cultural competence. This report found that racial and ethnic disparities exist in health care and that a lack of access to care does not fully explain why such disparities exist. The IOM study found bias, stereotyping, prejudice, and clinical uncertainty as possible contributing causes. The U.S. Surgeon General's Report on the Oral Health of the Nation also pointed to oral health disparities related to race, ethnicity, and culture. This paper discusses how medicine is responding to the Unequal Treatment report and the lessons to be considered for dentistry. Recommendations on how dentistry can apply the knowledge from this report to help reduce oral health disparities are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing interest in the organization and accreditation of Postdoctoral General Dentistry Programs (PGD). In addition, numerous national organizations have called for increases in the number of first postdoctoral year (PGY-1) positions and programs. At the same time there has been a movement to incorporate concepts of competency-based education into dental education programs in order to stress the outcomes of education rather then the process. These movements have coincided with an increased recognition that dental education will be affected by the changing demographics for our population, the emerging trends in health care delivery and financing, and the need for an increase in the number of primary care provides in dentistry, trained at an advanced level, who are capable of caring for an increasingly socially diverse and medically complex population in our country in the next century. This paper reviews the history of postdoctoral education programs in dentistry and medicine with a focus on PGD education, describes the changing health care environment in which future dental professionals will practice, and relates the dental postdoctoral experience to that in medicine. A strategy is presented for the dental profession to prepare dental pratitioners with the competencies needed for the future and to create enough training opportunities to prepare these practitioners to care for the oral health needs of the nation. This proposal calls for a "National Consensus Development Conference on the Future of Postdoctoral Primary Care Education in Dentistry." This conference would define the strategies necessary to prepare dental practitioners with the competencies needed for the future and develop approaches to create enough training opportunities to prepare these practitioners to care for the oral health needs of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of an automatic system which, as a means of treatment, can control the blood pressure of a patient by a continuous injection of vaso-acting drugs is in great demand in the medical care field. However, the practical application of such a system has been postponed due to safety considerations. This paper attempts to realize the safe control of the physiological system, and a control method based on the recognition of the transition of the time-series signal has been developed. The idea is applied to the automatic control of blood pressure. For the recognition of the time-series signal transition, a dedicated IF-THEN representation TMSTR (time-sequential multiple state transition representation) is devised which includes the concepts of "state" and "time." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammography is one of the tools in the diagnosis of breast cancer. By a new method of mammography based on the soft X-ray and the ultrafine X-ray film, the X-ray exposure is reduced and the fine internal structure of the breast can be observed. With the increase of the subjects for breast cancer, it is required to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the diagnosis. A diagnosis- supporting equipment is required which provides an image display to assist in recognition of pathological changes, and provides an objective feature evaluation. This paper considers the microcalcification which is important in the diagnosis of the early breast cancer. The microcalcification ape pears as opaque points on the marograph, and when the points are concentrated locally, it is diagnosed as malignant. After the emphasis by Laplacian processing, cell division was applied. The cell with aggregated microcalcification was extracted, and the image display was made so that the feature difference between cancerous and noncancerous lesions can be recognized. To arrive at a numerical representation of the feature difference, the following parameters were considered: (1) effective distance between cells; and (2) rate of change of the number of cells with regard to the change of the threshold. As the result of processing 37 cases, including 14 benign cases and three normal cases, up to 14 of 15 malignant cases were able to be separated from other benign and normal cases, using those two parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]