Articles: health.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialInteractive sections of an Internet-based intervention increase empowerment of chronic back pain patients: randomized controlled trial.
Chronic back pain (CBP) represents a significant public health problem. As one of the most common causes of disability and sick leave, there is a need to develop cost-effective ways, such as Internet-based interventions, to help empower patients to manage their disease. Research has provided evidence for the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions in many fields, but it has paid little attention to the reasons why they are effective. ⋯ Results suggest that interactive sections as part of Internet-based interventions can positively alter patients' feelings of empowerment and help prevent medication misuse. Detrimental effects were not observed.
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To create and validate a frailty assessment tool for community-dwelling adults aged ≥75 years. ⋯ SHARE-FI75+ could help frailty case finding in primary care and provide a focus for personalised community interventions. Further validation in trials and clinical programmes is needed.
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BMC Int Health Hum Rights · Jan 2014
Could international compulsory licensing reconcile tiered pricing of pharmaceuticals with the right to health?
The heads of the Global Fund and the GAVI Alliance have recently promoted the idea of an international tiered pricing framework for medicines, despite objections from civil society groups who fear that this would reduce the leeway for compulsory licenses and generic competition. This paper explores the extent to which an international tiered pricing framework and the present leeway for compulsory licensing can be reconciled, using the perspective of the right to health as defined in international human rights law. ⋯ We explore the practical feasibility of an international tiered pricing and compulsory licensing framework governed by the World Health Organization. We use two simple benchmarks to compare the relative affordability of medicines for governments - average income and burden of disease - to illustrate how voluntary tiered pricing practice fails to make medicines affordable enough for low and middle income countries (if compared with the financial burden of the same medicines for high income countries), and when and where international compulsory licenses should be issued in order to allow governments to comply with their obligations to realize the right to health. An international tiered pricing and compulsory licensing framework based on average income and burden of disease could ease the tension between governments' human rights obligation to provide medicines and governments' trade obligation to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.