Clin Med
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This article summarises findings from studies of career choices made for the hospital medical specialties by medical graduates one, three and five years after qualifying from UK medical schools in selected years from 1974 to 2005. The percentage of doctors who, early in their careers, expressed a preference for the hospital medical specialties declined between the 1970s and 1980s, increased during the 1990s, and has stabilised since then. ⋯ Compared with doctors who choose other specialties, a higher percentage of doctors who choose the hospital medical specialties are uncertain about their specialty choice in the early years after qualification. This uncertainty needs to be considered by those planning postgraduate medical education for the hospital medical specialties, particularly now that postgraduate training in the UK has become much more structured.
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A number of reports have suggested that academic medicine within the UK may be in decline. This article assesses the number and outcome of abstracts presented at consecutive British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) meetings. All abstracts presented at the BSG between 1994 and 2002 were assessed (n=4,096). ⋯ In 1994, 57.6% of abstracts were subsequently fully published but by 2002 this number had fallen to 30.7%. The results show that the number of abstracts at the BSG which are then fully published has fallen with a significant trend. This observation could be taken as an indicator that there is a decline in research activity within the UK gastroenterology community.
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Humans are part of the biosphere and dependent upon it. The impact of climate change on 'ecosystem services' is therefore of extreme concern. Many studies demonstrate unequivocally that global warming is shifting the distribution of animal and plant species, affecting the composition not only of natural ecosystems but of agricultural ones as well, and also altering the range and impact of pathogenic organisms. ⋯ There is still a chance to significantly mitigate these effects, however, if urgent measures are taken. The biotic effects of climate change are strongly exacerbated by ongoing habitat destruction, which no less urgently needs to be halted or reversed by concerted international action. In terms of its rate and its human causation, the present crisis is not analogous to past 'natural' events.
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Through the lens of public health genomics, this article probes certain issues that concern the evaluation of diagnostic tests and molecular biomarkers, and the accompanying policy and regulatory implications. It begins with some conceptual remarks followed by a discussion of evaluation, translation, and regulation, and their importance for public health.