BACKGROUND In 2003, the Monterey County Health Department, serving Salinas, California, was awarded one of 12 grants from the Steps to a HealthierUS Program to implement a 5-year, multiple-intervention community approach to reduce diabetes, asthma, and obesity. National adult and youth surveys to assess long-term outcomes are required by all Steps sites; however, site-specific surveys to assess...

Switzerland is one of the few countries with a relatively mature funded pension scheme. This paper offers a short description of the Swiss system, highlighting two specific areas for which previous experience is particularly valuable. Taking the Swiss example, firstly, it illustrates the importance of prudential regulation and adequate transparency standards. Secondly, the paper explores the im...

This paper provides a simple explanation for why some minority groups are economically successful, despite being subject to government-mandated discriminatory policies. We study an economy with private and public sectors in which workers invest in imperfectly observable skills that are important to the private sector but not to the public sector. A law allows native majority workers to be emplo...

Background The current literature proposing criteria and guidelines for collaborative health system research often fails to differentiate between: (a) various types of partnerships, (b) collaborations formed for the specific purpose of developing a research proposal and those based on long-standing relationships, (c) researcher vs. decision-maker initiatives, and (d) the underlying drivers for ...

This issue's "Legal Briefing" column covers recent legal developments involving informed consent.1 We covered this topic in previous articles in The Journal of Clinical Ethics.2 But an updated discussion is warranted. First, informed consent remains a central and critically important issue in clinical ethics. Second, there have been numerous significant legal changes over the past year. We cate...

BACKGROUND Complex problems do not respect academic disciplinary boundaries. Environmental health research is complex and often moves beyond these boundaries, integrating diverse knowledge resources to solve such challenges. Here we describe an evolving paradigm for interweaving approaches that integrates widely diverse resources outside of traditional academic environments in full partnerships...

BACKGROUND Joint training for interagency working is carried out by Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England to promote effective local working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. PURPOSE This paper reports on the findings of the outputs and outcomes of interagency training to safeguard children in eight Local Safeguarding Children Boards. METHODS A review of Local Safegu...

OBJECTIVE In recent decades debate has intensified over both the ethics and effectiveness of mandated mental health treatment for persons residing in the community. Perceived barriers to care among persons subjected to mandated community treatment, and the possibility that fear of involuntary treatment may actually create or strengthen such barriers rather than dissolve them, are key issues rel...

OBJECTIVE To understand and compare the trends in mandated benefits laws in the United States. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Mandated benefit laws enacted in 50 states and the District of Columbia for the period 1949-2002 were compiled from multiple published compendia. STUDY DESIGN Laws that require private insurers and health plans to cover particular services, types of diseases, or care by ...