Lautenbacher will face challenges as new NOAA head

Four Challenges That Global Health Networks Face

Global health networks, webs of individuals and organizations with a shared concern for a particular condition, have proliferated over the past quarter century. They differ in their effectiveness, a factor that may help explain why resource allocations vary across health conditions and do not correspond closely with disease burden. Drawing on findings from recently concluded studies of eight gl...

Consumers or Citizens? Whose Voice Will Healthwatch Represent and Will It Matter?; Comment on “Challenges Facing Healthwatch, a New Consumer Champion in England”

Efforts to achieve effective and meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare have existed for nearly a century, albeit with limited success. This brief commentary discusses a recent paper by Carter and Martin exploring the “Challenges Facing Healthwatch, a New Consumer Champion in England,” and places these challenges in the context of the broader struggle to give a voice to h...

CRISPR-based gene drive in agriculture will face technical and governance challenges.

C ourtier-Orgogozo et al [1] recently called for public debate about the use of CRISPR-based gene drive (GD) in agricultural pest management. We agree that this use of GD deserves specific attention, given that it would pose unique challenges to economic, social, ecological, and regulatory systems. However, many details in the report are oversimplified or imprecise; GD will likely face greater ...

Developing nations face challenges as breast cancer rises.

P atients suspected of having breast cancer at a public clinic in Mexico City returned an average of seven times before receiving a definitive diagnosis; those diagnosed waited more than 6 months on average for treatment. In eastern Nigeria, 30% of women with symptoms of breast cancer refused biopsies, and more than half declined surgery when their disease was confirmed. These examples are part...

Virtual Reality as a Potential Tool to Face Frailty Challenges