Home
Last week, a group of 14 international agriculture experts from around the world wrote an opinion piece in Science magazine urging the scientific community to address the importance of agriculture in the climate change debate. The authors, many of them serving as part of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change (a Burness client), and led by UK's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir John Beddington, say there was incremental progress on the issue at this year's climate discussions in Durban. But they say the agreement does not go far enough.
The main premise behind OpenNotes, a trial project funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is simple: allowing patients to easily access their medical notes via a secure online portal could empower patients to take more control over their own health care and improve the relationships between doctors and patients. According to a survey published in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine, demand for this kind of access to medical notes is high. Doctors, however, worry that patients may find the notes confusing.
The global health community should pay more attention to venomous snakebites, according to a group of researchers at a recent American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygieneve (ASTMH) meeting. Rates of death by snakebite, they said, are higher than reported. Many victims die or find alternative care such as "snake charmers" before going to established medical facilities, which are often too far away or too expensive.
Learn more.