Community engagement in US biobanking: multiplicity of meaning and method.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Efforts to improve individual and population health increasingly rely on large-scale collections of human biological specimens and associated data. Such collections or 'biobanks' are hailed as valuable resources for facilitating translational biomedical research. However, biobanks also raise important ethical considerations, such as whether, how and why biobanks might engage with those who contributed specimens. This paper examines perceptions and practices of community engagement (CE) among individuals who operate 6 diverse biobanks in the US. METHODS: Twenty-four people from a diverse group of 6 biobanks were interviewed in-person or via telephone from March to July 2011. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed for common themes. RESULTS: Emergent themes include how biobank personnel understand 'community' and CE as it pertains to biobank operations, information regarding the diversity of practices of CE, and the reasons why biobanks conduct CE. CONCLUSION: Despite recommendations from federal agencies to conduct CE, the interpretation of CE varies widely among biobank employees, ultimately affecting how CE is practiced and what goals are achieved.

Trends in health services utilization in eight provinces in China, 1989-1993.

Continued pursuit of market-oriented reforms in China seems to have resulted in increasing income disparities. This has raised concerns about possible declines in the use of health services by the poor. Using data from three waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1989, 1991, 1993), we examine whether people age 20-45 in eight provinces became less likely to seek care when ill. We carried out three probit estimations of seeking care when ill; the predictor variables include individual and workplace characteristics, a measure of the severity of illness and community level factors. Health care is broadly defined to include basic level clinics as well as urban hospitals. We find no evidence that health care utilization is decreasing. Rather, for people in a community survey reporting mainly mild or moderate illness, health care continues to be accessible. We consider possible limits of our study and discuss extensively the implications of the use of illness reports from the three cross-sectional surveys as health status indicators.

Successful eradication of sexually transmitted diseases in the People's Republic of China: implications for the 21st century.

The global control of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) represents a daunting task, and there have been very few examples of success. The scope of the STD problem in China before the formation of the People's Republic and the effects of a governmental STD control program were reviewed. In major cities, 10% of the population had syphilis, reaching 50% prevalence in some rural minorities. By 1964, STDs in China were virtually eliminated through a program that destigmatized STDs, provided an infrastructure for case finding and therapy, and eliminated prostitution. The People's Republic of China demonstrated the possibility of eliminating STDs, at least for some period of time. Although the Chinese approach may not be ideal for Western democracies, understanding some features of the Chinese program may help in designing a strategy for the eradication of human immunodeficiency virus when or if treatment becomes available.

Vanadate inhibition of mitochondrial respiration and H+ ATPase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The effects of vanadate on mitochondrial respiration and H+ ATPase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were studied. A 50% inhibition of oxygen uptake in isolated mitochondria was produced by 4.4 mM-V2O5. Activity of H+ ATPase in whole mitochondria was inhibited by 50% by 5.5 microM-V2O5, in submitochondrial particles by 55 microM-V2O5; and in the chloroform-released H+ ATPase by 0.5 mM-V2O5. Vanadate was also found to relieve growth inhibition caused by the mitochondrial H+ ATPase inhibitors NN'-decyclohexylcarbodiimide and oligomycin. These results imply that vanadate could affect mitochondrial respiration by interacting with the H+ ATPase in S. cerevisiae.

The Chinese hospital.

The Chinese hospital serves three separate but overlapping functions. Like Western hospitals, the Chinese hospital provides patient care in a wide range of settings and with various levels of facilities. The Chinese hospital is also a danwei or work unit, that employs not only health care personnel, but also day-care teachers, builders, drivers, repairmen, and other auxiliary personnel. The third function is political and organizational. Hospital leaders act as local representatives of the Chinese Communist Party and the state, with jurisdiction over personal, professional, legal, and political activities of the workers in the hospital.

Heatlh care in the People's Republic of China: a view from inside the system.

During a three-month period, all admissions to an infectious disease ward at a tertiary care hospital in the People's Republic of China were studied. The hospital's catchment area covered a population of almost eight million, 10 per cent urban and 90 per cent rural. Seventy-two per cent of the patients admitted to this facility were city dwellers with illnesses which were significantly less serious in degree than the illnesses encountered among patients transferred from rural facilities. Ease of travel, nature of the disease process, availability of beds, ability to manipulate the referral ladder, and cost of health care may account for these results. Charges for health care in China proved very expensive relative to per capita income. This may be of major consequence to rural persons who are personally liable for some portion of this cost. These results suggest that although referral to tertiary care in China occurs more commonly among rural patients than is the case in other developing nations, access to this care and its cost are significant problems of the present system. During the drive for modernization, a multifactorial approach (including health policy, administrative controls, and patient and physician education) will be essential to avoid deterioration of the rural health system, and the increase financial burden to be expected with the introduction of advanced medical technology.

Are biomedical exchange programs inside The People's Republic of China feasible: report of a six-month study at Hubei Provincial Medical College.

Between November 1979 and April 1980 we lived at Hubei Provincial Medical College (HPMC) in Wuchang, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China, in order to organize an exchange program on behalf of the Infectious Disease Section at Yale University School of Medicine. HPMC consists of a medical college, two affiliated Western-style medical hospitals, and a dental hospital. This institution and the living and working conditions arranged on our behalf are described. Ultimately our work centered on epidemic hemorrhagic fever (EHF), a disease with a high incidence in Southern China; the study of EHF may serve as a focal point for ongoing collaborations. Our results suggest that institution-to-institution exchange programs are feasible and will probably become more common in the future.

An epizootic of waterfowl associated with a red tide episode in Florida.

During February and March, 1974, an epizootic involving lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) occurred in the Tampa Bay area on the west coast of Florida. Several thousand ducks are estimated to have died. Concurrent with this epizootic was a red tide caused by heavy blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium breve intoxication were evident in some of the lesser scaup. A controlled experimental feeding of G. breve toxic material to White Pekin ducklings produced illness and death with signs comparable to some of those seen in the scaup.