This paper complements the other papers in the Lancet Series on midwifery by documenting the experience of low-income and middle-income countries that deployed midwives as one of the core constituents of their strategy to improve maternal and newborn health. It examines the constellation of various diverse health-system strengthening interventions deployed by Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Morocco, among which the scaling up of the pre-service education of midwives was only one element.

Observational studies have reported higher mortality for patients admitted on weekends. It is not known whether this “weekend effect” is modified by clinical staffing levels on weekends. We aimed to test the hypotheses that rounds by stroke specialist physicians 7 d per week and the ratio of registered nurses to beds on weekends are associated with mortality after stroke.

Original Source

The objective of the study was to describe the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of U.S. obstetricians on the topic of prenatal environmental exposures.

Shortages of nurses, doctors, and health professionals in resource-poor countries challenge the success of many health initiatives and health-system strengthening. In many of these countries, medical and nursing schools are few and severely short of faculty, limiting their capacity to scale-up and increase the number of skilled graduates and professionals to support the health system.

Blood Pressure related disease affected 118 million people in India in the year 2000; this figure will double by 2025. Around one in four adults in rural India have hypertension, and of those, only a minority are accessing appropriate care. Health systems in India face substantial challenges to meet these gaps in care, and innovative solutions are needed.

Corruption, an undeniable reality in the health sector, is arguably the most serious ethical crisis in medicine today. However, it remains poorly addressed in scholarly journals and by professional associations of physicians and bioethicists. This article provides an overview of the forms and dynamics of corruption in healthcare as well as its,implications in health and medicine.

The editorial “Doctors for Rural Areas” (13 April 2013) is highly practical and convincing. In view of the dearth of capacity of preparing an MBBS doctor, our country lacks the number of doctors required for serving the rural areas. The MBBS doctors coming out from private medical colleges have to pay hefty amounts as capitation fees and at the same time a huge course fee. The rural areas have very poor infrastructure and lack a congenial living atmosphere and for these reasons, doctors remain absent while they serve their rural stint.