Advancing Clinical Oncology Practice in Developing Countries: Integrating Research Informatics for Continuous Process Improvement

Informatics in clinical practice in developing countries: still early days.

Tamil Nadu will soon become the first state in India to provide telemedicine in the public sector when the local hospital in Thiruvallur is connected to the Chennai Medical College (about 40 km away) through an integrated services digital network (ISDN) line and linked terminals. Tamil Nadu cannot yet connect every district and taluk hospital to the nearest medical college because the ISDN faci...

Guidelines for clinical research in developing countries.

On the basis of a review of current clinical research conditions in developing countries, guidelines have been formulated to ensure scientific validity as well as adherence to universal ethical principles. The main recommendation is that projects should be reviewed by two Institutional Review Boards, one in the country where the Study Sponsor is based, and another in the country where the study...

Advancing Health in Developing Countries

Tobacco use in the oncology setting: advancing clinical practice and research.

Although tobacco is a well-established causal agent for many human cancers, less emphasis has been placed on translating this evidence by evaluating the effects of continued tobacco use after a cancer diagnosis. A broad assessment of the effects of continued tobacco use demonstrates that tobacco increases cancer treatment toxicity, recurrence, second primary tumors, and mortality in patients wi...

DEVELOPING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE Narrative methods in quality improvement research

This paper reviews and critiques the different approaches to the use of narrative in quality improvement research. The defining characteristics of narrative are chronology (unfolding over time); emplotment (the literary juxtaposing of actions and events in an implicitly causal sequence); trouble (that is, harm or the risk of harm); and embeddedness (the personal story nests within a particular ...