Background: Dental caries (cavities) experience is prevalent in US children, and national data show rates to be increasing among young children. Disparities are found for those in the low-income and non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/Latinx groups. Use of caries prevention, specifically dental sealants, is low, even among school-based programs.…

The pandemic represented a context where rapid changes to planning, organization and service delivery were undertaken to respond to an urgent and life-threatening health system problem. There was intense interest in knowledge mobilization--mechanisms that allow the timely sharing of evidence with the aim of supporting improvement--to mitigate the…

The article refers to resources, problems and challenges of autism diagnosis and support system in Poland. The resources include: the increasing number of specialists, diagnostic and therapeutic centres, well-established course of education for people working with youths, standardised and normalised diagnostic tools. The diagnostic process is not…

Many countries, including Australia, have established a national scheme that supports the recognition of a single ethical review for multi-centre research conducted in publicly funded health services. However, local site-specific governance review processes remain decentralised and highly variable. This short report describes the ethics and…

Population-adjusted indirect comparison (PAIC) is an increasingly used technique for estimating the comparative effectiveness of different treatments for the health technology assessments when head-to-head trials are unavailable. Three commonly used PAIC methods include matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC), simulated treatment comparison…

Empathy is extolled in Western healthcare and medical education as an exemplary quality to cultivate in trainees and providers. Yet it remains an elusive and inadequately understood attribute. It posits a "one size fits all" unidimensional attribute applicable across contexts with scant attention given to its multifaceted dimensions in…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) incorporates all available evidence into a general statistical framework for comparing multiple treatments. Standard NMAs make three major assumptions, namely homogeneity, similarity, and consistency, and violating these assumptions threatens an NMA's validity. In this article, we suggest a graphical approach to…

Caring for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be complicated, especially when challenging behaviors are present. Providers may feel unprepared to work with these individuals because specialized training for medical and social service providers is limited. To increase access to specialized training, we modified an effective…

This article explores the innovative concept of narrative medicine, an interdisciplinary field merging humanities, arts, clinical practice, and healthcare justice, which seeks to deepen the understanding of patient experiences within healthcare settings. It highlights the transformative impact of using art museums, such as The Art Institute of…

Cochrane reviews are known to be a high-quality source of evidence synthesis supporting health care decisions. In a recently conducted study, we analyzed the trends in epidemiology and reporting of published systematic reviews over the last 20 years. This sample of 1132 systematic reviews included 84 Cochrane reviews. We have learned several…

Poverty and financial insecurity are major drivers of poor health outcomes, but health systems have traditionally lacked the tools to address these economic drivers of health. In recent years, an innovative clinical care model is starting to change that: Medical-Financial Partnerships (MFPs). Medical-Financial Partnerships are collaborations…

"America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2023," is a compendium of indicators about the Nation's young people. The report, the 25th produced by the Forum, presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are drawn from reliable Federal statistics, are easily understood by broad…

The article elaborates the theoretical and methodological foundations of a Foucauldian-inspired critical ethnographic investigation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The aim was to consider ADHD from outside its dominant biomedical explanation as a means of problematizing the increasing usage within schools and health services.…

Simulated standardized patients (SPs) are trained individuals who pose incognito as people seeking treatment in a health care setting. With the method's increasing use and popularity, we propose some standards to adapt the method to contextual considerations of feasibility, and we discuss current issues with the SP method and the experience of…

Health professions education is that part of the education system which applies educational philosophy, theory, principles and practice in a complex relationship with busy clinical services, where education is not the primary role. While the goals are clear--to produce the health workforce that society needs to improve health outcomes--both…