Putting the patient first: should we nudge them or shove them?

Fluoride varnishes: should we be using them?

Fluoride varnishes are fast becoming the standard of care as topical fluoride treatments. Fluoride varnishes still await approval from the FDA for use as caries preventive agents. In the meantime, their use for such purposes is considered "off-label." This article highlights the efficacy of fluoride varnishes as caries preventive agents and introduces some of the commercially available fluoride...

Predicted values: how should we use them?

We can train them, but how can we retain them?

To the Editor: The Department of Surgery at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine is proud of its 100% pass rate in the October 2008 Colleges of Medicine of South Africa examinations held in Durban. Most candidates attended the graduation and joined the 3 who passed in May as registered specialists in general surgery. This represents a stalwart effort on the part of the candidates and their t...

Bubbles , Can We Spot Them ? Crashes , Can We Predict Them ?

Johansen and Sornette proposes that the crash has fundamentally an endogenous origin and exogenous shocks only serve as triggering factors. This endogenous force is shown in price as power law log-periodicity (PLLP) signature prior to a crash. We estimate the highly nonlinear model developed by them using a hybrid approach which combines scatter search, genetic adaptor and tabu search. The mode...

Controversies of surviving sepsis campaign bundles: should we use them?

Sepsis accounts for a huge number of deaths in intensive care units all over the world. In 2002, Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) was launched, targeting a mortality reduction of 25% in 5 years. Treatment guidelines were developed, published in 2004 and revised in 2007. An educational program was initiated based on bundles in which 11 of those guidelines were put together to facilitate their ass...