Ein moralischer Imperativ: Wenn...

...zwei oder mehr einen Profit machen, suche den ausgeschlossenen Dritten, der die gesamte Zeche bezahlt!

Aldo Haesler im Gespräch mit Peer Teuwsen

DIE ZEIT 18. August 2011 Nr 34 Seite 23

Gerecht war gestern

Lange Zeit gehörte er zu den Markenzeichen der Bundesrepublik. Wie Mercedes, Pünktlichkeit und Qualität: der soziale Ausgleich. Zwischen Flensburg und dem Bodensee gab es weniger Reiche als in anderen Industrieländern – und weniger Arme. Die sozialen Gegensätze waren geringer als anderswo, die Einkommensunterschiede vergleichsweise klein. Auch darin bestand der »rheinische Kapitalismus«. Doch das ist vorbei. Heute klafft zwischen Arm und Reich in der Bundesrepublik eine nahezu gleich große Lücke wie im Durchschnitt der Industrieländer. Die viel gerühmte soziale Marktwirtschaft macht keinen Unterschied mehr.


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Zerhackt von Bajonetten in Korea im Jahre 1952...

Wenn Blogger die Macht treffen...

Ich glaube, dass diese Finanzkrise eine tiefgreifende Zäsur darstellt,

auch gesellschaftlich. Es gibt viele Menschen,

die unser Ordnungssystem grundsätzlicher hinterfragen.


Peer Steinbrück

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Petruschka - Die Musik entdecken

www.petruschka-klavierfestival.de

Den Mann zur Sprache bringen

www.maenner-therapie.de

Jeder stirbt für sich allein...

Das Auge ist ein einsamer Jäger

4.Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg

Das Gedächtnis des Ruhrgebiets

www.ruhrmuseum.de

The Lancet Technology - OpenMRS

 

Original Text

Niall Boyce *

 

“To say it was a deeply planned activity would be dishonest”, Paul Biondich tells me over the phone. I've dragged him out of a conference call with Kenya to discuss OpenMRS, an open source electronic medical record system platform. If he minds, it doesn't show: he talks rapidly and enthusiastically about the project. Paul, co-founder and president of OpenMRS, has a clinical background in paediatrics: he also works as the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre in Health Informatics, and helps coordinate informatics activities in a large health systems strengthening activity in western Kenya called AMPATH. It was during a visit there that the idea for OpenMRS was generated: he saw “very finite resources, but a developing health system”. What was needed, he realised, was a record system that was easy to use, adaptable, and based around the needs of clinicians on the ground.

What is open source? In brief, it means that instead of software being developed by one company, delivered “shrink wrapped” and protected by copyright, it is free and open to further development by the user. To some, it is a philosophy—almost a religion—to others, it is simply a practical way to get things done. Paul is definitely in the latter camp. Initially tentative about open source, he grew to see its advantages after discussion with colleagues working with health-care systems in other developing countries. He realised that whilst for any one individual to create a whole system would not be possible, inviting collaboration between individuals across the globe could deliver a free, sustainable system. The philosophy, he says, is to “build the hardware store, rather than the whole house directly”. The latest version of OpenMRS was developed by around 50 contributors worldwide, a mixture of philanthropic individuals and corporations. At the user end, he says, everything is free. All OpenMRS asks is that if you have the answer to a question posted by other users, you respond to it. Unsurprisingly, over 40 countries have implemented it at one level or another, from individual clinics to whole nations.

I investigated further with the demo version of OpenMRS, available on the website. I found it simple, clean, and easy to use. It feels like a system that has been carefully honed and refined by user feedback. Paul points out that pluggable modules are also being developed that can build on its basic functionality. The site is well worth a visit from anyone interested in global health: OpenMRS is one of the unsung heroes of the movement.

Was wir von Galen lernen können...

If everyone who undertook to teach and write something”, Galen writes, “would first demonstrate these things with deeds, overall few false things would be said”...

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The Lancet - Sites of Interest

Sites of interest

My first attachment as a clinical student was with a gastrointestinal surgery firm. How well I remember consulting hastily scrawled pieces of paper before the ward round in preparation: and how I wish apps such as Abdominal Examination had existed. It provides a concise overview of abdominal history and examination, complete with pictures. The only major problem is the omission of gynaecological causes of pain. Peace of mind on the surgical ward round is £5·49 from iTunes.

A surprise hit, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network app provides pocket-sized summaries of evidence-based treatment recommendations. It is available free for iPhone and Android—no doctor's phone is complete without it.

Pardonnez mes lèvres,

..elles trouvent la joie dans les endroits
les plus inhabituels...

Grüne Augen...

Der amerikanische Fotojournalist Steve McCurry (61) gehört zu den namhaftesten Kriegsreportern und Afghanistan-Kennern des Westens. Berühmt ist sein Foto eines afghanischen Mädchens mit ausdrucksstarken grünen Augen, das um die Welt ging. Vom 19. August an sind McCurrys Aufnahmen von verschiedenen Reisen an den Hindukusch im English Theatre Frankfurt zu sehen. Das Theater hat die Ausstellung gemeinsam mit dem amerikanischen Generalkonsulat erstellt. red

English Theatre, Gallusanlage 7, Frankfurt. 19. August bis 5. Oktober, Di bis Fr 11–18 Uhr, Sa 15–18.30 Uhr, So 15–17 Uhr.

Ab 7. September bis 22.30 Uhr.

Frankfurter Neue Presse 19. Juli

Drei-Männer-Vorlesung

Leitsymptome Gastrointestinaltrakt

Heja BVB

Die Welt ist rund. Und seien wir ehrlich: Die Welt ist auch schwarz-gelb. Borussia Dortmund bewegt Menschen. Emotional. Über 100 Jahre hinweg. Manchmal sogar ein Leben lang. Und jeder lebt seine schwarzgelbe Liebe anders. Wie - das können alle BVB-Fans in der schwarzgelbene Foto-Community zeigen. Mit Heja-BVB wollen wir Ihnen - pünktlich zum 100. Geburtstag des BVB - die Möglichkeit geben, die schwarzgelbe Geschichte neu zu erleben. Und vor allem selbst mit zu gestalten.


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Zigaretten-Warnung mit Bildern...

Beginning in September 2012, the Food and Drug Administration will require larger, more prominent health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States. These new labels mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and represent an important advance in communicating the dangers of smoking. The nine different text warnings and accompanying graphic images are designed to increase awareness of the specific health risks associated with smoking, such as addiction, lung disease, cancer, stroke, heart disease, and death.

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Der finanzielle Kollaps der europäischen Ligen

..."Der wesentliche Grund für die prekäre finanzielle Situation sind die hohen Spielergehälter und die enormen Ausgaben für Spielertransfers", wird Martin Sonnenschein zitiert, der bei A.T. Kearney für das Geschäft in Zentraleuropa zuständig ist...


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"Ich beginne zu glauben, dass die Linke recht hat..."

It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls “the free market” is actually a set-up.

The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. 

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Mehr

Neues aus der Netzwelt - jede Woche in Jörg-Olaf Schäfers Notizblog.

Hörsaal war gestern...

More than 800 universities have active iTunes U sites. About half of these institutions — including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, and UC Berkeley — distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store.

In the Beyond Campus section of iTunes U, students and faculty can access a wealth of content from distinguished entities such as MoMA, the New York Public Library, Public Radio International, and PBS stations.

Academic Earth
OpenCourseWare
The World's 50 Best Open Courseware Collections

Turning the tide on conflicts of interest

Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ

fgodlee@bmj.com

The US Food and Drug Administration says it may loosen its conflict of interest policies (doi:10.1136/bmj.d5070). A shortage of independent experts means that its current rule—no more than 13% of advisers with industry ties—is delaying the introduction of new drugs, says its commissioner.
This attack of nerves is reminiscent of the New England Journal of Medicine’s U-turn in 2002, which reversed an earlier ban on commissioning editorials and reviews from authors with ties to industry. The journal said it had found that some fields could not be covered (N Engl J Med 2002;346:1901-2). Since then, like the BMJ and other major journals, it has asked authors to declare their financial and other competing interests and decides each case on its merits.
But the NEJM’s failed experiment ended 10 years ago and things have changed. Financial ties between academics and industry are now on the wane. As Jeanne Lenzer reports (doi:10.1136/bmj.d5070), a survey of over 3000 academics in 2009 found that half had no industry ties, and of these a third were full professors (Health Affairs 2009;28:1814-25). Critics of the FDA’s suggestion cite the fact that the proportion of panel members with industry ties is well below 13%. Although the vacancy rate on panels was high in 2009, they say it’s now falling.
So now is not the time for cold feet. If anything it’s time to push even harder. Industry’s influence on regulatory decisions is well documented. Quoted in Lenzer’s report, Curt Furberg cites the FDA’s vote on whether or not to withdraw valdecoxib. BMJ investigations found similar evidence of influence on decisions at the European Medicines Agency over oseltamivir (BMJ 2010;340:c2912) and rosiglitazone (BMJ 2010;341:c4848) And if seeking independent expertise does slow things down a bit, might that not be a good thing? Only last month, an FDA panel voted to withdraw the breast cancer drug bevacizumab, which had been given "accelerated approval" in 2008 (BMJ 2011;343:d4244).
Back tracking now on conflicts of interest would send the wrong message, especially to the EMA, which has some catching up to do. It still has a reputation for being more on the industry’s side than the public’s, not helped by its outgoing executive director Thomas Lönngren’s revolving door appointment as an adviser to industry (www.pharmatimes.com/Article/11-01-18/Ex-EMA_chief_joins_new_market_access_business.aspx).
WHO too is vulnerable to criticism on this score. A recent report on its handling of the A/H1N1 influenza pandemic concluded that it had not followed its own rules on conflict of interest and that these needed strengthening (BMJ 2011;342:d3378). Now it is under fire for proposals that would increase industry’s influence on how it sets its priorities (doi:10.1136/bmj.d5012). A word of warning to its director general: back in the 1990s, among those telling WHO to stick to its knitting and focus on infectious diseases in the third world were experts covertly funded by the tobacco industry (BMJ 2000;321:314, doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.314).
The FDA should stand firm. Not only is the tide turning in its favour, but strong policies are helping to turn the tide. So here’s a question: should the BMJ repeat the NEJM’s experiment and ban editorials and clinical reviews from authors with ties to industry? I’d welcome your views in rapid responses.
Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d5147

Delivering healthcare in situations of conflict or violence

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.d4671
Urgent action is needed to improve security and delivery of effective and impartial healthcare in situations of armed conflict or widespread violence, according to a global campaign launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today.
"This is timely," writes Professor Vivienne Nathanson, Director of Professional Activities at the British Medical Association, in an editorial for the BMJ. "Events in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and elsewhere make it clear that when people take up arms for whatever reason, violence perpetrated against healthcare facilities and personnel is all too common."
She adds: "In such contexts, healthcare is often suspended, withdrawn, or impossible. The wounded and sick are denied effective healthcare when hospitals are rendered non-functional by explosive force or forcibly entered by fighters; when ambulances are hijacked; and when healthcare personnel are killed, injured, threatened, or arrested for treating insurgents."
This view is supported by an ICRC study of violent events affecting healthcare, warning that "insecurity of healthcare is one of the biggest, most immediate, and yet unrecognised humanitarian problems in today's conflicts."
As a result, the ICRC has pledged to actively promote measures to improve security and the delivery of healthcare in its entire field of operations. For example, to better protect hospitals from the effects of explosive force, deter armed entry into healthcare facilities, and ensure ambulances are given rapid and unhindered passage.
Professor Nathanson points out that these measures "clearly do not lie within the health community but in the domain of law, politics, humanitarian dialogue, and operating procedures of military bodies."
But, she says, the ICRC's study and work highlights two broad roles for the health community. Firstly, healthcare professionals who are likely to be working in insecure environments must have adequately training on how medical ethics apply in these different and difficult circumstances.
Secondly, she says there is a need to build a community of concern that goes beyond the health community to those who are in a position to ensure security of healthcare in places and situations where they are most needed.
Contact:
Vivienne Nathanson, Director of Professional Activities, British Medical Association, London, UK
Email: ftranza@bma.org.uk

Der Preis der Werte

...Einen Einblick in die Gepflogenheiten gab vor etwa zwei Jahren ein Prozess vor dem Strafgericht im schweizerischen Zug: 138 Millionen Franken Schmiergeld, stellte das Gericht fest, seien an "hochrangige Sportfunktionäre" geflossen, nur in den Jahren 1999 bis 2001, und nur über die Konten einer einzigen Rechte-Agentur. Das kann man jetzt mal hochrechnen. Dann bekommt man eine Ahnung davon, wie gewaltig er ist: der Preis der Werte im Sport.


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...dann wird er eben verkauft...

2011 endet Ribérys Arbeitsverhältnis beim deutschen Rekordmeister. Hoeneß hat bereits angekündigt, wenn der Franzose im Frühjahr keiner Verlängerung zustimme, werde man ihn verkaufen. 50 bis 60 Millionen Ablöse stellt er sich vor. Ein Jahr später bekäme man gar nichts mehr...


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Schreibstil

Schreiben Sie wie Franz Kafka? Oder eher wie Charlotte Roche? Wie Martin Mosebach, Hermann Hesse, Ingeborg Bachmann? Oder schreiben Sie wie die neue Buchpreisträgerin Melinda Nadj Abonji? – Wenn Sie wissen wollen, ob Sie Stil haben, und wenn ja: welchen – dann gibt es jetzt endlich eine absolut sichere und unbestechliche Messmethode. Testen Sie sich jetzt also auf:www.faz.net/ichschreibewie.

Cold Turkey...

Erinnern Sie sich an "The Who"? Nur dunkel? Falls Ihnen aber jetzt "I can't get no satisfaction" durch den Kopf geht: Sorry, das waren die anderen. Sie wissen schon: Mick Jagger & Co. Die Rolling Stones sind zwar auch Legende, aber hier ist von Roger Daltrey und Pete Townshend die Rede: Gemeinsam rockten sie mit den Kollegen John Entwistle und Keith Moon als The Who in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren, was der Stand der Tontechnik hergab.

Die Story von The Who liest sich wie eine Kurzgeschichte des Kapitalismus. Im Ernst.


Mehr 

Was sind Männer?

"Menschen, die ohne Frauen nicht leben können und sterben."
Was sind Frauen?
"Sie bestehen aus Armen, Beinen, Augen, Röcken, Pullovern, aber auch Ehen, Lügen, Begegnungen, Zärtlichkeit, Freundschaft."

Jean-Luc Godard; Eine verheiratete Frau, 1964 Universum 

Musik

Rosenmond und Lindentraum von Christine Maria Rembeck, Raumklang RK 3002/Harmonia Mundi

Moderner Menschenhandel...

Sie sind jung, talentiert und vielleicht die großen Stars von morgen. Jedes weitere Tor von ihnen bringt auch den Fußballmarkt in Wallung. Mindestens 8 Millionen Euro handelten gerade die glücklichen Mainzer dafür aus, dass ihr Eigengewächs André Schürrle zur nächsten Saison zum Werksklub Bayer Leverkusen wechseln wird. Die Hoffnung auf einen Leistungssprung begabter Fußballprofis beflügelt die Phantasie vieler in dieser Branche - rund um den Erdball. Das Geschäft ist nicht nur sportlich für die Vereine interessant, sondern so lukrativ, dass Spieler inzwischen so gehandelt werden wie Aktien an der Börse.


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Offizin - Schwarzes Papier aus dem Himalaja

Die Druckkunst bedeutete einst eine Revolution für die Geistesgeschichte. Getragen von Handwerkern...


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Büchertisch

1. Extrem Bayrisch von Roger Fritz/Ottfried Fischer, Südwest
2. ADAC Wanderführer Madeira, ADAC Verlag
3. Die Seele Indiens von Jean-Bapttiste Rabouan, Frederking & Thaler
4. Die Poesie des Biers von Jürgen Roth, Oktober
5. Kanarische Inseln - Archipel der Glückseligkeiten von Claudia Diemer, Picus
6. Südsee - Die Feuertänzer auf den Perleninseln von V Mehnert, F Rumpf, Picus
7. Paris. Lebensart, Kultur&Impressionen von Klaus Simon und Frank Heuer, Du-Mont Reiseverlag
8. Tirol - Land in den Bergen von S Schaber und B Ritschel, Tyrolia  
9. Soldaten. Protokolle vom Kämpfen, Töten und Sterben von Sönke Neitzel und Harald Welzer, S Fischer 
10. Jeder stirbt für sich allein von Hans Fallada, Aufbau
11. Hitlers erster Krieg von Thomas Weber, Propyläen
12. Unternehmen Barbarossa von Christian Hartmann, CH Beck
13. Gedichte und Lieder von Rabindranath Tagore, Insel 
14. Metropolen der Antike von Jean-Claude Golvin, Theiss
15. Das Ende der friedlichen Gesellschaft von Clemens Verenkotte, Droemer
16. Das belagerte Leningrad 1941-1944 von Jörg Ganzenmüller, Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag
17. The Big Short. Inside the Doomsday Machine von Michael Lewis, Penguin
18. Deutschland und "seine" Kroaten von Ulrich Schiller, Donat

Ten Great Public Health Achievements Worldwide, 2001-2010

 

Worldwide, a child born in 1955 had an average life expectancy at birth of only 48 years.¹ By 2000, the average life expectancy at birth had increased to 66 years and, if past trends continue, is projected to rise to 73 years by 2025.¹ These improvements in longevity have resulted from improved living conditions overall, advances in medical science, and a number of population-level interventions. However, major disparities persist. During the past decade, in low-income countries, average life expectancy at birth increased from 55 to 57 years (3.6%), while increasing from 78 to 80 years (2.6%) in high-income countries.² Analogous to the recent MMWR report highlighting 10 public health achievements that occurred in the United States over the first 10 years of the new century, this report describes global public health achievements during the same period.³ Experts in global public health were asked to nominate noteworthy public health achievements that occurred outside of the United States during 2001-2010. From them, 10 have been summarized in this report. As with the previous report, the 10 global public health achievements are not ranked in any order. Additional information regarding these achievements is available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a5_addinfo.htm

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Ernst sein ist alles

Sie hatte sich geschworen, nur einen Mann zu heiraten, der Ernst heißt. Aber ernst sein soll Ernst dann doch nicht sein, aber alles, was zählt, ist, Ernst zu sein...

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Herr und Knecht

....bei der neuen, transnational herrschenden Klasse. Diese Klasse regiert weitgehend am demokratischen Gesetzgebungsprozess vorbei, und sie vereinigt Exekutivspitzen, Wirtschaftsführer, Finanz- und Rechtsexperten sowie die hochdotierten Fernsehjournalisten und das Talk-Management zu einer netzwerkartig organisierten Klasse, während die großen Zeitungen ebenso wie die Parlamente in Bedeutungslosigkeit zu versinken drohen. Nur der Absturz der Weltwirtschaft konnte die Selbstsicherheit dieser Klasse für einen Moment erschüttern.


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