Search

In the German Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt, the Health Department must be notified of vaccines administered to children <7 years of age including their names. The goal of this mandatory notification is to improve and stabilize the age-appropriate vaccination coverage. However, difficulties have been encountered in implementing mandatory notification. Therefore, the Health Departments of Magdeburg and Halle have launched a model project focusing on analysing and eliminating these problems. Mandatory notification requires parents' approval, endorsement of vaccantors, and availability of human and technicely resources in the Health Department. An enquiry among paediatricians and family doctors in private practice revealed widespread reservations about mandatory notification because of privacy issues related to data and legal protection. Furthermore, family doctors believed that parents disapproved of notification by name. However, a survey among young mothers revealed this not to be the case. Winning young mothers' approval depends largely on the positive attitude of the vaccinators. To implement the mandatory notification of vaccinations to the Health Department, it is necessary to dispel physicians' concerns and to inform young parents about the practical benefits. However, this places high demands on the Health Departments for maintaining immunization registries, communicating with physicians and notifying parents when immunisations are due or late.

The article presents views and recommendations of the World Marrow Donor Association regarding the need for donor and liability insurance for hematopoietic stem cell donor registries, and donor and collection centers.

The article discusses views and recommendations of the World Marrow Donor Association concerning ethical issues related to the donation of hematopoietic stem cell products with respect to recruitment, evaluation, workup, and follow-up of unrelated donors. Particular emphasis is placed upon commitment of individual donors, in particular, with respect to the needs of patients to find HLA-matched donors, who may be asked to donate stem cell and other cell products more than once for given patients.

Accurate epidemiological data is one of the most important tools to elucidate disease aetiology and natural history. Disease registers are the cornerstone of this process. The importance of registers in facilitating an efficient health service is clear. We have been engaged in the development of a register of paediatric inflammatory bowel diseases, and in this article we present a general overview of registers and of lessons we have learnt along the way.

Statistics on mortality and cause of death are of crucial importance to epidemiological research. The Cause of Death Register kept by Statistics Norway is the only national register including information on cause of death for all deceased persons registered as residents in Norway at their time of death, whether death occurred in Norway or abroad. This article presents historical information and guidelines for research access to individual data on cause of death.

The Australian Safety and Efficacy Register for New Interventional Procedures - Surgical (ASERNIP-S) undertakes horizon scanning, systematic reviews and audits. By disseminating information derived from these processes, ASERNIP-S aims to improve the quality of health care. In the present article, we discuss some of the legal and ethical issues surrounding the collection of identified data for the purposes of audit. The individual's right to privacy is considered as well as the benefits of improving the quality of surgical health care.