BACKGROUND The United Nations has called for countries to improve access to mobility devices when needed. The World Health Organization has published guidelines on the provision of manual wheelchairs in less-resourced settings. Yet little is known about the extent to which appropriate wheelchairs are available and provided according to international guidelines. This study's purpose was to descr...

In this paper, we describe a new approach to enhance the performance of CORBA-based applications. For that purpose, we improve access to CORBA objects with the help of value types. In this way, only few changes are necessary to speed up existing CORBA applications. Moreover, we discuss several techniques for updating cache objects within the scope of the CORBA event service. Finally, we compare...

BACKGROUND In 2010, a new telephone service, NHS 111, was piloted to improve access to urgent care in England. A unique feature is the use of non-clinical call takers who triage calls with computerized decision support and have access to clinical advisors when necessary. Aim. To explore users' acceptability of NHS 111. DESIGN Cross-sectional postal survey. SETTING Four pilot sites in Englan...

Microbial resources have been recognized as essential raw materials for the advancement of health and later for biotechnology, agriculture, food technology and for research in the life sciences, as their enormous abundance and diversity offer an unparalleled source of unexplored solutions. Microbial domain biological resource centres (mBRC) provide live cultures and associated data to foster an...

Research indicates poor nutrition is a leading determinant of the development of chronic disease, and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is one method for decreasing obesity. Many policies have focused on increasing the demand for fruits and vegetables through price reductions and coupons. However, without ensuring a stable supply, increased demand can continue to raise prices, crowding...

Introduction The Philippines implemented the Cheaper Medicines Act of 2008 to improve access to quality drugs. Thereafter, the government placed 5 drugs under maximum drug retail pricing (MDRP) and influenced pharmaceutical companies to reduce by half prices of 16 branded drugs, referred to as drugs under government-mediated access prices (GMAP). The effect of GMAP on prices of drugs carrying s...

UNLABELLED ANTIRETROVIRAL ROLLOUT IN BRAZIL AND THAILAND: Brazil and Thailand are among few developing countries to achieve universal access to antiretroviral therapy. Three factors were critical to this success: legislation for free access to treatment; public sector capacity to manufacture medicines; and strong civil society action to support government initiatives to improve access. LOCAL PR...

In response to veterans' needs in the context of recent deployments, the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system has increased the number of its facilities and caregivers and has pioneered changes in policy and programs. We review significant recent initiatives to improve access to behavioral health services in the VA health system.

The purpose of this study was to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an educational program in family medicine for general practitioners in Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2011. A continuing medical education program called Family Medicine Education (FAME) was developed with 7 modules each consisting of 12-14 hours of teaching to be delivered in 3 day blocks, over 45 days. Twe...

BACKGROUND As no health system can afford to provide all possible services and treatments for the people it serves, each system must set priorities. Priority setting decision makers are increasingly involving the public in policy making. This study focuses on public engagement in a key priority setting context that plagues every health system around the world: wait list management. The purpose ...