PLOS Medicine editors comment on progress of World Health Report 2012

Press release from PLOS Medicine

2012-09-26

(Press-News.org) In this month's editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors comment on the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest World Health Report, originally planned for publication in 2012, and the outcomes of the journal's collaboration with WHO on the intended theme of "no health without research." As part of that collaboration, the journal editors and WHO previously called for submission of papers to a joint collection on that theme, inviting "the submission of articles, especially from low- and middle-income countries, on topics related to the strengthening of key functions and components of national health research systems", intended to accompany the official publication of the Report. The Call for Papers has resulted in a Collection of papers highlighting these topics at http://www.ploscollections.org/whr2012.

However, the PLOS Medicine Editors now report on delays and changes in scope of the Report, saying that "in light of the interest in the Collection, it is disappointing to learn that the 2012 World Health Report will now not exist, at least as originally envisaged… the report has been delayed until 2013." The editors note that "the report's focus will now be oriented towards 'the contributions of research to universal health coverage' but that its scope, and linkages to previous reports in related areas such as the previous report on Health Systems Financing are still unclear."

### Funding: The authors are each paid a salary by the Public Library of Science, and they wrote this editorial during their salaried time.

Competing Interests: The authors' individual competing interests are at http://www.plosmedicine.org/static/editorsInterests.action. PLOS is funded partly through manuscript publication charges, but the PLOS Medicine Editors are paid a fixed salary (their salary is not linked to the number of papers published in the journal).

Citation: The PLOS Medicine Editors (2012) The World Health Report 2012 That Wasn't. PLoS Med 9(9): e1001317. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001317

IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER (THIS LINK WILL BECOME LIVE WHEN THE EMBARGO LIFTS):

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001317

CONTACT:

The PLOS Medicine Editors
medicine_editors@plos.org

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study examines usage, outcomes of knee replacement procedures among Medicare patients

2012-09-26

CHICAGO – There has been an increase in total knee arthroplasty (TKA; knee replacement) procedures over the past 20 years that has been driven by both an increase in the number of Medicare enrollees and increase in per capita utilization, according to a study in the September 26 issue of JAMA. There has also been a decrease in hospital length of stay for TKA, but increased hospital readmission rates and increased rates of infectious complications. "Total knee arthroplasty is a common and safe procedure typically performed for relief of symptoms in patients with severe ...

Using corticosteroid for children undergoing tonsillectomy may not increase risk of serious bleeding

2012-09-26

CHICAGO – Administration of the corticosteroid dexamethasone to children during a tonsillectomy was not associated with excessive, serious bleeding events following surgery compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the September 26 issue of JAMA. Tonsillectomy is exceedingly common, with a reported increase in tonsillectomy rates in children younger than 15 years from 287,000 to 530,000 per year over the past decade. Although safe, adenotonsillectomy can result in significant complications, according to background information in the article. ...

Pre-op steroids to prevent nausea do not significantly increase post-op bleeding

2012-09-26

Boston (Sept. 25, 2012) — Tonsillectomy is exceedingly common, with a reported increase in tonsillectomy rates in children younger than 15 years from 287,000 to 530,000 per year over the past decade. Although safe, adenotonsillectomy can result in significant complications, such as aspiration and bleeding. Complications are infrequent, but because tonsillectomy is so common, the absolute number of children experiencing tonsillectomy complications is formidable. Corticosteroids are often given to children undergoing tonsillectomy to reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting; ...

Most European languages in danger of digital extinction

2012-09-26

Scientists from The University of Manchester were part of a European team of researchers who concluded that digital assistance for 21 of the 30 languages investigated is 'non-existent' or 'weak' at best. The report coincides with the European Day of Languages [SEPTEMBER 26], a day which recognises the importance of fostering and developing the rich linguistic and cultural heritage of our continent. Languages spoken by a small number of people could be at risk because they do not have technological support, the report by META-NET, a European network of excellence that ...

Future health risks for obese children may be greater than previously thought

2012-09-26

Research: Cardiovascular disease risk in healthy children and its association with body mass index: systematic review and meta-analysis Editorial: Obesity in children and adolescents Being obese as a child or adolescent may have a larger effect on future health than previously thought, suggests a study published on bmj.com today. It comes as New York City passes a ban on large-size sugary drinks to help tackle obesity and related health problems in the US. MPs are now calling on the government to introduce similar legislation in the UK. Researchers at the University ...

Should celebrities get involved in public health campaigns?

2012-09-26

Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney thinks the extra publicity that celebrities provide can help promote public health. He acknowledges that celebrities are not experts but says, unlike many experts, they "often speak personally and bring compelling authenticity to public discourse." He says those concerned about celebrities in health campaigns "invariably point to examples which have gone badly wrong or which fail to change the world forever" but argues "they are silent about the many examples of celebrity engagement that have massively ...

Medical screening for older drivers is misguided, argues senior doctor

2012-09-26

Personal View: Medical screening of older drivers is not evidence based Medical screening of older drivers is misguided and typifies a "worrying lack of due diligence" by the medical profession, warns a senior doctor on bmj.com today. Professor Desmond O'Neill, Consultant Physician in Geriatric and Stroke Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, argues that older drivers not only have an enviable crash record, but they also raise traffic safety among other generations: the risk of serious injury to children is halved if driven by grandparents rather than parents. "Yet the ...

Backpack-toting birds help UBC researchers reveal migratory divide, conservation hotspots

2012-09-26

By outfitting two British Columbia subspecies of Swainson's thrushes with penny-sized, state-of-the-art geolocators, University of British Columbia researchers have been able to map their wildly divergent migration routes and pinpoint conservation hotspots. "Birds of a feather do not necessarily flock together," says Kira Delmore, a PhD student with UBC's Department of Zoology and lead author of the paper. "Our teams of thrushes took dramatically different routes to get to their wintering grounds, either south along the west coast to Central America, or southeast to Alabama ...

Doctors' 'gut feeling' should not be ignored

2012-09-26

Doctors who experience a gut feeling about serious illness when treating a child in primary care should take action upon this feeling and not ignore it, a study published today on bmj.com suggests. Serious infection can easily be missed in young children and making a diagnosis has been described as "like finding a needle in a haystack". A clinician's intuitive feeling that something is wrong, even after examination that suggests otherwise, appears to have diagnostic value, even greater diagnostic value than most symptoms and signs. Studies have suggested it should be ...

Rice University lab encodes collagen

2012-09-26

HOUSTON – (Sept. 25, 2012) – The human body is proficient at making collagen. And human laboratories are getting better at it all the time. In a development that could lead to better drug design and new treatments for disease, Rice University researchers have made a major step toward synthesizing custom collagen. Rice scientists who have learned how to make collagen – the fibrous protein that binds cells together into organs and tissues – are now digging into its molecular structure to see how it forms and interacts with biological systems. Jeffrey Hartgerink, an associate ...

Phase III trial finds hypofractionated radiotherapy with chemotherapy offers comparable survival and lower toxicity to conventional schedule in LS-SCLC

EA5181 phase 3 trial finds no OS benefit for concurrent and consolidative durvalumab vs consolidation alone in unresectable stage 3 NSCLC

First-in-human trial shows promising results for DLL3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate SHR-4849 in relapsed small cell lung cancer

Ifinatamab deruxtecan demonstrates high response rate in previously treated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer: Phase 2 IDeate-Lung01 trial

Zidesamtinib shows durable responses in ROS1 TKI pre-treated NSCLC, including patients with CNS disease and ROS1 G2032R mutations

Crizotinib fails to improve disease-free survival in resected early-stage ALK+ NSCLC

Ivonescimab plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in patients with EGFR+ NSCLC following 3rd-generation EGFR-TKI therapy

FLAURA2 trial shows osimertinib plus chemotherapy improves overall survival in eGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC

Aumolertinib plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in NSCLC with EGFR and concomitant tumor suppressor genes: ACROSS 2 phase III study

New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients

Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds

COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC

PLOS Medicine editors comment on progress of World Health Report 2012

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: