When do I (not) release cellular products?

Do as I do, not as I say.

Interactive Constraint Satisfaction (ICS) is an approach to solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) interactively with the user [3]. This class of problems includes subjective, everyday problems such as finding a house, as well as complex scientific problems. A difficult issue in ICS is how to acquire constraints from the user, when the user may not be able to clearly and accurately arti...

Gender issues: do as I say, not as I do?

In this issue of the Journal, Panteli et al. (6) provide insight into the extent to which a gender-sensitive approach is adopted by sixty health technology assessment (HTA) agencies worldwide. Their findings should make all of us involved in the production of HTA take pause: less than a handful of the agency Web sites that were examined by Panteli's team made any mention of gender as an explici...

When Ethics Survive Where People Do Not

The provision of health care service in resource-poor settings is associated with a broad set of ethical issues. Devakumar's case discusses the ethical issues related to the inability to treat in a cholera clinic patients who do not have cholera. This paper gives a closer look on the context in which Devakumar's case took place. It also analyses the potential local and organizational factors th...

When not to do a lumbar puncture.

When numbers do not add up!

A 62-year-old gentleman was admitted to the surgical admissions unit in 2009 with a history of vomiting and abdominal pain on a background of abnormal renal (urea 13.6mmol/l, creatinine 165 umol/l) and liver function tests (alanine transaminase 48U/l, gamma glutamyl transaminase 100U/l, alkaline phosphatase 156 u/l). Blood pressure was 170/120mmHg on admission and a 12-lead electrocardiogram (E...