Technologic innovations have substantially improved the productivity of clinical laboratories, but the services provided by clinical laboratories are increasingly becoming commoditized. We reflect on how current developments may affect the future of laboratory medicine and how to deal with these changes. We argue that to be prepared for the future, clinical laboratories should enhance efficienc...

This paper is about the reasons why there is so rarely a strong association between the secular trend in real wages and mortality. We classify the reasons in several different categories: epidemiological, sociological, geographical, demographic, technologic, and economic. In addition, we offer some speculations on why there has been an expectation that such an association would exist. We sugges...

Primary care attitudes affecting the use of strong opioids in pain management have changed considerably in the last 3 decades. Forces that have shaped current attitudes and trends in opioid prescribing include historical influences, regulatory factors, and technologic and scientific advances. The article identifies for primary care physicians the current challenges and issues surrounding the us...

This paper aims to bridge progress in neuroscience involving sophisticated quantitative analysis of behavior, including the use of robust control, with other relevant conceptual and theoretical frameworks from systems engineering, systems biology, and mathematics. Familiar and accessible case studies are used to illustrate concepts of robustness, organization, and architecture (modularity and p...

The aim of this project was to create podcasts of classroom lectures from select courses across programs in a college of nursing and to explore associated outcomes using a Web-based course evaluation framework. Seventy undergraduate, second-degree, and graduate nursing students participated. Findings suggest that nurse educators can leverage students' positive attitudes and technologic skills w...

Since the mid 1900s, esophagoscopy has been performed under sedation or general anesthesia. With transnasal esophagoscopy (TNE), there has been a return to awake, in-office esophagoscopy. Technologic advances have allowed the advent of a ultrathin, flexible esophagoscope that is introduced transnasally, allowing esophagoscopy to be performed in unsedated patients. TNE correlates with convention...

This paper aims to bridge progress in neuroscience involving sophisticated quantitative analysis of behavior, including the new use of robust control, with other relevant conceptual and theoretical frameworks from systems engineering, systems biology, and mathematics. Familiar and accessible case studies are used to illustrate concepts of robustness, organization, and architecture (modularity a...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapid noncontact method that allows in vivo imaging of the retina and it has become an important component in clinical practice. OCT is a useful ancillary tool for assessing retinal diseases because of its ability to provide cross-sectional retinal images and quantitatively analyze retinal morphology. The introduction of spectral-domain OCT provided major...

Correspondence is also little doubt that technologic and human capabilities will continue to improve and that improvements in patients’ outcomes will follow. The point of our editorial was not to argue against research and innovation, quite to the contrary. Our view is simply that the lessons of the worldwide 2009 infl uenza A(H1N1) epidemic do not support a costly, nationwide investment in new...

Biologic and technologic advances generated from The Human Genome Project are having a dramatic impact on the expanding role of nurses in current health care practice. New genetic research needs to be transformed rapidly into clinical protocols with recommendations for delivering care to targeted populations. Nurses can contribute significantly, as part of an interdisciplinary approach, to tran...