Browsing by Subject "Public Policy"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13

Open Access
Analysis of educational materials and destruction/opt-out initiatives for storage and use of residual newborn screening samples.
(Genet Test Mol Biomarkers, 2010-10) Haga, Susanne B
In recent years, the storage and use of residual newborn screening (NBS) samples has gained attention. To inform ongoing policy discussions, this article provides an update of previous work on new policies, educational materials, and parental options regarding the storage and use of residual NBS samples. A review of state NBS Web sites was conducted for information related to the storage and use of residual NBS samples in January 2010. In addition, a review of current statutes and bills introduced between 2005 and 2009 regarding storage and/or use of residual NBS samples was conducted. Fourteen states currently provide information about the storage and/or use of residual NBS samples. Nine states provide parents the option to request destruction of the residual NBS sample after the required storage period or the option to exclude the sample for research uses. In the coming years, it is anticipated that more states will consider policies to address parental concerns about the storage and use of residual NBS samples. Development of new policies regarding storage and use of residual NBS samples will require careful consideration of impact on NBS programs, parent and provider educational materials, and respect for parents among other issues.
Restricted
Application description and policy model in collaborative environment for sharing of information on epidemiological and clinical research data sets.
(PLoS One, 2010-02-19) de Carvalho, EC; Batilana, AP; Simkins, J; Martins, H; Shah, J; Rajgor, D; Shah, A; Rockart, S; Pietrobon, R
BACKGROUND: Sharing of epidemiological and clinical data sets among researchers is poor at best, in detriment of science and community at large. The purpose of this paper is therefore to (1) describe a novel Web application designed to share information on study data sets focusing on epidemiological clinical research in a collaborative environment and (2) create a policy model placing this collaborative environment into the current scientific social context. METHODOLOGY: The Database of Databases application was developed based on feedback from epidemiologists and clinical researchers requiring a Web-based platform that would allow for sharing of information about epidemiological and clinical study data sets in a collaborative environment. This platform should ensure that researchers can modify the information. A Model-based predictions of number of publications and funding resulting from combinations of different policy implementation strategies (for metadata and data sharing) were generated using System Dynamics modeling. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The application allows researchers to easily upload information about clinical study data sets, which is searchable and modifiable by other users in a wiki environment. All modifications are filtered by the database principal investigator in order to maintain quality control. The application has been extensively tested and currently contains 130 clinical study data sets from the United States, Australia, China and Singapore. Model results indicated that any policy implementation would be better than the current strategy, that metadata sharing is better than data-sharing, and that combined policies achieve the best results in terms of publications. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our empirical observations and resulting model, the social network environment surrounding the application can assist epidemiologists and clinical researchers contribute and search for metadata in a collaborative environment, thus potentially facilitating collaboration efforts among research communities distributed around the globe.
Open Access
Bringing molecular tools into environmental resource management: untangling the molecules to policy pathway.
(PLoS biology, 2009-03) Schultz, TF
Open Access
Collective action and individual choice: rethinking how we regulate narcotics and antibiotics.
(J Med Ethics, 2013-12) Anomaly, Jonny
Governments across the globe have squandered treasure and imprisoned millions of their own citizens by criminalising the use and sale of recreational drugs. But use of these drugs has remained relatively constant, and the primary victims are the users themselves. Meanwhile, antimicrobial drugs that once had the power to cure infections are losing their ability to do so, compromising the health of people around the world. The thesis of this essay is that policymakers should stop wasting resources trying to fight an unwinnable and morally dubious war against recreational drug users, and start shifting their attention to the serious threat posed by our collective misuse of antibiotics.
Open Access
Costa Rica's payment for environmental services program: intention, implementation, and impact.
(Conserv Biol, 2007-10) Sánchez-Azofeifa, G Arturo; Pfaff, Alexander; Robalino, Juan Andres; Boomhower, Judson P
We evaluated the intention, implementation, and impact of Costa Rica's program of payments for environmental services (PSA), which was established in the late 1990s. Payments are given to private landowners who own land in forest areas in recognition of the ecosystem services their land provides. To characterize the distribution of PSA in Costa Rica, we combined remote sensing with geographic information system databases and then used econometrics to explore the impacts of payments on deforestation. Payments were distributed broadly across ecological and socioeconomic gradients, but the 1997-2000 deforestation rate was not significantly lower in areas that received payments. Other successful Costa Rican conservation policies, including those prior to the PSA program, may explain the current reduction in deforestation rates. The PSA program is a major advance in the global institutionalization of ecosystem investments because few, if any, other countries have such a conservation history and because much can be learned from Costa Rica's experiences.
Open Access
Estimating the Impacts of Local Policy Innovation: The Synthetic Control Method Applied to Tropical Deforestation.
(PLoS One, 2015) Sills, Erin O; Herrera, Diego; Kirkpatrick, A Justin; Brandão, Amintas; Dickson, Rebecca; Hall, Simon; Pattanayak, Subhrendu; Shoch, David; Vedoveto, Mariana; Young, Luisa; Pfaff, Alexander
Quasi-experimental methods increasingly are used to evaluate the impacts of conservation interventions by generating credible estimates of counterfactual baselines. These methods generally require large samples for statistical comparisons, presenting a challenge for evaluating innovative policies implemented within a few pioneering jurisdictions. Single jurisdictions often are studied using comparative methods, which rely on analysts' selection of best case comparisons. The synthetic control method (SCM) offers one systematic and transparent way to select cases for comparison, from a sizeable pool, by focusing upon similarity in outcomes before the intervention. We explain SCM, then apply it to one local initiative to limit deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The municipality of Paragominas launched a multi-pronged local initiative in 2008 to maintain low deforestation while restoring economic production. This was a response to having been placed, due to high deforestation, on a federal "blacklist" that increased enforcement of forest regulations and restricted access to credit and output markets. The local initiative included mapping and monitoring of rural land plus promotion of economic alternatives compatible with low deforestation. The key motivation for the program may have been to reduce the costs of blacklisting. However its stated purpose was to limit deforestation, and thus we apply SCM to estimate what deforestation would have been in a (counterfactual) scenario of no local initiative. We obtain a plausible estimate, in that deforestation patterns before the intervention were similar in Paragominas and the synthetic control, which suggests that after several years, the initiative did lower deforestation (significantly below the synthetic control in 2012). This demonstrates that SCM can yield helpful land-use counterfactuals for single units, with opportunities to integrate local and expert knowledge and to test innovations and permutations on policies that are implemented in just a few locations.
Open Access
Global desertification: Building a science for dryland development
(Science, 2007-05) REYNOLDS; James, F; Smith, DM Stafford; Lambin, EF; Turner, BL; II; Mortimore, M; Batterbury, SPJ; Downing, TE; Dowlatabadi, H; Fernández, RJ; Herrick, JE; Huber-Sannwald, E; Leemans, R; Lynam, T; Maestre, FT; Ayarza, M; Walker, B
In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent lessons about the functioning of dryland ecosystems and the livelihood systems of their human residents and introduce a new synthetic framework, the Drylands Development Paradigm (DDP). The DDP, supported by a growing and well-documented set of tools for policy and management action, helps navigate the inherent complexity of desertification and dryland development, identifying and synthesizing those factors important to research, management, and policy communities.
Open Access
“Let the Sunshine In”: The Impact of Industry Payment Disclosure on Physician Prescription Behavior
(Marketing Science, 2020-01-01) Guo, T; Sriram, S; Manchanda, P
U.S. pharmaceutical companies frequently pay doctors to promote their drugs. This has raised concerns about conflict of interest, which policy makers have attempted to address by introducing payment disclosure laws. However, it is unclear if such disclosure has an effect on physician prescription behavior. We use individual-level claims data from a major provider of health insurance in the United States and employ a difference-indifferences research design to study the effect of the payment disclosure law introduced in Massachusetts in June 2009. The research design exploits the fact that, although physicians operating in Massachusetts were impacted by the legislation, their counterparts in the neighboring states of Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island were not. In order to keep the groups of physicians comparable, we restrict our analysis to physicians in the counties that are on the border of these states. We find that the Massachusetts disclosure law resulted in a decline in prescriptions in all three drug classes studied: statins, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Our findings are robust to alternative control groups, time periods and estimation methods. We also show that the effect is highly heterogeneous across physician groups. Finally, we explore potential mechanisms driving these results.
Open Access
Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000-2018.
(Nature human behaviour, 2021-08) Bhattacharjee, Natalia V; Schaeffer, Lauren E; Hay, Simon I; Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators
Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)-giving infants only breast-milk for the first 6 months of life-is a component of optimal breastfeeding practices effective in preventing child morbidity and mortality. EBF practices are known to vary by population and comparable subnational estimates of prevalence and progress across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are required for planning policy and interventions. Here we present a geospatial analysis of EBF prevalence estimates from 2000 to 2018 across 94 LMICs mapped to policy-relevant administrative units (for example, districts), quantify subnational inequalities and their changes over time, and estimate probabilities of meeting the World Health Organization's Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) of ≥70% EBF prevalence by 2030. While six LMICs are projected to meet the WHO GNT of ≥70% EBF prevalence at a national scale, only three are predicted to meet the target in all their district-level units by 2030.
Open Access
Mifepristone (RU-486^®) as a Schedule IV Controlled Drug-Implications for a Misleading Drug Policy on Women's Health Care.
(International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022-07) Hsieh, Yi-Ping; Wang, Yun-Ju; Feng, Ling-Yi; Wu, Li-Tzy; Li, Jih-Heng
Background
Mifepristone (RU-486) has been approved for abortion in Taiwan since 2000. Mifepristone was the first non-addictive medicine to be classified as a schedule IV controlled drug. As a case of the "misuse" of "misuse of drugs laws," the policy and consequences of mifepristone-assisted abortion for pregnant women could be compared with those of illicit drug use for drug addicts.
Methods
The rule-making process of mifepristone regulation was analyzed from various aspects of legitimacy, social stigma, women's human rights, and access to health care.
Results and discussion
The restriction policy on mifepristone regulation in Taiwan has raised concerns over the legitimacy of listing a non-addictive substance as a controlled drug, which may produce stigma and negatively affect women's reproductive and privacy rights. Such a restriction policy and social stigma may lead to the unwillingness of pregnant women to utilize safe abortion services. Under the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US FDA's action on mifepristone prescription and dispensing reminds us it is time to consider a change of policy.
Conclusions
Listing mifepristone as a controlled drug could impede the acceptability and accessibility of safe mifepristone use and violates women's right to health care.
Open Access
Older Adults Post-Incarceration: Restructuring Long-term Services and Supports in the Time of COVID-19.
(Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2021-03) Boucher, Nathan A; Van Houtven, Courtney H; Dawson, Walter D
Objectives
To describe long-term care services and supports (LTSS) in the United States, note their limitations in serving older adults post-incarceration, and offer potential solutions, with special consideration for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic.
Design
Narrative review.
Setting and participants
LTSS for older adults post-incarceration.
Methods
Literature review and policy analysis.
Results
Skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, assisted living, adult foster homes, and informal care from family and friends compose LTSS for older adults, but their utilization suffers from access and payment complexities, especially for older adults post-incarceration. A combination of public-private partnerships, utilization of health professional trainees, and unique approaches to informal caregiver support, including direct compensation to caregivers, could help older adults reentering our communities following prison.
Conclusions and implications
Long-standing gaps in US LTSS are revealed by the coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic. Older adults entering our communities from prison are particularly vulnerable and need unique solutions to aging care as they face stigma and access challenges not typically encountered by the general population. Our review and discussion offer guidance to systems, practitioners, and policy makers on how to improve the care of older adults after incarceration.
Open Access
Should the patent system for new medicines be abolished?
(Clin Pharmacol Ther, 2007-11) DiMasi, JA; Grabowski, HG
Open Access
The social threats of COVID-19 for people with chronic pain.
(Pain, 2020-10) Karos, Kai; McParland, Joanna L; Bunzli, Samantha; Devan, Hemakumar; Hirsh, Adam; Kapos, Flavia P; Keogh, Edmund; Moore, David; Tracy, Lincoln M; Ashton-James, Claire E

Browsing by Subject "Public Policy"

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