PROBLEM Human resources for health (HRH) in the Sudan were limited by shortages and the maldistribution of health workers, poor management, service fragmentation, poor retention of health workers in rural areas, and a weak health information system. APPROACH A "country coordination and facilitation" process was implemented to strengthen the national HRH observatory, provide a coordination pla...

Divisions of General Practice have been established to alleviate the professional isolation which general practitioners face by being excluded from involvement in other parts of the health care system. Divisions facilitate the development of local communication networks and cooperative activities which improve the integration of general practice with other elements of the health system. Coordin...

Fixed beds of cylindrical particles are important in chemical engineering applications, but their packing structures are not as well understood or as well characterized as sphere packings. In this work, X-ray microtomography is used to obtain 3D images of 1.8 mm diameter equilateral cylinders in a 23 mm cylindrical container over a range of bulk porosities. A novel algorithm is used to computat...

Strengthening the primary care system and promoting utilization of primary care are the major targets of China's ambitious health reforms to meet its people's escalating health care needs. However, the changing trend of primary care utilization 4 years before and after 2009, when the health reforms started, is against the government's stated goal. The percentage of outpatient visits in primary ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate factors affecting the internal brain drain of healthcare professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted using an anonymous self-administered online questionnaire sent to all Saudi students enrolled in healthcare profession programs in North America. The data was collected between January and March 2008 at the University of ...

CONTEXT Shortage of physicians particularly in specialty levels is considered as an important issue in Iran health system. Thus, in an uncertain environment, long-term planning is required for health professionals as a basic priority on a national scale. AIMS This study aimed to estimate the number of required neurosurgeons using system dynamic modeling. SETTING AND DESIGN System dynamic mo...

INTRODUCTION In Japan, the maldistribution of physicians between urban and rural areas is increasing. It is important to know the practice location expectations of future physicians. METHODS The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. In 2009-2013, students at a medical school in Japan completed a questionnaire containing 50 items with four-point Likert scales. The students rated the ...

We investigated the incidence of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) infection in a total of 17 regions in four countries, including 13 regions in Japan, as well as Korea (Seoul and Busan), China, and Vietnam, by testing breast milk using a particle agglutination assay (PA) and line immunoassay (LIA). Among 266 samples from Japan, 24 (9.0%) were positive on PA and 3 (1.1%) were positive...

Corrugated structured packings feature strong preferential flow directions due to their structure of crossing triangular channels. This leads to good radial spreading but makes modelling a challenge. Detailed CFD calculations reflecting the exact packing structure are only feasible for small sections of packing. However, effects like large scale maldistribution and instabilities in the flow fie...

BACKGROUND Spinal anaesthesia (SA) has high success rates. However, inadequate block after SA has been reported even in the absence of technical problems. Various mechanisms for failed SA (FSA) have been proposed, but reports of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of local anaesthetics (LA) after FSA are scarce. We report lumbar CSF concentrations of bupivacaine in 20 patients in whom adeq...