Background: Medication is necessary for the treatments of illness, to maintain current health problems and to prevent further decline of health. However, it can be challenging to select the best treatment for a patient as several treatment options and several drug alternatives are available, particularly when prescribing to elderly patients. The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has ...

PURPOSE The aim of this report was to introduce a novel "core-membrane" microgel drug-delivery device for spontaneously pulsed release without any external trigger. METHODS The microgel core was prepared with alginate and chitosan. The semipermeable membrane outside the microgel was made of polyelectrolytes including polycation poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and sodium polystyrene sulfonate. ...

OBJECTIVE To compare different indicators for assessing the quality of drug prescribing and establish their agreement in identifying doctors who may not adhere to treatment guidelines. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Data from 181 general practitioners (GPs) from The Netherlands. The case of asthma is used as an example because, in this area, different quality indicators exist whose validity is qu...

• The process development and optimization potential needs to be driven by the individial coporate value chain. • The identification of this specific value chain and the related indicators is essential to limit the scope of any analysis and optimization to the core business • The process framework consisting of clearly defined value chain, the related processes and the corresponding indicators ...

Objective(s): Researchers have intended to reformulate drugs so that they may be more safely used in human body. Polymer science and nanotechnology have great roles in this field. The aim of this paper is to introduce an efficient drug delivery vehicle which can perform both targeted and controlled antibiotic release using magnetic nanoparticles grafted pH-responsive polymer.<s...

Background: There is lot of emphasis on early identification of autism, as it would facilitate early management, which in turn would improve the condition significantly. As there are no robust biological markers, understanding the early developmental and behavioral indicators is a viable option. Aim: This study attempts to re-evaluate the early developmental and behavioral indicators identified...

Science teachers play a key role in successfully implementing science education reforms and providing all students with meaningful learning opportunities. Therefore, what core teaching competencies do need to have their practice? This study uses fuzzy Delphi technique Analytic Hierarchy Process approach the above problems. Experts from Chinese universities, secondary schools educational researc...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to construct a framework of core competency indicators of medical doctors who teach in the clinical setting in Taiwan and to evaluate the relative importance of the indicators among these clinical teachers. METHODS The preliminary framework of the indicators was developed from an in-depth interview conducted with 12 clinical teachers who had previous...