Dr. Parker is Director of Research and Academic Affairs at the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare (MedStar Health) in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on human factors and applied psychology, with an emphasis on understanding team performance in high-risk healthcare settings. Dr. Parker is currently an AHRQ postdoctoral fellow, researching team coordination during trauma resusc...

Prognostic scores for hepatocellular carcinoma: none is the winner Cancer classification and indication of treatment are critical steps in the management of patients with hepatocellular carci-noma (HCC). The prediction of outcome is relevant to provide adequate information to patients and relatives, both at the time of treatment selection and after the application of therapy. Tumour staging des...

Neocytolysis is the hypothesis formulated to explain experimental evidence of selective lysis of young red blood cells (RBCs) (neocytes) associated with decreased plasma levels of erythropoietin (EPO). In humans, it appears to take place whenever a fast RBC mass reduction is required, i.e., in astronauts during the first days of spaceflight under weightlessness, where a fast reduction in plasma...

The phenomenon of enzyme induction (enzymatic adaptation) has been observed in a variety of micro-organisms. One of the most carefully studied examples, largely the work of Jacques Monod and his colleagues at the Institut Pasteur, is the induction of the synthesis of the enzyme j3-galactosidase in the bacterium Escherichia coli.", 2 This enzyme, not otherwise present in appreciable amounts, is ...

The unification of Europe in higher education in general and in medical education in particular is progressing. Since the Bologna declaration most of the European countries are in the process of introducing a two-cycle training programme in higher education that also affects medical training programmes (Patricio et al. 2008). Within the European legislature there is free mobility of professiona...

Despite growing documentation that the conditions needed to support competition in health care do not exist, consumer-directed health care has been offered as the new market-based solution to cost inflation. Yet typical consumer-based insurance products undermine the very logic of expecting consumers to make good health care decisions by making preventive services--the category of services abou...