The association between industry payments to physicians and prescribing rates of the brand-name medications that are being promoted is controversial. In the United States, industry payment data and Medicare prescribing records recently became publicly available.

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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) account for 60% of the total deaths in India. The National Program for Prevention and Control of Cancers, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) is operational in selected districts of India since 2009-2010. Health workers (HWs) are the key stakeholders in the implementation of NPCDCS at community level. Keeping in view the dismal progress of the program implementation in existing districts, it is evident to assess the capacities of the HWs before rolling out the program in new districts.

Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing contributes to antimicrobial resistance. In this trial, the aimed to reduce unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics by general practitioners (GPs) in England.

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The issue of regulation of doctors and private hospitals is one that is increasingly becoming important for the citizen. The attempts by professional medical associations to scuttle the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act of 2010 is the context for this essay on the issues that afflict the provision of private healthcare. After a critical discussion of all the major issues, the essay outlines what needs to be done to prevent and address the malpractices and abuses that are widely prevalent in the country.

A novel H1N1 influenza A virus caused the first pandemic of the 21st century in 2009. Hospitals had an increased demand of health consultations, that made it difficult to estimate the incidence of infection in hospital personnel due to asymptomatic presentations and the under notification of cases. To estimate and compare the rate of exposure of high versus low risk health personnel to 2009 pandemic H1N1 (H1N1pdm2009) influenza A virus in a University Hospital in Chile, we performed a comparative and prospective study.

In remote areas, an absence of doctors and nurses leads to poor health outcomes for local populations. To increase access to health-care workers, the World Health Organization recommends interventions in four areas – education, regulatory, financial and professional/personal. To support retention, WHO and other organizations have called for bundled programmes that take into account health workers’ expectations. Retention programmes that enhance workers’ competence, responsiveness and productivity have also been recommended.

The draft National Health Policy 2015 is an improvement over its predecessors--the policies of 1984 and 2002. However, it also reveals several gaps, inconsistencies and blind spots which tend to dilute otherwise constructive proposals. The purpose of this article is to open up the draft to further public debate and comment.

The World Health Organization recommends that malaria be confirmed by parasitological diagnosis before treatment using Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT). Despite this, many health workers in malaria endemic countries continue to diagnose malaria based on symptoms alone. This study evaluates interventions to help bridge this gap between guidelines and provider practice.

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