In this paper it is presented an Agency for Integration, Archive and Diffusion of Medical Information (AIDA), which configures a data warehouse, developed using Multi-Agent technology. AIDA is like a symbiont, with a close association with core applications present at any health care facility, such as the Picture Archive Communication System, the Radiological Information System or the Electroni...

Contamination by heavy metals has attracted increasing attention considering the ability of these elements in producing serious consequence to ecosystem, and especially on animals health. Due to their widespread use in human activities such as industry, agriculture and even as medicine (e.g. arsenic, selenium and platinum), numerous health risks may be associated with exposure to these substanc...

Persistently excessive morbidity and mortality rates in less developed countries (LDCs) served by primary health care systems suggest that the quality of services is inadequate. The PRICOR project, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, has designed and implemented methods for quality assessment and problem solving in LDC health systems. After developing comprehens...

AI systems play an increasingly important role in shaping and regulating the lives of millions human beings across world. Calls for greater transparency from such have been widespread. However, there is considerable ambiguity concerning what "transparency" actually means, therefore, might entail. While, according to some debates, requires seeing through artefact or device, widespread calls impl...

Rev Panam Salud Publica/Pan Am J Public Health 8(1/2), 2000 A roundtable discussion on international cooperation in health reform in the Americas In April 2000 representatives from several international donor organizations conducted an electronic roundtable to look into their “crystal balls” and imagine a future for donor collaboration in health sector reform in the Americas. The participants w...

This paper discusses computer-supported outbreak detection using routine surveillance data, as implemented at six institutes for infectious disease control in five European countries. We give an overview of the systems used at the Statens Serum Institut (Denmark), Health Protection Agency (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), Robert Koch Institute (Germany), Governmental Institute of Public He...

Budget reconciliation legislation in 1989 created the new Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), which folded in the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment, among the law's other provisions. The creation of the new agency represented a shift in priorities toward outcomes and effectiveness research in medical practice and made explicit the...

Successful navigation through the accreditation process developed by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) requires strong and effective leadership. Situational leadership, a contingency theory of leadership, frequently taught in the public health classroom, has utility for leading a public health agency through this process. As a public health agency pursues accreditation, staff members...

agency biological determinism biomedicine/biomedical model Cartesian dualism class (or social class) epidemiology/social epidemiology eugenics lifestyle choices/factors new public health public health/public health infrastructure reductionism social construction/ constructionism social Darwinism social institutions social model of health social structure sociological imagination state structure...