Search

From 2004 to 2007 the California HealthCare Foundation's Step by Step: Local Coverage Expansion initiative supported insurance coverage expansions for uninsured children and adults in thirty California counties. In this paper we describe the initiative and its achievements as well as challenges for grantees. Also, we discuss the implications of the initiative's outcomes for expanding coverage locally and more broadly. Implementing new insurance programs is possible in the most difficult settings. Although there are real challenges to sustaining these expansions and limits to what they can accomplish in the face of major unmet needs, they may lay useful groundwork for broader expansions later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of minimally invasive techniques, surgeons must learn skills and procedures that are radically different from traditional open surgery. Traditional methods of surgical training that were adequate when techniques and instrumentation changed relatively slowly may not be as efficient or effective in training substantially new procedures. Virtual environments are a promising new medium for training. This paper describes a testbed developed at the San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara campuses of the University of California for research in understanding, assessing, and training surgical skills. The testbed includes virtual environments for training perceptual motor skills, spatial skills, and critical steps of surgical procedures. Novel technical elements of the testbed include a four-DOF haptic interface, a fast collision detection algorithm for detecting contact between rigid and deformable objects, and parallel processing of physical modeling and rendering. The major technical challenge in surgical simulation to be investigated using the testbed is the development of accurate, real-time methods for modeling deformable tissue behavior. Several simulations have been implemented in the testbed, including environments for assessing performance of basic perceptual motor skills, training the use of an angled laparoscope, and teaching critical steps of the cholecystectomy, a common laparoscopic procedure. The major challenges of extending and integrating these tools for training are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights research papers presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, California on December 6-9, 2003. Production strategy developed by researchers from Freiburg University Medical Center in Germany for individual idiotype vaccines; Results of a phase II study of gemtuzumab ozogamicin for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia; Murine model developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago for myelodysplastic syndrome.

Focuses on the 41st Annual Research in Medical Education RIME) Conference held in San Francisco, California from November 10-13, 2002. Agenda of the conference; Participants of the conference; Research papers presented during the conference.