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From identification of SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019 through September 22, 2022, [approximately equal to] 612 million confirmed cases and 6.5 million confirmed deaths were reported worldwide (1). During the COVID-19 [...]

To ensure equitable access to medicines and vaccines, organizational efforts and purchase volumes have been pooled in joint procurements and negotiations for decades in some regions of the world, as well as globally through supranational procurement mechanisms. In Europe, countries started to collaborate on procurement and negotiations recently when it became increasingly difficult to ensure access to high-priced medicines, even in high-income countries. Two European country collaborations (the Nordic Pharmaceutical Forum and the Baltic Procurement Initiative) have successfully concluded at least one joint tender process for medicines and vaccines and the Beneluxa Initiative has concluded its first successful joint price negotiation. This article describes the experiences of these country collaborations. Challenges observed included: legal barriers; institutional and organizational differences between health-care systems in member countries; and the risk that suppliers will be reluctant to cooperate with country collaborations. Although these collaborations helped improve access to medicines and vaccines for the countries involved, in situations such as a global health crisis, larger-scale, more-inclusive initiatives are needed. In the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative established a global procurement mechanism to ensure the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally. Despite differences in organization and scale, the European country collaborations and COVAX have some similarities: (i) their success depends on the increased purchasing power associated with pooled order volumes; (ii) expert knowledge and previous procurement experience is pooled; (iii) they perform other collaborative activities that go beyond procurement alone; and (iv) they actively involve external partners and stakeholders. Depuis des decennies, certaines regions du monde ont uni leurs efforts pour s'organiser, negocier et effectuer des achats groupes de grandes quantites afin d'assurer un acces equitable aux medicaments et vaccins. Des mecanismes d'acquisition supranationaux ont fait de meme a l'echelle planetaire. En Europe, des Etats ont recemment commence a collaborer en matiere d'achat et de negociation lorsqu'il est devenu de plus en plus difficile de garantir l'acces a des medicaments couteux, y compris dans les pays a haut revenu. Deux collaborations entre pays europeens (le Forum pharmaceutique nordique et l'Initiative d'acquisition de la Baltique) ont mene a bien au moins un processus d'offre conjoint pour des medicaments et vaccins, tandis que l'Initiative Beneluxa a conclu sa premiere negociation tarifaire conjointe. Cet article decrit les experiences liees a ces collaborations entre nations. Plusieurs defis se sont poses, notamment des obstacles juridiques; des differences institutionnelles et organisationnelles entre les systemes de sante des Etats membres; et enfin, le risque que les fournisseurs soient peu enclins a accepter ces collaborations entre pays. Bien que ces collaborations aient ameliore l'acces aux medicaments et vaccins pour les pays impliques, des initiatives plus globales et a plus grande echelle sont necessaires dans des situations telles qu'une crise sanitaire mondiale. Durant l'actuelle pandemie de maladie a coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), l'initiative COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) a abouti a un dispositif d'approvisionnement mondial pour veiller a distribuer equitablement des vaccins contre la COVID-19 dans le monde. Malgre des variations d'organisation et d'echelle, les collaborations entre Etats europeens partagent des similitudes avec le COVAX: (i) le succes de ces deux demarches depend d'un accroissement du pouvoir d'achat combine a des volumes de commande groupes; (ii) elles mettent en commun les connaissances approfondies et experiences passees; (iii) elles menent d'autres activites collectives qui depassent le simple cadre de l'acquisition; et enfin, (iv) elles impliquent activement une serie d'intervenants et de partenaires externes. Para garantizar un acceso equitativo a los medicamentos y las vacunas, los esfuerzos organizativos y los volumenes de compra se han unido en adquisiciones y negociaciones conjuntas durante decadas en algunas regiones del mundo, asi como a nivel mundial a traves de mecanismos de adquisicion supranacionales. En Europa, los paises empezaron a colaborar en las adquisiciones y negociaciones recientemente, cuando se hizo cada vez mas dificil garantizar el acceso a los medicamentos con precios altos, incluso en los paises de renta alta. Dos colaboraciones de paises europeos (el Foro Farmaceutico Nordico y la Iniciativa de Adquisicion del Baltico) han concluido con exito al menos un proceso de licitacion conjunta de medicamentos y vacunas, y la Iniciativa Beneluxa ha concluido con exito su primera negociacion conjunta de precios. Este articulo describe las experiencias de estas colaboraciones entre paises. Entre los retos observados se encuentran: las barreras legales, las diferencias institucionales y organizativas entre los sistemas sanitarios de los paises miembros y el riesgo de que los proveedores se muestren reacios a cooperar con las colaboraciones entre paises. Aunque estas colaboraciones ayudaron a mejorar el acceso a los medicamentos y las vacunas para los paises implicados, en situaciones como una crisis sanitaria mundial, se necesitan iniciativas a mayor escala y mas inclusivas. En la actual pandemia de la enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19), la iniciativa Acceso global a las vacunas de la COVID-19 (COVAX, por sus siglas en ingles) establecio un mecanismo de adquisicion mundial para garantizar la distribucion equitativa de las vacunas contra la COVID-19 en todo el mundo. A pesar de las diferencias de organizacion y escala, las colaboraciones de los paises europeos y COVAX tienen algunas similitudes: i) su exito depende del mayor poder adquisitivo asociado a los volumenes de pedidos mancomunados; ii) se ponen en comun los conocimientos de los expertos y la experiencia previa en materia de adquisiciones; iii) realizan otras actividades de colaboracion que van mas alla de la mera adquisicion; e iv) implican activamente a socios y partes interesadas externas. [phrase omitted], Introduction Access to essential medicines has become a major challenge globally. Even high-income countries with health-care systems based on social solidarity are increasingly struggling to afford the high price of [...]

Why you should read this article: • To increase your knowledge of the oral side effects of radiotherapy to the head and neck region • To understand the rationale for pre-radiotherapy dental screens and post-treatment dental reviews • To enhance your awareness that patients require support to adhere to advice on oral hygiene and diet Radiotherapy to the head and neck region has oral side effects and can lead to catastrophic dental deterioration, but this is largely preventable. This article describes the case of a patient whose dentition was irreparably compromised after radical radiotherapy for a soft palate cancer. The patient had a fairly well maintained dentition at the pre-radiotherapy dental screen, but the side effects of radiotherapy – notably dry mouth and reduced access to the mouth for cleaning – coupled with a high-sugar diet intended to aid recovery, led to the rapid progression of dental caries and tooth wear. Additionally, service restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic meant that his dental care was delayed. Eight months after completion of radiotherapy, all his teeth were deemed unrestorable. The authors discuss the importance of frequent and regular dental reviews to prevent rapid dental deterioration in patients undergoing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can false memories have a positive consequence on human cognition? In two experiments, we investigated whether false memories could prime insight problem-solving tasks. Children and adults were asked to solve compound remote associate task (CRAT) problems, half of which had been primed by the presentation of Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists whose critical lures were also the solutions to the problems. In Experiment 1, the results showed that regardless of age, when the critical lure was falsely recalled, CRAT problems were solved more often and significantly faster than problems that were not primed by a DRM list. When the critical lure was "not" falsely recalled, CRAT problem solution rates and times were no different from when there was no DRM priming. In Experiment 2, without an intervening recall test, children and adults still exhibited higher solution rates and faster solution times to CRAT problems that were primed than to those that were not primed. This latter result shows that priming occurred as a result of false memory generation at encoding and not at retrieval during the recall test. Together, these findings demonstrate that when false memories are generated at encoding, they can prime solutions to insight-based problems in both children and adults. (Contains 3 tables.)

Previous research has suggested that false memories can prime performance on related implicit and explicit memory tasks. The present research examined whether false memories can also be used to prime higher order cognitive processes, namely, insight-based problem solving. Participants were asked to solve a number of compound remote associate task (CRAT) problems, half of which had been primed by the presentation of Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists whose critical lure was also the solution to the problem. The results showed that when the critical lure: (a) "was" falsely recalled, CRAT problems were solved more often and significantly faster than problems that were not primed by a DRM list and (b) "was not" falsely recalled, CRAT problem solution rates and times were no different than when there was no DRM priming. A second experiment demonstrated that these outcomes were not a simple artifact of the inclusion of a recall test prior to the problem solving task. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to the previous literature on priming and the adaptive function of false memories.