The epidemiology of female rape victims who seek immediate medical care: temporal trends in the incidence of sexual assault and acquaintance rape

Women who seek medical care following sexual assault are usually evaluated and treated in an emergency department (ED). Therefore, EDs can be an important source of sexual assault surveillance data. The authors compared the incidence of sexual assault presenting for emergency care in a single county during July to November of 1974 and 1991. Participants included all female sexual assault victims aged 14 and older who presented for ED evaluation. Treating physicians prospectively collected data using standardized forms. The z statistic was used to compare sexual assault incidence. There was a 60% increase in the incidence of sexual assault victims presenting for emergency care in 1991 compared to 1974, primarily due to an increase in the incidence of women presenting to the ED after rapes by known assailants. In contrast, the annual incidence of reported stranger assaults was similar in the two study years.     

两地区医疗纠纷法医学尸检鉴定质量的比较研究

目的研究影响涉及医疗纠纷法医学尸检鉴定质量差异的原因。方法两个具有代表性的法医学尸检鉴定机构所涉及医疗纠纷的相关案例,进行字2检验、t检验等统计学研究。结果通过字2检验发现,在设定的10个指标中,有7个指标存在显著性差异,提示两鉴定单位在“涉及医疗纠纷的法医学尸检鉴定”中检验手段和标准、规范性等均存在极大的差异。结论通过研究,提示法医学鉴定人素质、尸检的标准化和规范化、尸检检材的提取标准化、死因或疾病的诊断标准、会诊制度及法医学鉴定书的书写规范化等是法医学尸检鉴定质量控制和管理的重要环节。     

HealthConnect and the duty of care: a dilemma for medical practitioners

This article asks whether medical practitioners' duty of care to their patients will encompass participation in the HealthConnect shared electronic records initiative. Medico-legal aspects of the HeathConnect scheme relating to the nature of shared electronic health record summaries (SEHRS) are examined, focusing on their function as an element of patient care and their ultimate purpose. The analysis is based on the premise that an incomplete and hence inaccurate shared electronic health record summary is clinically and legally more perilous than no record at all.     

Health Canada considers dispensing medical marijuana through pharmacies

Health Canada may be poised to emulate the Netherlands' system of distributing marijuana to HIV/AIDS and other patients through pharmacies. Meanwhile, revisions to the much-criticized medical marijuana regulatory system are under development.     

Caribbean: Regional support for HIV/AIDS law and policy reform

In this article, David Patterson describes the second regional training workshop on HIV/AIDS, law, ethics, and human rights, which took place in Georgetown, Guyana in November 2003; and a grant from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) to the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP). The grant focuses on human rights, prevention, and care and support.     

The co-regulation of medical discipline: challenging medical peer review

The medical profession has always fiercely defended its right to self-regulation on the basis of peer review. However, in New South Wales, Australia, the profession has willingly surrendered these rights in favour of a disciplinary system known as co-regulation or collaborative regulation, under which disciplinary processes are shared with a "lay" body, the Health Care Complaints Commission. The system constitutes a unique situation in the history of medical regulation. This article examines the origin and operations of co-regulation and comes to the conclusion that its successful operation over the last decade raises questions about whether peer review is indispensable as the basis of medical regulation.