The Medical journal of Australia
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Review
Postmarketing surveillance: strengths and limitations. The flucloxacillin-dicloxacillin story.
Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions continues to be the principal method used for monitoring the safety of marketed drugs. Despite the many successes attributed to these schemes, they can reliably detect only a small fraction of the range of possible drug-related events and provide virtually no useful quantitative data. ⋯ Spontaneous monitoring should be supplemented by the systematic monitoring of cohorts of users of new drugs, using record-linkage to track their subsequent health. Although several impediments exist to the introduction of such a scheme in Australia, consideration should be given to addressing how such a system might be implemented.
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To evaluate the use of the ThinPrep method to reduce rates of unsatisfactory Papanicolaou (Pap) smears in women in remote communities. ⋯ A significant reduction in the proportion of unsatisfactory Pap smears is possible with the ThinPrep method. Targeted use of ThinPrep in communities with high rates of unsatisfactory smears may prove cost-effective.
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To assess teaching about cancer in medical schools in Australia and New Zealand. ⋯ There has been some improvement in delivery of cancer education in medical schools since 1993, but considerable variation in teaching practice and implementation remains. Difficulty in determining details of course content led directly to difficulty in assessing the quality of teaching about cancer.