Sample records for access policies tutela

  1. Public Access Policy and Communications | DOE PAGES

    Science.gov Websites

    Close Clear All Find DOE PAGES Public Access Policy and Communications Public Access Policy and Communications 7/24/14 Department of Energy Public Access Plan DOE Public Access Plan 2/22/13 White House Office Information (ICSTI) Insights article Public Access at the United States Department of Energy (1,011 KB), by

  2. Educational Access in India. Country Policy Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Online Submission, 2009

    2009-01-01

    This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schools in India. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides an analysis of access, vulnerability and exclusion. The quantitative data is supported by a review of research which explains the patterns of access and exclusion. It is based on findings from the…

  3. Educational Access in Ghana. Country Policy Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akyeampong, K.; Djangmah, J.; Oduro, A.; Seidu, A.; Hunt, F.

    2008-01-01

    This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schools in Ghana. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides an analysis of access, vulnerability and exclusion. It is based on findings from the Country Analytic Report on Access to Basic Education in Ghana (Akyeampong et al, 2007) [ED508809] which can be…

  4. Semantically Enriched Data Access Policies in eHealth.

    PubMed

    Drozdowicz, Michał; Ganzha, Maria; Paprzycki, Marcin

    2016-11-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) requires novel solutions to facilitate autonomous, though controlled, resource access. Access policies have to facilitate interactions between heterogeneous entities (devices and humans). Here, we focus our attention on access control in eHealth. We propose an approach based on enriching policies, based on well-known and widely-used eXtensible Access Control Markup Language, with semantics. In the paper we describe an implementation of a Policy Information Point integrated with the HL7 Security and Privacy Ontology.

  5. Educational Access in South Africa. Country Policy Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Motala, S.; Dieltens, V.; Carrim, N.; Kgobe, P.; Moyo, G.; Rembe, S.

    2008-01-01

    This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schools in South Africa. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides a statistical analysis of access, vulnerability and exclusion. It is based on findings from the Country Analytic Review on Educational Access in South Africa (Motala et al, 2007) [ED508808]…

  6. Reconceptualising Access in Education Policy: Method and Mindset

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vongalis-Macrow, Athena

    2010-01-01

    Enhancing access to education and knowledge is a long-held principle enshrined in education policy. Access to education offers leverage for educational attainment and achievement, at the individual and social levels. In policy, the term equates with concepts of inclusion, social justice and equity. Over the last decades, as education policy has…

  7. LTER network data access policy revision: report and recommendations.

    Treesearch

    James Brunt; Peter McCartney; Stuart Gage; Don Henshaw

    2004-01-01

    This document is a report on work carried out to update the LTER Network Data Access Policy. The current LTER Network Data Access Policy, approved by the coordinating committee in 1997, has been in use since 1990. An analysis of the current policies related to the release, access, and use of LTER data has been undertaken by a sub-committee of the LTER Network...

  8. EU accession: A policy window opportunity for nursing?

    PubMed

    De Raeve, Paul; Rafferty, Anne-Marie; Bariball, Louise; Young, Ruth; Boiko, Olga

    2017-03-01

    European enlargement has been studied in a wide range of policy areas within and beyond health. Yet the impact of EU enlargement upon one of the largest health professions, nursing, has been largely neglected. This paper aims to explore nurse leadership using a comparative case study method in two former Communist countries, Romania and Croatia. Specifically, it considers the extent to which engagement in the EU accession policy-making process provided a policy window for the leaders to formulate and implement a professional agenda while negotiating EU accession. Findings of qualitative interviews and documentary analysis indicate that the mechanisms used to facilitate the accession process were not successful in achieving compliance with the education standards in the Community Acquis, as highlighted in the criteria on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications set out in Directive 2005/36/EC. EU accession capacity building and accession funds were not deployed efficiently to upgrade Romanian and Croatian nursing education towards meeting EU standards. Conflicting views on accession held by the various nursing stakeholders (nursing regulator, nursing union, governmental chief nurse and the professional association) inhibited the setting of a common policy agenda to achieve compliance with EU standards. The study findings suggest a need to critically review EU accession mechanisms and better align leadership at all governance levels. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. NESDIS OSPO Data Access Policy and CRM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seybold, M. G.; Donoho, N. A.; McNamara, D.; Paquette, J.; Renkevens, T.

    2012-12-01

    The Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) is the NESDIS office responsible for satellite operations, product generation, and product distribution. Access to and distribution of OSPO data was formally established in a Data Access Policy dated February, 2011. An extension of the data access policy is the OSPO Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Database, which has been in development since 2008 and is reaching a critical level of maturity. This presentation will provide a summary of the data access policy and standard operating procedure (SOP) for handling data access requests. The tangential CRM database will be highlighted including the incident tracking system, reporting and notification capabilities, and the first comprehensive portfolio of NESDIS satellites, instruments, servers, applications, products, user organizations, and user contacts. Select examples of CRM data exploitation will show how OSPO is utilizing the CRM database to more closely satisfy the user community's satellite data needs with new product promotions, as well as new data and imagery distribution methods in OSPO's Environmental Satellite Processing Center (ESPC). In addition, user services and outreach initiatives from the Satellite Products and Services Division will be highlighted.

  10. Modeling rural landowners' hunter access policies in East Texas, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wright, Brett A.; Fesenmaier, Daniel R.

    1988-03-01

    Private landowners in East Texas, USA, were aggregated into one of four policy categories according to the degree of access allowed to their lands for hunting. Based on these categories, a logistic regression model of possible determinants of access policy was developed and probabilities of policy adoption were calculated. Overwhelmingly, attitudes toward hunting as a sport, incentives, and control over the actions of hunters were most predictive of landowners' policies. Additionally, the availability of deer was found to be negatively correlated with access, thereby suggesting management efforts to increase deer populations may be counter to increasing access. Further, probabilities derived from the model indicated that there was almost a 7 in 10 chance (0.66) that landowners would adopt policies commensurate with allowing family and personal acquaintances to hunt on their property. However, the probability of increasing access beyond this level, where access was provided for the general public, dropped off drastically to less than 5% (0.04).

  11. Educational Access in Bangladesh. Country Policy Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ahmed, Manzoor

    2008-01-01

    This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schooling in Bangladesh. It outlines types of educational provision and provides some basic statistics on access, vulnerability and exclusion, as well as insights into the characteristics of those denied access. It is based on findings from the "Country Analytic Review on Access…

  12. Learning Relational Policies from Electronic Health Record Access Logs

    PubMed Central

    Malin, Bradley; Nyemba, Steve; Paulett, John

    2011-01-01

    Modern healthcare organizations (HCOs) are composed of complex dynamic teams to ensure clinical operations are executed in a quick and competent manner. At the same time, the fluid nature of such environments hinders administrators' efforts to define access control policies that appropriately balance patient privacy and healthcare functions. Manual efforts to define these policies are labor-intensive and error-prone, often resulting in systems that endow certain care providers with overly broad access to patients' medical records while restricting other providers from legitimate and timely use. In this work, we propose an alternative method to generate these policies by automatically mining usage patterns from electronic health record (EHR) systems. EHR systems are increasingly being integrated into clinical environments and our approach is designed to be generalizable across HCOs, thus assisting in the design and evaluation of local access control policies. Our technique, which is grounded in data mining and social network analysis theory, extracts a statistical model of the organization from the access logs of its EHRs. In doing so, our approach enables the review of predefined policies, as well as the discovery of unknown behaviors. We evaluate our approach with five months of access logs from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and confirm the existence of stable social structures and intuitive business operations. Additionally, we demonstrate that there is significant turnover in the interactions between users in the HCO and that policies learned at the department level afford greater stability over time. PMID:21277996

  13. Distributed clinical data sharing via dynamic access-control policy transformation.

    PubMed

    Rezaeibagha, Fatemeh; Mu, Yi

    2016-05-01

    Data sharing in electronic health record (EHR) systems is important for improving the quality of healthcare delivery. Data sharing, however, has raised some security and privacy concerns because healthcare data could be potentially accessible by a variety of users, which could lead to privacy exposure of patients. Without addressing this issue, large-scale adoption and sharing of EHR data are impractical. The traditional solution to the problem is via encryption. Although encryption can be applied to access control, it is not applicable for complex EHR systems that require multiple domains (e.g. public and private clouds) with various access requirements. This study was carried out to address the security and privacy issues of EHR data sharing with our novel access-control mechanism, which captures the scenario of the hybrid clouds and need of access-control policy transformation, to provide secure and privacy-preserving data sharing among different healthcare enterprises. We introduce an access-control mechanism with some cryptographic building blocks and present a novel approach for secure EHR data sharing and access-control policy transformation in EHR systems for hybrid clouds. We propose a useful data sharing system for healthcare providers to handle various EHR users who have various access privileges in different cloud environments. A systematic study has been conducted on data sharing in EHR systems to provide a solution to the security and privacy issues. In conclusion, we introduce an access-control method for privacy protection of EHRs and EHR policy transformation that allows an EHR access-control policy to be transformed from a private cloud to a public cloud. This method has never been studied previously in the literature. Furthermore, we provide a protocol to demonstrate policy transformation as an application scenario. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Web Accessibility Policies at Land-Grant Universities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bradbard, David A.; Peters, Cara; Caneva, Yoana

    2010-01-01

    The Web has become an integral part of postsecondary education within the United States. There are specific laws that legally mandate postsecondary institutions to have Web sites that are accessible for students with disabilities (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)). Web accessibility policies are a way for universities to provide a…

  15. Strategies for Success: Open Access Policies at North American Educational Institutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fruin, Christine; Sutton, Shan

    2016-01-01

    Recognizing the paucity of quantitative and qualitative data from North American educational institutions that have pursued open access policies, the authors devised a survey to collect information on the characteristics of these institutions, as well as the elements of the open access policies, the methods of promoting these policies, faculty…

  16. Do open access data policies inhibit innovation?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Katzner, Todd E.

    2015-01-01

    There has been a great deal of attention paid recently to the idea of data sharing (Van Noorden 2014, Beardsley 2015, Nature Publishing Group2015, www.copdess.com). However, the vast majority of these arguments are in agreement and present as fait accompli the idea that data are a public good and that therefore, once published, they should become open access. In fact, although there are many good reasons for data sharing, there also are a number of cogent and coherent cases to be made against open-access policies (e.g., Fenichel and Skelly 2015). The goal of this piece is not to debate the relevance or accuracy of the points made in favor of data sharing but to elevate the discussion by pointing out key problems with open-access policies and to identify central issues that, if solved, will enhance the utility of data sharing to science and society.

  17. Policy reconciliation for access control in dynamic cross-enterprise collaborations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Preuveneers, D.; Joosen, W.; Ilie-Zudor, E.

    2018-03-01

    In dynamic cross-enterprise collaborations, different enterprises form a - possibly temporary - business relationship. To integrate their business processes, enterprises may need to grant each other limited access to their information systems. Authentication and authorization are key to secure information handling. However, access control policies often rely on non-standardized attributes to describe the roles and permissions of their employees which convolutes cross-organizational authorization when business relationships evolve quickly. Our framework addresses the managerial overhead of continuous updates to access control policies for enterprise information systems to accommodate disparate attribute usage. By inferring attribute relationships, our framework facilitates attribute and policy reconciliation, and automatically aligns dynamic entitlements during the evaluation of authorization decisions. We validate our framework with a Industry 4.0 motivating scenario on networked production where such dynamic cross-enterprise collaborations are quintessential. The evaluation reveals the capabilities and performance of our framework, and illustrates the feasibility of liberating the security administrator from manually provisioning and aligning attributes, and verifying the consistency of access control policies for cross-enterprise collaborations.

  18. The OPL Access Control Policy Language

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alm, Christopher; Wolf, Ruben; Posegga, Joachim

    Existing policy languages suffer from a limited ability of directly and elegantly expressing high-level access control principles such as history-based separation of duty [22], binding of duty [26], context constraints [24], Chinese wall properties [10], and obligations [20]. It is often difficult to extend a language in order to retrofit these features once required or it is necessary to use complicated and complex language constructs to express such concepts. The latter, however, is cumbersome and error-prone for humans dealing with policy administration.

  19. Analysis of Access Control Policies in Operating Systems

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Hong

    2009-01-01

    Operating systems rely heavily on access control mechanisms to achieve security goals and defend against remote and local attacks. The complexities of modern access control mechanisms and the scale of policy configurations are often overwhelming to system administrators and software developers. Therefore, mis-configurations are common, and the…

  20. Solar Access: Issues and Policy Options | State, Local, and Tribal

    Science.gov Websites

    : approximately 2,580 megawatts (MW) of new residential solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity was brought online in home with rooftop solar Figure 1. Example of a residential solar PV system. NREL 00565 The existing Governments | NREL Solar Access: Issues and Policy Options Solar Access: Issues and Policy

  1. Transparency of Biobank Access in Canada: An Assessment of Industry Access and the Availability of Information on Access Policies and Resulting Research.

    PubMed

    Gibson, Shannon G; Axler, Renata E; Lemmens, Trudo

    2017-12-01

    A key issue impacting public trust in biobanks is how these resources are utilized, including who is given access to biobank data and samples. To assess the conditions under which researchers are given access to Canadian biobanks, we reviewed websites and contacted Canadian biobanks to determine the availability of information on access policies and procedures; research resulting from access biobank data and samples; and conditions on private industry access to biobanks. We also conducted expert interviews with key Canadian stakeholders ( n = 11) to obtain their perspectives on biobank transparency and access policies. Among 21 Canadian biobanks, there was wide variation in the access information made publicly available, and the majority of these allowed access by industry applicants. Biobanks should be governed by the principles of transparency, accountability, and accessibility, and attention must be given to the conditions around the commercialization of biobank-based research.

  2. A Review of Open Access Self-Archiving Mandate Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Xia, Jingfeng; Gilchrist, Sarah B.; Smith, Nathaniel X. P.; Kingery, Justin A.; Radecki, Jennifer R.; Wilhelm, Marcia L.; Harrison, Keith C.; Ashby, Michael L.; Mahn, Alyson J.

    2012-01-01

    This article reviews the history of open access (OA) policies and examines the current status of mandate policy implementations. It finds that hundreds of policies have been proposed and adopted at various organizational levels and many of them have shown a positive effect on the rate of repository content accumulation. However, it also detects…

  3. Typing for Conflict Detection in Access Control Policies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adi, Kamel; Bouzida, Yacine; Hattak, Ikhlass; Logrippo, Luigi; Mankovskii, Serge

    In this paper we present an access control model that considers both abstract and concrete access control policies specifications. Permissions and prohibitions are expressed within this model with contextual conditions. This situation may lead to conflicts. We propose a type system that is applied to the different rules in order to check for inconsistencies. If a resource is well typed, it is guaranteed that access rules to the resource contain no conflicts.

  4. Access to Essential Medicines in Pakistan: Policy and Health Systems Research Concerns

    PubMed Central

    Zaidi, Shehla; Bigdeli, Maryam; Aleem, Noureen; Rashidian, Arash

    2013-01-01

    Introduction Inadequate access to essential medicines is a common issue within developing countries. Policy response is constrained, amongst other factors, by a dearth of in-depth country level evidence. We share here i) gaps related to access to essential medicine in Pakistan; and ii) prioritization of emerging policy and research concerns. Methods An exploratory research was carried out using a health systems perspective and applying the WHO Framework for Equitable Access to Essential Medicine. Methods involved key informant interviews with policy makers, providers, industry, NGOs, experts and development partners, review of published and grey literature, and consultative prioritization in stakeholder’s Roundtable. Findings A synthesis of evidence found major gaps in essential medicine access in Pakistan driven by weaknesses in the health care system as well as weak pharmaceutical regulation. 7 major policy concerns and 11 emerging research concerns were identified through consultative Roundtable. These related to weaknesses in medicine registration and quality assurance systems, unclear and counterproductive pricing policies, irrational prescribing and sub-optimal drug availability. Available research, both locally and globally, fails to target most of the identified policy concerns, tending to concentrate on irrational prescriptions. It overlooks trans-disciplinary areas of policy effectiveness surveillance, consumer behavior, operational pilots and pricing interventions review. Conclusion Experience from Pakistan shows that policy concerns related to essential medicine access need integrated responses across various components of the health systems, are poorly addressed by existing evidence, and require an expanded health systems research agenda. PMID:23717442

  5. Evidence-based policy versus morality policy: the case of syringe access programs.

    PubMed

    de Saxe Zerden, Lisa; O'Quinn, Erin; Davis, Corey

    2015-01-01

    Evidence-based practice (EBP) combines proven interventions with clinical experience, ethics, and client preferences to inform treatment and services. Although EBP is integrated into most aspects of social work and public health, at times EBP is at odds with social policy. In this article the authors explore the paradox of evidence-based policy using syringe access programs (SAP) as a case example, and review methods of bridging the gap between the emphasis on EBP and lack of evidence informing SAP policy. Analysis includes the overuse of morality policy and examines historical and current theories why this paradox exists. Action steps are highlighted for creating effective policy and opportunities for public health change. Strategies on reframing the problem and shifting target population focus to garner support for evidence-based policy change are included. This interdisciplinary understanding of the way in which these factors converge is a critical first step in moving beyond morality-based policy toward evidence-based policy.

  6. Distributed policy based access to networked heterogeneous ISR data sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bent, G.; Vyvyan, D.; Wood, David; Zerfos, Petros; Calo, Seraphin

    2010-04-01

    Within a coalition environment, ad hoc Communities of Interest (CoI's) come together, perhaps for only a short time, with different sensors, sensor platforms, data fusion elements, and networks to conduct a task (or set of tasks) with different coalition members taking different roles. In such a coalition, each organization will have its own inherent restrictions on how it will interact with the others. These are usually stated as a set of policies, including security and privacy policies. The capability that we want to enable for a coalition operation is to provide access to information from any coalition partner in conformance with the policies of all. One of the challenges in supporting such ad-hoc coalition operations is that of providing efficient access to distributed sources of data, where the applications requiring the data do not have knowledge of the location of the data within the network. To address this challenge the International Technology Alliance (ITA) program has been developing the concept of a Dynamic Distributed Federated Database (DDFD), also know as a Gaian Database. This type of database provides a means for accessing data across a network of distributed heterogeneous data sources where access to the information is controlled by a mixture of local and global policies. We describe how a network of disparate ISR elements can be expressed as a DDFD and how this approach enables sensor and other information sources to be discovered autonomously or semi-autonomously and/or combined, fused formally defined local and global policies.

  7. Access and authorisation in a Glocal e-Health Policy context.

    PubMed

    Scott, Richard E; Jennett, Penny; Yeo, Maryann

    2004-03-31

    Challenges to the development of appropriate yet adaptable policy and tools for security of the individual patient electronic health record (EHR) are proving to be significant. Compounding this is the unique capability of e-health to transgress all existing geo-political and other barriers. Initiatives to develop and advance policy, standards, and tools in relation to EHR access control and authorisation management must address this capability. Currently policy development initiatives take place largely in an isolated manner. This jeopardises the potential of e-health because decisions made in one jurisdiction might hamper, even prevent, an e-health opportunity in another. This paper places access and authorisation issues in an overall policy context through describing current Canadian initiatives. The National Initiative for Telehealth (NIFTE) Guidelines project is developing a framework of national guidelines for telehealth. The Policy and Peer Permission (PPP) project is developing a unique tool that provides persistent protection of data. The new corporate body 'Infoway' is developing a pan-Canadian electronic health record solution. Finally, the Glocal e-Health Policy initiative is developing a tool with which to identify and describe the inter-relationships of e-health issues amongst policy levels, themes, and actors.

  8. Telecommunication Policies in Seventeen Countries: Propects for Future Competitive Access.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eward, Ronald S.

    This document is a review and study of current and prospective telecommunication policies in 17 countries with regard to the competitive market access those policies foster or promise. It explores the policies of each country toward information flow that will also have an impact on international competition. The aim of the study is to identify the…

  9. National Information Policy Developments Worldwide II: Universal Access-Addressing the Digital Divide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muir, Adrienne; Oppenheim, Charles

    2002-01-01

    Describes the results of a literature survey on recent developments in national information policies in the area of universal access that tries to ensure equal access to information, and considers the digital divide. Highlights include policies in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Hong Kong, the United States, and Okinawa. (Contains 64…

  10. [Sustainability of Brazilian policy for access to antiretroviral drugs].

    PubMed

    Grangeiro, Alexandre; Teixeira, Luciana; Bastos, Francisco I; Teixeira, Paulo

    2006-04-01

    The expense of acquiring antiretroviral drugs in Brazil has given rise to debate about the sustainability of the policy of universal access to AIDS medications, despite the evident benefits. The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of the Ministry of Health's spending on acquiring antiretroviral drugs from 1998 to 2005, the determining factors and the medium-term sustainability of this policy (2006-2008). The study on the evolution of spending on antiretrovirals included analysis of their prices, the year-by-year expenditure, the number of patients utilizing the medication, the mean expenditure per patient and the strategies for reducing the prices maintained during this period. To analyze the sustainability of the policy for access to antiretrovirals, the cost of acquiring the drugs over the period from 2006 to 2008 was estimated, along with the proportion of gross domestic product and federal health expenditure represented by this spending. The data were collected from the Ministry of Health, the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Ministry of Planning. The expenditure on antiretrovirals increased by 66% in 2005, breaking the declining trend observed over the period from 2000 to 2004. The main factors associated with this increase were the weakening of the national generics industry and the unsatisfactory results from the process of negotiating with pharmaceutical companies. The Brazilian policy for universal access is unsustainable at the present growth rates of the gross domestic product, unless the country compromises its investments in other fields.

  11. Policies to Spur Energy Access. Executive Summary; Volume 1, Engaging the Private Sector in Expanding Access to Electricity; Volume 2, Case Studies to Public-Private Models to Finance Decentralized Electricity Access

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Walters, Terri; Rai, Neha; Esterly, Sean

    Government policy is one of the most important factors in engaging the private sector in providing universal access to electricity. In particular, the private sector is well positioned to provide decentralized electricity products and services. While policy uncertainty and regulatory barriers can keep enterprises and investors from engaging in the market, targeted policies can create opportunities to leverage private investment and skills to expand electricity access. However, creating a sustainable market requires policies beyond traditional electricity regulation. The report reviews the range of policy issues that impact the development and expansion of a market for decentralized electricity services from establishingmore » an enabling policy environment to catalyzing finance, building human capacity, and integrating energy access with development programs. The case studies in this report show that robust policy frameworks--addressing a wide range of market issues--can lead to rapid transformation in energy access. The report highlights examples of these policies in action Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, Mexico, and Nepal.« less

  12. Accessibility of electronically mediated education: policy issues.

    PubMed

    Blair, Martin E; Goldmann, Hilary; Relton, Joy

    2004-01-01

    Electronic technology has transformed education systems over the past 30 years. Generally speaking, technology has been an incredible benefit for individuals with disabilities. However, the use of technology, particularly in education, has been sometimes discriminatory toward those who are unable to interact with it in the standard ways anticipated by its inventors. Disability policies have attempted to address issues of equality of opportunity for all citizens, but application of these policies to rapidly evolving technology has been difficult. In this article we provide a brief review of disability policy as it pertains to education. We also review several current policy initiatives related to higher education information technology--all of which pertain to public kindergarten through 12th-grade education. We raise questions that arise when careful thought is given to ways in which disability, education, and technology policies overlap. We anticipate that these next few pages will generate dialogue among researchers, policy makers, educators, technology engineers, and others interested in how electronically mediated education affects individuals with disabilities and how it can be used to ensure equal access to the educational benefits available in schools protected by U.S. civil rights legislation.

  13. In an Age of Open Access to Research Policies: Physician and Public Health NGO Staff Research Use and Policy Awareness.

    PubMed

    Moorhead, Laura L; Holzmeyer, Cheryl; Maggio, Lauren A; Steinberg, Ryan M; Willinsky, John

    2015-01-01

    Through funding agency and publisher policies, an increasing proportion of the health sciences literature is being made open access. Such an increase in access raises questions about the awareness and potential utilization of this literature by those working in health fields. A sample of physicians (N=336) and public health non-governmental organization (NGO) staff (N=92) were provided with relatively complete access to the research literature indexed in PubMed, as well as access to the point-of-care service UpToDate, for up to one year, with their usage monitored through the tracking of web-log data. The physicians also participated in a one-month trial of relatively complete or limited access. The study found that participants' research interests were not satisfied by article abstracts alone nor, in the case of the physicians, by a clinical summary service such as UpToDate. On average, a third of the physicians viewed research a little more frequently than once a week, while two-thirds of the public health NGO staff viewed more than three articles a week. Those articles were published since the 2008 adoption of the NIH Public Access Policy, as well as prior to 2008 and during the maximum 12-month embargo period. A portion of the articles in each period was already open access, but complete access encouraged a viewing of more research articles. Those working in health fields will utilize more research in the course of their work as a result of (a) increasing open access to research, (b) improving awareness of and preparation for this access, and (c) adjusting public and open access policies to maximize the extent of potential access, through reduction in embargo periods and access to pre-policy literature.

  14. In an Age of Open Access to Research Policies: Physician and Public Health NGO Staff Research Use and Policy Awareness

    PubMed Central

    Maggio, Lauren A.; Steinberg, Ryan M.; Willinsky, John

    2015-01-01

    Introduction Through funding agency and publisher policies, an increasing proportion of the health sciences literature is being made open access. Such an increase in access raises questions about the awareness and potential utilization of this literature by those working in health fields. Methods A sample of physicians (N=336) and public health non-governmental organization (NGO) staff (N=92) were provided with relatively complete access to the research literature indexed in PubMed, as well as access to the point-of-care service UpToDate, for up to one year, with their usage monitored through the tracking of web-log data. The physicians also participated in a one-month trial of relatively complete or limited access. Results The study found that participants' research interests were not satisfied by article abstracts alone nor, in the case of the physicians, by a clinical summary service such as UpToDate. On average, a third of the physicians viewed research a little more frequently than once a week, while two-thirds of the public health NGO staff viewed more than three articles a week. Those articles were published since the 2008 adoption of the NIH Public Access Policy, as well as prior to 2008 and during the maximum 12-month embargo period. A portion of the articles in each period was already open access, but complete access encouraged a viewing of more research articles. Conclusion Those working in health fields will utilize more research in the course of their work as a result of (a) increasing open access to research, (b) improving awareness of and preparation for this access, and (c) adjusting public and open access policies to maximize the extent of potential access, through reduction in embargo periods and access to pre-policy literature. PMID:26200794

  15. Open Access Journal Policies: A Systematic Analysis of Radiology Journals.

    PubMed

    Narayan, Anand; Lobner, Katie; Fritz, Jan

    2018-02-01

    The open access movement has pushed for greater access to scientific knowledge by expanding access to scientific journal articles. There is limited information about the extent to which open access policies have been adopted by radiology journals. We performed a systematic analysis to ascertain the proportion of radiology journals with open access options. A search was performed with the assistance of a clinical informationist. Full and mixed English-language diagnostic and interventional radiology Web of Science journals (impact factors > 1.0) were included. Nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, physics, and solicitation-only journals were excluded. Primary outcome was open access option (yes or no) with additional outcomes including presence or absence of embargo, complete or partial copyright transfer, publication fees, and self-archiving policies. Secondary outcomes included journal citations, journal impact factors, immediacy, Eigenfactor, and article influence scores. Independent double readings were performed with differences resolved by consensus, supplemented by contacting editorial staff at each journal. In all, 125 journals were identified; review yielded 49 journals (39%, mean impact factor of 2.61). Thirty-six of the journals had open access options (73.4%), and four journals were exclusively open access (8.2%). Twelve-month embargoes were most commonly cited (90.6%) with 28.6% of journals stating that they did not require a complete transfer of copyright. Prices for open access options ranged from $750 to $4,000 (median $3,000). No statistically significant differences were found in journal impact measures comparing journals with open access options to journals without open access options. Diagnostic and interventional radiology journals have widely adopted open access options with a few radiology journals being exclusively open access. Copyright © 2017 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. South Dakota Department of Education Data Access Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    South Dakota Department of Education, 2015

    2015-01-01

    The South Dakota Department of Education (DOE) collects education records from local schools and districts in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations. This policy document establishes the procedures and protocols for accessing, maintaining, disclosing, and disposing of confidential data records, including data records containing…

  17. 32 CFR 3.8 - DoD access to records policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false DoD access to records policy. 3.8 Section 3.8 National Defense Department of Defense OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ACQUISITION TRANSACTIONS OTHER... compliance with the provisions of the Act. (ii) Traditional Defense contractors. The DoD shall have access to...

  18. Do Your School Policies Provide Equal Access to Computers? Are You Sure?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DuBois, Phyllis A.; Schubert, Jane G.

    1986-01-01

    Outlines how school policies can unintentionally perpetuate gender discrimination in student computer use and access. Describes four areas of administrative policies that can cause inequities and provides ways for administrators to counteract these policies. Includes discussion of a program to balance computer use, and an abstract of an article…

  19. Access to Orphan Drugs: A Comprehensive Review of Legislations, Regulations and Policies in 35 Countries.

    PubMed

    Gammie, Todd; Lu, Christine Y; Babar, Zaheer Ud-Din

    2015-01-01

    To review existing regulations and policies utilised by countries to enable patient access to orphan drugs. A review of the literature (1998 to 2014) was performed to identify relevant, peer-reviewed articles. Using content analysis, we synthesised regulations and policies for access to orphan drugs by type and by country. Fifty seven articles and 35 countries were included in this review. Six broad categories of regulation and policy instruments were identified: national orphan drug policies, orphan drug designation, marketing authorization, incentives, marketing exclusivity, and pricing and reimbursement. The availability of orphan drugs depends on individual country's legislation and regulations including national orphan drug policies, orphan drug designation, marketing authorization, marketing exclusivity and incentives such as tax credits to ensure research, development and marketing. The majority of countries (27/35) had in place orphan drug legislation. Access to orphan drugs depends on individual country's pricing and reimbursement policies, which varied widely between countries. High prices and insufficient evidence often limit orphan drugs from meeting the traditional health technology assessment criteria, especially cost-effectiveness, which may influence access. Overall many countries have implemented a combination of legislations, regulations and policies for orphan drugs in the last two decades. While these may enable the availability and access to orphan drugs, there are critical differences between countries in terms of range and types of legislations, regulations and policies implemented. Importantly, China and India, two of the largest countries by population size, both lack national legislation for orphan medicines and rare diseases, which could have substantial negative impacts on their patient populations with rare diseases.

  20. 75 FR 57829 - Airport Improvement Program (AIP): Policy Regarding Access to Airports From Residential Property

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-22

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Aviation Administration [Docket No. FAA-2010-0831] Airport Improvement Program (AIP): Policy Regarding Access to Airports From Residential Property AGENCY: Federal... inadvertent omission in the Privacy paragraph in the Notice of Proposed Policy Regarding Access to Airports...

  1. The Relationship between Web Accessibility Policy and Practice in Postsecondary Institutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whitney, Michael P.

    2009-01-01

    From computer workstations to the world of the web, statutes and policies have afforded students with disabilities the right to participate in postsecondary education in a non-discriminatory manner. Automatic doors and adjustable tables are a commonplace on campuses and represent prime examples of accessible policy adherence, but what affect do…

  2. Access to Elementary Education in India: Politics, Policies and Progress. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 44

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Little, Angela W.

    2010-01-01

    This monograph examines progress in, and policies for, access to elementary education over the past 60 years, the role played by political factors in the process of policy formulation and implementation and the drivers and inhibitors of the implementation of reforms in elementary education in recent years in India. Drawing on interviews and…

  3. Access to Orphan Drugs: A Comprehensive Review of Legislations, Regulations and Policies in 35 Countries

    PubMed Central

    Gammie, Todd

    2015-01-01

    Objective To review existing regulations and policies utilised by countries to enable patient access to orphan drugs. Methods A review of the literature (1998 to 2014) was performed to identify relevant, peer-reviewed articles. Using content analysis, we synthesised regulations and policies for access to orphan drugs by type and by country. Results Fifty seven articles and 35 countries were included in this review. Six broad categories of regulation and policy instruments were identified: national orphan drug policies, orphan drug designation, marketing authorization, incentives, marketing exclusivity, and pricing and reimbursement. The availability of orphan drugs depends on individual country’s legislation and regulations including national orphan drug policies, orphan drug designation, marketing authorization, marketing exclusivity and incentives such as tax credits to ensure research, development and marketing. The majority of countries (27/35) had in place orphan drug legislation. Access to orphan drugs depends on individual country’s pricing and reimbursement policies, which varied widely between countries. High prices and insufficient evidence often limit orphan drugs from meeting the traditional health technology assessment criteria, especially cost-effectiveness, which may influence access. Conclusions Overall many countries have implemented a combination of legislations, regulations and policies for orphan drugs in the last two decades. While these may enable the availability and access to orphan drugs, there are critical differences between countries in terms of range and types of legislations, regulations and policies implemented. Importantly, China and India, two of the largest countries by population size, both lack national legislation for orphan medicines and rare diseases, which could have substantial negative impacts on their patient populations with rare diseases. PMID:26451948

  4. 77 FR 51948 - Airport Improvement Program (AIP): Policy Regarding Access to Airports From Residential Property...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-28

    ...-0754] Airport Improvement Program (AIP): Policy Regarding Access to Airports From Residential Property... Airports From Residential Property that was published in the Federal Register on July 30, 2012. The FAA is... policy, based on Federal law, concerning through-the- fence access to a federally obligated airport from...

  5. Access to Higher Education in Colombia: An Assessment of Public Policy and Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uribe Correa, Lina

    2012-01-01

    This research analyzes a set of national policy initiatives, 2002-2010, regularly referred to as Colombia's "Educational Revolution". Together these policies constitute a Colombian effort to increase access to higher education, an effort in partnership with the World Bank. The dissertation presents findings on policy goals, efforts,…

  6. A Novel Reference Security Model with the Situation Based Access Policy for Accessing EPHR Data.

    PubMed

    Gope, Prosanta; Amin, Ruhul

    2016-11-01

    Electronic Patient Health Record (EPHR) systems may facilitate a patient not only to share his/her health records securely with healthcare professional but also to control his/her health privacy, in a convenient and easy way even in case of emergency. In order to fulfill these requirements, it is greatly desirable to have the access control mechanism which can efficiently handle every circumstance without negotiating security. However, the existing access control mechanisms used in healthcare to regulate and restrict the disclosure of patient data are often bypassed in case of emergencies. In this article, we propose a way to securely share EPHR data under any situation including break-the-glass (BtG) without compromising its security. In this regard, we design a reference security model, which consists of a multi-level data flow hierarchy, and an efficient access control framework based on the conventional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Mandatory Access Control (MAC) policies.

  7. Linear Time Algorithms to Restrict Insider Access using Multi-Policy Access Control Systems

    PubMed Central

    Mell, Peter; Shook, James; Harang, Richard; Gavrila, Serban

    2017-01-01

    An important way to limit malicious insiders from distributing sensitive information is to as tightly as possible limit their access to information. This has always been the goal of access control mechanisms, but individual approaches have been shown to be inadequate. Ensemble approaches of multiple methods instantiated simultaneously have been shown to more tightly restrict access, but approaches to do so have had limited scalability (resulting in exponential calculations in some cases). In this work, we take the Next Generation Access Control (NGAC) approach standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and demonstrate its scalability. The existing publicly available reference implementations all use cubic algorithms and thus NGAC was widely viewed as not scalable. The primary NGAC reference implementation took, for example, several minutes to simply display the set of files accessible to a user on a moderately sized system. In our approach, we take these cubic algorithms and make them linear. We do this by reformulating the set theoretic approach of the NGAC standard into a graph theoretic approach and then apply standard graph algorithms. We thus can answer important access control decision questions (e.g., which files are available to a user and which users can access a file) using linear time graph algorithms. We also provide a default linear time mechanism to visualize and review user access rights for an ensemble of access control mechanisms. Our visualization appears to be a simple file directory hierarchy but in reality is an automatically generated structure abstracted from the underlying access control graph that works with any set of simultaneously instantiated access control policies. It also provide an implicit mechanism for symbolic linking that provides a powerful access capability. Our work thus provides the first efficient implementation of NGAC while enabling user privilege review through a novel visualization approach. This

  8. Going "social" to access experimental and potentially life-saving treatment: an assessment of the policy and online patient advocacy environment for expanded access.

    PubMed

    Mackey, Tim K; Schoenfeld, Virginia J

    2016-02-02

    Social media is fundamentally altering how we access health information and make decisions about medical treatment, including for terminally ill patients. This specifically includes the growing phenomenon of patients who use online petitions and social media campaigns in an attempt to gain access to experimental drugs through expanded access pathways. Importantly, controversy surrounding expanded access and "compassionate use" involves several disparate stakeholders, including patients, manufacturers, policymakers, and regulatory agencies-all with competing interests and priorities, leading to confusion, frustration, and ultimately advocacy. In order to explore this issue in detail, this correspondence article first conducts a literature review to describe how the expanded access policy and regulatory environment in the United States has evolved over time and how it currently impacts access to experimental drugs. We then conducted structured web searches to identify patient use of online petitions and social media campaigns aimed at compelling access to experimental drugs. This was carried out in order to characterize the types of communication strategies utilized, the diseases and drugs subject to expanded access petitions, and the prevalent themes associated with this form of "digital" patient advocacy. We find that patients and their families experience mixed results, but still gravitate towards the use of online campaigns out of desperation, lack of reliable information about treatment access options, and in direct response to limitations of the current fragmented structure of expanded access regulation and policy currently in place. In response, we discuss potential policy reforms to improve expanded access processes, including advocating greater transparency for expanded access programs, exploring use of targeted economic incentives for manufacturers, and developing systems to facilitate patient information about existing treatment options. This includes

  9. Wireless technologies and accessibility for people with disabilities: findings from a policy research instrument.

    PubMed

    Baker, Paul M A; Moon, Nathan W

    2008-01-01

    The near universal deployment in the United States of a wide variety of information and communications technologies, both wired and wireless, creates potential barriers to use for several key populations, including the poor, people with disabilities, and the aging. Equal access to wireless technologies and services can be achieved through a variety of mechanisms, including legislation and regulations, market-based solutions, and awareness and outreach-based approaches. This article discusses the results of policy research conducted by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wireless Technologies (Wireless RERC) using policy Delphi polling methodology to probe stakeholders' opinions on key access barrier issues and to explore potential policy responses. Participants included disability advocates, disability/wireless technology policy makers, and product developers/manufacturers. Respondent input informed subsequent development of potential policy initiatives to increase access to these technologies. The findings from the Delphi suggest that awareness issues remain most important, especially manufacturer awareness of user needs and availability of consumer information for selecting the most appropriate wireless devices and services. Other key issues included the ability of people with disabilities to afford technologies and inadequacies in legislation and policy making for ensuring their general accessibility, as well as usefulness in emergencies. Technical issues, including interoperability, speech-to-text conversion, and hearing aid compatibility, were also identified by participating stakeholders as important. To address all these issues, Delphi respondents favored goals and options congruent with voluntary market-driven solutions where possible but also supported federal involvement, where necessary, to aid this process.

  10. Developing a Multicomponent Model of Nutritious Food Access and Related Implications for Community and Policy Practice.

    PubMed

    Freedman, Darcy A; Blake, Christine E; Liese, Angela D

    2013-01-01

    Access to nutritious foods is limited in disenfranchised communities in the United States. Policies are beginning to focus on improving nutritious food access in these contexts; yet, few theories are available to guide this work. We developed a conceptual model of nutritious food access based on the qualitative responses of food consumers in 2 different regions of the American South. Five domains (economic, service delivery, spatial-temporal, social, and personal) and related dimensions of nutritious food access were identified. The conceptual model provides practical guidance to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners working to improve nutritious food access in communities.

  11. Developing a Multicomponent Model of Nutritious Food Access and Related Implications for Community and Policy Practice

    PubMed Central

    FREEDMAN, DARCY A.; BLAKE, CHRISTINE E.; LIESE, ANGELA D.

    2014-01-01

    Access to nutritious foods is limited in disenfranchised communities in the United States. Policies are beginning to focus on improving nutritious food access in these contexts; yet, few theories are available to guide this work. We developed a conceptual model of nutritious food access based on the qualitative responses of food consumers in 2 different regions of the American South. Five domains (economic, service delivery, spatial–temporal, social, and personal) and related dimensions of nutritious food access were identified. The conceptual model provides practical guidance to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners working to improve nutritious food access in communities. PMID:24563605

  12. Policy on Street and Driveway Access to North Carolina Highways

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2003-07-01

    The primary concern of those responsible for North Carolina's vast highway system is to provide for the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. As an aid in acheiving this goal, this manual sets forth the Policy on Street and Driveway Access...

  13. The use of a policy dialogue to facilitate evidence-informed policy development for improved access to care: the case of the Winnipeg Central Intake Service (WCIS).

    PubMed

    Damani, Zaheed; MacKean, Gail; Bohm, Eric; DeMone, Brie; Wright, Brock; Noseworthy, Tom; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Marshall, Deborah A

    2016-10-18

    Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation findings to develop five evidence-informed policy directions to help improve access to scheduled clinical services across Manitoba. Using guiding principles of public participation processes, we hosted a policy roundtable meeting to engage stakeholders and use their input to refine the policy directions. Here, we report on the use and input of a policy roundtable meeting and its role in contributing to the development of evidence-informed policy. Our evidence-informed policy directions focused on formal measurement/monitoring of quality, central intake as a preferred model for service delivery, provincial scope, transparent processes/performance indicators, and patient choice of provider. We held a policy roundtable meeting and used outcomes of facilitated discussions to refine these directions. Individuals from our team and six stakeholder groups across Manitoba participated (n = 44), including patients, family physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, surgical office assistants, Winnipeg Central Intake team, and administrators/managers. We developed evaluation forms to assess the meeting process, and collected decision-maker partners' perspectives on the value of the policy roundtable meeting and use of policy directions to improve access to scheduled clinical services after the meeting, and again 15 months later. We analyzed roundtable and evaluation data using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Four key findings emerged. First, participants supported all policy directions, with revisions and key implementation considerations identified. Second, participants felt the policy roundtable

  14. Sexual harassment policies in K-12 schools: examining accessibility to students and content.

    PubMed

    Lichty, Lauren F; Torres, Jennifer M C; Valenti, Maria T; Buchanan, NiCole T

    2008-11-01

    Peer sexual harassment is a significant social problem with consequences for both students and schools. Four out of 5 students report experiencing sexual harassment. These experiences have been linked to poor psychological health and academic withdrawal. Recognizing the seriousness of sexual harassment in schools, Supreme Court rulings have established school liability for known instances of sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Federal guidelines established by the Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Education mandate schools to develop sexual harassment policies; however, the implementation of these guidelines has not been examined. Therefore, this study assessed the degree to which sexual harassment policies in primary and secondary schools adhered to said guidelines. This study evaluated 784 primary and secondary school sexual harassment policies across 4 states on 3 key factors: accessibility to students (ie, via the Internet), consistency with federal guidelines regarding their content and the inclusion of 10 key components, and consistency of content across educational levels. Only 14% of sexual harassment policies were available online; the majority of policies incorporated only 5 of the 10 critical components, and elementary school policies contained significantly fewer components than all other educational levels. The Internet is an underused resource for disseminating school sexual harassment policies to students. When policies are available, they rarely incorporate the key elements specified in the federal guidelines. Particularly troubling are the inaccessibility and incompleteness of elementary school policies. Greater attention to policy accessibility and comprehensiveness is needed.

  15. Central venous access and handwashing: variability in policies and practices.

    PubMed

    Galway, Robyn; Harrod, Mary Ellen; Crisp, Jackie; Donnellan, Robyn; Hardy, Jan; Harvey, Alice; Maurice, Lucy; Petty, Sheila; Senner, Anne

    2003-12-01

    This study examined variability in handwashing policy between hospitals, variability in handwashing practices in nurses and how practice differed from policy in tertiary paediatric hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. Eight of the possible nine major paediatric hospitals provided a copy of their handwashing and/or central venous access device (CVAD) policies, and 67 nurses completed a survey on their handwashing practices associated with CVAD management. A high degree of variability was found in relation to all the questions posed in the study. There was little consistency between policies and little agreement between policies and clinical practice, with many nurses washing for longer than required by policy. Rigour of handwashing also varied according to the procedure undertaken and the type of CVAD with activities undertaken farther from the insertion site of the device more likely to be performed using a clean rather than an aseptic handwashing technique. As both patients and nursing staff move within and between hospitals, a uniform and evidence-based approach to handwashing is highly desirable.

  16. How Can Pricing and Reimbursement Policies Improve Affordable Access to Medicines? Lessons Learned from European Countries.

    PubMed

    Vogler, Sabine; Paris, Valérie; Ferrario, Alessandra; Wirtz, Veronika J; de Joncheere, Kees; Schneider, Peter; Pedersen, Hanne Bak; Dedet, Guillaume; Babar, Zaheer-Ud-Din

    2017-06-01

    This article discusses pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies in European countries with regard to their ability to ensure affordable access to medicines. A frequently applied pricing policy is external price referencing. While it provides some benchmark for policy-makers and has been shown to be able to generate savings, it may also contribute to delay in product launch in countries where medicine prices are low. Value-based pricing has been proposed as a policy that promotes access while rewarding useful innovation; however, implementing it has proven quite challenging. For high-priced medicines, managed-entry agreements are increasingly used. These agreements allow policy-makers to manage uncertainty and obtain lower prices. They can also facilitate earlier market access in case of limited evidence about added therapeutic value of the medicine. However, these agreements raise transparency concerns due to the confidentiality clause. Tendering as used in the hospital and offpatent outpatient sectors has been proven to reduce medicine prices but it requires a robust framework and appropriate design with clear strategic goals in order to prevent shortages. These pricing and reimbursement policies are supplemented by the widespread use of Health Technology Assessment to inform decision-making, and by strategies to improve the uptake of generics, and also biosimilars. While European countries have been implementing a set of policy options, there is a lack of thorough impact assessments of several pricing and reimbursement policies on affordable access. Increased cooperation between authorities, experience sharing and improving transparency on price information, including the disclosure of confidential discounts, are opportunities to address current challenges.

  17. A New Regulatory Policy for FTTx-Based Next-Generation Access Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Makarovič, Boštjan

    2013-07-01

    This article critically assesses the latest European Commission policies in relation to next-generation access investment that put focus on regulated prices and relaxing of wholesale access obligations. Pointing at the vital socio-legal and economic arguments, it further challenges the assumptions of the current EU regulatory framework and calls for a more contractual utility-based model of regulation instead of the current system that overly relies on market-driven infrastructure-based competition.

  18. Public Finance Policy Strategies to Increase Access to Preconception Care

    PubMed Central

    2006-01-01

    Policy and finance barriers reduce access to preconception care and, reportedly, limit professional practice changes that would improve the availability of needed services. Millions of women of childbearing age (15–44) lack adequate health coverage (i.e., uninsured or underinsured), and others live in medically underserved areas. Service delivery fragmentation and lack of professional guidelines are additional barriers. This paper reviews barriers and opportunities for financing preconception care, based on a review and analysis of state and federal policies. We describe states’ experiences with and opportunities to improve health coverage, through public programs such as Medicaid, Medicaid waivers, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The potential role of Title V and of community health centers in providing primary and preventive care to women also is discussed. In these and other public health and health coverage programs, opportunities exist to finance preconception care for low-income women. Three major policy directions are discussed. To increase access to preconception care among women of childbearing age, the federal and state governments have opportunities to: (1) improve health care coverage, (2) increase the supply of publicly subsidized health clinics, and (3) direct delivery of preconception screening and interventions in the context of public health programs. PMID:16802188

  19. Public finance policy strategies to increase access to preconception care.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Kay A

    2006-09-01

    Policy and finance barriers reduce access to preconception care and, reportedly, limit professional practice changes that would improve the availability of needed services. Millions of women of childbearing age (15-44) lack adequate health coverage (i.e., uninsured or underinsured), and others live in medically underserved areas. Service delivery fragmentation and lack of professional guidelines are additional barriers. This paper reviews barriers and opportunities for financing preconception care, based on a review and analysis of state and federal policies. We describe states' experiences with and opportunities to improve health coverage, through public programs such as Medicaid, Medicaid waivers, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The potential role of Title V and of community health centers in providing primary and preventive care to women also is discussed. In these and other public health and health coverage programs, opportunities exist to finance preconception care for low-income women. Three major policy directions are discussed. To increase access to preconception care among women of childbearing age, the federal and state governments have opportunities to: (1) improve health care coverage, (2) increase the supply of publicly subsidized health clinics, and (3) direct delivery of preconception screening and interventions in the context of public health programs.

  20. Improving access to skilled attendance at delivery: a policy brief for Uganda.

    PubMed

    Nabudere, Harriet; Asiimwe, Delius; Amandua, Jacinto

    2013-04-01

    This study describes the process of production, findings for a policy brief on Increasing Access to Skilled Birth Attendance, and subsequent use of the report by policy makers and others from the health sector in Uganda. The methods used to prepare the policy brief use the SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health policy making. The problem that this evidence brief addresses was identified through an explicit priority setting process involving policy makers and other stakeholders, further clarification with key informant interviews of relevant policy makers, and review of relevant documents. A working group of national stakeholder representatives and external reviewers commented on and contributed to successive drafts of the report. Research describing the problem, policy options, and implementation considerations was identified by reviewing government documents, routinely collected data, electronic literature searches, contact with key informants, and reviewing the reference lists of relevant documents that were retrieved. The proportion of pregnant women delivering from public and private non-profit facilities was low at 34 percent in 2008/09. The three policy options discussed in the report could be adopted independently or complementary to the other to increase access to skilled care. The Ministry of Health in deliberating to provide intrapartum care at first level health facilities from the second level of care, requested for research evidence to support these decisions. Maternal waiting shelters and working with the private-for-profit sector to facilitate deliveries in health facilities are promising complementary interventions that have been piloted in both the public and private health sector. A combination of strategies is needed to effectively implement the proposed options as discussed further in this article. The policy brief report was used as a background document for two stakeholder dialogue meetings involving members of parliament, policy makers

  1. How Admission Policy Shapes College Access: Evidence from Two Sectors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gentsch, Kerstin

    2016-01-01

    This dissertation illustrates how admission policies shape access to postsecondary education. Evidence comes from two sectors, each with a distinct type of admission system: highly selective institutions that practice holistic admission (chapters 2 and 3) and less selective public four-year colleges that use admission thresholds (chapter 4). The…

  2. Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Vascular Access Referral Policies in CKD.

    PubMed

    Shechter, Steven M; Chandler, Talon; Skandari, M Reza; Zalunardo, Nadia

    2017-09-01

    The optimal timing of vascular access referral for patients with chronic kidney disease who may need hemodialysis (HD) is a pressing question in nephrology. Current referral policies have not been rigorously compared with respect to costs and benefits and do not consider patient-specific factors such as age. Monte Carlo simulation model. Patients with chronic kidney disease, referred to a multidisciplinary kidney clinic in a universal health care system. Cost-effectiveness analysis, payer perspective, lifetime horizon. The following vascular access referral policies are considered: central venous catheter (CVC) only, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or graft (AVG) referral upon HD initiation, AVF (or AVG) referral when HD is forecast to begin within 12 (or 3 for AVG) months, AVF (or AVG) referral when estimated glomerular filtration rate is <15 (or <10 for AVG) mL/min/1.73m 2 . Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs, in 2014 US dollars per quality-adjusted life-year [QALY] gained). The ICER of AVF (AVG) referral within 12 (3) months of forecasted HD initiation, compared to using only a CVC, is ∼$105k/QALY ($101k/QALY) at a population level (HD costs included). Pre-HD AVF or AVG referral dominates delaying referral until HD initiation. The ICER of pre-HD referral increases with patient age. Results are most sensitive to erythropoietin costs, ongoing HD costs, and patients' utilities for HD. When ongoing HD costs are excluded from the analysis, pre-HD AVF dominates both pre-HD AVG and CVC-only policies. Literature-based estimates for HD, AVF, and AVG utilities are limited. The cost-effectiveness of vascular access referral is largely driven by the annual costs of HD, erythropoietin costs, and access-specific utilities. Further research is needed in the field of dialysis-related quality of life to inform decision making regarding vascular access referral. Copyright © 2017 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. The need for the use of XACML access control policy in a distributed EHR and some performance considerations.

    PubMed

    Sucurovic, Snezana; Milutinovic, Veljko

    2008-01-01

    The Internet based distributed large scale information systems implements attribute based access control (ABAC) rather than Role Based Access Control (RBAC). The reason is that the Internet is identity less and that ABAC scales better. EXtensible Access Control Markup Language is standardized language for writing access control policies, access control requests and access control responses in ABAC. XACML can provide decentralized administration and credentials distribution. In year 2002 version of CEN ENV 13 606 attributes have been attached to EHCR components and in such a system ABAC and XACML have been easy to implement. This paper presents writing XACML policies in the case when attributes are in hierarchical structure. It is presented two possible solutions to write XACML policy in that case and that the solution when set functions are used is more compact and provides 10% better performances.

  4. Policies and Programs to Facilitate Access to Targeted Cancer Therapies in Thailand

    PubMed Central

    Sruamsiri, Rosarin; Ross-Degnan, Dennis; Lu, Christine Y.; Chaiyakunapruk, Nathorn; Wagner, Anita K.

    2015-01-01

    Background Increasing access to clinically beneficial targeted cancer medicines is a challenge in every country due to their high cost. We describe the interplay of innovative policies and programs involving multiple stakeholders to facilitate access to these medicines in Thailand, as well as the utilization of selected targeted therapies over time. Methods We selected two medicines on the 2013 Thai national list of essential medicines (NLEM) [letrozole and imatinib] and three unlisted medicines for the same indications [trastuzumab, nilotinib and dasatinib]. We created timelines of access policies and programs for these products based on scientific and grey literature. Using IMS Health sales data, we described the trajectories of sales volumes of the study medicines between January 2001 and December 2012. We compared estimated average numbers of patients treated before and after the implementation of policies and programs for each product. Results Different stakeholders implemented multiple interventions to increase access to the study medicines for different patient populations. During 2007–2009, the Thai Government created a special NLEM category with different coverage requirements for payers and issued compulsory licenses; payers negotiated prices with manufacturers and engaged in pooled procurement; pharmaceutical companies expanded patient assistance programs and lowered prices in different ways. Compared to before the interventions, estimated numbers of patients treated with each medicine increased significantly afterwards: for letrozole from 645 (95% CI 366–923) to 3683 (95% CI 2,748–4,618); for imatinib from 103 (95% CI 72–174) to 350 (95% CI 307–398); and for trastuzumab from 68 (95% CI 45–118) to 412 (95% CI 344–563). Conclusions Government, payers, and manufacturers implemented multi-pronged approaches to facilitate access to targeted cancer therapies for the Thai population, which differed by medicine. Routine monitoring is needed to

  5. Accessing the medical devices market in Egypt and Saudi Arabia: a systematic review of policies and regulations.

    PubMed

    Gad, Mohamed; Kriza, Christine; Fidler, Armin; Kolominsky-Rabas, Peter

    2016-07-01

    Despite the significant medical devices market size in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, information regarding policies and regulations for medical devices market access is highly deficient. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review on market access policies and regulations in both countries, to allow safe and timely access to medical technology. The following databases were searched: PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Al Manhal Arabic database. Additionally, the web portals of regulatory authorities of both countries were searched. There are 34 records included in the qualitative synthesis of this review. Expert commentary: Main findings include; adopted regulatory framework from reference countries, and interim main regulatory documents, In conclusion, the market access schemes are relatively structured. However, some recommendations are put forward to navigate towards a more comprehensive policy framework in both countries.

  6. 28 CFR 16.73 - Exemption of Office of Legal Policy System-limited access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Office of Legal Policy System—limited access. (a) The following system of records is exempt from 5 U.S.C..., or legal obligations or duties. (4) From subsections (e)(4)(G) and (H) because this system is exempt... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Exemption of Office of Legal Policy...

  7. Understanding how domestic health policy is integrated into foreign policy in South Africa: a case for accelerating access to antiretroviral medicines.

    PubMed

    Modisenyane, Simon Moeketsi; Hendricks, Stephen James Heinrich; Fineberg, Harvey

    2017-01-01

    South Africa, as an emerging middle-income country, is becoming increasingly influential in global health diplomacy (GHD). However, little empirical research has been conducted to inform arguments for the integration of domestic health into foreign policy by state and non-state actors. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap. It takes the form of an empirical case study which analyses how South Africa integrates domestic health into its foreign policy, using the lens of access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. To explore state and non-state actors' perceptions regarding how domestic health policy is integrated into foreign policy. The ultimate goal of this study was to achieve better insights into the health and foreign policy processes at the national level. Employing qualitative approaches, we examined changes in the South African and global AIDS policy environment. Purposive sampling was used to select key informants, a sample of state and non-state actors who participated in in-depth interviews. Secondary data were collected through a systematic literature review of documents retrieved from five electronic databases, including review of key policy documents. Qualitative data were analysed for content. This content was coded, and the codes were collated into tentative categories and sub-categories using Atlas.ti v.7 software. The findings of this work illustrate the interplay among social, political, economic and institutional conditions in determining the success of this integration process. Our study shows that a series of national and external developments, stakeholders, and advocacy efforts and collaboration created these integrative processes. South Africa's domestic HIV/AIDS constituencies, in partnership with the global advocacy movement, catalysed the mobilization of support for universal access to ARV treatment nationally and globally, and the promotion of access to healthcare as a human right. Transnational networks may influence government

  8. Four Commandments for Writing Policies for Public-Access Wireless Networks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sauers, Michael

    2006-01-01

    In this article, the author describes what components should be included in a comprehensive policy for public wireless usage in a library. He lists four basic steps, which include: (1) Introduce the service; (2) List the technical requirements; (3) Spell out disclaimers on access, assistance, and liability; and (4) Alert users to security concerns.

  9. Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) Institutional and Policy Issues Assessment : Task 6: Summary Report

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-02-16

    This report summarizes the research and findings of the Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) Institutional and Policy Assessment. The objective of this project is to identify and analyze the policy, institutional, and le...

  10. Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) Institutional and Policy Issues Assessment : Task 6 : Summary Report

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-02-16

    This report summarizes the research and findings of the Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) Institutional and Policy Assessment. The objective of this project is to identify and analyze the policy, institutional, and le...

  11. An Expressive, Lightweight and Secure Construction of Key Policy Attribute-Based Cloud Data Sharing Access Control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Guofen; Hong, Hanshu; Xia, Yunhao; Sun, Zhixin

    2017-10-01

    Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is an interesting cryptographic technique for flexible cloud data sharing access control. However, some open challenges hinder its practical application. In previous schemes, all attributes are considered as in the same status while they are not in most of practical scenarios. Meanwhile, the size of access policy increases dramatically with the raise of its expressiveness complexity. In addition, current research hardly notices that mobile front-end devices, such as smartphones, are poor in computational performance while too much bilinear pairing computation is needed for ABE. In this paper, we propose a key-policy weighted attribute-based encryption without bilinear pairing computation (KP-WABE-WB) for secure cloud data sharing access control. A simple weighted mechanism is presented to describe different importance of each attribute. We introduce a novel construction of ABE without executing any bilinear pairing computation. Compared to previous schemes, our scheme has a better performance in expressiveness of access policy and computational efficiency.

  12. The Policy Problem: The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Implications for Access to Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whitburn, Ben; Moss, Julianne; O'Mara, Jo

    2017-01-01

    This paper explores the changing terrain of disability support policy in Australia. Drawing on a critical disability framework of policy sociology, the paper considers the policy problem of access to education for people with disabilities under recent reform by means of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which commenced full roll-out…

  13. Kenya's Constituency Development Fund, Free Secondary Education Policy, and Access to Secondary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nzuki, Charles Kyalo

    2018-01-01

    The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya's Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on…

  14. Gold or green: the debate on open access policies.

    PubMed

    Abadal, Ernest

    2013-09-01

    The movement for open access to science seeks to achieve unrestricted and free access to academic publications on the Internet. To this end, two mechanisms have been established: the gold road, in which scientific journals are openly accessible, and the green road, in which publications are self-archived in repositories. The publication of the Finch Report in 2012, advocating exclusively the adoption of the gold road, generated a debate as to whether either of the two options should be prioritized. The recommendations of the Finch Report stirred controversy among academicians specialized in open access issues, who felt that the role played by repositories was not adequately considered and because the green road places the burden of publishing costs basically on authors. The Finch Report's conclusions are compatible with the characteristics of science communication in the UK and they could surely also be applied to the (few) countries with a powerful publishing industry and substantial research funding. In Spain, both the current national legislation and the existing rules at universities largely advocate the green road. This is directly related to the structure of scientific communication in Spain, where many journals have little commercial significance, the system of charging a fee to authors has not been adopted, and there is a good repository infrastructure. As for open access policies, the performance of the scientific communication system in each country should be carefully analyzed to determine the most suitable open access strategy.

  15. How Drug Control Policy and Practice Undermine Access to Controlled Medicines

    PubMed Central

    Csete, Joanne; Wilson, Duncan; Fox, Edward; Wolfe, Daniel; Rasanathan, Jennifer J. K.

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Drug conventions serve as the cornerstone for domestic drug laws and impose a dual obligation upon states to prevent the misuse of controlled substances while ensuring their adequate availability for medical and scientific purposes. Despite the mandate that these obligations be enforced equally, the dominant paradigm enshrined in the drug conventions is an enforcement-heavy criminal justice response to controlled substances that prohibits and penalizes their misuse. Prioritizing restrictive control is to the detriment of ensuring adequate availability of and access to controlled medicines, thereby violating the rights of people who need them. This paper argues that the drug conventions’ prioritization of criminal justice measures—including efforts to prevent non-medical use of controlled substances—undermines access to medicines and infringes upon the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. While the effects of criminalization under drug policy limit the right to health in multiple ways, we draw on research and documented examples to highlight the impact of drug control and criminalization on access to medicines. The prioritization and protection of human rights—specifically the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress—are critical to rebalancing drug policy. PMID:28630556

  16. How Drug Control Policy and Practice Undermine Access to Controlled Medicines.

    PubMed

    Burke-Shyne, Naomi; Csete, Joanne; Wilson, Duncan; Fox, Edward; Wolfe, Daniel; Rasanathan, Jennifer J K

    2017-06-01

    Drug conventions serve as the cornerstone for domestic drug laws and impose a dual obligation upon states to prevent the misuse of controlled substances while ensuring their adequate availability for medical and scientific purposes. Despite the mandate that these obligations be enforced equally, the dominant paradigm enshrined in the drug conventions is an enforcement-heavy criminal justice response to controlled substances that prohibits and penalizes their misuse. Prioritizing restrictive control is to the detriment of ensuring adequate availability of and access to controlled medicines, thereby violating the rights of people who need them. This paper argues that the drug conventions' prioritization of criminal justice measures-including efforts to prevent non-medical use of controlled substances-undermines access to medicines and infringes upon the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. While the effects of criminalization under drug policy limit the right to health in multiple ways, we draw on research and documented examples to highlight the impact of drug control and criminalization on access to medicines. The prioritization and protection of human rights-specifically the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress-are critical to rebalancing drug policy.

  17. Evaluating the impact of climate policies on regional food availability and accessibility using an Integrated Assessment Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gilmore, E.; Cui, Y. R.; Waldhoff, S.

    2015-12-01

    Beyond 2015, eradicating hunger will remain a critical part of the global development agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Efforts to limit climate change through both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and land use policies may interact with food availability and accessibility in complex and unanticipated ways. Here, we develop projections of regional food accessibility to 2050 under the alternative futures outlined by the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and under different climate policy targets and structures. We use the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), an integrated assessment model (IAM), for our projections. We calculate food access as the weighted average of consumption of five staples and the portion of income spend on those commodities and extend the GCAM calculated universal global producer price to regional consumer prices drawing on historical relationships of these prices. Along the SSPs, food access depends largely on expectations of increases in population and economic status. Under a more optimistic scenario, the pressures on food access from increasing demand and rising prices can be counterbalanced by faster economic development. Stringent climate policies that increase commodity prices, however, may hinder vulnerable regions, namely Sub-Saharan Africa, from achieving greater food accessibility.

  18. Expanding Access to Quality Pre-K Is Sound Public Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barnett, W. Steven

    2013-01-01

    In 2013, preschool education received more attention in the media and public policy circles than it has for some time, in part because of a series of high-profile proposals to expand access to quality pre-K. The scientific basis for these proposed expansions of quality pre-K is impressive. This paper brings to bear the full weight of the evidence…

  19. Small-Area Estimation of Spatial Access to Care and Its Implications for Policy.

    PubMed

    Gentili, Monica; Isett, Kim; Serban, Nicoleta; Swann, Julie

    2015-10-01

    Local or small-area estimates to capture emerging trends across large geographic regions are critical in identifying and addressing community-level health interventions. However, they are often unavailable due to lack of analytic capabilities in compiling and integrating extensive datasets and complementing them with the knowledge about variations in state-level health policies. This study introduces a modeling approach for small-area estimation of spatial access to pediatric primary care that is data "rich" and mathematically rigorous, integrating data and health policy in a systematic way. We illustrate the sensitivity of the model to policy decision making across large geographic regions by performing a systematic comparison of the estimates at the census tract and county levels for Georgia and California. Our results show the proposed approach is able to overcome limitations of other existing models by capturing patient and provider preferences and by incorporating possible changes in health policies. The primary finding is systematic underestimation of spatial access, and inaccurate estimates of disparities across population and across geography at the county level with respect to those at the census tract level with implications on where to focus and which type of interventions to consider.

  20. Developing an agenda for research about policies to improve access to healthy foods in rural communities: a concept mapping study

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Policies that improve access to healthy, affordable foods may improve population health and reduce health disparities. In the United States most food access policy research focuses on urban communities even though residents of rural communities face disproportionately higher risk for nutrition-related chronic diseases compared to residents of urban communities. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify the factors associated with access to healthy, affordable food in rural communities in the United States; and (2) prioritize a meaningful and feasible rural food policy research agenda. Methods This study was conducted by the Rural Food Access Workgroup (RFAWG), a workgroup facilitated by the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network. A national sample of academic and non-academic researchers, public health and cooperative extension practitioners, and other experts who focus on rural food access and economic development was invited to complete a concept mapping process that included brainstorming the factors that are associated with rural food access, sorting and organizing the factors into similar domains, and rating the importance of policies and research to address these factors. As a last step, RFAWG members convened to interpret the data and establish research recommendations. Results Seventy-five participants in the brainstorming exercise represented the following sectors: non-extension research (n = 27), non-extension program administration (n = 18), “other” (n = 14), policy advocacy (n = 10), and cooperative extension service (n = 6). The brainstorming exercise generated 90 distinct statements about factors associated with rural food access in the United States; these were sorted into 5 clusters. Go Zones were established for the factors that were rated highly as both a priority policy target and a priority for research. The highest ranked policy and research priorities include strategies designed to

  1. Developing an agenda for research about policies to improve access to healthy foods in rural communities: a concept mapping study.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Donna B; Quinn, Emilee; Sitaker, Marilyn; Ammerman, Alice; Byker, Carmen; Dean, Wesley; Fleischhacker, Sheila; Kolodinsky, Jane; Pinard, Courtney; Pitts, Stephanie B Jilcott; Sharkey, Joseph

    2014-06-12

    Policies that improve access to healthy, affordable foods may improve population health and reduce health disparities. In the United States most food access policy research focuses on urban communities even though residents of rural communities face disproportionately higher risk for nutrition-related chronic diseases compared to residents of urban communities. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify the factors associated with access to healthy, affordable food in rural communities in the United States; and (2) prioritize a meaningful and feasible rural food policy research agenda. This study was conducted by the Rural Food Access Workgroup (RFAWG), a workgroup facilitated by the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network. A national sample of academic and non-academic researchers, public health and cooperative extension practitioners, and other experts who focus on rural food access and economic development was invited to complete a concept mapping process that included brainstorming the factors that are associated with rural food access, sorting and organizing the factors into similar domains, and rating the importance of policies and research to address these factors. As a last step, RFAWG members convened to interpret the data and establish research recommendations. Seventy-five participants in the brainstorming exercise represented the following sectors: non-extension research (n = 27), non-extension program administration (n = 18), "other" (n = 14), policy advocacy (n = 10), and cooperative extension service (n = 6). The brainstorming exercise generated 90 distinct statements about factors associated with rural food access in the United States; these were sorted into 5 clusters. Go Zones were established for the factors that were rated highly as both a priority policy target and a priority for research. The highest ranked policy and research priorities include strategies designed to build economic viability in

  2. Policies of access to healthcare services for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries.

    PubMed

    Sandahl, Hinuga; Norredam, Marie; Hjern, Anders; Asher, Henry; Nielsen, Signe Smith

    2013-08-01

    Asylum-seeking children constitute a vulnerable group with high prevalence and risk for mental health problems. The aim of this study was to compare policies of access to healthcare services, including physical examination and screening for mental health problems on arrival, for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries. This study was based on the national reports "Reception of refugee children in the Nordic countries" written by independent national experts for the Nordic Network for Research on Refugee Children, supplemented by information from relevant authorities. In Sweden, Norway and Iceland, asylum-seeking children had access to healthcare services equal to children in the general population. On a policy level, Denmark imposed restrictions on non-acute hospitalisations and prolonged specialist treatments. Regarding health examinations, Sweden deviated from the Nordic pattern by not performing these systematically. In Denmark, Iceland, and some counties in Sweden, but not in Norway, screening for mental health problems was offered to asylum-seeking children. Access to healthcare services for asylum-seeking children differs in the Nordic countries; the consequences of these systematic differences for the individual asylum-seeking child are unknown. For asylum-seeking children, access to healthcare has to be considered in a wider context that includes the core conditions of being an asylum-seeker. A comparative study at policy level needs to be supplemented with empirical follow-up studies of the well-being of the study population to document potential consequences of policies in practice.

  3. Understanding how domestic health policy is integrated into foreign policy in South Africa: a case for accelerating access to antiretroviral medicines

    PubMed Central

    Modisenyane, Simon Moeketsi; Hendricks, Stephen James Heinrich; Fineberg, Harvey

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Background: South Africa, as an emerging middle-income country, is becoming increasingly influential in global health diplomacy (GHD). However, little empirical research has been conducted to inform arguments for the integration of domestic health into foreign policy by state and non-state actors. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap. It takes the form of an empirical case study which analyses how South Africa integrates domestic health into its foreign policy, using the lens of access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. Objective: To explore state and non-state actors’ perceptions regarding how domestic health policy is integrated into foreign policy. The ultimate goal of this study was to achieve better insights into the health and foreign policy processes at the national level. Methods: Employing qualitative approaches, we examined changes in the South African and global AIDS policy environment. Purposive sampling was used to select key informants, a sample of state and non-state actors who participated in in-depth interviews. Secondary data were collected through a systematic literature review of documents retrieved from five electronic databases, including review of key policy documents. Qualitative data were analysed for content. This content was coded, and the codes were collated into tentative categories and sub-categories using Atlas.ti v.7 software. Results: The findings of this work illustrate the interplay among social, political, economic and institutional conditions in determining the success of this integration process. Our study shows that a series of national and external developments, stakeholders, and advocacy efforts and collaboration created these integrative processes. South Africa’s domestic HIV/AIDS constituencies, in partnership with the global advocacy movement, catalysed the mobilization of support for universal access to ARV treatment nationally and globally, and the promotion of access to healthcare as a human

  4. Policies and Procedures for Accessing Archived NASA Data via the Web

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    James, Nathan

    2011-01-01

    The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) was established by NASA to provide for the preservation and dissemination of scientific data from NASA missions. This white paper will address the NSSDC policies that govern data preservation and dissemination and the various methods of accessing NSSDC-archived data via the web.

  5. Access to antiretroviral treatment, issues of well-being and public health governance in Chad: what justifies the limited success of the universal access policy?

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Chad was officially declared in December 2006. This presidential initiative was and is still funded 100% by the country’s budget and external donors’ financial support. Many factors have triggered the spread of AIDS. Some of these factors include the existence of norms and beliefs that create or increase exposure, the low-level education that precludes access to health information, social unrest, and population migration to areas of high economic opportunities and gender-based discrimination. Social forces that influence the distribution of dimensions of well-being and shape risks for infection also determine the persistence of access barriers to ART. The universal access policy is quite revolutionary but should be informed by the systemic barriers to access so as to promote equity. It is not enough to distribute ARVs and provide health services when health systems are poorly organized and managed. Comprehensive access to ART raises many organizational, ethical and policy problems that need to be solved to achieve equity in access. This paper argues that the persistence of access barriers is due to weak health systems and a poor public health leadership. AIDS has challenged health systems in a manner that is essentially different from other health problems. PMID:23902732

  6. Accessibility to primary health care in Belgium: an evaluation of policies awarding financial assistance in shortage areas.

    PubMed

    Dewulf, Bart; Neutens, Tijs; De Weerdt, Yves; Van de Weghe, Nico

    2013-08-22

    In many countries, financial assistance is awarded to physicians who settle in an area that is designated as a shortage area to prevent unequal accessibility to primary health care. Today, however, policy makers use fairly simple methods to define health care accessibility, with physician-to-population ratios (PPRs) within predefined administrative boundaries being overwhelmingly favoured. Our purpose is to verify whether these simple methods are accurate enough for adequately designating medical shortage areas and explore how these perform relative to more advanced GIS-based methods. Using a geographical information system (GIS), we conduct a nation-wide study of accessibility to primary care physicians in Belgium using four different methods: PPR, distance to closest physician, cumulative opportunity, and floating catchment area (FCA) methods. The official method used by policy makers in Belgium (calculating PPR per physician zone) offers only a crude representation of health care accessibility, especially because large contiguous areas (physician zones) are considered. We found substantial differences in the number and spatial distribution of medical shortage areas when applying different methods. The assessment of spatial health care accessibility and concomitant policy initiatives are affected by and dependent on the methodology used. The major disadvantage of PPR methods is its aggregated approach, masking subtle local variations. Some simple GIS methods overcome this issue, but have limitations in terms of conceptualisation of physician interaction and distance decay. Conceptually, the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method, an advanced FCA method, was found to be most appropriate for supporting areal health care policies, since this method is able to calculate accessibility at a small scale (e.g., census tracts), takes interaction between physicians into account, and considers distance decay. While at present in health care research

  7. The emergence of global health partnerships as facilitators of access to medication in Africa: a narrative policy analysis.

    PubMed

    Ngoasong, Michael Zisuh

    2009-03-01

    Over the last decade global health partnerships (GHPs) have been formed to provide a better policy response to Africa's health problems. This paper uses narrative policy analysis to explain the historical processes and challenges facing national and global health policy in facilitating access to medication in African countries. An overview of the historical context of events leading to the creation of GHPs is followed by a content and context analysis of two GHPs - Roll Back Malaria partnership and the Accelerating Access Initiative. The historical narratives implicitly reflect the context in which policy decisions are produced and implemented. The deployment of GHPs in Africa reflects a convergence of the competing and conflicting narratives, in relating to strategies previously promoted by various multilateral and bilateral development agencies, international civil society organizations, and the private commercial industry to facilitate access to medication.

  8. Access and Finance Issues: The University of Alabama's Education Policy Center

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Katsinas, Stephen G.

    2015-01-01

    Established in the 1920s, the Education Policy Center (EPC) is the oldest center or institute at The University of Alabama. Our work centers on four interrelated areas: (a) access and finance of public higher education, (b) college completion, (c) Pell Grants, and (d) rural community colleges. As place-based institutions with service delivery…

  9. Can innovative health financing policies increase access to MDG-related services? Evidence from Rwanda.

    PubMed

    Sekabaraga, Claude; Diop, Francois; Soucat, Agnes

    2011-11-01

    Ensuring financial access to health services is a critical challenge for poor countries if they are to reach the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This article examines the case of Rwanda, a country which has championed innovative health care financing policies. Between 2000 and 2007, Rwanda has improved financial access for the poor, increased utilization of health services and reduced out-of-pocket payments for health care. Poor groups' utilization has increased for all health services, sometimes dramatically. Use of assisted deliveries, for example, increased from 12.1% to 42.7% among the poorest quintile; payments at the point of delivery have also been reduced; and catastrophic expenditures have declined. Part of these achievements is likely linked to innovative health financing policies, particularly the expansion of micro-insurance ('mutuelles') and performance-based financing. The paper concludes that the Rwanda experience provides a useful example of effective implementation of policies that reduce the financial barrier to health services, hereby contributing to the health MDGs. Today's main challenge is to build the sustainability of this system. Finally, the paper proposes a simple set of rigorous metrics to assess the impact of health financing policies and calls for implementing rigorous impact evaluation of health care financing policies in low-income countries.

  10. The Impact of Federal Financial Aid Policy upon Higher Education Access

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, Dannielle Joy; Green-Derry, Lisa Celeste; Jones, Brandon

    2013-01-01

    This article reviews the history of financial aid policy from the Higher Education Act of 1965 to its reauthorisation in 1992 and the subsequent ramifications upon African-American students. It considers issues of race and class with regard to college access. This work concludes with a look at contemporary aid, as well as offers race- and…

  11. Getting back on tap: the policy context and cost of ensuring access to low-cost drinking water in Massachusetts schools.

    PubMed

    Cradock, Angie L; Wilking, Cara L; Olliges, Sarah A; Gortmaker, Steven L

    2012-09-01

    Adequate water intake may have important health benefits for schoolchildren. Layers of federal, state, and local policy are relevant to provision of water within schools. Recently passed state and federal laws require free drinking-water access for students during mealtimes. To review Massachusetts local district wellness policies related to water access, provide estimates of costs for three water-provision strategies, and discuss implications for policy relevant to adequate drinking-water access. Legal research was conducted using the LexisNexis legal database and government websites. Local wellness policies were double-coded using existing research tools. Costs of three water-delivery options were estimated using a 10-year school-district perspective. Prior to 2010, most Massachusetts public school district wellness policies (92%-94%) did not address access to free drinking water. Ten-year costs per school for providing water during mealtimes to students, including dispenser unit, installation, water testing, water, cups, and labor, range between $12,544 and $27,922 (depending on water-delivery option) assuming the average Massachusetts school enrollment. Water-provision strategies relying on tap water are more economical than bottled water in the long term. Policy recommendations and cost considerations deserve attention at the local, state, and federal levels. Recommendations are discussed to ensure access to safe, free drinking water for all students. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Policies and Procedures for Accessing Archived NASA Lunar Data via the Web

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    James, Nathan L.; Williams, David R.

    2011-01-01

    The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) was established by NASA to provide for the preservation and dissemination of scientific data from NASA missions. This paper describes the policies specifically related to lunar science data. NSSDC presently archives 660 lunar data collections. Most of these data (423 units) are stored offline in analog format. The remainder of this collection consists of magnetic tapes and discs containing approximately 1.7 TB of digital lunar data. The active archive for NASA lunar data is the Planetary Data System (PDS). NSSDC has an agreement with the PDS Lunar Data Node to assist in the restoration and preparation of NSSDC-resident lunar data upon request for access and distribution via the PDS archival system. Though much of NSSDC's digital store also resides in PDS, NSSDC has many analog data collections and some digital lunar data sets that are not in PDS. NSSDC stands ready to make these archived lunar data accessible to both the research community and the general public upon request as resources allow. Newly requested offline lunar data are digitized and moved to near-line storage devices called digital linear tape jukeboxes. The data are then packaged and made network-accessible via FTP for the convenience of a growing segment of the user community. This publication will 1) discuss the NSSDC processes and policies that govern how NASA lunar data is preserved, restored, and made accessible via the web and 2) highlight examples of special lunar data requests.

  13. Accessibility to primary health care in Belgium: an evaluation of policies awarding financial assistance in shortage areas

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background In many countries, financial assistance is awarded to physicians who settle in an area that is designated as a shortage area to prevent unequal accessibility to primary health care. Today, however, policy makers use fairly simple methods to define health care accessibility, with physician-to-population ratios (PPRs) within predefined administrative boundaries being overwhelmingly favoured. Our purpose is to verify whether these simple methods are accurate enough for adequately designating medical shortage areas and explore how these perform relative to more advanced GIS-based methods. Methods Using a geographical information system (GIS), we conduct a nation-wide study of accessibility to primary care physicians in Belgium using four different methods: PPR, distance to closest physician, cumulative opportunity, and floating catchment area (FCA) methods. Results The official method used by policy makers in Belgium (calculating PPR per physician zone) offers only a crude representation of health care accessibility, especially because large contiguous areas (physician zones) are considered. We found substantial differences in the number and spatial distribution of medical shortage areas when applying different methods. Conclusions The assessment of spatial health care accessibility and concomitant policy initiatives are affected by and dependent on the methodology used. The major disadvantage of PPR methods is its aggregated approach, masking subtle local variations. Some simple GIS methods overcome this issue, but have limitations in terms of conceptualisation of physician interaction and distance decay. Conceptually, the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method, an advanced FCA method, was found to be most appropriate for supporting areal health care policies, since this method is able to calculate accessibility at a small scale (e.g. census tracts), takes interaction between physicians into account, and considers distance decay. While at

  14. A Systematic Content Analysis of Policy Barriers Impeding Access to Opioid Medication in Central and Eastern Europe: Results of ATOME.

    PubMed

    Larjow, Eugenia; Papavasiliou, Evangelia; Payne, Sheila; Scholten, Willem; Radbruch, Lukas

    2016-01-01

    Reliable access to opioid medication is critical to delivering effective pain management, adequate treatment of opioid dependence, and quality palliative care. However, more than 80% of the world population is estimated to be inadequately treated for pain because of difficulties in accessing opioids. Although barriers to opioid access are primarily associated with restrictive laws, regulations, and licensing requirements, a key problem that significantly limits opioid access relates to policy constraints. To identify and explore policy barriers to opioid access in 12 Eastern and Central European countries involved in the Access to Opioid Medication in Europe project, funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013, no. 222994) Programme. A systematic content analysis of texts retrieved from documents (e.g., protocols of national problem analyses, strategic planning worksheets, and executive summaries) compiled, reviewed, approved, and submitted by either the Access to Opioid Medication in Europe consortium or the national country teams (comprising experts in pain management, harm reduction, and palliative care) between September 2011 and April 2014 was performed. Twenty-five policy barriers were identified (e.g., economic crisis, bureaucratic issues, lack of training initiatives, stigma, and discrimination), classified under four predetermined categories (financial/economic aspects and governmental support, formularies, education and training, and societal attitudes). Key barriers related to issues of funding allocation, affordability, knowledge, and fears associated with opioids. Reducing barriers and improving access to opioids require policy reform at the governmental level with a set of action plans being formulated and concurrently implemented and aimed at different levels of social, education, and economic policy change. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Access, Education and Policy Awareness: Predictors of Influenza Vaccine Acceptance Among VHA Healthcare Workers.

    PubMed

    Eaton, Jennifer Lipkowitz; Mohr, David C; McPhaul, Kathleen M; Kaslow, Richard A; Martinello, Richard A

    2017-08-01

    OBJECTIVE To identify predictors of influenza vaccine acceptance among VHA healthcare workers (HCWs), with emphasis on modifiable factors related to promotion campaigns. DESIGN Survey. SETTING National single-payer healthcare system with 140 hospitals and 321,000 HCWs. PARTICIPANTS National voluntary sample of HCWs in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system. METHODS We invited a random sample of 5% of all VHA HCWs to participate. An 18-item intranet-based survey inquired about occupation, vaccination status, employer policy, and local campaign efforts. RESULTS The response rate was 17.4%. Of 2,502 initial respondents, 2,406 (96.2%) provided usable data. This sample includes respondents from all 140 VA hospitals. Self-reported influenza vaccination rates were highest among physicians (95.6%) and licensed independent providers (88.3%). Nonclinical staff (80.7%) reported vaccine uptake similar to other certified but nonlicensed providers (81.2%). The strongest predictor of vaccine acceptance among VHA HCWs was individual awareness of organizational policy. Vaccine acceptance was also higher among HCWs who reported more options for access to vaccination and among those in facilities with more education activities. CONCLUSIONS Influenza vaccine acceptance varied significantly by employee awareness of employer policy and on-site access to vaccine. Employer-sponsored activities to increase access continue to show positive returns across occupations. Local influenza campaign efforts to educate HCWs may have reached saturation in this target group. These results suggest that focused communications to increase HCW awareness and understanding of employer policy can drive further increase in influenza vaccination acceptance. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:970-975.

  16. The media and access issues: content analysis of Canadian newspaper coverage of health policy decisions.

    PubMed

    Rachul, Christen; Caulfield, Timothy

    2015-08-25

    Previous studies have demonstrated how the media has an influence on policy decisions and healthcare coverage. Studies of Canadian media have shown that news coverage often emphasizes and hypes certain aspects of high profile health debates. We hypothesized that in Canadian media coverage of access to healthcare issues about therapies and technologies including for rare diseases, the media would be largely sympathetic towards patients, thus adding to public debate that largely favors increased access to healthcare-even in the face of equivocal evidence regarding efficacy. In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted a content analysis of 530 news articles about access to health therapies and technologies from 15 major Canadian newspapers over a 10-year period. Articles were analyzed for the perspectives presented in the articles and the types of reasons or arguments presented either for or against the particular access issue portrayed in the news articles. We found that news media coverage was largely sympathetic towards increasing healthcare funding and ease of access to healthcare (77.4 %). Rare diseases and orphan drugs were the most common issues raised (22.6 %). Patients perspectives were often highlighted in articles (42.3 %). 96.8 % of articles discussed why access to healthcare needs to increase, and discussion that questioned increased access was only included in 33.6 % articles. We found that news media favors a patient access ethos, which may contribute to a difficult policy-making environment.

  17. Faculty experiences with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy, compliance issues, and copyright practices.

    PubMed

    Charbonneau, Deborah H; McGlone, Jonathan

    2013-01-01

    The research assessed faculty awareness of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy and faculty experiences with the copyright terms in their author agreements with publishers. During the fall of 2011, 198 faculty members receiving funding from NIH at a large urban academic institution were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. A total of 94 faculty members responded to the survey, representing a response rate of 47%. Thirty percent of the survey respondents were either unaware of or not familiar with the NIH policy. Further, a significant number of faculty members (97.8%) indicated that they usually signed their copyright forms "as is." The findings show that time, confusing instructions, and unclear journal policies are challenges experienced by NIH-funded faculty in complying with the federal mandate. There is a need to educate faculty with respect to the value of retaining their copyrights and self-archiving their publications to help advance public access and open access scholarship.

  18. Patient access to medicines in two countries with similar health systems and differing medicines policies: Implications from a comprehensive literature review.

    PubMed

    Babar, Zaheer-Ud-Din; Gammie, Todd; Seyfoddin, Ali; Hasan, Syed Shahzad; Curley, Louise E

    2018-04-13

    Countries with similar health systems but different medicines policies might result in substantial medicines usage differences and resultant outcomes. The literature is sparse in this area. To review pharmaceutical policy research in New Zealand and Australia and discuss differences between the two countries and the impact these differences may have on subsequent medicine access. A review of the literature (2008-2016) was performed to identify relevant, peer-reviewed articles. Systematic searches were conducted across the six databases MEDLINE, PubMed, Science Direct, Springer Links, Scopus and Google Scholar. A further search of journals of high relevance was also conducted. Using content analysis, a narrative synthesis of pharmaceutical policy research influencing access to medicines in Australia and New Zealand was conducted. The results were critically assessed in the context of policy material available via grey literature from the respective countries. Key elements regarding pharmaceutical policy were identified from the 35 research papers identified for this review. Through a content analysis, three broad categories of pharmaceutical policy were found, which potentially could influence patient access to medicines in each country; the national health system, pricing and reimbursement. Within these three categories, 9 subcategories were identified: national health policy, pharmacy system, marketing authorization and regulation, prescription to non-prescription medicine switch, orphan drug policies, generic medicine substitution, national pharmaceutical schedule and health technology assessment, patient co-payment and managed entry agreements. This review systematically evaluated the current literature and identified key areas of difference in policy between Australia and NZ. Australia appears to cover and reimburse a greater number of medicines, while New Zealand achieves much lower prices for medicines than their Australian counterparts and has been more

  19. Insights into the government's role in food system policy making: improving access to healthy, local food alongside other priorities.

    PubMed

    Wegener, Jessica; Raine, Kim D; Hanning, Rhona M

    2012-11-12

    Government actors have an important role to play in creating healthy public policies and supportive environments to facilitate access to safe, affordable, nutritious food. The purpose of this research was to examine Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) as a case study for "what works" with respect to facilitating access to healthy, local food through regional food system policy making. Policy and planning approaches were explored through multi-sectoral perspectives of: (a) the development and adoption of food policies as part of the comprehensive planning process; (b) barriers to food system planning; and (c) the role and motivation of the Region's public health and planning departments in food system policy making. Forty-seven in-depth interviews with decision makers, experts in public health and planning, and local food system stakeholders provided rich insight into strategic government actions, as well as the local and historical context within which food system policies were developed. Grounded theory methods were used to identify key overarching themes including: "strategic positioning", "partnerships" and "knowledge transfer" and related sub-themes ("aligned agendas", "issue framing", "visioning" and "legitimacy"). A conceptual framework to illustrate the process and features of food system policy making is presented and can be used as a starting point to  engage multi-sectoral stakeholders in plans and actions to facilitate access to healthy food.

  20. Supermarket access, transport mode and BMI: the potential for urban design and planning policy across socio-economic areas.

    PubMed

    Murphy, Maureen; Koohsari, Mohammad Javad; Badland, Hannah; Giles-Corti, Billie

    2017-12-01

    To investigate dietary intake, BMI and supermarket access at varying geographic scales and transport modes across areas of socio-economic disadvantage, and to evaluate the implementation of an urban planning policy that provides guidance on spatial access to supermarkets. Cross-sectional study used generalised estimating equations to investigate associations between supermarket density and proximity, vegetable and fruit intake and BMI at five geographic scales representing distances people travel to purchase food by varying transport modes. A stratified analysis by area-level disadvantage was conducted to detect optimal distances to supermarkets across socio-economic areas. Spatial distribution of supermarket and transport access was analysed using a geographic information system. Melbourne, Australia. Adults (n 3128) from twelve local government areas (LGA) across Melbourne. Supermarket access was protective of BMI for participants in high disadvantaged areas within 800 m (P=0·040) and 1000 m (P=0·032) road network buffers around the household but not for participants in less disadvantaged areas. In urban growth area LGA, only 26 % of dwellings were within 1 km of a supermarket, far less than 80-90 % of dwellings suggested in the local urban planning policy. Low public transport access compounded disadvantage. Rapid urbanisation is a global health challenge linked to increases in dietary risk factors and BMI. Our findings highlight the importance of identifying the most appropriate geographic scale to inform urban planning policy for optimal health outcomes across socio-economic strata. Urban planning policy implementation in disadvantaged areas within cities has potential for reducing health inequities.

  1. Real-World Data: Policy Issues Regarding their Access and Use.

    PubMed

    Basu, Anirban; Axelsen, Kirsten; Grabowski, David C; Meltzer, David O; Polsky, Daniel; Ridley, David B; Wiederkehr, Daniel; Philipson, Tomas J

    2016-12-01

    As real-world data (RWD) in health care begin to cross over to the Big Data realms, a panel of health economists was gathered to establish how well the current US policy environment further the goals of RWD and, if not, what can be done to improve matters. This report summarizes these discussions spanning the current US landscape of RWD availability and usefulness, private versus public development of RWD assets, the current inherent bias in terms of access to RWD, and guiding principles in providing quality assessments of new RWD studies. Three main conclusions emerge: (1) a business case is often required to incentivize investments in RWD assets. However, access restrictions for public data assets have failed to generate a proper market for these data and hence may have led to an underinvestment of public RWDs; (2) Very weak empirical evidence exist on for-profit entities misusing public RWD data entities to further their own agendas, which is the basis for supporting access restrictions of public RWD data; and (3) perhaps developing standardized metrics that could flag misuse of RWDs in an efficient way could help quell some of the fear of sharing public RWD assets with for-profit entities. It is hoped that these discussions and conclusions would pave the way for more rigorous and timely debates on the greater availability and accessibility of RWD assets.

  2. Health policy and systems research in access to medicines: a prioritized agenda for low- and middle-income countries.

    PubMed

    Bigdeli, Maryam; Javadi, Dena; Hoebert, Joelle; Laing, Richard; Ranson, Kent

    2013-10-14

    To identify priority policy issues in access to medicines (ATM) relevant for low- and middle-income countries, to identify research questions that would help address these policy issues, and to prioritize these research questions in a health policy and systems research (HPSR) agenda. The study involved i) country- and regional-level priority-setting exercises performed in 17 countries across five regions, with a desk review of relevant grey and published literature combined with mapping and interviews of national and regional stakeholders; ii) interviews with global-level stakeholders; iii) a scoping of published literature; and iv) a consensus building exercise with global stakeholders which resulted in the formulation and ranking of HPSR questions in the field of ATM. A list of 18 priority policy issues was established following analysis of country-, regional-, and global-level exercises. Eighteen research questions were formulated during the global stakeholders' meeting and ranked according to four ranking criteria (innovation, impact on health and health systems, equity, and lack of research). The top three research questions were: i) In risk protection schemes, which innovations and policies improve equitable access to and appropriate use of medicines, sustainability of the insurance system, and financial impact on the insured? ii) How can stakeholders use the information available in the system, e.g., price, availability, quality, utilization, registration, procurement, in a transparent way towards improving access and use of medicines? and iii) How do policies and other interventions into private markets, such as information, subsidies, price controls, donation, regulatory mechanisms, promotion practices, etc., impact on access to and appropriate use of medicines? Our HPSR agenda adopts a health systems perspective and will guide relevant, innovative research, likely to bear an impact on health, health systems and equity.

  3. Promoting healthy food consumption: a review of state-level policies to improve access to fruits and vegetables.

    PubMed

    Hood, Carlyn; Martinez-Donate, Ana; Meinen, Amy

    2012-12-01

    Research indicates poor nutrition is a leading determinant of the development of chronic disease, and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is one method for decreasing obesity. Many policies have focused on increasing the demand for fruits and vegetables through price reductions and coupons. However, without ensuring a stable supply, increased demand can continue to raise prices, crowding out individuals who may otherwise have purchased fruits and vegetables and ultimately leading to continued disparities in access. This paper presents a review of selected state-level policy options recently proposed or implemented in states across the United States, and provides an evidence-based lens through which food access policy can be shaped in the Midwest. This review and potential framework uses Wisconsin to illustrate the feasibility of different state-level decisions and their potential impact on particular populations. Future supply-side policies to consider include expanding Electronic Benefit Transfer to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC),program and farmers markets, incentivizing the purchase of locally grown produce, assisting local specialty farmers directly, and/or establishing a state-level food policy council. This review reveals that a food policy council would create a more sustainable policy analysis process to better ensure future policy adoption is truly comprehensive, encompassing the production, distribution and purchase of locally grown fruits and vegetables.

  4. An evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of policy navigators to improve access to care for the poor in the Philippines.

    PubMed

    Solon, Orville; Peabody, John W; Woo, Kimberly; Quimbo, Stella A; Florentino, Jhiedon; Shimkhada, Riti

    2009-09-01

    Even when health insurance coverage is available, health policies may not be effective at increasing coverage among vulnerable populations. New approaches are needed to improve access to care. We experimentally introduced a novel intervention that uses Policy Navigators to increase health insurance enrollment in a poor population. We used data from the Quality Improvement Demonstration Study (QIDS), a randomized experiment taking place at the district level in the Visayas region of the Philippines. In two arms of the study, we compared the effects of introducing Policy Navigators to controls. The Policy Navigators advocated for improved access to care by providing regular system-level expertise directly to the policy-makers, municipal mayors and governors responsible for paying for and enrolling poor households into the health insurance program. Using regression models, we compared levels of enrollment in our intervention versus control sites. We also assessed the cost-effectiveness of marginal increases in enrollment. We found that Policy Navigators improved enrollment in health insurance between 39% and 102% compared to the controls. Policy navigators were cost-effective at 0.86 USD per enrollee. However, supplementary national government campaigns, which were implemented to further increase coverage, attenuated normal enrollment efforts. Policy Navigators appear to be effective in improving access to care and their success underscores the importance of local-level strategies for improving enrollment.

  5. An Evaluation of the Cost-effectiveness of Policy Navigators to Improve Access to Care for the Poor in the Philippines

    PubMed Central

    Solon, Orville; Peabody, John W.; Woo, Kimberly; Quimbo, Stella A.; Florentino, Jhiedon; Shimkhada, Riti

    2009-01-01

    Objectives Even when health insurance coverage is available, health policies may not be effective at increasing coverage among vulnerable populations. New approaches are needed to improve access to care. We experimentally introduced a novel intervention that uses Policy Navigators to increase health insurance enrollment in a poor population. Methods We used data from the Quality Improvement Demonstration Study (QIDS), a randomized experiment taking place at the district level in the Visayas region of the Philippines. In two arms of the study, we compared the effects of introducing Policy Navigators to controls. The Policy Navigators advocated for improved access to care by providing regular system-level expertise directly to the policy-makers, municipal mayors and governors responsible for paying for and enrolling poor households into the health insurance program. Using regression models, we compared levels of enrollment in our intervention versus control sites. We also assessed the cost effectiveness of marginal increases in enrollment. Results We found that Policy Navigators improved enrollment in health insurance between 39 and 102% compared to the controls. Policy navigators were cost-effective at $0.86 USD per enrollee. However, supplementary national government campaigns, which were implemented to further increase coverage, attenuated normal enrollment efforts. Conclusion Policy Navigators appear to be effective in improving access to care and their success underscores the importance of local-level strategies for improving enrollment. PMID:19349090

  6. Economic and Public Health Impacts of Policies Restricting Access to Hepatitis C Treatment for Medicaid Patients.

    PubMed

    Chidi, Alexis P; Bryce, Cindy L; Donohue, Julie M; Fine, Michael J; Landsittel, Douglas P; Myaskovsky, Larissa; Rogal, Shari S; Switzer, Galen E; Tsung, Allan; Smith, Kenneth J

    2016-06-01

    Interferon-free hepatitis C treatment regimens are effective but very costly. The cost-effectiveness, budget, and public health impacts of current Medicaid treatment policies restricting treatment to patients with advanced disease remain unknown. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of current Medicaid policies restricting hepatitis C treatment to patients with advanced disease compared with a strategy providing unrestricted access to hepatitis C treatment, assess the budget and public health impact of each strategy, and estimate the feasibility and long-term effects of increased access to treatment for patients with hepatitis C. Using a Markov model, we compared two strategies for 45- to 55-year-old Medicaid beneficiaries: 1) Current Practice-only advanced disease is treated before Medicare eligibility and 2) Full Access-both early-stage and advanced disease are treated before Medicare eligibility. Patients could develop progressive fibrosis, cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma, undergo transplantation, or die each year. Morbidity was reduced after successful treatment. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and compared the costs and public health effects of each strategy from the perspective of Medicare alone as well as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services perspective. We varied model inputs in one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Full Access was less costly and more effective than Current Practice for all cohorts and perspectives, with differences in cost ranging from $5,369 to $11,960 and in effectiveness from 0.82 to 3.01 quality-adjusted life-years. In a probabilistic sensitivity analysis, Full Access was cost saving in 93% of model iterations. Compared with Current Practice, Full Access averted 5,994 hepatocellular carcinoma cases and 121 liver transplants per 100,000 patients. Current Medicaid policies restricting hepatitis C treatment to patients with advanced disease are more costly and less effective than unrestricted

  7. Policies for patient access to clinical data via PHRs: current state and recommendations.

    PubMed

    Collins, Sarah A; Vawdrey, David K; Kukafka, Rita; Kuperman, Gilad J

    2011-12-01

    Healthcare delivery organizations are increasingly using online personal health records (PHRs) to provide patients with direct access to their clinical information; however, there may be a lack of consistency in the data made available. We aimed to understand the general use and functionality of PHRs and the organizational policies and decision-making structures for making data available to patients. A cross-sectional survey was administered by telephone structured interview to 21 organizations to determine the types of data made available to patients through PHRs and the presence of explicit governance for PHR data release. Organizations were identified based on a review of the literature, PHR experts, and snowball sampling. Organizations that did not provide patients with electronic access to their data via a PHR were excluded. Interviews were conducted with 17 organizations for a response rate of 81%. Half of the organizations had explicit governance in the form of a written policy that outlined the data types made available to patients. Overall, 88% of the organizations used a committee structure for the decision-making process and included senior management and information services. All organizations sought input from clinicians. Discussion There was considerable variability in the types of clinical data and the time frame for releasing these data to patients. Variability in data release policies may have implications for PHR use and adoption. Future policy activities, such as requirement specification for the latter stages of Meaningful Use, should be leveraged as an opportunity to encourage standardization of functionality and broad deployment of PHRs.

  8. Marketisation and Widening Participation in English Higher Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Institutional Access Policy Documents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCaig, Colin

    2015-01-01

    This paper uses critical discourse analysis of English higher education institutions' policy statements about access to explore the changing ways that institutions have used language to shift their market positionality away from widening participation for all and the process of higher education to "fair access" (i.e. social mobility for…

  9. Insights into the Government’s Role in Food System Policy Making: Improving Access to Healthy, Local Food Alongside Other Priorities

    PubMed Central

    Wegener, Jessica; Raine, Kim D.; Hanning, Rhona M.

    2012-01-01

    Government actors have an important role to play in creating healthy public policies and supportive environments to facilitate access to safe, affordable, nutritious food. The purpose of this research was to examine Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) as a case study for “what works” with respect to facilitating access to healthy, local food through regional food system policy making. Policy and planning approaches were explored through multi-sectoral perspectives of: (a) the development and adoption of food policies as part of the comprehensive planning process; (b) barriers to food system planning; and (c) the role and motivation of the Region’s public health and planning departments in food system policy making. Forty-seven in-depth interviews with decision makers, experts in public health and planning, and local food system stakeholders provided rich insight into strategic government actions, as well as the local and historical context within which food system policies were developed. Grounded theory methods were used to identify key overarching themes including: “strategic positioning”, “partnerships” and “knowledge transfer” and related sub-themes (“aligned agendas”, “issue framing”, “visioning” and “legitimacy”). A conceptual framework to illustrate the process and features of food system policy making is presented and can be used as a starting point to engage multi-sectoral stakeholders in plans and actions to facilitate access to healthy food. PMID:23202834

  10. Role-based access control permissions

    DOEpatents

    Staggs, Kevin P.; Markham, Thomas R.; Hull Roskos, Julie J.; Chernoguzov, Alexander

    2017-04-25

    Devices, systems, and methods for role-based access control permissions are disclosed. One method includes a policy decision point that receives up-to-date security context information from one or more outside sources to determine whether to grant access for a data client to a portion of the system and creates an access vector including the determination; receiving, via a policy agent, a request by the data client for access to the portion of the computing system by the data client, wherein the policy agent checks to ensure there is a session established with communications and user/application enforcement points; receiving, via communications policy enforcement point, the request from the policy agent, wherein the communications policy enforcement point determines whether the data client is an authorized node, based upon the access vector received from the policy decision point; and receiving, via the user/application policy enforcement point, the request from the communications policy enforcement point.

  11. Access, Equity, and Community Colleges: The Truman Commission and Federal Higher Education Policy from 1947 To 2011

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gilbert, Claire Krendl; Heller, Donald E.

    2013-01-01

    The 1947 President's Commission on Higher Education offers insight into higher education policy in the United States. This article reviews and assesses the adoption of its policy recommendations in two key areas: 1) improving college access and equity and 2) expanding the role of community colleges. (Contains 1 figure and 4 notes.)

  12. Analysis on logistic company action toward the access restriction policy on freight vehicle

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nur, Muhammad; Hadiwardoyo, Sigit P.; Nahry, Nahdalina

    2017-06-01

    The high volume of freight vehicles that enters, leaves or passes through the urban areas, especially Jakarta, has caused traffic congestion. Local authority plans to perform the access restriction on freight vehicles on the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) to reduce the congestion on that toll road. The study aims to analyze the alternative solutions of the logistics companies to overcome the impact of such policy. The data collection is done by interviewing 102 truck drivers and 7 staffs of logistic companies that use JORR. The results show that the most preferred action is shifting the operating time. Based on the open test, access restriction policy on JORR may cause a significant impact on the operational costs of delivery. Shifting the operational time will increase the operating cost by 1.71%, while turning the route will increase the operating costs by 4.35%. Moreover, changing the mode will reduce the operating expenses by 50%, and the combination action of shifting the route and the time will increase the operating costs by 5.39%.

  13. Adolescents' alcohol use and strength of policy relating to youth access, trading hours and driving under the influence: findings from Australia.

    PubMed

    White, Victoria; Azar, Denise; Faulkner, Agatha; Coomber, Kerri; Durkin, Sarah; Livingston, Michael; Chikritzhs, Tanya; Room, Robin; Wakefield, Melanie

    2018-06-01

    To determine (i) whether the strength of Australian alcohol control policy in three domains (youth access, trading hours and drink driving) changed during the 2000s; and (ii) estimate associations between these policies and adolescent drinking after adjusting for television alcohol advertising exposures, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price changes, exposure to negative articles about alcohol in daily newspapers and adult drinking prevalence. Repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted triennially from 2002 to 2011. Multi-level modelling examined the association between alcohol control policies and drinking prevalence after adjusting for covariates. Four Australian capital cities between 2002 and 2011. Students aged 12-17 years participating in a triennial national representative school-based survey (sample size range/survey: 9805-13 119). Outcome measures were: past month drinking and risky drinking (5+ drinks on a day) in the past 7 days. Policy strength in each of three domains (youth access, trading hours, drink-driving) were the key predictor variables. Covariates included: past 3-month television alcohol and alcohol-control advertising, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price change, negatively framed newspaper alcohol articles, adult drinking prevalence and student demographic characteristics. During the study period, the strength of youth access policies increased by 10%, trading hours policies by 14% and drink-driving policies by 58%. Past-month and risky drinking prevalence decreased (e.g. past-month: 2002: 47.4% to 2011: 26.3%). Multivariable analyses that included all policy variables and adjusted for year, student and other covariates showed past-month drinking to be associated inversely with stronger trading hours policies [odds ratio (OR) = 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.69, 0.94], but not youth access (OR = 0.92 95% CI = 0.81, 1.04) or drink-driving (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.09). Risky drinking was associated inversely with

  14. 47 CFR 64.402 - Policies and procedures for the provision of priority access service by commercial mobile radio...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... priority access service by commercial mobile radio service providers. 64.402 Section 64.402... RULES RELATING TO COMMON CARRIERS Procedures for Handling Priority Services in Emergencies § 64.402 Policies and procedures for the provision of priority access service by commercial mobile radio service...

  15. International Policies on Sharing Genomic Research Results with Relatives: Approaches to Balancing Privacy with Access

    PubMed Central

    Branum, Rebecca; Wolf, Susan M.

    2015-01-01

    Returning genetic research results to raises complex issues. In order to inform the U.S. debate, this paper analyzes international law and policies governing the sharing of genetic research results with relatives and identifies key themes and lessons. The laws and policies from other countries demonstrate a range of approaches to balancing individual privacy and autonomy with family access for health benefit, offering important lessons for further development of approaches in the United States. PMID:26479568

  16. Associations between state minimum wage policy and health care access: a multi-level analysis of the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor survey.

    PubMed

    McCarrier, Kelly P; Martin, Diane P; Ralston, James D; Zimmerman, Frederick J

    2010-05-01

    Minimum wage policies have been advanced as mechanisms to improve the economic conditions of the working poor. Both positive and negative effects of such policies on health care access have been hypothesized, but associations have yet to be thoroughly tested. To examine whether the presence of minimum wage policies in excess of the federal standard of $5.15 per hour was associated with health care access indicators among low-skilled adults of working age, a cross-sectional analysis of 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data was conducted. Self-reported health insurance status and experience with cost-related barriers to needed medical care were adjusted in multi-level logistic regression models to control for potential confounding at the state, county, and individual levels. State-level wage policy was not found to be associated with insurance status or unmet medical need in the models, providing early evidence that increased minimum wage rates may neither strengthen nor weaken access to care as previously predicted.

  17. A revaluation of the cultural dimension of disability policy in the European Union: the impact of digitization and web accessibility.

    PubMed

    Ferri, Delia; Giannoumis, G Anthony

    2014-01-01

    Reflecting the commitments undertaken by the EU through the conclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the European Disability Strategy 2010–2020 not only gives a prominent position to accessibility, broadly interpreted, but also suggests an examination of the obligations for access to cultural goods and services. The European Disability Strategy 2010–2020 expressly acknowledges that EU action will support national activities to make sports, leisure, cultural and recreational organizations and activities accessible, and use the possibilities for copyright exceptions in the Directive 2001/29/EC (Infosoc Directive). This article discusses to what extent the EU has realized the principle of accessibility and the right to access cultural goods and services envisaged in the UNCRPD. Previous research has yet to explore how web accessibility and digitization interact with the cultural dimension of disability policy in the European Union. This examination attempts to fill this gap by discussing to what extent the European Union has put this cultural dimension into effect and how web accessibility policies and the digitization of cultural materials influence these efforts.

  18. Cannabis policies and user practices: market separation, price, potency, and accessibility in Amsterdam and San Francisco.

    PubMed

    Reinarman, Craig

    2009-01-01

    This paper explores user perceptions and practices in contrasting legal-policy milieux-Amsterdam (de facto decriminalization) and San Francisco (de jure criminalization) on four policy issues: sources of cannabis and separation of markets for it and other drugs; user perceptions of effects of price on consumption; effects of potency on consumption; and perceived risk of arrest and accessibility of cannabis. Questions on these issues were added to surveys on career use patterns amongst representative samples of experienced cannabis users using comparable methods. Most San Francisco respondents obtained cannabis through friends who knew dealers, whereas most Amsterdam respondents obtained it from regulated shops. Only one in seven Amsterdam respondents but half the San Francisco respondents could obtain other drugs from their cannabis sources. Majorities under both systems had never found cannabis "too expensive." Amsterdam respondents preferred milder cannabis whilst San Francisco respondents preferred stronger; majorities in both cities reported self-titrating with potent cannabis. Risk and fear of arrest were higher in San Francisco, but most in both cities perceived arrest as unlikely. Estimated search times were somewhat longer in San Francisco, but a majority reported being able to access it within half a day. There is substantial separation of markets in the Dutch system. Policies designed to increase cannabis prices appear unlikely to impact consumption. Decriminalization was associated with a preference for milder cannabis, but under both policy regimes most respondents self-titrated when using more potent strains. Criminalization was associated with somewhat higher risk and fear of arrest and somewhat longer search times, but these did not appear to significantly impede access for most respondents.

  19. International Policies on Sharing Genomic Research Results with Relatives: Approaches to Balancing Privacy with Access.

    PubMed

    Branum, Rebecca; Wolf, Susan M

    2015-01-01

    Returning genetic research results to relatives raises complex issues. In order to inform the U.S. debate, this paper analyzes international law and policies governing the sharing of genetic research results with relatives and identifies key themes and lessons. The laws and policies from other countries demonstrate a range of approaches to balancing individual privacy and autonomy with family access for health benefit, offering important lessons for further development of approaches in the United States. © 2015 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  20. Migrants' access to healthcare services within the European Union: a content analysis of policy documents in Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

    PubMed

    Ledoux, Céline; Pilot, Eva; Diaz, Esperanza; Krafft, Thomas

    2018-06-15

    The current migration flow into Europe is leading to a growing ethnically diverse population in many European countries. Now more than ever, those populations have different healthcare needs, languages, traditions, and previous level of care. This higher level of diversity is likely to increase health inequalities that might challenge healthcare systems if not addressed. In this context, this study aims at reviewing the policy framework for migrants' access to healthcare in Spain, Portugal and Ireland, countries with a long history of immigration, to identify lessons to be learned for policies on migrants' health. A content analysis of official policy documents was undertaken and the conceptual framework developed by Mladowsky was adapted to classify the actions indicated in the policies. The content analysis revealed that the policy aim for all three analysed countries is the improvement of the health status of the immigrant population based on equity and equality principles. The main strategies are the adaptation of services through actions targeting patients and providers, such as the implementation of cultural mediators and trainings for health professionals. The three countries propose a great range of policies aiming at improving access to healthcare services for immigrants that can inspire other European countries currently welcoming refugees. Developing inclusive policies, however does not necessarily mean they will be implemented or felt on the ground. Inclusive policies are indeed under threat due to the economic and social crises and due to the respective nationalistic attitudes towards integration. The European Union is challenged to take a more proactive leadership and ensure that countries effectively implement inclusive actions to improve migrant's access to health services.

  1. Exploring Access and Equity in Higher Education: Policy and Performance in a Comparative Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clancy, Patrick; Goastellec, Gaele

    2007-01-01

    A comparative analysis of how access and equity are defined and how policies have evolved reveals a number of commonalities and differences between countries. The overall trend is a movement from the priority given to "inherited merit" in the admission process through a commitment to formal equality, towards the application of some modes of…

  2. Barriers Accessing Mental Health Services Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Immigrant Women in Australia: Policy Implications.

    PubMed

    Wohler, Yvonne; Dantas, Jaya Ar

    2017-06-01

    Immigrant and refugee women from diverse ethnic backgrounds encounter multiple barriers in accessing mental healthcare in various settings. A systematic review on the prevalence of mental health disorders among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women in Australia documented the following barriers: logistical, language and communication, dissonance between participants and care providers and preference for alternative interventions. This article proposes recommendations for policies to better address the mental health needs of immigrant and refugee women. Key policy recommendations include: support for gender specific research, implementation and evaluation of transcultural policies, cultural responsiveness in service delivery, review of immigration and refugee claims policies and social integration of immigrants.

  3. Improving the availability and accessibility of opioids for the treatment of pain: the International Pain Policy Fellowship.

    PubMed

    Bosnjak, Snezana; Maurer, Martha A; Ryan, Karen M; Leon, Marta X; Madiye, Gabriel

    2011-08-01

    Opioid analgesics are simultaneously indispensable medicines for the treatment of moderate to severe pain and are harmful when abused. The challenge for governments is to balance the obligation to prevent diversion, trafficking, and abuse of opioids with the equally important obligation to ensure their availability and accessibility for the relief of pain and suffering. Over the last 30 years, significant progress has been made toward improving access to opioids as measured by increasing global medical opioid consumption. However, this progress is marked by ongoing large disparities among countries, with most increases in medical opioid consumption attributed to high-income countries, not low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The International Pain Policy Fellowship (IPPF) was developed by the Pain & Policy Studies Group, with the central goal of developing national leaders from LMICs and empowering them to improve availability and accessibility of opioids for the treatment of pain. To date, two classes of fellows have been selected, representing 17 fellows from 15 countries. Progress achieved by the leadership of three fellows from Sierra Leone, Colombia, and Serbia is highlighted in this paper. The fellows from each country were successful at initiating collaboration with relevant governmental bodies, national authorities, and professional societies, which resulted in a new supply of oral opioids in Sierra Leone and Serbia, and improvements in the distribution of already available opioids in Colombia. All fellows were instrumental in facilitating evaluation of national policy. The IPPF program empowers fellows with the necessary knowledge, skills, and guidance to improve the availability and accessibility of opioids for the treatment of pain.

  4. Dental Care And Medicare Beneficiaries: Access Gaps, Cost Burdens, And Policy Options.

    PubMed

    Willink, Amber; Schoen, Cathy; Davis, Karen

    2016-12-01

    Despite the wealth of evidence that oral health is related to physical health, Medicare explicitly excludes dental care from coverage, leaving beneficiaries at risk for tooth decay and periodontal disease and exposed to high out-of-pocket spending. To profile these risks, we examined access to dental care across income groups and types of insurance coverage in 2012. High-income beneficiaries were almost three times as likely to have received dental care in the previous twelve months, compared to low-income beneficiaries-74 percent of whom received no dental care. We also describe two illustrative policies that would expand access, in part by providing income-related subsidies. One would offer a voluntary, premium-financed benefit similar to those offered by Part D prescription drug plans, with an estimated premium of $29 per month. The other would cover basic dental care in core Medicare Part B benefits, financed in part by premiums ($7 or $15 per month, depending on whether premiums covered 25 percent or 50 percent of the cost) and in part by general revenues. The fact that beneficiaries are forgoing dental care and are exposed to significant costs if they seek care underscores the need for action. The policies offer pathways for improving health and financial independence for older adults. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

  5. Policies for accelerating access to clean energy, improving health, advancing development, and mitigating climate change.

    PubMed

    Haines, Andy; Smith, Kirk R; Anderson, Dennis; Epstein, Paul R; McMichael, Anthony J; Roberts, Ian; Wilkinson, Paul; Woodcock, James; Woods, Jeremy

    2007-10-06

    The absence of reliable access to clean energy and the services it provides imposes a large disease burden on low-income populations and impedes prospects for development. Furthermore, current patterns of fossil-fuel use cause substantial ill-health from air pollution and occupational hazards. Impending climate change, mainly driven by energy use, now also threatens health. Policies to promote access to non-polluting and sustainable sources of energy have great potential both to improve public health and to mitigate (prevent) climate disruption. There are several technological options, policy levers, and economic instruments for sectors such as power generation, transport, agriculture, and the built environment. However, barriers to change include vested interests, political inertia, inability to take meaningful action, profound global inequalities, weak technology-transfer mechanisms, and knowledge gaps that must be addressed to transform global markets. The need for policies that prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate while addressing the energy needs of disadvantaged people is a central challenge of the current era. A comprehensive programme for clean energy should optimise mitigation and, simultaneously, adaption to climate change while maximising co-benefits for health--eg, through improved air, water, and food quality. Intersectoral research and concerted action, both nationally and internationally, will be required.

  6. Creating Access to Opportunities for Youth in Transition from Foster Care. An AYPF Policy Brief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Russ, Erin; Fryar, Garet

    2014-01-01

    What happens to youth in foster care when they turn 18? Many face unprecedented challenges like homelessness, lack of financial resources, difficulty accessing educational opportunities, and unemployment. In this issue brief, The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) document these challenges and opportunities in three distinct yet overlapping areas…

  7. Youth tobacco access: trends and policy implications

    PubMed Central

    Gendall, Philip; Hoek, Janet; Marsh, Louise; Edwards, Richard; Healey, Benjamin

    2014-01-01

    Objective We examined whether the supply routes via which New Zealand adolescents aged 14–15 years accessed tobacco had changed during a period of dynamic policy activity. Setting We analysed data from seven consecutive years (2006–2012) of the New Zealand Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 survey, a nationwide cross-sectional annual survey. Participants All New Zealand schools teaching Year 10 students are invited to participate in the survey; school-level participation rates have ranged between 44% and 58% and more than 25 000 students have responded to the survey in each year. The results presented draw on the subsample who reported smoking when surveyed (N∼9200). The data were weighted by age, ethnicity and school socioeconomic status (SES) to remove effects of systematic over-response by New Zealand Europeans and under-response by those in lower SES groups from trend analyses. Primary and secondary outcome measures The survey measured adolescents’ main reported tobacco supply source. Results Smoking prevalence declined significantly (8.1%) over the period examined (linear tend coefficient: −0.74; 95% CI −1.03 to −0.45, significant p<0.01). Friends showed a significant decline in relative importance as a supply source while caregivers and other sources showed a significant increase over the period examined. Conclusions The findings show that social supply, particularly via friends, caregivers and others, such as older siblings, is a key tobacco source for adolescents; commercial supply is much less important. The findings raise questions about the additional measures needed to reduce smoking among youth. Endgame policies that make tobacco more difficult to obtain and less appealing and convenient to gift merit further investigation. PMID:24742976

  8. Reflective Database Access Control

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olson, Lars E.

    2009-01-01

    "Reflective Database Access Control" (RDBAC) is a model in which a database privilege is expressed as a database query itself, rather than as a static privilege contained in an access control list. RDBAC aids the management of database access controls by improving the expressiveness of policies. However, such policies introduce new interactions…

  9. Local production of pharmaceuticals in Africa and access to essential medicines: 'urban bias’ in access to imported medicines in Tanzania and its policy implications

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background International policy towards access to essential medicines in Africa has focused until recently on international procurement of large volumes of medicines, mainly from Indian manufacturers, and their import and distribution. This emphasis is now being challenged by renewed policy interest in the potential benefits of local pharmaceutical production and supply. However, there is a shortage of evidence on the role of locally produced medicines in African markets, and on potential benefits of local production for access to medicines. This article contributes to filling that gap. Methods This article uses WHO/HAI data from Tanzania for 2006 and 2009 on prices and sources of a set of tracer essential medicines. It employs innovative graphical methods of analysis alongside conventional statistical testing. Results Medicines produced in Tanzania were equally likely to be found in rural and in urban areas. Imported medicines, especially those imported from countries other than Kenya (mainly from India) displayed 'urban bias’: that is, they were significantly more likely to be available in urban than in rural areas. This finding holds across the range of sample medicines studied, and cannot be explained by price differences alone. While different private distribution networks for essential medicines may provide part of the explanation, this cannot explain why the urban bias in availability of imported medicines is also found in the public sector. Conclusions The findings suggest that enhanced local production may improve rural access to medicines. The potential benefits of local production and scope for their improvement are an important field for further research, and indicate a key policy area in which economic development and health care objectives may reinforce each other. PMID:24612518

  10. Local production of pharmaceuticals in Africa and access to essential medicines: 'urban bias' in access to imported medicines in Tanzania and its policy implications.

    PubMed

    Mujinja, Phares G M; Mackintosh, Maureen; Justin-Temu, Mary; Wuyts, Marc

    2014-03-10

    International policy towards access to essential medicines in Africa has focused until recently on international procurement of large volumes of medicines, mainly from Indian manufacturers, and their import and distribution. This emphasis is now being challenged by renewed policy interest in the potential benefits of local pharmaceutical production and supply. However, there is a shortage of evidence on the role of locally produced medicines in African markets, and on potential benefits of local production for access to medicines. This article contributes to filling that gap. This article uses WHO/HAI data from Tanzania for 2006 and 2009 on prices and sources of a set of tracer essential medicines. It employs innovative graphical methods of analysis alongside conventional statistical testing. Medicines produced in Tanzania were equally likely to be found in rural and in urban areas. Imported medicines, especially those imported from countries other than Kenya (mainly from India) displayed 'urban bias': that is, they were significantly more likely to be available in urban than in rural areas. This finding holds across the range of sample medicines studied, and cannot be explained by price differences alone. While different private distribution networks for essential medicines may provide part of the explanation, this cannot explain why the urban bias in availability of imported medicines is also found in the public sector. The findings suggest that enhanced local production may improve rural access to medicines. The potential benefits of local production and scope for their improvement are an important field for further research, and indicate a key policy area in which economic development and health care objectives may reinforce each other.

  11. Healthcare Access for Iraqi Refugee Children in Texas: Persistent Barriers, Potential Solutions, and Policy Implications.

    PubMed

    Vermette, David; Shetgiri, Rashmi; Al Zuheiri, Haidar; Flores, Glenn

    2015-10-01

    To identify access barriers to healthcare and potential interventions to improve access for Iraqi refugee children. Four focus groups were conducted using consecutive sampling of Iraqi refugee parents residing in the US for 8 months to 5 years. Eight key-informant interviews also were conducted with employees of organizations serving Iraqi refugee families, recruited using snowball sampling. Focus groups and interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using margin coding and grounded theory. Iraqi refugees identified provider availability, Medicaid maintenance and renewal, language issues, and inadequate recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder as barriers to care for their children. Interviewees cited loss of case-management services and difficulties in understanding the Medicaid renewal process as barriers. Potential interventions to improve access include community-oriented efforts to educate parents on Medicaid renewal, obtaining services, and accessing specialists. Given the enduring nature of language and Medicaid renewal barriers, policies addressing eligibility alone are insufficient.

  12. Access to artesunate-amodiaquine, quinine and other anti-malarials: policy and markets in Burundi.

    PubMed

    Amuasi, John H; Diap, Graciela; Blay-Nguah, Samuel; Boakye, Isaac; Karikari, Patrick E; Dismas, Baza; Karenzo, Jeanne; Nsabiyumva, Lievin; Louie, Karly S; Kiechel, Jean-René

    2011-02-10

    Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in post-conflict Burundi. To counter the increasing challenge of anti-malarial drug resistance and improve highly effective treatment Burundi adopted artesunate-amodiaquine (AS-AQ) as first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria and oral quinine as second-line treatment in its national treatment policy in 2003. Uptake of this policy in the public, private and non-governmental (NGO) retail market sectors of Burundi is relatively unknown. This study was conducted to evaluate access to national policy recommended anti-malarials. Adapting a standardized methodology developed by Health Action International/World Health Organization (HAI/WHO), a cross-sectional survey of 70 (24 public, 36 private, and 10 NGO) medicine outlets was conducted in three regions of Burundi, representing different levels of transmission of malaria. The availability on day of the survey, the median prices, and affordability (in terms of number of days' wages to purchase treatment) of AS-AQ, quinine and other anti-malarials were calculated. Anti-malarials were stocked in all outlets surveyed. AS-AQ was available in 87.5%, 33.3%, and 90% of public, private, and NGO retail outlets, respectively. Quinine was the most common anti-malarial found in all outlet types. Non-policy recommended anti-malarials were mainly found in the private outlets (38.9%) compared to public (4.2%) and NGO (0%) outlets. The median price of a course of AS-AQ was US$0.16 (200 Burundi Francs, FBu) for the public and NGO markets, and 3.5-fold higher in the private sector (US$0.56 or 700 FBu). Quinine tablets were similarly priced in the public (US$1.53 or 1,892.50 FBu), private and NGO sectors (both US$1.61 or 2,000 FBu). Non-policy anti-malarials were priced 50-fold higher than the price of AS-AQ in the public sector. A course of AS-AQ was affordable at 0.4 of a day's wage in the public and NGO sectors, whereas, it was equivalent to 1.5 days worth

  13. Issues With Access to Acquisition Data and Information in the Department of Defense: Policy and Practice

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-04-30

    qÜáêíÉÉåíÜ=^ååì~ä= ^Åèìáëáíáçå=oÉëÉ~êÅÜ= póãéçëáìã= tÉÇåÉëÇ~ó=pÉëëáçåë= sçäìãÉ=f= = Issues With Access to Acquisition Data & Information in the Department of...Chief Information Officer (CIO), United States Air Force Issues With Access to Acquisition Data & Information in the Department of Defense: Policy...Practice Megan McKernan, Defense Research Analyst, RAND Jessie Riposo, Senior Operations Researcher, RAND Issues With Access to Acquisition Data

  14. Decrease in Suicide Rates after a Change of Policy Reducing Access to Firearms in Adolescents: A Naturalistic Epidemiological Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lubin, Gad; Werbeloff, Nomi; Halperin, Demian; Shmushkevitch, Mordechai; Weiser, Mark; Knobler, Haim Y.

    2010-01-01

    The use of firearms is a common means of suicide. We examined the effect of a policy change in the Israeli Defense Forces reducing adolescents' access to firearms on rates of suicide. Following the policy change, suicide rates decreased significantly by 40%. Most of this decrease was due to decrease in suicide using firearms over the weekend.…

  15. Managing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Policy Implications of Expanding Global Access to Nuclear Power

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-11-01

    critical aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle for the United States, where longstanding nonproliferation policy discouraged commercial nuclear fuel...perhaps the most critical question in this decade for strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime: how can access to sensitive fuel cycle...process can take advantage of the slight difference in atomic mass between 235U and 238U. The typical enrichment process requires about 10 lbs of uranium

  16. An Approach to Assessing Multicity Implementation of Healthful Food Access Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes

    PubMed Central

    Silberfarb, Laura Oliven; Geber, Gayle

    2014-01-01

    Local governments play an increasingly important role in improving residents’ access to healthful food and beverages to reduce obesity and chronic disease. Cities can use multiple strategies to improve community health through, for example, land use and zoning policies, city contracting and procurement practices, sponsorship of farmers markets and community gardens, and vending and concession practices in parks and recreation facilities. With 41 cities in the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department jurisdiction, the county undertook to measure the extent to which cities were engaged in making policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes to increase residents’ access to healthful food. The results revealed that some cities, particularly those with higher resident demand for healthful food, are making nationally recommended PSE changes, such as sponsoring farmers markets and community gardens. Cities have moved more slowly to make changes in areas with perceived negative cost consequences or lesser public demand, such as parks and recreation vending and concessions. This article describes the assessment process, survey tools, findings, and implications for other health departments seeking to undertake a similar assessment. PMID:24762528

  17. An approach to assessing multicity implementation of healthful food access policy, systems, and environmental changes.

    PubMed

    Silberfarb, Laura Oliven; Savre, Sonja; Geber, Gayle

    2014-04-24

    Local governments play an increasingly important role in improving residents' access to healthful food and beverages to reduce obesity and chronic disease. Cities can use multiple strategies to improve community health through, for example, land use and zoning policies, city contracting and procurement practices, sponsorship of farmers markets and community gardens, and vending and concession practices in parks and recreation facilities. With 41 cities in the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department jurisdiction, the county undertook to measure the extent to which cities were engaged in making policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes to increase residents' access to healthful food. The results revealed that some cities, particularly those with higher resident demand for healthful food, are making nationally recommended PSE changes, such as sponsoring farmers markets and community gardens. Cities have moved more slowly to make changes in areas with perceived negative cost consequences or lesser public demand, such as parks and recreation vending and concessions. This article describes the assessment process, survey tools, findings, and implications for other health departments seeking to undertake a similar assessment.

  18. Stem cell research funding policies and dynamic innovation: a survey of open access and commercialization requirements.

    PubMed

    Lévesque, Maroussia; Kim, Jihyun Rosel; Isasi, Rosario; Knoppers, Bartha Maria; Plomer, Aurora; Joly, Yann

    2014-08-01

    This article compares and contrasts the pressures of both open access data sharing and commercialization policies in the context of publicly funded embryonic stem cell research (SCR). First, normative guidelines of international SCR organizations were examined. We then examined SCR funding guidelines and the project evaluation criteria of major funding organizations in the EU, the United Kingdom (UK), Spain, Canada and the United States. Our survey of policies revealed subtle pressures to commercialize research that include: increased funding availability for commercialization opportunities, assistance for obtaining intellectual property rights (IPRs) and legislation mandating commercialization. In lieu of open access models, funders are increasingly opting for limited sharing models or "protected commons" models that make the research available to researchers within the same region or those receiving the same funding. Meanwhile, there still is need for funding agencies to clarify and standardize terms such as "non-profit organizations" and "for-profit research," as more universities are pursuing for-profit or commercial opportunities.

  19. ECONOMIC AND PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS OF POLICIES RESTRICTING ACCESS TO HEPATITIS C TREATMENT FOR MEDICAID PATIENTS

    PubMed Central

    Chidi, Alexis P.; Bryce, Cindy L.; Donohue, Julie; Fine, Michael J.; Landsittel, Doug; Myaskovsky, Larissa; Rogal, Shari; Switzer, Galen; Tsung, Allan; Smith, Kenneth

    2016-01-01

    INTRODUCTION Interferon-free hepatitis C treatment regimens are effective but very costly. The cost-effectiveness, budget and public health impacts of current Medicaid treatment policies restricting treatment to patients with advanced disease remain unknown. METHODS Using a Markov model, we compared two strategies for 45–55 year old Medicaid beneficiaries: (1) Current Practice - only advanced disease is treated before Medicare eligibility; and (2) Full Access – both early-stage and advanced disease are treated before Medicare eligibility. Patients could develop progressive fibrosis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma, undergo transplantation, or die each year. Morbidity was reduced after successful treatment. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and compared the costs and public health effects of each strategy from the perspective of Medicare alone as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) perspective. We varied model inputs in one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. RESULTS Full Access was less costly and more effective than Current Practice for all cohorts and perspectives, with differences in cost from $5,369–$11,960 and in effectiveness from 0.82–3.01 quality adjusted life-years). In a probabilistic sensitivity analysis, Full Access was cost saving in 93% of model iterations. Compared to Current Practice, Full Access averted 5,994 hepatocellular carcinoma cases and 121 liver transplants per 100,000 patients. CONCLUSIONS Current Medicaid policies restricting hepatitis C treatment to patients with advanced disease are more costly and less effective than unrestricted, full access strategies. Collaboration between state and federal payers may be needed to realize the full public health impact of recent innovations in hepatitis C treatment. PMID:27325324

  20. Are personal health records safe? A review of free web-accessible personal health record privacy policies.

    PubMed

    Carrión Señor, Inmaculada; Fernández-Alemán, José Luis; Toval, Ambrosio

    2012-08-23

    Several obstacles prevent the adoption and use of personal health record (PHR) systems, including users' concerns regarding the privacy and security of their personal health information. To analyze the privacy and security characteristics of PHR privacy policies. It is hoped that identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the PHR systems will be useful for PHR users, health care professionals, decision makers, and designers. We conducted a systematic review using the principal databases related to health and computer science to discover the Web-based and free PHR systems mentioned in published articles. The privacy policy of each PHR system selected was reviewed to extract its main privacy and security characteristics. The search of databases and the myPHR website provided a total of 52 PHR systems, of which 24 met our inclusion criteria. Of these, 17 (71%) allowed users to manage their data and to control access to their health care information. Only 9 (38%) PHR systems permitted users to check who had accessed their data. The majority of PHR systems used information related to the users' accesses to monitor and analyze system use, 12 (50%) of them aggregated user information to publish trends, and 20 (83%) used diverse types of security measures. Finally, 15 (63%) PHR systems were based on regulations or principles such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode). Most privacy policies of PHR systems do not provide an in-depth description of the security measures that they use. Moreover, compliance with standards and regulations in PHR systems is still low.

  1. Are Personal Health Records Safe? A Review of Free Web-Accessible Personal Health Record Privacy Policies

    PubMed Central

    Fernández-Alemán, José Luis; Toval, Ambrosio

    2012-01-01

    Background Several obstacles prevent the adoption and use of personal health record (PHR) systems, including users’ concerns regarding the privacy and security of their personal health information. Objective To analyze the privacy and security characteristics of PHR privacy policies. It is hoped that identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the PHR systems will be useful for PHR users, health care professionals, decision makers, and designers. Methods We conducted a systematic review using the principal databases related to health and computer science to discover the Web-based and free PHR systems mentioned in published articles. The privacy policy of each PHR system selected was reviewed to extract its main privacy and security characteristics. Results The search of databases and the myPHR website provided a total of 52 PHR systems, of which 24 met our inclusion criteria. Of these, 17 (71%) allowed users to manage their data and to control access to their health care information. Only 9 (38%) PHR systems permitted users to check who had accessed their data. The majority of PHR systems used information related to the users’ accesses to monitor and analyze system use, 12 (50%) of them aggregated user information to publish trends, and 20 (83%) used diverse types of security measures. Finally, 15 (63%) PHR systems were based on regulations or principles such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode). Conclusions Most privacy policies of PHR systems do not provide an in-depth description of the security measures that they use. Moreover, compliance with standards and regulations in PHR systems is still low. PMID:22917868

  2. Removing financial barriers to access reproductive, maternal and newborn health services: the challenges and policy implications for human resources for health

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background The last decade has seen widespread retreat from user fees with the intention to reduce financial constraints to users in accessing health care and in particular improving access to reproductive, maternal and newborn health services. This has had important benefits in reducing financial barriers to access in a number of settings. If the policies work as intended, service utilization rates increase. However this increases workloads for health staff and at the same time, the loss of user fee revenues can imply that health workers lose bonuses or allowances, or that it becomes more difficult to ensure uninterrupted supplies of health care inputs. This research aimed to assess how policies reducing demand-side barriers to access to health care have affected service delivery with a particular focus on human resources for health. Methods We undertook case studies in five countries (Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In each we reviewed financing and HRH policies, considered the impact financing policy change had made on health service utilization rates, analysed the distribution of health staff and their actual and potential workloads, and compared remuneration terms in the public sectors. Results We question a number of common assumptions about the financing and human resource inter-relationships. The impact of fee removal on utilization levels is mostly not sustained or supported by all the evidence. Shortages of human resources for health at the national level are not universal; maldistribution within countries is the greater problem. Low salaries are not universal; most of the countries pay health workers well by national benchmarks. Conclusions The interconnectedness between user fee policy and HRH situations proves difficult to assess. Many policies have been changing over the relevant period, some clearly and others possibly in response to problems identified associated with financing policy change. Other relevant variables have also

  3. Removing financial barriers to access reproductive, maternal and newborn health services: the challenges and policy implications for human resources for health.

    PubMed

    McPake, Barbara; Witter, Sophie; Ensor, Tim; Fustukian, Suzanne; Newlands, David; Martineau, Tim; Chirwa, Yotamu

    2013-09-22

    The last decade has seen widespread retreat from user fees with the intention to reduce financial constraints to users in accessing health care and in particular improving access to reproductive, maternal and newborn health services. This has had important benefits in reducing financial barriers to access in a number of settings. If the policies work as intended, service utilization rates increase. However this increases workloads for health staff and at the same time, the loss of user fee revenues can imply that health workers lose bonuses or allowances, or that it becomes more difficult to ensure uninterrupted supplies of health care inputs.This research aimed to assess how policies reducing demand-side barriers to access to health care have affected service delivery with a particular focus on human resources for health. We undertook case studies in five countries (Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In each we reviewed financing and HRH policies, considered the impact financing policy change had made on health service utilization rates, analysed the distribution of health staff and their actual and potential workloads, and compared remuneration terms in the public sectors. We question a number of common assumptions about the financing and human resource inter-relationships. The impact of fee removal on utilization levels is mostly not sustained or supported by all the evidence. Shortages of human resources for health at the national level are not universal; maldistribution within countries is the greater problem. Low salaries are not universal; most of the countries pay health workers well by national benchmarks. The interconnectedness between user fee policy and HRH situations proves difficult to assess. Many policies have been changing over the relevant period, some clearly and others possibly in response to problems identified associated with financing policy change. Other relevant variables have also changed.However, as is now well

  4. Exploring policy driven systemic inequities leading to differential access to care among Indigenous populations with obstructive sleep apnea in Canada.

    PubMed

    Marchildon, Gregory P; Katapally, Tarun R; Beck, Caroline A; Abonyi, Sylvia; Episkenew, JoAnn; Pahwa, Punam; Dosman, James A

    2015-12-18

    In settler societies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, health inequities drive lower health status and poorer health outcomes in Indigenous populations. This research unravels the dense complexity of how historical policy decisions in Canada can influence inequities in health care access in the 21(st) century through a case study on the diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In Canada, historically rooted policy regimes determine current discrepancies in health care policy, and in turn, shape current health insurance coverage and physician decisions in terms of diagnosis and treatment of OSA, a clinical condition that is associated with considerable morbidity in Canada. This qualitative study was based in Saskatchewan, a Western Canadian province which has proportionately one of the largest provincial populations of an Indigenous subpopulation (status Indians) which is the focus of this study. The study began with determining approaches to OSA care provision based on Canadian Thoracic Society guidelines for referral, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing. Thereafter, health policy determining health benefits coverage and program differences between status Indians and other Canadians were ascertained. Finally, respirologists who specialized in sleep medicine were interviewed. All interviews were audio-recorded and the transcripts were thematically analyzed using NVIVO. In terms of access and provision of OSA care, different patient pathways emerged for status Indians in comparison with other Canadians. Using Saskatchewan as a case study, the preliminary evidence suggests that status Indians face significant barriers in accessing diagnostic and treatment services for OSA in a timely manner. In order to confirm initial findings, further investigations are required in other Canadian jurisdictions. Moreover, as other clinical conditions could share similar features of health care access and provision of

  5. Using K-12 Lessons Learned about How to Balance Accessibility and Test Security to Inform Licensure, Credentialing, and Certification Exam Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lazarus, Sheryl S.; van den Heuvel, Jill R.; Thurlow, Martha L.

    2017-01-01

    This paper explores how to balance test security and accessibility on licensure, credentialing, and certification exams. It examines K-12 test security policies related to educational assessments across states to discover lessons learned about how to meet accessibility needs of individuals with disabilities while minimizing test security risks. It…

  6. Socioeconomic disparities in access to ART treatment and the differential impact of a policy that increased consumer costs.

    PubMed

    Chambers, G M; Hoang, V P; Illingworth, P J

    2013-11-01

    What was the impact on access to assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment by different socioeconomic status (SES) groups after the introduction of a policy that increased patient out-of-pocket costs? After the introduction of a policy that increased out-of-pocket costs in Australia, all SES groups experienced a similar percentage reduction in fresh ART cycles per 1000 women of reproductive age. Higher SES groups experienced a progressively greater reduction in absolute numbers of fresh ART cycles due to existing higher levels of utilization. Australia has supportive public funding arrangements for ARTs. Policies that substantially increase out-of-pocket costs for ART treatment create financial barriers to access and an overall reduction in utilization. Data from the USA suggests that disparities exist in access to ART treatment based on ethnicity, education level and income. Time series analysis of utilization of ART, intrauterine insemination (IUI) and clomiphene citrate by women from varying SES groups before and after the introduction of a change in the level of public funding for ART. Women undertaking fertility treatment in Australia between 2007 and 2010. Women from higher SES quintiles use more ART treatment than those in lower SES quintiles, which likely reflects a greater ability to pay for treatment and a greater need for ART treatment as indicated by the trend to later childbearing. In 2009, 10.13 and 5.17 fresh ART cycles per 1000 women of reproductive age were performed in women in the highest and lowest SES quintiles respectively. In the 12 months after the introduction of a policy that increased out-of-pocket costs from ∼$1500 Australian dollars (€1000) to ∼$2500 (€1670) for a fresh IVF cycle, there was a 21-25% reduction in fresh ART cycles across all SES quintiles. The absolute reduction in fresh ART cycles in the highest SES quintile was double that in the lowest SES quintile. In this study, SES was based on the average relative

  7. Access to Print Literacy for Children and Young People with Visual Impairment: Implications for Policy and Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Douglas, Graeme; McLinden, Mike; Farrell, Ann Marie; Ware, Jean; McCall, Steve; Pavey, Sue

    2011-01-01

    This article considers the concept of access in the education of visually impaired children and young people, with particular reference to print literacy. The article describes implications for teaching and policy at various levels of the educational process: classroom practice; broader teaching and curriculum requirements (including service…

  8. [Open access to academic scholarship as a public policy resource: a study of the Capes database on Brazilian theses and dissertations].

    PubMed

    da Silva Rosa, Teresa; Carneiro, Maria José

    2010-12-01

    Access to scientific knowledge is a valuable resource than can inform and validate positions taken in formulating public policy. But access to this knowledge can be challenging, given the diversity and breadth of available scholarship. Communication between the fields of science and of politics requires the dissemination of scholarship and access to it. We conducted a study using an open-access search tool in order to map existent knowledge on a specific topic: agricultural contributions to the preservation of biodiversity. The present article offers a critical view of access to the information available through the Capes database on Brazilian theses and dissertations.

  9. 47 CFR 64.402 - Policies and procedures for the provision of priority access service by commercial mobile radio...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Policies and procedures for the provision of... Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS... National Security and Emergency Preparedness personnel shall provide priority access service in accordance...

  10. Enabling Access to Higher Education in Postsocialist Mongolia: Empirical Results for Implementation and Implications of Government Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Okhidoi, Otgonjargal

    2016-01-01

    This quantitative study examines the effectiveness of government financial assistance policies in access to higher education in post-socialist Mongolia as of 2012, using probabilistic, cross-sectional Household Social and Economic Survey data. Using a six-subscale composite socioeconomic status (SES) variable, the study examines the effect of SES…

  11. Providing School Students, Staff, and Parents with Access to Vendors of Goods and Services. A Model Policy and Rules, with Comments.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iowa State Dept. of Public Instruction, Des Moines.

    This model policy is designed to help local school officials provide vendors with the greatest reasonable opportunity to compete for access to the school community, while protecting the school's need for reasonable control of that access, so that students, parents, and staff can obtain the best goods and services at the best price. It is offered…

  12. Combining apps targeting professionals and senior citizens to improve housing accessibility and influence housing provision policies.

    PubMed

    Helle, Tina; Iwarsson, Susanne; Lunn, Tine Bieber; Iversen, Mogens Holm; Jonsson, Oskar; Mårtensson, Knut; Svarre, Tanja; Slaug, Björn

    2015-01-01

    Two separate apps that address the increasingly important issue of accessible housing for senior citizens have been developed in different project settings. One of the apps was developed to facilitate the process for professional raters to assess housing accessibility in the context of individual housing adaptations. The other app was developed for senior citizens to raise their awareness of possible accessibility problems in their current dwelling and in other apartments within the available housing stock. Both apps were developed with a high degree of active user involvement in processes utilizing multiple state of the art methods. The results are two well accepted prototype apps perceived as user-friendly and appropriate for the intended user groups. By combining these two apps, our ambition is for the professional raters to benefit by gaining knowledge of their clients' perceived needs and desires, and for senior citizens to benefit by getting access to a database of professionally rated dwellings. The ultimate goal is the generation of sound knowledge reflecting the needs and desires of senior citizens and professional requirements regarding accessible housing as a means to inform and influence housing provision policies.

  13. Considering disparities: How do nurse practitioner regulatory policies, access to care, and health outcomes vary across four states?

    PubMed

    Sonenberg, Andréa; Knepper, Hillary J

    Health disparities persist among morbidity and mortality rates in the United States. Contributing significantly to these disparities are the ability to pay for health care (largely, access to health insurance) and access to, and capacity of, the primary care health workforce. This article examines key determinants of health (DOH) including demographics, public and regulatory policies, health workforce capacity, and primary health outcomes of four states of the United States. The context of this study is the potential association among health care disparities and myriad DOH, among them, the restrictive nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice (SOP) regulatory environment, which are documented to influence access to care and health outcomes. This descriptive study explores current NP SOP regulations, access to primary care, and health outcomes of key chronic disease indicators-diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in Alabama, Colorado, Mississippi, and Utah. These states represent both the greatest disparity in chronic disease health outcomes (obesity, diabetes, and hypertension) and the greatest difference in modernization of their NP SOP laws. The Affordable Care Act has greatly expanded access to health care. However, it is estimated that 23 million Americans, 7% of its total population, will remain uninsured by 2019. Restrictive and inconsistent NP SOP policies may continue to contribute to health workforce capacity and population health disparities across the country, with particular concern for primary care indicators. The study findings bring into question whether states with more restrictive NP SOP regulations impact access to primary care, which may in turn influence population health outcomes. These findings suggest the need for further research. NPs are essential for meeting the increasing demands of primary care in the United States, and quality-of-care indicator research supports their use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Global Scenarios of Air Pollution until 2030: Combining Air Quality, Climate Change and Energy Access Policies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rao, S.; Dentener, F. J.; Klimont, Z.; Riahi, K.

    2011-12-01

    Outdoor air pollution is increasingly recognized as a significant contributor to global health outcomes. This has led to the implementation of a number of air quality policies worldwide, with total air pollution control costs in 2005 estimated at US$195 billion. More than 80% of the world's population is still found to be exposed to PM2.5 concentrations exceeding WHO air quality guidelines and health impacts resulting from these exposures estimated at around 2-5% of the global disease burden. Key questions to answer are 1) How will pollutant emissions evolve in the future given developments in the energy system and how will energy and environmental policies influence such emission trends. 2) What implications will this have for resulting exposures and related health outcomes. In order to answer these questions, varying levels of stringency of air quality legislation are analyzed in combination with policies on universal access to clean cooking fuels and limiting global temperature change to 2°C in 2100. Bottom-up methodologies using energy emissions modeling are used to derive sector-based pollutant emission trajectories until 2030. Emissions are spatially downscaled and used in combination with a global transport chemistry model to derive ambient concentrations of PM2.5. Health impacts of these exposures are further estimated consistent with WHO data and methodology. The results indicate that currently planned air quality legislation combined with rising energy demand will be insufficient in controlling future emissions growth in developing countries. In order to achieve significant reductions in pollutant emissions of the order of more than 50% from 2005 levels and reduce exposures to levels consistent with WHO standards, it will be necessary to increase the stringency of such legislations and combine them with policies on energy access and climate change. Combined policies also result in reductions in air pollution control costs as compared to those associated

  15. TRIPS, the Doha Declaration and increasing access to medicines: policy options for Ghana

    PubMed Central

    Cohen, JC; Gyansa-Lutterodt, M; Torpey, K; Esmail, LC; Kurokawa, G

    2005-01-01

    There are acute disparities in pharmaceutical access between developing and industrialized countries. Developing countries make up approximately 80% of the world's population but only represent approximately 20% of global pharmaceutical consumption. Among the many barriers to drug access are the potential consequences of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Many developing countries have recently modified their patent laws to conform to the TRIPS standards, given the 2005 deadline for developing countries. Safeguards to protect public health have been incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement; however, in practice governments may be reluctant to exercise such rights given concern about the international trade and political ramifications. The Doha Declaration and the recent Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health may provide more freedom for developing countries in using these safeguards. This paper focuses on Ghana, a developing country that recently changed its patent laws to conform to TRIPS standards. We examine Ghana's patent law changes in the context of the Doha Declaration and assess their meaning for access to drugs of its population. We discuss new and existing barriers, as well as possible solutions, to provide policy-makers with lessons learned from the Ghanaian experience. PMID:16336685

  16. User experience with a health insurance coverage and benefit-package access: implications for policy implementation towards expansion in Nigeria.

    PubMed

    Mohammed, Shafiu; Aji, Budi; Bermejo, Justo Lorenzo; Souares, Aurelia; Dong, Hengjin; Sauerborn, Rainer

    2016-04-01

    Developing countries are devising strategies and mechanisms to expand coverage and benefit-package access for their citizens through national health insurance schemes (NHIS). In Nigeria, the scheme aims to provide affordable healthcare services to insured-persons and their dependants. However, inclusion of dependants is restricted to four biological children and a spouse per user. This study assesses the progress of implementation of the NHIS in Nigeria, relating to coverage and benefit-package access, and examines individual factors associated with the implementation, according to users' perspectives. A retrospective, cross-sectional survey was done between October 2010 and March 2011 in Kaduna state and 796 users were randomly interviewed. Questions regarding coverage of immediate-family members and access to benefit-package for treatment were analysed. Indicators of coverage and benefit-package access were each further aggregated and assessed by unit-weighted composite. The additive-ordinary least square regression model was used to identify user factors that may influence coverage and benefit-package access. With respect to coverage, immediate-dependants were included for 62.3% of the users, and 49.6 rated this inclusion 'good' (49.6%). In contrast, 60.2% supported the abolishment of the policy restriction for non-inclusion of enrolees' additional children and spouses. With respect to benefit-package access, 82.7% of users had received full treatments, and 77.6% of them rated this as 'good'. Also, 14.4% of users had been refused treatments because they could not afford them. The coverage of immediate-dependants was associated with age, sex, educational status, children and enrolment duration. The benefit-package access was associated with types of providers, marital status and duration of enrolment. This study revealed that coverage of family members was relatively poor, while benefit-package access was more adequate. Non-inclusion of family members could

  17. Developing accessible cyberinfrastructure-enabled knowledge communities in the national disability community: theory, practice, and policy.

    PubMed

    Myhill, William N; Cogburn, Derrick L; Samant, Deepti; Addom, Benjamin Kwasi; Blanck, Peter

    2008-01-01

    Since publication of the Atkins Commission report in 2003, the national scientific community has placed significant emphasis on developing cyberinfrastructure-enabled knowledge communities, which are designed to facilitate enhanced efficiency and collaboration in geographically distributed networks of researchers. This article suggests that the new cyberinfrastructure movement may not fully benefit those participants with disabilities, unless closer attention is paid to legal mandates and universal design principles. Many technology-enhanced learning communities provide geographically distributed collaboration opportunities that expand the inclusion of diverse peoples and help close the digital divide. However, to date, most collaboratory efforts have not emphasized the need for access among people with disabilities nor meeting minimum standards for technological accessibility. To address these concerns, this article reports on two pilot collaboratory studies that explore the role advanced information, communication, and collaboration technologies play in enhancing geographically distributed collaboration among specific research and applied networks within the national disability community. Universal design principles inform the design of the collaboratory and its use and our efforts to ensure access for all. Data for this article come from Web-based surveys, interviews, observations, computer logs, and detailed, mixed-methods accessibility testing. Emerging results suggest that with deliberate and systematic efforts, cyberinfrastructure can be more accessible and generate benefits among persons with disabilities. The authors provide lessons learned and recommendations for future research, policy, law, and practice.

  18. Access to health care as a human right in international policy: critical reflections and contemporary challenges.

    PubMed

    Castillo, Camilo Hernán Manchola; Garrafa, Volnei; Cunha, Thiago; Hellmann, Fernando

    2017-07-01

    Using the United Nations (UN) and its subordinate body, the World Health Organization (WHO), as a frame of reference, this article explores access to healthcare as a human right in international intergovernmental policies. First, we look at how the theme of health is treated within the UN, focusing on the concept of global health. We then discuss the concept of global health from a human rights perspective and go on to outline the debate surrounding universal coverage versus universal access as a human right, addressing some important ethical questions. Thereafter, we discuss universal coverage versus universal access using the critical and constructivist theories of international relations as a frame of reference. Finally, it is concluded that, faced with the persistence of huge global health inequalities, the WHO began to reshape itself, leaving behind the notion of health as a human right and imposing the challenge of reducing the wide gap that separates international intergovernmental laws from reality.

  19. Clarification of CERCLA Entry Policy

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This memorandum provides Regional Counsel with clarification on EPA’s Policy: “Entry and Continued Access Under CERCLA.” The Policy focuses on consensually gaining access for CERCLA activities at a particular location.

  20. Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Policy Élites: An Analysis of Tobacco Industry Documents

    PubMed Central

    Fooks, Gary J.; Gilmore, Anna B.; Smith, Katherine E.; Collin, Jeff; Holden, Chris; Lee, Kelley

    2011-01-01

    Background Recent attempts by large tobacco companies to represent themselves as socially responsible have been widely dismissed as image management. Existing research supports such claims by pointing to the failings and misleading nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, few studies have focused in depth on what tobacco companies hoped to achieve through CSR or reflected on the extent to which these ambitions have been realised. Methods and Findings Iterative searching relating to CSR strategies was undertaken of internal British American Tobacco (BAT) documents, released through litigation in the US. Relevant documents (764) were indexed and qualitatively analysed. In the past decade, BAT has actively developed a wide-ranging CSR programme. Company documents indicate that one of the key aims of this programme was to help the company secure access to policymakers and, thereby, increase the company's chances of influencing policy decisions. Taking the UK as a case study, this paper demonstrates the way in which CSR can be used to renew and maintain dialogue with policymakers, even in ostensibly unreceptive political contexts. In practice, the impact of this political use of CSR is likely to be context specific; depending on factors such as policy élites' understanding of the credibility of companies as a reliable source of information. Conclusions The findings suggest that tobacco company CSR strategies can enable access to and dialogue with policymakers and provide opportunities for issue definition. CSR should therefore be seen as a form of corporate political activity. This underlines the need for broad implementation of Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Measures are needed to ensure transparency of interactions between all parts of government and the tobacco industry and for policy makers to be made more aware of what companies hope to achieve through CSR. Please see later in the article for the Editors

  1. Corporate social responsibility and access to policy élites: an analysis of tobacco industry documents.

    PubMed

    Fooks, Gary J; Gilmore, Anna B; Smith, Katherine E; Collin, Jeff; Holden, Chris; Lee, Kelley

    2011-08-01

    Recent attempts by large tobacco companies to represent themselves as socially responsible have been widely dismissed as image management. Existing research supports such claims by pointing to the failings and misleading nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, few studies have focused in depth on what tobacco companies hoped to achieve through CSR or reflected on the extent to which these ambitions have been realised. Iterative searching relating to CSR strategies was undertaken of internal British American Tobacco (BAT) documents, released through litigation in the US. Relevant documents (764) were indexed and qualitatively analysed. In the past decade, BAT has actively developed a wide-ranging CSR programme. Company documents indicate that one of the key aims of this programme was to help the company secure access to policymakers and, thereby, increase the company's chances of influencing policy decisions. Taking the UK as a case study, this paper demonstrates the way in which CSR can be used to renew and maintain dialogue with policymakers, even in ostensibly unreceptive political contexts. In practice, the impact of this political use of CSR is likely to be context specific; depending on factors such as policy élites' understanding of the credibility of companies as a reliable source of information. The findings suggest that tobacco company CSR strategies can enable access to and dialogue with policymakers and provide opportunities for issue definition. CSR should therefore be seen as a form of corporate political activity. This underlines the need for broad implementation of Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Measures are needed to ensure transparency of interactions between all parts of government and the tobacco industry and for policy makers to be made more aware of what companies hope to achieve through CSR.

  2. A national survey of health service infrastructure and policy impacts on access to computerised CBT in Scotland

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background NICE recommends computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) for the treatment of several mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. cCBT may be one way that services can reduce waiting lists and improve capacity and efficiency. However, there is some doubt about the extent to which the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is embracing this new health technology in practice. This study aimed to investigate Scottish health service infrastructure and policies that promote or impede the implementation of cCBT in the NHS. Methods A telephone survey of lead IT staff at all health board areas across Scotland to systematically enquire about the ability of local IT infrastructure and IT policies to support delivery of cCBT. Results Overall, most of the health boards possess the required software to use cCBT programmes. However, the majority of NHS health boards reported that they lack dedicated computers for patient use, hence access to cCBT at NHS sites is limited. Additionally, local policy in the majority of boards prevent staff from routinely contacting patients via email, skype or instant messenger, making the delivery of short, efficient support sessions difficult. Conclusions Conclusions: Overall most of the infrastructure is in place but is not utilised in ways that allow effective delivery. For cCBT to be successfully delivered within a guided support model, as recommended by national guidelines, dedicated patient computers should be provided to allow access to online interventions. Additionally, policy should allow staff to support patients in convenient ways such as via email or live chat. These measures would increase the likelihood of achieving Scottish health service targets to reduce waiting time for psychological therapies to 18 weeks. PMID:22958309

  3. Managing Information Resources for Accessibility.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    General Services Administration, Washington, DC. Clearinghouse on Computer Accommodation.

    This handbook presents guidance for federal managers and other personnel who are unfamiliar with the policy and practice of information accessibility to accommodate users with disabilities and to provide for their effective access to information resources. It addresses federal requirements for accessibility, adopting accessibility as a sound…

  4. The rise and fall of dental therapy in Canada: a policy analysis and assessment of equity of access to oral health care for Inuit and First Nations communities.

    PubMed

    Leck, Victoria; Randall, Glen E

    2017-07-20

    Inequality between most Canadians and those from Inuit and First Nations communities, in terms of both access to oral health care services and related health outcomes, has been a long-standing problem. Efforts to close this equity gap led to the creation of dental therapy training programs. These programs were designed to produce graduates who would provide services in rural and northern communities. The closure of the last dental therapy program in late 2011 has ended the supply of dental therapists and governments do not appear to have any alternative solutions to the growing gap in access to oral health care services between most Canadians and those from Inuit and First Nations communities. A policy analysis of the rise and fall of the dental therapy profession in Canada was conducted using historical and policy documents. The analysis is framed within Kingdon's agenda-setting framework and considers why dental therapy was originally pursued as an option to ensure equitable access to oral health care for Inuit and First Nations communities and why this policy has now been abandoned with the closure of Canada's last dental therapy training school. The closure of the last dental therapy program in Canada has the potential to further reduce access to dental care in some Inuit and First Nations communities. Overlaps between federal and provincial jurisdiction have contributed to the absence of a coordinated policy approach to address the equity gap in access to dental care which will exacerbate the inequalities in comparison to the general population. The analysis suggests that while a technically feasible policy solution is available there continues to be no politically acceptable solution and thus it remains unlikely that a window of opportunity for policy change will open any time soon. In the absence of federal government leadership, the most viable option forward may be incremental policy change. Provincial governments could expand the scope of practice for

  5. Achieving the Dream in Connecticut: State Policies Affecting Access to, and Success in, Community Colleges for Students of Color and Low-Income Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dougherty, Kevin J.; Reid, Monica

    2006-01-01

    This report provides an audit of state policies in Connecticut affecting access to, and success in, community colleges for students of color and low-income students. It was commissioned by Lumina Foundation for Education as part of a series of policy audits of the states involved in Achieving the Dream. Lumina Foundation is the primary funder of…

  6. Achieving the Dream in Ohio: State Policies Affecting Access to, and Success in, Community Colleges for Students of Color and Low-Income Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dougherty, Kevin J.; Marshall, James; Soonachan, Andrea

    2006-01-01

    This report provides an audit of state policies in Ohio affecting access to, and success in, community colleges for students of color and low-income students. It was commissioned by Lumina Foundation for Education as part of a series of policy audits of the states involved in Achieving the Dream. Lumina Foundation is the primary funder of the…

  7. The Politics, Policies and Progress of Basic Education in Sri Lanka. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 38

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Little, Angela W.

    2010-01-01

    Sri Lanka is hailed internationally for her achievements in literacy, access to education and equality of educational opportunity. However, progress has not been straightforward due to the complex interactions between politics, policy formulation, and the implementation of reforms. This dynamic process has often led to contradictory outcomes. This…

  8. State Public Policies and the Racial/Ethnic Stratification of College Access and Choice in the State of Maryland

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perna, Laura W.; Steele, Patricia; Woda, Susan; Hibbert, Taifa

    2005-01-01

    This study uses descriptive analyses of data from multiple sources to examine changes during the 1990s in the racial/ethnic stratification of college access and choice in Maryland and to explore state public policies that may have influenced changes in the demand for and supply of higher education for students of different racial/ethnic groups…

  9. Access control based on attribute certificates for medical intranet applications.

    PubMed

    Mavridis, I; Georgiadis, C; Pangalos, G; Khair, M

    2001-01-01

    Clinical information systems frequently use intranet and Internet technologies. However these technologies have emphasized sharing and not security, despite the sensitive and private nature of much health information. Digital certificates (electronic documents which recognize an entity or its attributes) can be used to control access in clinical intranet applications. To outline the need for access control in distributed clinical database systems, to describe the use of digital certificates and security policies, and to propose the architecture for a system using digital certificates, cryptography and security policy to control access to clinical intranet applications. We have previously developed a security policy, DIMEDAC (Distributed Medical Database Access Control), which is compatible with emerging public key and privilege management infrastructure. In our implementation approach we propose the use of digital certificates, to be used in conjunction with DIMEDAC. Our proposed access control system consists of two phases: the ways users gain their security credentials; and how these credentials are used to access medical data. Three types of digital certificates are used: identity certificates for authentication; attribute certificates for authorization; and access-rule certificates for propagation of access control policy. Once a user is identified and authenticated, subsequent access decisions are based on a combination of identity and attribute certificates, with access-rule certificates providing the policy framework. Access control in clinical intranet applications can be successfully and securely managed through the use of digital certificates and the DIMEDAC security policy.

  10. Access Control based on Attribute Certificates for Medical Intranet Applications

    PubMed Central

    Georgiadis, Christos; Pangalos, George; Khair, Marie

    2001-01-01

    Background Clinical information systems frequently use intranet and Internet technologies. However these technologies have emphasized sharing and not security, despite the sensitive and private nature of much health information. Digital certificates (electronic documents which recognize an entity or its attributes) can be used to control access in clinical intranet applications. Objectives To outline the need for access control in distributed clinical database systems, to describe the use of digital certificates and security policies, and to propose the architecture for a system using digital certificates, cryptography and security policy to control access to clinical intranet applications. Methods We have previously developed a security policy, DIMEDAC (Distributed Medical Database Access Control), which is compatible with emerging public key and privilege management infrastructure. In our implementation approach we propose the use of digital certificates, to be used in conjunction with DIMEDAC. Results Our proposed access control system consists of two phases: the ways users gain their security credentials; and how these credentials are used to access medical data. Three types of digital certificates are used: identity certificates for authentication; attribute certificates for authorization; and access-rule certificates for propagation of access control policy. Once a user is identified and authenticated, subsequent access decisions are based on a combination of identity and attribute certificates, with access-rule certificates providing the policy framework. Conclusions Access control in clinical intranet applications can be successfully and securely managed through the use of digital certificates and the DIMEDAC security policy. PMID:11720951

  11. 32 CFR 2400.25 - Access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Other Regulations Relating to National Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding.... (c) The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy may create special access programs to...

  12. 32 CFR 2400.25 - Access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Other Regulations Relating to National Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding.... (c) The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy may create special access programs to...

  13. 32 CFR 2400.25 - Access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Other Regulations Relating to National Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding.... (c) The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy may create special access programs to...

  14. 32 CFR 2400.25 - Access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Other Regulations Relating to National Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding.... (c) The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy may create special access programs to...

  15. 32 CFR 2400.25 - Access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Other Regulations Relating to National Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding.... (c) The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy may create special access programs to...

  16. Pain and Policy Studies Group: Two Decades of Working to Address Regulatory Barriers to Improve Opioid Availability and Accessibility Around the World.

    PubMed

    Cleary, James F; Maurer, Martha A

    2018-02-01

    For two decades, the Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG), a global research program at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, has worked passionately to fulfill its mission of improving pain relief by achieving balanced access to opioids worldwide. PPSG's early work highlighted the conceptual framework of balance leading to the development of the seminal guidelines and criteria for evaluating opioid policy. It has collaborated at the global level with United Nations agencies to promote access to opioids and has developed a unique model of technical assistance to help national governments assess regulatory barriers to essential medicines for pain relief and amend existing or develop new legislation that facilitates appropriate and adequate opioid prescribing according to international standards. This model was initially applied in regional workshops and individual country projects and then adapted for PPSG's International Pain Policy Fellowship, which provides long-term mentoring and support for several countries simultaneously. The PPSG disseminates its work online in several ways, including an extensive Web site, news alerts, and through several social media outlets. PPSG has become the focal point for expertise on policy governing drug control and medicine and pharmacy practice related to opioid availability and pain relief. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Investigation of Factors Relating to the Web-Based Presentation of Policy and Information on Campus Firearm Policy and Smoking Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGowan, Veronica F.

    2017-01-01

    In order to explore themes of privilege in regard to policy availability, language accessibility, and underlying bias, policies related to two topics of interest to higher education campus visitors, campus firearm carry policy and smoking policy, are explored to determine how Web-based information is presented to various audiences. Implications of…

  18. Access to Attainment: An Access Agenda for 21st Century College Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Abby; Valle, Katherine; Engle, Jennifer; Cooper, Michelle

    2014-01-01

    This report, "Access to Attainment: An Access Agenda for 21st Century College Students," examines the challenges facing 21st century students and presents strategies for addressing these challenges through policy-and practice-based solutions at the institutional, state and national levels. Recommendations include implementing a…

  19. Evaluation of Cross River State Access of Matching Grants for the Implementation of UBE Policies between 2010 and 2014

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Enu, Donald Bette; Opoh, Fredrick Awhen; Esu, A. E. O.

    2016-01-01

    This study focused on the evaluation of access of matching grants for the implementation of UBE policies in upper basic in Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study, a research question was posed to guide the study. Data were generated from SUBEB office and downloaded from UBE web site (www.ubec.com). The result was…

  20. Access Denied: Future Military Operations in an Anti-Access Environment

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-05-04

    Naval War College 686 Cushing Road Newport, RI 02841-1207 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME( S ...Haddick, “This Week at War: Gates‟ s China Syndrome ,” Foreign Policy, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/07...accessed 23 February 2011). Haddick, Robert. “This Week at War: Gates‟ s China Syndrome .” Foreign Policy. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011

  1. Politics, policies, pronatalism, and practice: availability and accessibility of abortion and reproductive health services in Turkey.

    PubMed

    MacFarlane, Katrina A; O'Neil, Mary Lou; Tekdemir, Deniz; Çetin, Elvin; Bilgen, Barış; Foster, Angel M

    2016-11-01

    Turkey has maintained liberal contraception and abortion policies since the 1980s. In 2012, the government proposed to restrict abortion; a bill limiting abortion was later drafted but never passed into law. Since the proposed restriction, women have reported difficulty accessing abortion services across Turkey. We aimed to better understand the current availability of abortion and reproductive health services in Istanbul and explore whether access to services has changed since 2012. In 2015, we completed 14 in-depth interviews with women and 11 semi-structured interviews with key informants. We transcribed all interviews and completed content and thematic analyses of the data. Key informants had good knowledge about the political discourse and the current abortion law. In contrast, women were familiar with the political discourse but had mixed information about the current status of abortion and were unsure about the legality of their own abortions. There was consensus that access to services has become more limited in the last five years due to the political climate, thus advocacy to prioritize reproductive health services, and abortion care in particular, in the public health system are needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. The Irony of Open Access: An Examination of a New York State Financial Aid Policy and Its Effect on Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baksh-Jarrett, Gail

    2011-01-01

    Open access institutions have achieved the goal of providing higher education to all who seek it. To compete in a global economy, these higher educational institutions must do more than open the door; they must ensure that admitted students succeed. This study examined effects of New York State's financial aid policy that requires…

  3. Access to Higher Education. Intergovernmental Conference on Policies for Higher Education in the 80s (Paris, France, October 12-14, 1981).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Squires, Geoffrey; And Others

    Access to higher education in countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is addressed. The following topics are considered: principles for quantitative planning of higher education, admission policies and the institutional framework, changing links between secondary and higher education, access…

  4. Exploring perceptions of HIV risk and health service access among Zimbabwean migrant women in Johannesburg: a gap in health policy in South Africa?

    PubMed

    Munyewende, Pascalia; Rispel, Laetitia C; Harris, Bronwyn; Chersich, Matthew

    2011-01-01

    We present qualitative data from a 2005 exploratory study, recently published studies, and an analysis of the Department of Health's strategic plan to highlight the need for a broader policy debate on health-care access for migrants in South Africa. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 Zimbabwean women living in inner-city Johannesburg to document the special characteristics of this group of migrants, enquiring about their perceptions of HIV risk, and experiences of health services in South Africa. We identified access barriers, namely perceptions of relatively low HIV risk, severely constrained financial circumstances, uncertain legal status, and experiences of unresponsive health workers. We recommend that migrant-health rights be placed on South Africa's policy agenda, migrants be included in HIV prevention programs and that health workers be sensitized to the needs of migrants.

  5. Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in School Lunches: A Policy Analysis.

    PubMed

    Schultz, Celeste; Thorlton, Janet

    2018-01-01

    Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables helps to reduce childhood obesity and improves academic achievement and attendance. However, providing fresh fruits and vegetables is challenging for some schools due to cost, administrative burden, and concern for food waste. To address these challenges, the Fruit and Vegetable Access for Children Act proposes to allow federally funded programs to substitute fresh fruits and vegetables with canned, frozen, or pureed versions. In this policy analysis, we propose options for providing fresh fruits and vegetables to children enrolled in the National School Lunch Program. We recommend that school nurses actively facilitate the process of obtaining fresh fruits and vegetables by being appointed members of Team Nutrition giving them authority to collaborate with local famers, entrepreneurs, and land-grant universities in Farm to School Programs. This strategy empowers school nurses in promoting healthy eating habits, reducing obesity, and improving academic performance and school attendance.

  6. Identity and Access Management: Technological Implementation of Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    von Munkwitz-Smith, Jeff; West, Ann

    2004-01-01

    Navigating the multiple processes for accessing ever-multiplying campus information systems can be a daunting task for students, faculty, and staff. This article provides a brief overview of Identity and Access Management Services. The authors review key characteristics and components of this new information architecture and address the issue of…

  7. Public Policy Agenda, 1988.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC.

    A policy statement of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) concerning public policy for 1988 is presented. At the federal level, AASCU's public policy agenda encompasses three themes: access and opportunity; teaching, research, service, and professional development; and international understanding. At the state…

  8. Globalizing Higher Education Access in South-West Nigeria

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olayiwola, Mohammed Mubashiru; Kolawole, Oladipupo Fatai; Moyosore, Onabanjo Florence

    2013-01-01

    Education is central to national interest and cannot be solely determined by market forces. Thus, the role of the state in making education policy and funding education to embrace access cannot be overemphasized. The influence of globalization on Higher Education access in Southwest Nigeria as it affects policy making was investigated through the…

  9. Influence of Special Needs Education Policy on Access to Secondary School Education by Learners with Hearing Impairments in Nandi County, Kenya

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muhombe, Joseph Andrew; Rop, Naftali K.; Ogola, Fredrick O.; Wesonga, Justus Nyongesa

    2015-01-01

    This study sought to examine influence of Special Needs Education Policy on access to secondary school education by learners with hearing impairments in Nandi County, Kenya. The study was informed by the Multiple Intelligences theory and the Dewey theory of Progressivism. The findings showed that majority of the respondents were aware of the…

  10. Global policy and access to new hepatitis C therapies for people who inject drugs.

    PubMed

    Doyle, Joseph S; Aspinall, Esther J; Hutchinson, Sharon J; Quinn, Brendan; Gore, Charles; Wiktor, Stefan Z; Hellard, Margaret E

    2015-11-01

    People who inject drugs (PWID) are disproportionately affected by hepatitis C virus (HCV). This review outlines policy recommendations made in the 2014 World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines on Screening, Care and Treatment of HCV and their relevance to PWID. It also canvasses issues that will affect translation of these global guidelines into practice. The first global HCV guidelines released by WHO have recently advocated targeted HCV testing for PWID, assessment of liver disease and support for alcohol reduction during care. They also strongly advocate treatment using currently licensed direct-acting antiviral agents for all individuals, in particular PWID as a key affected population. New HCV treatment regimens have the potential to cure more than 90% of treated individuals. Scaling-up treatment among PWID has the potential to improve individual and population health by reducing HCV transmission, improving quality of life and supporting behaviour modifications that lead to less risk-taking over time. PWID face several barriers to accessing HCV care and treatment that need to be overcome. Testing services need re-orientation toward PWID, individuals need to be informed of their results and provided with direct linkage to ongoing care. Health services need to provide care in the community using simpler, cheaper and more accessible modes of delivery. Healthcare costs and pharmaceutical costs need to be minimised so PWID, who are highly marginalised, can access HCV treatment. Sustained scale-up of treatment for PWID could simultaneously improve individual health and achieve the goal of eliminating HCV transmission among this high-risk and vulnerable group. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  11. Perspectives of policy and political decision makers on access to formal dementia care: expert interviews in eight European countries.

    PubMed

    Broda, Anja; Bieber, Anja; Meyer, Gabriele; Hopper, Louise; Joyce, Rachael; Irving, Kate; Zanetti, Orazio; Portolani, Elisa; Kerpershoek, Liselot; Verhey, Frans; Vugt, Marjolein de; Wolfs, Claire; Eriksen, Siren; Røsvik, Janne; Marques, Maria J; Gonçalves-Pereira, Manuel; Sjölund, Britt-Marie; Woods, Bob; Jelley, Hannah; Orrell, Martin; Stephan, Astrid

    2017-08-03

    As part of the ActifCare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) project, we conducted expert interviews in eight European countries with policy and political decision makers, or representatives of relevant institutions, to determine their perspectives on access to formal care for people with dementia and their carers. Each ActifCare country (Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom) conducted semi-structured interviews with 4-7 experts (total N = 38). The interview guide addressed the topics "Complexity and Continuity of Care", "Formal Services", and "Public Awareness". Country-specific analysis of interview transcripts used an inductive qualitative content analysis. Cross-national synthesis focused on similarities in themes across the ActifCare countries. The analysis revealed ten common themes and two additional sub-themes across countries. Among others, the experts highlighted the need for a coordinating role and the necessity of information to address issues of complexity and continuity of care, demanded person-centred, tailored, and multidisciplinary formal services, and referred to education, mass media and campaigns as means to raise public awareness. Policy and political decision makers appear well acquainted with current discussions among both researchers and practitioners of possible approaches to improve access to dementia care. Experts described pragmatic, realistic strategies to influence dementia care. Suggested innovations concerned how to achieve improved dementia care, rather than transforming the nature of the services provided. Knowledge gained in these expert interviews may be useful to national decision makers when they consider reshaping the organisation of dementia care, and may thus help to develop best-practice strategies and recommendations.

  12. Limited school drinking water access for youth

    PubMed Central

    Kenney, Erica L.; Gortmaker, Steven L.; Cohen, Juliana F.W.; Rimm, Eric B.; Cradock, Angie L.

    2016-01-01

    PURPOSE Providing children and youth with safe, adequate drinking water access during school is essential for health. This study utilized objectively measured data to investigate the extent to which schools provide drinking water access that meets state and federal policies. METHODS We visited 59 middle and high schools in Massachusetts during spring 2012. Trained research assistants documented the type, location, and working condition of all water access points throughout each school building using a standard protocol. School food service directors (FSDs) completed surveys reporting water access in cafeterias. We evaluated school compliance with state plumbing codes and federal regulations and compared FSD self-reports of water access with direct observation; data were analyzed in 2014. RESULTS On average, each school had 1.5 (SD: 0.6) water sources per 75 students; 82% (SD: 20) were functioning, and fewer (70%) were both clean and functioning. Less than half of the schools met the federal Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act requirement for free water access during lunch; 18 schools (31%) provided bottled water for purchase but no free water. Slightly over half (59%) met the Massachusetts state plumbing code. FSDs overestimated free drinking water access compared to direct observation (96% FSD-reported versus 48% observed, kappa=0.07, p=0.17). CONCLUSIONS School drinking water access may be limited. In this study, many schools did not meet state or federal policies for minimum student drinking water access. School administrative staff may not accurately report water access. Public health action is needed to increase school drinking water access. IMPLICATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS Adolescents’ water consumption is lower than recommended. In a sample of Massachusetts middle and high schools, about half did not meet federal and state minimum drinking water access policies. Direct observation may improve assessments of drinking water access and could be integrated into routine

  13. The College Access Debate: Class Considerations and College Preparation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hodgman, Matthew R.

    2013-01-01

    The college access debate in America remains an important one. Affirmative action policies and practices continue to occupy a significant sub-component of the overall college access discussion. Recent legal debates and policy changes pertaining to affirmative action have encouraged analysis surrounding the overall viability and fairness of these…

  14. 49 CFR 10.3 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Policy. 10.3 Section 10.3 Transportation Office of the Secretary of Transportation MAINTENANCE OF AND ACCESS TO RECORDS PERTAINING TO INDIVIDUALS Applicability and Policy § 10.3 Policy. It is the policy of the Department of Transportation to comply with the...

  15. Associations between minimum wage policy and access to health care: evidence from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1996-2007.

    PubMed

    McCarrier, Kelly P; Zimmerman, Frederick J; Ralston, James D; Martin, Diane P

    2011-02-01

    We examined whether minimum wage policy is associated with access to medical care among low-skilled workers in the United States. We used multilevel logistic regression to analyze a data set consisting of individual-level indicators of uninsurance and unmet medical need from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and state-level ecological controls from the US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and several other sources in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1996 and 2007. Higher state-level minimum wage rates were associated with significantly reduced odds of reporting unmet medical need after control for the ecological covariates, substate region fixed effects, and individual demographic and health characteristics (odds ratio = 0.853; 95% confidence interval = 0.750, 0.971). Minimum wage rates were not significantly associated with being uninsured. Higher minimum wages may be associated with a reduced likelihood of experiencing unmet medical need among low-skilled workers, and do not appear to be associated with uninsurance. These findings appear to refute the suggestion that minimum wage laws have detrimental effects on access to health care, as opponents of the policies have suggested.

  16. Safety evaluation of access management policies and techniques, TechBrief

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2015-08-01

    Access management is the process that provides (or manages) access to land development while simultaneously preserving the flow of traffic on the surrounding road network for safety, capacity, and speed. Access management provides important benefits ...

  17. Financial sustainability versus access and quality in a challenged health system: an examination of the capitation policy debate in Ghana.

    PubMed

    Atuoye, Kilian Nasung; Vercillo, Siera; Antabe, Roger; Galaa, Sylvester Zackaria; Luginaah, Isaac

    2016-11-01

    Policy makers in low and middle-income countries are frequently confronted with challenges of increasing health access for poor populations in a sustainable manner. After several years of trying out different health financing mechanisms, health insurance has recently emerged as a pro-poor health financing policy. Capitation, a fixed fee periodically paid to health service providers for anticipated services, is one of the payment policies in health insurance. This article examines claims and counter-claims made by coalitions and individual stakeholders in a capitation payment policy debate within Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme. Using content analysis of public and parliamentary proceedings, we situate the debate within policy making and health insurance literature. We found that the ongoing capitation payment debate stems from challenges in implementation of earlier health insurance claims payment systems, which reflect broader systemic challenges facing the health insurance scheme in Ghana. The study illustrates the extent to which various sub-systems in the policy debate advance arguments to legitimize their claims about the contested capitation payment system. In addition, we found that the health of poor communities, women and children are being used as surrogates for political and individual arguments in the policy debate. The article recommends a more holistic and participatory approach through persuasion and negotiation to join interests and core evidence together in the capitation policy making in Ghana and elsewhere with similar contexts. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. International Student Access to U.S. Higher Education since World War II: How NAFSA (Association of International Educators) Has Influenced Federal Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miyokawa, Norifumi

    2009-01-01

    This dissertation is a study of the policy process behind the legislation and regulation governing international student access to U.S. higher education since the immediate aftermath of World War II. The particular research focus of this dissertation is on NAFSA: Association of International Educators (originally established as the National…

  19. Creating (In)Equalities in Access to Higher Education in the Context of Structural Adjustment and Post-Adjustment Policies: The Case of Chile

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Espinoza, Oscar

    2008-01-01

    By analyzing the access of different socio-economic groups to post-secondary institutions by quintile, this paper examines the impact produced by higher education financing policies in Chile during the Pinochet (1973-1990), the Aylwin (1990-1994) and the Frei (1994-2000) administrations. To this purpose, CASEN databases and semi-structured…

  20. An Attribute Based Access Control Framework for Healthcare System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Afshar, Majid; Samet, Saeed; Hu, Ting

    2018-01-01

    Nowadays, access control is an indispensable part of the Personal Health Record and supplies for its confidentiality by enforcing policies and rules to ensure that only authorized users gain access to requested resources in the system. In other words, the access control means protecting patient privacy in healthcare systems. Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) is a new access control model that can be used instead of other traditional types of access control such as Discretionary Access Control, Mandatory Access Control, and Role-Based Access Control. During last five years ABAC has shown some applications in both recent academic fields and industry purposes. ABAC by using user’s attributes and resources, makes a decision according to an access request. In this paper, we propose an ABAC framework for healthcare system. We use the engine of ABAC for rendering and enforcing healthcare policies. Moreover, we handle emergency situations in this framework.

  1. Big Data for Public Health Policy-Making: Policy Empowerment.

    PubMed

    Mählmann, Laura; Reumann, Matthias; Evangelatos, Nikolaos; Brand, Angela

    2018-04-04

    Digitization is considered to radically transform healthcare. As such, with seemingly unlimited opportunities to collect data, it will play an important role in the public health policy-making process. In this context, health data cooperatives (HDC) are a key component and core element for public health policy-making and for exploiting the potential of all the existing and rapidly emerging data sources. Being able to leverage all the data requires overcoming the computational, algorithmic, and technological challenges that characterize today's highly heterogeneous data landscape, as well as a host of diverse regulatory, normative, governance, and policy constraints. The full potential of big data can only be realized if data are being made accessible and shared. Treating research data as a public good, creating HDC to empower citizens through citizen-owned health data, and allowing data access for research and the development of new diagnostics, therapies, and public health policies will yield the transformative impact of digital health. The HDC model for data governance is an arrangement, based on moral codes, that encourages citizens to participate in the improvement of their own health. This then enables public health institutions and policymakers to monitor policy changes and evaluate their impact and risk on a population level. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  2. 10 CFR 710.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Policy. 710.4 Section 710.4 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY... Special Nuclear Material General Provisions § 710.4 Policy. (a) It is the policy of DOE to provide for the... policy of DOE that none of the procedures established by DOE for determining eligibility for access...

  3. Enabling Equal Access to Molecular Diagnostics: What Are the Implications for Policy and Health Technology Assessment?

    PubMed

    Plun-Favreau, Juliette; Immonen-Charalambous, Kaisa; Steuten, Lotte; Strootker, Anja; Rouzier, Roman; Horgan, Denis; Lawler, Mark

    2016-01-01

    Molecular diagnostics can offer important benefits to patients and are a key enabler of the integration of personalised medicine into health care systems. However, despite their promise, few molecular diagnostics are embedded into clinical practice (especially in Europe) and access to these technologies remains unequal across countries and sometimes even within individual countries. If research translation and the regulatory environments have proven to be more challenging than expected, reimbursement and value assessment remain the main barriers to providing patients with equal access to molecular diagnostics. Unclear or non-existent reimbursement pathways, together with the lack of clear evidence requirements, have led to significant delays in the assessment of molecular diagnostics technologies in certain countries. Additionally, the lack of dedicated diagnostics budgets and the siloed nature of resource allocation within certain health care systems have significantly delayed diagnostics commissioning. This article will consider the perspectives of different stakeholders (patients, health care payers, health care professionals, and manufacturers) on the provision of a research-enabled, patient-focused molecular diagnostics platform that supports optimal patient care. Through the discussion of specific case studies, and building on the experience from countries that have successfully integrated molecular diagnostics into clinical practice, this article will discuss the necessary evolutions in policy and health technology assessment to ensure that patients can have equal access to appropriate molecular diagnostics. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  4. Accessibility of U.S. Federal Government Home Pages: Section 508 Compliance and Site Accessibility Statements

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olalere, Abiodun; Lazar, Jonathan

    2011-01-01

    U.S. federal websites are required to be accessible for people with impairments. However, despite the existing regulations and guidelines, many federal websites continue to be inaccessible, and accessibility policy statements available on federal websites often do not provide any useful information. This paper provides three contributions to the…

  5. Optimal Policy of Cross-Layer Design for Channel Access and Transmission Rate Adaptation in Cognitive Radio Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Hao; Wang, Jun; Zhu, Jiang; Li, Shaoqian

    2010-12-01

    In this paper, we investigate the cross-layer design of joint channel access and transmission rate adaptation in CR networks with multiple channels for both centralized and decentralized cases. Our target is to maximize the throughput of CR network under transmission power constraint by taking spectrum sensing errors into account. In centralized case, this problem is formulated as a special constrained Markov decision process (CMDP), which can be solved by standard linear programming (LP) method. As the complexity of finding the optimal policy by LP increases exponentially with the size of action space and state space, we further apply action set reduction and state aggregation to reduce the complexity without loss of optimality. Meanwhile, for the convenience of implementation, we also consider the pure policy design and analyze the corresponding characteristics. In decentralized case, where only local information is available and there is no coordination among the CR users, we prove the existence of the constrained Nash equilibrium and obtain the optimal decentralized policy. Finally, in the case that the traffic load parameters of the licensed users are unknown for the CR users, we propose two methods to estimate the parameters for two different cases. Numerical results validate the theoretic analysis.

  6. Router Agent Technology for Policy-Based Network Management

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chow, Edward T.; Sudhir, Gurusham; Chang, Hsin-Ping; James, Mark; Liu, Yih-Chiao J.; Chiang, Winston

    2011-01-01

    This innovation can be run as a standalone network application on any computer in a networked environment. This design can be configured to control one or more routers (one instance per router), and can also be configured to listen to a policy server over the network to receive new policies based on the policy- based network management technology. The Router Agent Technology transforms the received policies into suitable Access Control List syntax for the routers it is configured to control. It commits the newly generated access control lists to the routers and provides feedback regarding any errors that were faced. The innovation also automatically generates a time-stamped log file regarding all updates to the router it is configured to control. This technology, once installed on a local network computer and started, is autonomous because it has the capability to keep listening to new policies from the policy server, transforming those policies to router-compliant access lists, and committing those access lists to a specified interface on the specified router on the network with any error feedback regarding commitment process. The stand-alone application is named RouterAgent and is currently realized as a fully functional (version 1) implementation for the Windows operating system and for CISCO routers.

  7. Community-Based Policies and Support for Free Drinking Water Access in Outdoor Areas and Building Standards in U.S. Municipalities

    PubMed Central

    Onufrak, Stephen; Wilking, Cara; Cradock, Angie

    2018-01-01

    We examined community-level characteristics associated with free drinking water access policies in U.S. municipalities using data from a nationally representative survey of city managers/officials from 2,029 local governments in 2014. Outcomes were 4 free drinking water access policies. Explanatory measures were population size, rural/urban status, census region, poverty prevalence, education, and racial/ethnic composition. We used multivariable logistic regression to test differences and presented only significant findings. Many (56.3%) local governments had at least one community plan with a written objective to provide free drinking water in outdoor areas; municipalities in the Northeast and South regions and municipalities with ≤ 50% of non-Hispanic whites were less likely and municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have a plan. About 59% had polices/budget provisions for free drinking water in parks/outdoor recreation areas; municipalities in the Northeast and South regions were less likely and municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have it. Only 9.3% provided development incentives for placing drinking fountains in outdoor, publicly accessible areas; municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have it. Only 7.7% had a municipal plumbing code with a drinking fountain standard that differed from the statewide plumbing code; municipalities with a lower proportion of non-Hispanic whites were more likely to have it. In conclusion, over half of municipalities had written plans or a provision for providing free drinking water in parks, but providing development incentives or having a local plumbing code provision were rare. PMID:29713617

  8. Community-Based Policies and Support for Free Drinking Water Access in Outdoor Areas and Building Standards in U.S. Municipalities.

    PubMed

    Park, Sohyun; Onufrak, Stephen; Wilking, Cara; Cradock, Angie

    2018-04-01

    We examined community-level characteristics associated with free drinking water access policies in U.S. municipalities using data from a nationally representative survey of city managers/officials from 2,029 local governments in 2014. Outcomes were 4 free drinking water access policies. Explanatory measures were population size, rural/urban status, census region, poverty prevalence, education, and racial/ethnic composition. We used multivariable logistic regression to test differences and presented only significant findings. Many (56.3%) local governments had at least one community plan with a written objective to provide free drinking water in outdoor areas; municipalities in the Northeast and South regions and municipalities with ≤ 50% of non-Hispanic whites were less likely and municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have a plan. About 59% had polices/budget provisions for free drinking water in parks/outdoor recreation areas; municipalities in the Northeast and South regions were less likely and municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have it. Only 9.3% provided development incentives for placing drinking fountains in outdoor, publicly accessible areas; municipalities with larger population size were more likely to have it. Only 7.7% had a municipal plumbing code with a drinking fountain standard that differed from the statewide plumbing code; municipalities with a lower proportion of non-Hispanic whites were more likely to have it. In conclusion, over half of municipalities had written plans or a provision for providing free drinking water in parks, but providing development incentives or having a local plumbing code provision were rare.

  9. Proximity Displays for Access Control

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vaniea, Kami

    2012-01-01

    Managing access to shared digital information, such as photographs and documents. is difficult for end users who are accumulating an increasingly large and diverse collection of data that they want to share with others. Current policy-management solutions require a user to proactively seek out and open a separate policy-management interface when…

  10. Guaranteed Access to Campus Network Resources: Policies and Issues.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hassler, Ardoth A.

    1998-01-01

    Reports on a options and issues discussion at a December 1997 Orlando (Florida) meeting of CAUSE97 on providing access to campus technology resources. Options discussed included departmentally and/or university-owned modems, third-party provider contracts, and using wireless access. Issues included providing authentication, assuring network…

  11. A Review of Existing Studies Reporting the Negative Effects of Alcohol Access and Positive Effects of Alcohol Control Policies on Interpersonal Violence

    PubMed Central

    Fitterer, Jessica L.; Nelson, Trisalyn A.; Stockwell, Timothy

    2015-01-01

    Alcohol consumption often leads to elevated rates of violence yet alcohol access policies continue to relax across the globe. Our review establishes the extent alcohol policy can moderate violent crime through alcohol availability restrictions. Results were informed from comprehensive selection of peer-reviewed journals from 1950 to October 2015. Our search identified 87 relevant studies on alcohol access and violence conducted across 12 countries. Seventeen studies included quasi-control design, and 23 conducted intervention analysis. Seventy-one (82%) reported a significant relationship between alcohol access and violent offenses. Alcohol outlet studies reported the greatest percentage of significant results (93%), with trading hours (63%), and alcohol price following (58%). Results from baseline studies indicated the effectiveness of increasing the price of commonly consumed alcohol, restricting the hours of alcohol trading, and limiting the number of alcohol outlets per region to prevent violent offenses. Unclear are the effects of tax reductions, restriction of on-premises re-entry, and different outlet types on violent crime. Further, the generalization of statistics over broad areas and the low number of control/intervention studies poses some concern for confounding or correlated effects on study results, and amount of information for local-level prevention of interpersonal violence. Future studies should focus on gathering longitudinal data, validating models, limiting crime data to peak drinking days and times, and wherever possible collecting the joint distribution between violent crime, intoxication, and place. A greater uptake of local-level analysis will benefit studies comparing the influence of multiple alcohol establishment types by relating the location of a crime to establishment proximity. Despite, some uncertainties particular studies showed that even modest policy changes, such as 1% increases in alcohol price, 1 h changes to closing times

  12. 45 CFR 1619.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Policy. 1619.2 Section 1619.2 Public Welfare....2 Policy. A recipient shall adopt a procedure for affording the public appropriate access to the Act, Corporation rules, regulations and guidelines, the recipient's written policies, procedures, and guidelines...

  13. Review of SDDOT's highway access control process

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-02-01

    This report presents the results and recommendations of a review of the South Dakota Department of Transportation's (SDDOT's) highway access control process. This document presents recommendations that improve South Dakota's access policy. The docume...

  14. Association of State Access Standards With Accessibility to Specialists for Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees.

    PubMed

    Ndumele, Chima D; Cohen, Michael S; Cleary, Paul D

    2017-10-01

    Medicaid recipients have consistently reported less timely access to specialists than patients with other types of coverage. By 2018, state Medicaid agencies will be required by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enact time and distance standards for managed care organizations to ensure an adequate supply of specialist physicians for enrollees; however, there have been no published studies of whether these policies have significant effects on access to specialty care. To compare ratings of access to specialists for adult Medicaid and commercial enrollees before and after the implementation of specialty access standards. We used Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey data to conduct a quasiexperimental difference-in-differences (DID) analysis of 20 163 nonelderly adult Medicaid managed care (MMC) enrollees and 54 465 commercially insured enrollees in 5 states adopting access standards, and 37 290 MMC enrollees in 5 matched states that previously adopted access standards. Reported access to specialty care in the previous 6 months. Seven thousand six hundred ninety-eight (69%) Medicaid enrollees and 28 423 (75%) commercial enrollees reported that it was always or usually easy to get an appointment with a specialist before the policy implementation (or at baseline) compared with 11 889 (67%) of Medicaid enrollees in states that had previously implemented access standards. Overall, there was no significant improvement in timely access to specialty services for MMC enrollees in the period following implementation of standard(s) (adjusted difference-in-differences, -1.2 percentage points; 95% CI, -2.7 to 0.1), nor was there any impact of access standards on insurance-based disparities in access (0.6 percentage points; 95% CI, -4.3 to 5.4). There was heterogeneity across states, with 1 state that implemented both time and distance standards demonstrating significant improvements in access and reductions in disparities

  15. Associations Between Minimum Wage Policy and Access to Health Care: Evidence From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1996–2007

    PubMed Central

    Zimmerman, Frederick J.; Ralston, James D.; Martin, Diane P.

    2011-01-01

    Objectives. We examined whether minimum wage policy is associated with access to medical care among low-skilled workers in the United States. Methods. We used multilevel logistic regression to analyze a data set consisting of individual-level indicators of uninsurance and unmet medical need from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and state-level ecological controls from the US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and several other sources in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1996 and 2007. Results. Higher state-level minimum wage rates were associated with significantly reduced odds of reporting unmet medical need after control for the ecological covariates, substate region fixed effects, and individual demographic and health characteristics (odds ratio = 0.853; 95% confidence interval = 0.750, 0.971). Minimum wage rates were not significantly associated with being uninsured. Conclusions. Higher minimum wages may be associated with a reduced likelihood of experiencing unmet medical need among low-skilled workers, and do not appear to be associated with uninsurance. These findings appear to refute the suggestion that minimum wage laws have detrimental effects on access to health care, as opponents of the policies have suggested. PMID:21164102

  16. 47 CFR 76.1707 - Leased access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Leased access. 76.1707 Section 76.1707 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND... operator adopts and enforces a written policy regarding indecent leased access programming pursuant to § 76...

  17. 47 CFR 76.1707 - Leased access.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Leased access. 76.1707 Section 76.1707 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND... operator adopts and enforces a written policy regarding indecent leased access programming pursuant to § 76...

  18. Policy Issues in Computer Networks: Multi-Access Information Systems.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lyons, Patrice A.

    As computer databases become more publicly accessible through public networks, there is a growing need to provide effective protection for proprietary information. Without adequate assurances that their works will be protected, authors and other copyright owners may be reluctant to allow the full text of their works to be accessed through computer…

  19. Advanced Techniques for Deploying Reliable and Efficient Access Control: Application to E-healthcare.

    PubMed

    Jaïdi, Faouzi; Labbene-Ayachi, Faten; Bouhoula, Adel

    2016-12-01

    Nowadays, e-healthcare is a main advancement and upcoming technology in healthcare industry that contributes to setting up automated and efficient healthcare infrastructures. Unfortunately, several security aspects remain as main challenges towards secure and privacy-preserving e-healthcare systems. From the access control perspective, e-healthcare systems face several issues due to the necessity of defining (at the same time) rigorous and flexible access control solutions. This delicate and irregular balance between flexibility and robustness has an immediate impact on the compliance of the deployed access control policy. To address this issue, the paper defines a general framework to organize thinking about verifying, validating and monitoring the compliance of access control policies in the context of e-healthcare databases. We study the problem of the conformity of low level policies within relational databases and we particularly focus on the case of a medical-records management database defined in the context of a Medical Information System. We propose an advanced solution for deploying reliable and efficient access control policies. Our solution extends the traditional lifecycle of an access control policy and allows mainly managing the compliance of the policy. We refer to an example to illustrate the relevance of our proposal.

  20. Access to artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT) and other anti-malarials: national policy and markets in Sierra Leone.

    PubMed

    Amuasi, John H; Diap, Graciela; Nguah, Samuel Blay; Karikari, Patrick; Boakye, Isaac; Jambai, Amara; Lahai, Wani Kumba; Louie, Karly S; Kiechel, Jean-Rene

    2012-01-01

    Malaria remains the leading burden of disease in post-conflict Sierra Leone. To overcome the challenge of anti-malarial drug resistance and improve effective treatment, Sierra Leone adopted artemisinin-combination therapy artesunate-amodiaquine (AS+AQ) as first-line treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria. Other national policy anti-malarials include artemether-lumefantrine (AL) as an alternative to AS+AQ, quinine and artemether for treatment of complicated malaria; and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) for intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp). This study was conducted to evaluate access to national policy recommended anti-malarials. A cross-sectional survey of 127 medicine outlets (public, private and NGO) was conducted in urban and rural areas. The availability on the day of the survey, median prices, and affordability policy and available non-policy anti-malarials were calculated. Anti-malarials were stocked in 79% of all outlets surveyed. AS+AQ was widely available in public medicine outlets; AL was only available in the private and NGO sectors. Quinine was available in nearly two-thirds of public and NGO outlets and over one-third of private outlets. SP was widely available in all outlets. Non-policy anti-malarials were predominantly available in the private outlets. AS+AQ in the public sector was widely offered for free. Among the anti-malarials sold at a cost, the same median price of a course of AS+AQ (US$1.56), quinine tablets (US$0.63), were found in both the public and private sectors. Quinine injection had a median cost of US$0.31 in the public sector and US$0.47 in the private sector, while SP had a median cost of US$0.31 in the public sector compared to US$ 0.63 in the private sector. Non-policy anti-malarials were more affordable than first-line AS+AQ in all sectors. A course of AS+AQ was affordable at nearly two days' worth of wages in both the public and private sectors.

  1. 46 CFR 503.70 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 9 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Policy. 503.70 Section 503.70 Shipping FEDERAL MARITIME... Commission Meetings and Public Access to Information Pertaining to Commission Meetings § 503.70 Policy. It is the policy of the Federal Maritime Commission, under the Provisions of the “Government in the Sunshine...

  2. 46 CFR 503.70 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 9 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Policy. 503.70 Section 503.70 Shipping FEDERAL MARITIME... Commission Meetings and Public Access to Information Pertaining to Commission Meetings § 503.70 Policy. It is the policy of the Federal Maritime Commission, under the Provisions of the “Government in the Sunshine...

  3. Expanding Access

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roach, Ronald

    2007-01-01

    There is no question that the United States lags behind most industrialized nations in consumer access to broadband Internet service. For many policy makers and activists, this shortfall marks the latest phase in the struggle to overcome the digital divide. To remedy this lack of broadband affordability and availability, one start-up firm--with…

  4. Privacy Policy

    MedlinePlus

    ... a database that is regularly purged. Third party contractors may have access to this information in order ... a response to your question or comment. These contractors are held to strict policies to safeguard the ...

  5. Observations of Drinking Water Access in School Food Service Areas Before Implementation of Federal and State School Water Policy, California, 2011

    PubMed Central

    Chandran, Kumar; Hampton, Karla E.; Hecht, Kenneth; Grumbach, Jacob M.; Kimura, Amanda T.; Braff-Guajardo, Ellen; Brindis, Claire D.

    2012-01-01

    Introduction Recent legislation requires schools to provide free drinking water in food service areas (FSAs). Our objective was to describe access to water at baseline and student water intake in school FSAs and to examine barriers to and strategies for implementation of drinking water requirements. Methods We randomly sampled 24 California Bay Area public schools. We interviewed 1 administrator per school to assess knowledge of water legislation and barriers to and ideas for policy implementation. We observed water access and students’ intake of free water in school FSAs. Wellness policies were examined for language about water in FSAs. Results Fourteen of 24 schools offered free water in FSAs; 10 offered water via fountains, and 4 provided water through a nonfountain source. Four percent of students drank free water at lunch; intake at elementary schools (11%) was higher than at middle or junior high schools (6%) and high schools (1%). In secondary schools when water was provided by a nonfountain source, the percentage of students who drank free water doubled. Barriers to implementation of water requirements included lack of knowledge of legislation, cost, and other pressing academic concerns. No wellness policies included language about water in FSAs. Conclusion Approximately half of schools offered free water in FSAs before implementation of drinking water requirements, and most met requirements through a fountain. Only 1 in 25 students drank free water in FSAs. Although schools can meet regulations through installation of fountains, more appealing water delivery systems may be necessary to increase students’ water intake at mealtimes. PMID:22765930

  6. Observations of drinking water access in school food service areas before implementation of federal and state school water policy, California, 2011.

    PubMed

    Patel, Anisha I; Chandran, Kumar; Hampton, Karla E; Hecht, Kenneth; Grumbach, Jacob M; Kimura, Amanda T; Braff-Guajardo, Ellen; Brindis, Claire D

    2012-01-01

    Recent legislation requires schools to provide free drinking water in food service areas (FSAs). Our objective was to describe access to water at baseline and student water intake in school FSAs and to examine barriers to and strategies for implementation of drinking water requirements. We randomly sampled 24 California Bay Area public schools. We interviewed 1 administrator per school to assess knowledge of water legislation and barriers to and ideas for policy implementation. We observed water access and students' intake of free water in school FSAs. Wellness policies were examined for language about water in FSAs. Fourteen of 24 schools offered free water in FSAs; 10 offered water via fountains, and 4 provided water through a nonfountain source. Four percent of students drank free water at lunch; intake at elementary schools (11%) was higher than at middle or junior high schools (6%) and high schools (1%). In secondary schools when water was provided by a nonfountain source, the percentage of students who drank free water doubled. Barriers to implementation of water requirements included lack of knowledge of legislation, cost, and other pressing academic concerns. No wellness policies included language about water in FSAs. Approximately half of schools offered free water in FSAs before implementation of drinking water requirements, and most met requirements through a fountain. Only 1 in 25 students drank free water in FSAs. Although schools can meet regulations through installation of fountains, more appealing water delivery systems may be necessary to increase students' water intake at mealtimes.

  7. Internet Access in the European Union and in the United States.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bauer, Johannes M.; Berne, Michel; Maitland, Carleen F.

    2002-01-01

    Examines the effects of public policies towards traditional communications infrastructures on Internet access in Europe and the United States. Discusses competitive strategies and describes the influence of regulatory policies affecting market entry and the pricing of services on Internet access, based on empirical findings. (Author/LRW)

  8. In the Eye of the Perfect Storm: The Convergence of Policy and Latina/o Trends in Access and Financial Concerns, 1975-2008

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santos, José L.; Sáenz, Victor B.

    2014-01-01

    The authors paint a national portrait of Latina/o trends over more than 30 years in terms of demographic and financial concerns that pertain to access at 4-year institutions. Using a multiple policy streams framework, the authors contend that growing numbers of Latina/os are in the eye of the perfect storm in a global economy that calls for more…

  9. 'A preferred consultant and partner to the Royal Government, NGOs, and the community': British American Tobacco's access to policy-makers in Cambodia.

    PubMed

    MacKenzie, Ross; Collin, Jeff

    2017-04-01

    British American Tobacco Cambodia (BATC) has dominated the country's tobacco market since its launch in 1996. Aggressive marketing in a weak regulatory environment and strategies to influence tobacco control policy have contributed to an emerging tobacco-related public health crisis. Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents, issues of BATC's in-house newsletter, civil society reports and media demonstrate that BATC officials have successfully sought to align the company with Cambodia's increasingly controversial political and business leadership that is centred around the Cambodian People's Party with the aim of gaining access to policy-makers and influencing the policy process. Connections to the political elite have resulted in official recognition of the company's ostensible contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development and, more significantly, provided BATC with opportunities to petition policy-makers and to dilute tobacco control regulation. Corporate promotion of its contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development is at odds with its determined efforts to thwart public health regulation and Cambodia's compliance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

  10. Nanotechnology: A Policy Primer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-20

    of oil.3 ! Universal access to clean water. Nanotechnology water desalination and filtration systems may offer affordable, scalable, and portable...Order Code RL34511 Nanotechnology : A Policy Primer May 20, 2008 John F. Sargent Specialist in Science and Technology Policy Resources, Science, and...REPORT DATE 20 MAY 2008 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2008 to 00-00-2008 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Nanotechnology : A Policy Primer 5a

  11. Constructing Outsiders: The Discursive Framing of Access in University Diversity Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iverson, Susan V.

    2012-01-01

    This article investigates how discourses circulating in diversity policies reflect and produce perceptions about diversity in higher education. This study, utilizing the method of policy discourse analysis, examines 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities to understand how these policy documents frame diversity.…

  12. Health System Barriers to Access and Use of Magnesium Sulfate for Women with Severe Pre-Eclampsia and Eclampsia in Pakistan: Evidence for Policy and Practice

    PubMed Central

    Bigdeli, Maryam; Zafar, Shamsa; Assad, Hafeez; Ghaffar, Adbul

    2013-01-01

    Severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are rare but serious complications of pregnancy that threaten the lives of mothers during childbirth. Evidence supports the use of magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) as the first line treatment option for severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. Eclampsia is the third major cause of maternal mortality in Pakistan. As in many other Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), it is suspected that MgSO4 is critically under-utilized in the country. There is however a lack of information on context-specific health system barriers that prevent optimal use of this life-saving medicine in Pakistan. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, namely policy document review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation at health facility, we explored context-specific health system barriers and enablers that affect access and use of MgSO4 for severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in Pakistan. Our study finds that while international recommendations on MgSO4 have been adequately translated in national policies in Pakistan, the gap remains in implementation of national policies into practice. Barriers to access to and effective use of MgSO4 occur at health facility level where the medicine was not available and health staff was reluctant to use it. Low price of the medicine and the small market related to its narrow indications acted as disincentives for effective marketing. Results of our survey were further discussed in a multi-stakeholder round-table meeting and an action plan for increasing access to this life-saving medicine was identified. PMID:23555626

  13. State policy and teen childbearing: a review of research studies.

    PubMed

    Beltz, Martha A; Sacks, Vanessa H; Moore, Kristin A; Terzian, Mary

    2015-02-01

    Teen childbearing is affected by many individual, family, and community factors; however, another potential influence is state policy. Rigorous studies of the relationship between state policy and teen birth rates are few in number but represent a body of knowledge that can inform policy and practice. This article reviews research assessing associations between state-level policies and teen birth rates, focusing on five policy areas: access to family planning, education, sex education, public assistance, and access to abortion services. Overall, several studies have found that measures related to access to and use of family planning services and contraceptives are related to lower state-level teen birth rates. These include adolescent enrollment in clinics, minors' access to contraception, conscience laws, family planning expenditures, and Medicaid waivers. Other studies, although largely cross-sectional analyses, have concluded that policies and practices to expand or improve public education are also associated with lower teen birth rates. These include expenditures on education, teacher-to-student ratios, and graduation requirements. However, the evidence regarding the role of public assistance, abortion access, and sex education policies in reducing teen birth rates is mixed and inconclusive. These conclusions must be viewed as tentative because of the limited number of rigorous studies that examine the relationship between state policy and teen birth rates over time. Many specific policies have only been analyzed by a single study, and few findings are based on recent data. As such, more research is needed to strengthen our understanding of the role of state policies in teen birth rates. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. 'The one with the purse makes policy': Power, problem definition, framing and maternal health policies and programmes evolution in national level institutionalised policy making processes in Ghana.

    PubMed

    Koduah, Augustina; Agyepong, Irene Akua; van Dijk, Han

    2016-10-01

    This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda setting and formulation processes in a lower middle income country, Ghana, by exploring how and why maternal health policies and programmes appeared and evolved on the health sector programme of work agenda between 2002 and 2012. We theorized that the appearance of a policy or programme on the agenda and its fate within the programme of work is predominately influenced by how national level decision makers use their sources of power to define maternal health problems and frame their policy narratives. National level decision makers used their power sources as negotiation tools to frame maternal health issues and design maternal health policies and programmes within the framework of the national health sector programme of work. The power sources identified included legal and structural authority; access to authority by way of political influence; control over and access to resources (mainly financial); access to evidence in the form of health sector performance reviews and demographic health surveys; and knowledge of national plans such as Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. Understanding of power sources and their use as negotiation tools in policy development should not be ignored in the pursuit of transformative change and sustained improvement in health systems in low- and middle income countries (LMIC). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Access to essential drugs in Guyana: a public health challenge.

    PubMed

    Seoane-Vazquez, Enrique; Rodriguez-Monguio, Rosa

    2010-01-01

    Guyana's pharmaceutical sector faces major challenges that limit access to essential drugs. This study analyzes Guyana's drug policy and regulation, public financing, and drug procurement and delivery. The study also identifies main barriers to drug access and proposes alternatives to strengthen the country's public health functions. Data were collected from the country's regulatory agencies, public procurement agency, pharmacies, wholesalers, and pharmaceutical companies. The information was supplemented with interviews with a convenient sample of Guyanese health authorities and stakeholders. Data were also compiled from scientific databases, and web pages of the country's Ministries of Health, Commerce and Finance, the Bureau of Statistics, and international organizations. Major barriers to drug access include: (1) lack of national drug policy and regulation, and limited role of the regulatory authority; (2) inefficient drug selection and irrational drug use; (3) insufficient financial resources and lack of drug pricing policy; (4) inefficient planning and managing public supply system; (5) deficient epidemiological and information systems; and (6) inadequate infrastructures and human resources shortage. Improving drug access in Guyana requires the strengthening of the country's public health functions and the implementation of a national drug policy and pricing policy, streamlining the drug financing, procurement, and planning and managing drug supply; and adequate infrastructures and human resources. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  16. Policies Related to Opioid Agonist Therapy for Opioid Use Disorders: The Evolution of State Policies from 2004 to 2013

    PubMed Central

    Burns, Rachel M.; Pacula, Rosalie L.; Bauhoff, Sebastian; Gordon, Adam J.; Hendrikson, Hollie; Leslie, Douglas L.; Stein, Bradley D.

    2015-01-01

    Background State Medicaid policies play an important role in Medicaid-enrollees' access to and use of opioid agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine, in the treatment of opioid use disorders. Little information is available, however, regarding the evolution of state policies facilitating or hindering access to opioid agonists among Medicaid-enrollees. Methods During 2013-14, we surveyed state Medicaid officials and other designated state substance abuse treatment specialists about their state's recent history of Medicaid coverage and policies pertaining to methadone and buprenorphine. We describe the evolution of such coverage and policies and present an overview of the Medicaid policy environment with respect to opioid agonist therapy from 2004 to 2013. Results Among our sample of 45 states with information on buprenorphine and methadone coverage, we found a gradual trend toward adoption of coverage for opioid agonist therapies in state Medicaid agencies. In 2013, only 11% of states in our sample (n=5) had Medicaid policies that excluded coverage for methadone and buprenorphine, while 71% (n=32) had adopted or maintained policies to cover both buprenorphine and methadone among Medicaid-enrollees. We also noted an increase in policies over the time period that may have hindered access to buprenorphine and/or methadone. Conclusions There appears to be a trend for states to enact policies increasing Medicaid coverage of opioid agonist therapies, while in recent years also enacting policies, such as prior authorization requirements, that potentially serve as barriers to opioid agonist therapy utilization. Greater empirical information about the potential benefits and potential unintended consequences of such policies can provide policymakers and others with a more informed understanding of their policy decisions. PMID:26566761

  17. Understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in rural Tanzania: the ACCESS Programme.

    PubMed

    Hetzel, Manuel W; Iteba, Nelly; Makemba, Ahmed; Mshana, Christopher; Lengeler, Christian; Obrist, Brigit; Schulze, Alexander; Nathan, Rose; Dillip, Angel; Alba, Sandra; Mayumana, Iddy; Khatib, Rashid A; Njau, Joseph D; Mshinda, Hassan

    2007-06-29

    Prompt access to effective treatment is central in the fight against malaria. However, a variety of interlinked factors at household and health system level influence access to timely and appropriate treatment and care. Furthermore, access may be influenced by global and national health policies. As a consequence, many malaria episodes in highly endemic countries are not treated appropriately. The ACCESS Programme aims at understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in a rural Tanzanian setting. The programme's strategy is based on a set of integrated interventions, including social marketing for improved care seeking at community level as well as strengthening of quality of care at health facilities. This is complemented by a project that aims to improve the performance of drug stores. The interventions are accompanied by a comprehensive set of monitoring and evaluation activities measuring the programme's performance and (health) impact. Baseline data demonstrated heterogeneity in the availability of malaria treatment, unavailability of medicines and treatment providers in certain areas as well as quality problems with regard to drugs and services. The ACCESS Programme is a combination of multiple complementary interventions with a strong evaluation component. With this approach, ACCESS aims to contribute to the development of a more comprehensive access framework and to inform and support public health professionals and policy-makers in the delivery of improved health services.

  18. Understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in rural Tanzania: the ACCESS Programme

    PubMed Central

    Hetzel, Manuel W; Iteba, Nelly; Makemba, Ahmed; Mshana, Christopher; Lengeler, Christian; Obrist, Brigit; Schulze, Alexander; Nathan, Rose; Dillip, Angel; Alba, Sandra; Mayumana, Iddy; Khatib, Rashid A; Njau, Joseph D; Mshinda, Hassan

    2007-01-01

    Background Prompt access to effective treatment is central in the fight against malaria. However, a variety of interlinked factors at household and health system level influence access to timely and appropriate treatment and care. Furthermore, access may be influenced by global and national health policies. As a consequence, many malaria episodes in highly endemic countries are not treated appropriately. Project The ACCESS Programme aims at understanding and improving access to prompt and effective malaria treatment and care in a rural Tanzanian setting. The programme's strategy is based on a set of integrated interventions, including social marketing for improved care seeking at community level as well as strengthening of quality of care at health facilities. This is complemented by a project that aims to improve the performance of drug stores. The interventions are accompanied by a comprehensive set of monitoring and evaluation activities measuring the programme's performance and (health) impact. Baseline data demonstrated heterogeneity in the availability of malaria treatment, unavailability of medicines and treatment providers in certain areas as well as quality problems with regard to drugs and services. Conclusion The ACCESS Programme is a combination of multiple complementary interventions with a strong evaluation component. With this approach, ACCESS aims to contribute to the development of a more comprehensive access framework and to inform and support public health professionals and policy-makers in the delivery of improved health services. PMID:17603898

  19. Circulation policies in health science libraries.

    PubMed

    Watkins, C; Coker, N C

    1970-10-01

    There is general agreement that library policies have considerable influence on the use of libraries. Medical school (health science) libraries of this country were surveyed as to their policies in respect to whether faculty and student use were regulated by a single policy, circulation regulations, hours library was accessible to users, accessibility of reserve material, interlibrary loan, policy on overdue material, and exit control. THE LIBRARIES WERE THEN DIVIDED INTO THREE GROUPS, HIGH, MIDDLE, AND LOW ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS: size of student body, size of faculty, size of holdings, size of library staff, annual budget, and annual circulation. Our findings would indicate that schools falling in a high category based upon these criteria tend to be more restrictive in their policies and to have different regulations for faculty and students than do schools in the low category.These findings warrant further study.

  20. Inclusion of vulnerable groups in health policies: Regional policies on health priorities in Africa

    PubMed Central

    Eide, Arne Henning; Amin, Mutamad; MacLachlan, Malcom; Mannan, Hasheem

    2013-01-01

    Background If access to equitable health care is to be achieved for all, policy documents must mention and address in some detail different needs of groups vulnerable to not accessing such health care. If these needs are not addressed in the policy documents, there is little chance that they will be addressed at the stage of implementation. Objectives This paper reports on an analysis of 11 African Union (AU) policy documents to ascertain the frequency and the extent of mention of 13 core concepts in relation to 12 vulnerable groups, with a specific focus on people with disabilities. Method The paper applied the EquiFrame analytical framework to the 11 AU policy documents. The 11 documents were analysed in terms of how many times a core concept was mentioned and the extent of information on how the core concept should be addressed at the implementation level. Each core concept mention was further analysed in terms of the vulnerable group in referred to. Results The analysis of regional AU policies highlighted the broad nature of the reference made to vulnerable groups, with a lack of detailed specifications of different needs of different groups. This is confirmed in the highest vulnerable group mention being for ‘universal’. The reading of the documents suggests that vulnerable groups are homogeneous in their needs, which is not the case. There is a lack of recognition of different needs of different vulnerable groups in accessing health care. Conclusion The need for more information and knowledge on the needs of all vulnerable groups is evident. The current lack of mention and of any detail on how to address needs of vulnerable groups will significantly impair the access to equitable health care for all. PMID:28729986

  1. Improving access to health care for undocumented immigrants in the United States.

    PubMed

    Wallace, Steven P; Rodriguez, Michael; Padilla-Frausto, Imelda; Arredondo, Armando; Orozco, Emanuel

    2013-01-01

    To identify policies that increase access to health care for undocumented Mexican immigrants. Four focus groups (n=34 participants) were conducted with uninsured Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, California. The feasibility and desirability of different policy proposals for increasing access were discussed by each group. Respondents raised significant problems with policies including binational health insurance, expanded employer-provided health insurance, and telemedicine. The only solution with a consensus that the change would be feasible, result in improved access, and they had confidence in was expanded access to community health centers (CHC's). Given the limited access to most specialists at CHC's and the continued barriers to hospital care for those without health insurance, the most effective way of improving the complete range of health services to undocumented immigrants is through immigration reform that will bring these workers under the other health care reform provisions.

  2. Libraries and the Pickle (PCLE) of Content Management Schemes: Survey of Pending Copyright Policy Battles and Their Implications for School Libraries, Free Speech, Access to Information, and Democracy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Minow, Mary; Wilson, Cicely Reed

    2003-01-01

    Explains the copyright policy battles now pending in Congress and the courts, with a discussion of what they mean for free speech, access to information, and democratic culture in school libraries. (MES)

  3. A Policy Language for Modelling Recommendations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abou El Kalam, Anas; Balbiani, Philippe

    While current and emergent applications become more and more complex, most of existing security policies and models only consider a yes/no response to the access requests. Consequently, modelling, formalizing and implementing permissions, obligations and prohibitions do not cover the richness of all the possible scenarios. In fact, several applications have access rules with the recommendation access modality. In this paper we focus on the problem of formalizing security policies with recommendation needs. The aim is to provide a generic domain-independent formal system for modelling not only permissions, prohibitions and obligations, but also recommendations. In this respect, we present our logic-based language, the semantics, the truth conditions, our axiomatic as well as inference rules. We also give a representative use case with our specification of recommendation requirements. Finally, we explain how our logical framework could be used to query the security policy and to check its consistency.

  4. Making Evidence on Health Policy Issues Accessible to the Media

    PubMed Central

    Roos, Noralou P.; O'Grady, Kathleen; Singer, Sharon Manson; Turczak, Shannon; Tapp, Camilla

    2012-01-01

    The media shape consumer expectations and interpretations of health interventions, influencing how people think about their need for care and the sustainability of the system. EvidenceNetwork.ca is a non-partisan, web-based project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Manitoba Health Research Council to make the latest evidence on controversial health policy issues available to the media. This website links journalists with health policy experts. We publish opinion pieces on current health policy issues in both French and English. We track who follows and uses the EvidenceNetwork.ca website and monitor the impact of our efforts. PMID:23968614

  5. Warning! Slippery Road Ahead: Internet Access and District Liability.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mazur, Joan M.

    1995-01-01

    As schools merge onto the information highway, districts must address their liability associated with Internet access. Schools need a practical policy supporting high access to global educational resources while limiting district liability. USENET provides easy access to controversial and pornographic materials. This article outlines federal…

  6. Transcalar networks for policy transfer and implementation: the case of global health policies for malaria and HIV/AIDS in Cameroon.

    PubMed

    Ngoasong, Michael Zisuh

    2011-01-01

    This paper explores the nature and type of policy transfer promoted by global health partnerships to facilitate access to medication in Cameroon and the associated implementation challenges. Using concepts from policy transfer, multi-level governance and the politics of scale, the paper conceptualizes the social spaces (global-national-local linkages) through which global health policies are negotiated as transcalar networks. The framework is used to analyse policy documents, technical and media reports and journal articles focusing on two global health partnerships (GHPs)-Roll Back Malaria and the Accelerating Access Initiative-in Cameroon. Both GHPs helped to create the national Malaria and HIV/AIDS programmes in Cameroon, respectively. Global policies are negotiated through dialogue processes involving global, national and local partners who constitute the national HIV/AIDS and malaria committees. Successful policy transfer is evident from the consensual nature of decision-making. Analysis of policy implementation reveals that GHPs offer a 'technical fix' based on specific medical intervention programmes with a relatively limited focus on disease prevention. The GHP approach imposes new governance challenges due to policy resistance strategies (strategic interests of international agencies and country-specific challenges). Evidence of this is seen in the existence of several overlapping programmes and initiatives that distort accountability and governance mechanisms defined by the national committees. Finally, the implications of these challenges for achieving access to medication are discussed.

  7. Towards an Approach of Semantic Access Control for Cloud Computing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Luokai; Ying, Shi; Jia, Xiangyang; Zhao, Kai

    With the development of cloud computing, the mutual understandability among distributed Access Control Policies (ACPs) has become an important issue in the security field of cloud computing. Semantic Web technology provides the solution to semantic interoperability of heterogeneous applications. In this paper, we analysis existing access control methods and present a new Semantic Access Control Policy Language (SACPL) for describing ACPs in cloud computing environment. Access Control Oriented Ontology System (ACOOS) is designed as the semantic basis of SACPL. Ontology-based SACPL language can effectively solve the interoperability issue of distributed ACPs. This study enriches the research that the semantic web technology is applied in the field of security, and provides a new way of thinking of access control in cloud computing.

  8. 45 CFR 5.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS Basic Policy... recognize the right of public access to information in the possession of the Department, but also protect... and confidential commercial information, prohibited from release by law. This policy calls for the...

  9. 45 CFR 5.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS Basic Policy... recognize the right of public access to information in the possession of the Department, but also protect... and confidential commercial information, prohibited from release by law. This policy calls for the...

  10. 45 CFR 5.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... of Health and Human Services GENERAL ADMINISTRATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS Basic Policy... recognize the right of public access to information in the possession of the Department, but also protect... and confidential commercial information, prohibited from release by law. This policy calls for the...

  11. Preventing Underage Alcohol Access: Policy and Enforcement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stewart, Kathryn

    2002-01-01

    One of the major challenges faced by states and communities is the prevention of underage alcohol access. Underage drinking is widespread and, to a large extent, tolerated by society. It is also implicated in a range of health and social problems that are both tragic and costly. The bad news is clear and all too visible. Underage alcohol use is a…

  12. What is wrong with orphan drug policies?

    PubMed

    Côté, André; Keating, Bernard

    2012-12-01

    The effects of orphan drug policies raise serious concerns among payer organizations and lead to often-tragic disappointment for patients who are denied much anticipated drug reimbursements. We evaluate the effects of orphan drug policies on the basis of this concern for real accessibility to drugs. We highlight two unforeseen effects of orphan drug policies: 1) they provide unique business opportunities for manufacturers and 2) drugs approved through these policies are often inaccessible because of their high price. We identify six causes of this emergence of effects. The first four are the direct result of incentives included in orphan drug policies. The fifth cause is the "off-label" use of orphan drugs. These emergent effects have several implications: 1) they raise doubts about the equity of access to drugs, 2) they highlight the limitations of the cohort paradigm in medicine, and c) they force third-party payers to make drugs accessible even when the prices of drugs are believed to be disproportionate to the clinical effects obtained. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Access to age-appropriate essential medicines: a retrospective survey of compounding of medicines for children in hospitals in Nigeria and implications for policy development.

    PubMed

    Orubu, Ebiowei Samuel F; Okwelogu, Chinyere; Opanuga, Olabisi; Nunn, Tony; Tuleu, Catherine

    2017-03-01

    Policies to improve access to medicines for children in Nigeria do not include compounding as a source of medicines. Compounding is often applied as a last resort in health institutions to provide age-appropriate formulations usually for oral use in young children; but it bears some risk. Some countries have adopted policies aimed at reducing the risk based on available data. There is not much data for Nigeria. This retrospective study examined compounding records from January to December 2011 in a sample of seven hospitals to describe what medicines for oral use were commonly compounded in Nigeria. It then determined if these medicines were commercially available in forms suitable for use in children in selected countries—the United Kingdom, United States and India. The study found that out of 2845 items compounded, over 65% were medicines for cardiovascular conditions, diarrhoea or tuberculosis. The main reason (96%, n = 2399) for compounding was the unavailability of age-appropriate formulations. Medicines were almost all compounded using simple syrup, vitamin C or vitamin B syrups as suspending vehicles. Final products were all oral liquids. Comprehensive stability testing was not reported for the products. Almost all of the commonly compounded medicines were found to be commercially available in dosage forms suitable for use in children in the selected countries. These medicines were all listed in the World Health Organization Essential Medicines List for children as well as in the current edition of the Essential Medicines List of Nigeria. The fact that they were compounded highlights the need for improved access to age-appropriate dosage forms for children in Nigeria. The study recommends policy expansion through a three-pronged approach to improving access: increased supply through facilitated importation/accelerated product registration, or in-country manufacturing; rational drug use including therapeutic substitution, and establishment of a national

  14. Verification of Security Policy Enforcement in Enterprise Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gupta, Puneet; Stoller, Scott D.

    Many security requirements for enterprise systems can be expressed in a natural way as high-level access control policies. A high-level policy may refer to abstract information resources, independent of where the information is stored; it controls both direct and indirect accesses to the information; it may refer to the context of a request, i.e., the request’s path through the system; and its enforcement point and enforcement mechanism may be unspecified. Enforcement of a high-level policy may depend on the system architecture and the configurations of a variety of security mechanisms, such as firewalls, host login permissions, file permissions, DBMS access control, and application-specific security mechanisms. This paper presents a framework in which all of these can be conveniently and formally expressed, a method to verify that a high-level policy is enforced, and an algorithm to determine a trusted computing base for each resource.

  15. Supporting Public Access to Research Results

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lapinski, P. Scott; Osterbur, David; Parker, Joshua; McCray, Alexa T.

    2014-01-01

    We posed the question of what services an academic library can best provide to support the NIH Public Access Policy. We approached the answer to this question through education, collaboration, and tool-building. As a result, over the last four years we have engaged over 1,500 participants in discussions of public access to research results, forged…

  16. Access Control Management for SCADA Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hong, Seng-Phil; Ahn, Gail-Joon; Xu, Wenjuan

    The information technology revolution has transformed all aspects of our society including critical infrastructures and led a significant shift from their old and disparate business models based on proprietary and legacy environments to more open and consolidated ones. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been widely used not only for industrial processes but also for some experimental facilities. Due to the nature of open environments, managing SCADA systems should meet various security requirements since system administrators need to deal with a large number of entities and functions involved in critical infrastructures. In this paper, we identify necessary access control requirements in SCADA systems and articulate access control policies for the simulated SCADA systems. We also attempt to analyze and realize those requirements and policies in the context of role-based access control that is suitable for simplifying administrative tasks in large scale enterprises.

  17. Child Health and Access to Medical Care

    PubMed Central

    Leininger, Lindsey; Levy, Helen

    2016-01-01

    It might seem strange to ask whether increasing access to medical care can improve children’s health. Yet Lindsey Leininger and Helen Levy begin by pointing out that access to care plays a smaller role than we might think, and that many other factors, such as those discussed elsewhere in this issue, strongly influence children’s health. Nonetheless, they find that, on the whole, policies to improve access indeed improve children’s health, with the caveat that context plays a big role—medical care “matters more at some times, or for some children, than others.” Focusing on studies that can plausibly show a causal effect between policies to increase access and better health for children, and starting from an economic framework, they consider both the demand for and the supply of health care. On the demand side, they examine what happens when the government expands public insurance programs (such as Medicaid), or when parents are offered financial incentives to take their children to preventive appointments. On the supply side, they look at what happens when public insurance programs increase the payments that they offer to health-care providers, or when health-care providers are placed directly in schools where children spend their days. They also examine how the Affordable Care Act is likely to affect children’s access to medical care. Leininger and Levy reach three main conclusions. First, despite tremendous progress in recent decades, not all children have insurance coverage, and immigrant children are especially vulnerable. Second, insurance coverage alone doesn’t guarantee access to care, and insured children may still face barriers to getting the care they need. Finally, as this issue of Future of Children demonstrates, access to care is only one of the factors that policy makers should consider as they seek to make the nation’s children healthier. PMID:27516723

  18. From Policy to Practice: Implementation of Water Policies in Child Care Centers in Connecticut

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Middleton, Ann E.; Henderson, Kathryn E.; Schwartz, Marlene B.

    2013-01-01

    Objective: Child care policies may contribute to healthy beverage consumption patterns. This study documented availability and accessibility of water and correspondence with state and federal policy and accreditation standards in child care centers. Design: One-day observations were conducted in a random sample of 40 Child and Adult Care Food…

  19. Accessible Electronic and Information Technology

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This Policy establishes EPA's responsibilities and procedures for making its Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) products accessible to all people, including people with disabilities, in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

  20. From policy to practice: implementation of water policies in child care centers in Connecticut.

    PubMed

    Middleton, Ann E; Henderson, Kathryn E; Schwartz, Marlene B

    2013-03-01

    Child care policies may contribute to healthy beverage consumption patterns. This study documented availability and accessibility of water and correspondence with state and federal policy and accreditation standards in child care centers. One-day observations were conducted in a random sample of 40 Child and Adult Care Food Program-participating preschool classrooms in Connecticut. Child care centers, center directors, and preschool teachers. Raters observed water availability and teacher behaviors during lunch, physical activity, and in the classroom. National, state, and childcare center water regulations and policies were reviewed. Descriptive statistics present data on water availability, promotion, and modeling. Bivariate relationships between water availability and accreditation status, center water policy, location of physical activity, and verbal promotion were assessed using the Fisher exact test (P < .05). Many centers were in violation of water-promoting policies. Water was available in most classrooms (84%) but was only adult accessible in over half of those classrooms. Water was available during one third of physical activity periods observed. Verbal prompts for children to drink water were few. Support is needed to help centers meet existing water policies and new water requirements included in the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. Copyright © 2013 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. 32 CFR 3.8 - DoD access to records policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... for defined payable milestones, with no provision for financial or cost reporting that would be a... necessary to verify statutory cost share or to verify amounts generated from financial or cost records that... General access. (1) Fixed-price type OT agreements. (i) General—DoD access to records is not generally...

  2. 32 CFR 3.8 - DoD access to records policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... for defined payable milestones, with no provision for financial or cost reporting that would be a... necessary to verify statutory cost share or to verify amounts generated from financial or cost records that... General access. (1) Fixed-price type OT agreements. (i) General—DoD access to records is not generally...

  3. National Study of Changes in Community Access to School Physical Activity Facilities: The School Health Policies and Programs Study

    PubMed Central

    Evenson, Kelly R.; Wen, Fang; Lee, Sarah M.; Heinrich, Katie M.; Eyler, Amy

    2016-01-01

    Background A Healthy People 2010 developmental objective (22-12) was set to increase the proportion of the nation’s public and private schools that provide access to their physical activity spaces and facilities for all persons outside of normal school hours. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of indoor and outdoor facilities at schools and the availability of those facilities to the public in 2000 and 2006. Methods In 2000 and 2006, the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) was conducted in each state and in randomly selected districts, schools, and classrooms. This analysis focused on the school level questionnaire from a nationally representative sample of public and nonpublic elementary, middle, and high schools (n = 921 in 2000 and n = 984 in 2006). Results No meaningful changes in the prevalence of access to school physical activity facilities were found from 2000 to 2006, for youth or adult community sports teams, classes, or open gym. Conclusions These national data indicate a lack of progress from 2000 and 2006 toward increasing the proportion of the nation’s public and private schools that provide access to their physical activity facilities for all persons outside of normal school hours. PMID:20440007

  4. Conversion of school nurse policy and procedure manual to electronic format.

    PubMed

    Randall, Joellyn; Knee, Rachel; Galemore, Cynthia

    2006-10-01

    Policy and procedure manuals are essential to establishing standards of practice and ensuring quality of care to students and families. The Olathe District Schools (Kansas) Technology Department created the Virtual File Cabinet to provide online access to employee policies, school board policies, forms, and other documents. A task force of school nurses was formed to convert the nursing department's policies, procedures, protocols, and forms from hard copy to electronic format and make them available on the district's Virtual File Cabinet. Having the policy and procedure manuals in electronic format allows for quick access and ease in updating information, thereby guaranteeing the school nurses have access to the most current information. Cost savings were realized by reducing the amount of paper and staff time needed to copy, collate, and assemble materials.

  5. Framing access to medicines in developing countries: an analysis of media coverage of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime.

    PubMed

    Esmail, Laura C; Phillips, Kaye; Kuek, Victoria; Cosio, Andrea Perez; Kohler, Jillian Clare

    2010-01-04

    In September 2003, the Canadian government committed to developing legislation that would facilitate greater access to affordable medicines for developing countries. Over the course of eight months, the legislation, now known as Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), went through a controversial policy development process and the newspaper media was one of the major venues in which the policy debates took place. The purpose of this study was to examine how the media framed CAMR to determine how policy goals were conceptualized, which stakeholder interests controlled the public debate and how these variables related to the public policy process. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of newspaper coverage of the CAMR policy and implementation process from 2003-2008. The primary theoretical framework for this study was framing theory. A total of 90 articles from 11 Canadian newspapers were selected for inclusion in our analysis. A team of four researchers coded the articles for themes relating to access to medicines and which stakeholders' voice figured more prominently on each issue. Stakeholders examined included: the research-based industry, the generic industry, civil society, the Canadian government, and developing country representatives. The most frequently mentioned themes across all documents were the issues of drug affordability, intellectual property, trade agreements and obligations, and development. Issues such as human rights, pharmaceutical innovation, and economic competitiveness got little media representation. Civil society dominated the media contents, followed far behind by the Canadian government, the research-based and generic pharmaceutical industries. Developing country representatives were hardly represented in the media. Media framing obscured the discussion of some of the underlying policy goals in this case and failed to highlight issues which are now significant barriers to the use of the legislation. Using the media to engage

  6. Framing access to medicines in developing countries: an analysis of media coverage of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background In September 2003, the Canadian government committed to developing legislation that would facilitate greater access to affordable medicines for developing countries. Over the course of eight months, the legislation, now known as Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), went through a controversial policy development process and the newspaper media was one of the major venues in which the policy debates took place. The purpose of this study was to examine how the media framed CAMR to determine how policy goals were conceptualized, which stakeholder interests controlled the public debate and how these variables related to the public policy process. Methods We conducted a qualitative content analysis of newspaper coverage of the CAMR policy and implementation process from 2003-2008. The primary theoretical framework for this study was framing theory. A total of 90 articles from 11 Canadian newspapers were selected for inclusion in our analysis. A team of four researchers coded the articles for themes relating to access to medicines and which stakeholders' voice figured more prominently on each issue. Stakeholders examined included: the research-based industry, the generic industry, civil society, the Canadian government, and developing country representatives. Results The most frequently mentioned themes across all documents were the issues of drug affordability, intellectual property, trade agreements and obligations, and development. Issues such as human rights, pharmaceutical innovation, and economic competitiveness got little media representation. Civil society dominated the media contents, followed far behind by the Canadian government, the research-based and generic pharmaceutical industries. Developing country representatives were hardly represented in the media. Conclusions Media framing obscured the discussion of some of the underlying policy goals in this case and failed to highlight issues which are now significant barriers to the use of the

  7. Policy Discourses in Higher Education: Impact on Access and Equity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Panigrahi, Jinusha

    2014-01-01

    The article examines the question of access to higher education (HE) in the context of unprecedented and irreversible changes in the higher education sector in the current scenario. It is based on a comparative study that seeks to probe the question of access based on a secondary data analysis using the NSSO data regarding household consumer…

  8. Access to Bathtub Grab Bars: Evidence of a Policy Gap

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Birkett, Nicholas; Nair, Rama; Murphy, Maureen; Roberge, Ginette; Lockett, Donna

    2006-01-01

    This paper examines access to bathtub grab bars in privately and publicly owned apartment buildings and explores the profile of seniors who have access to bathtub grab bars. Results indicate that bathtub grab bars were significantly more prevalent in apartments that were publicly owned (91.3%) as compared to privately owned (37.8%) (p lesser than…

  9. Access Services Are Human Services: Collaborating to Provide Textbook Access to Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McElroy, Kelly; Moore, Dan; Hilterbrand, Lori; Hindes, Nicole

    2017-01-01

    Despite the clear negative impact of high textbook costs on students, limits--including space, funding, and policies--prevent many academic libraries from fully supporting textbook collections. Partnering with other campus units on textbook lending requires creative thinking but can provide students access to other services in addition to the…

  10. 45 CFR 5.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Policy. 5.2 Section 5.2 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REGULATIONS Basic Policy... recognize the right of public access to information in the possession of the Department, but also protect...

  11. Universal Basic Education Policy: Impact on Enrolment and Retention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iddrisu, Issah

    2016-01-01

    The universal basic education policy enshrined in the constitution of Ghana is aimed at making education accessible and affordable for all Ghanaian citizens. This paper sought to assess whether the universal basic education policy really have an impact on access at the basic level. The study was carried out on the premise that the universal basic…

  12. Open versus Controlled-Access Data | Office of Cancer Genomics

    Cancer.gov

    OCG employs stringent human subjects’ protection and data access policies to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the research participants. Depending on the risk of patient identification, OCG programs data are available to the scientific community in two tiers: open or controlled access. Both types of data can be accessed through its corresponding OCG program-specific data matrix or portal. Open-access Data

  13. Limited School Drinking Water Access for Youth.

    PubMed

    Kenney, Erica L; Gortmaker, Steven L; Cohen, Juliana F W; Rimm, Eric B; Cradock, Angie L

    2016-07-01

    Providing children and youth with safe, adequate drinking water access during school is essential for health. This study used objectively measured data to investigate the extent to which schools provide drinking water access that meets state and federal policies. We visited 59 middle and high schools in Massachusetts during spring 2012. Trained research assistants documented the type, location, and working condition of all water access points throughout each school building using a standard protocol. School food service directors (FSDs) completed surveys reporting water access in cafeterias. We evaluated school compliance with state plumbing codes and federal regulations and compared FSD self-reports of water access with direct observation; data were analyzed in 2014. On average, each school had 1.5 (standard deviation: .6) water sources per 75 students; 82% (standard deviation: 20) were functioning and fewer (70%) were both clean and functioning. Less than half of the schools met the federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act requirement for free water access during lunch; 18 schools (31%) provided bottled water for purchase but no free water. Slightly over half (59%) met the Massachusetts state plumbing code. FSDs overestimated free drinking water access compared to direct observation (96% FSD reported vs. 48% observed, kappa = .07, p = .17). School drinking water access may be limited. In this study, many schools did not meet state or federal policies for minimum student drinking water access. School administrative staff may not accurately report water access. Public health action is needed to increase school drinking water access. Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. A Telecommunications Policy Agenda for Latinos en la Edad de Informacion.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schement, Jorge Reina

    2001-01-01

    Discusses telecommunications developments affecting Latino access and participation. Examines telecommunications policy as political discourse. Presents elements of a telecommunications policy agenda drawn from that of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and focusing on access to services, education for digital literacy, needs of small businesses…

  15. Policies for implementing network firewalls

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brown, C.D.

    1994-05-01

    Corporate networks are frequently protected by {open_quotes}firewalls{close_quotes} or gateway systems that control access to/from other networks, e.g., the Internet, in order to reduce the network`s vulnerability to hackers and other unauthorized access. Firewalls typically limit access to particular network nodes and application protocols, and they often perform special authentication and authorization functions. One of the difficult issues associated with network firewalls is determining which applications should be permitted through the firewall. For example, many networks permit the exchange of electronic mail with the outside but do not permit file access to be initiated by outside users, as this might allowmore » outside users to access sensitive data or to surreptitiously modify data or programs (e.g., to intall Trojan Horse software). However, if access through firewalls is severely restricted, legitimate network users may find it difficult or impossible to collaborate with outside users and to share data. Some of the most serious issues regarding firewalls involve setting policies for firewalls with the goal of achieving an acceptable balance between the need for greater functionality and the associated risks. Two common firewall implementation techniques, screening routers and application gateways, are discussed below, followed by some common policies implemented by network firewalls.« less

  16. Exploring dimensions of access to medical care.

    PubMed Central

    Andersen, R M; McCutcheon, A; Aday, L A; Chiu, G Y; Bell, R

    1983-01-01

    This paper examines the dimensions of the access concept with particular attention to the extent to which more parsimonious indicators of access can be developed. This process is especially useful to health policy makers, planners and researchers in need of cost-effective social indicators of access to monitor the need for and impact of innovative health care programs. Three stages of data reduction are used in the analysis, resulting in a reduced set of key indicators of the concept. Implication for subsequent data collection and measurement of access are discussed. PMID:6841113

  17. Spatial access disparities to primary health care in rural and remote Australia.

    PubMed

    McGrail, Matthew Richard; Humphreys, John Stirling

    2015-11-04

    Poor spatial access to health care remains a key issue for rural populations worldwide. Whilst geographic information systems (GIS) have enabled the development of more sophisticated access measures, they are yet to be adopted into health policy and workforce planning. This paper provides and tests a new national-level approach to measuring primary health care (PHC) access for rural Australia, suitable for use in macro-level health policy. The new index was constructed using a modified two-step floating catchment area method framework and the smallest available geographic unit. Primary health care spatial access was operationalised using three broad components: availability of PHC (general practitioner) services; proximity of populations to PHC services; and PHC needs of the population. Data used in its measurement were specifically chosen for accuracy, reliability and ongoing availability for small areas. The resultant index reveals spatial disparities of access to PHC across rural Australia. While generally more remote areas experienced poorer access than more populated rural areas, there were numerous exceptions to this generalisation, with some rural areas close to metropolitan areas having very poor access and some increasingly remote areas having relatively good access. This new index provides a geographically-sensitive measure of access, which is readily updateable and enables a fine granulation of access disparities. Such an index can underpin national rural health programmes and policies designed to improve rural workforce recruitment and retention, and, importantly, health service planning and resource allocation decisions designed to improve equity of PHC access.

  18. Do free caesarean section policies increase inequalities in Benin and Mali?

    PubMed

    Ravit, Marion; Audibert, Martine; Ridde, Valéry; De Loenzien, Myriam; Schantz, Clémence; Dumont, Alexandre

    2018-06-05

    Benin and Mali introduced user fee exemption policies focused on caesarean sections (C-sections) in 2005 and 2009, respectively. These policies had a positive impact on access to C-sections and facility based deliveries among all women, but the impact on socioeconomic inequality is still highly uncertain. The objective of this study was to observe whether there was an increase or a decrease in urban/rural and socioeconomic inequalities in access to C-sections and facility based deliveries after the free C-section policy was introduced. We used data from three consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS): 2001, 2006 and 2011-2012 in Benin and 2001, 2006 and 2012-13 in Mali. We evaluated trends in inequality in terms of two outcomes: C-sections and facility based deliveries. Adjusted odds ratios were used to estimate whether the distributions of C-sections and facility based deliveries favoured the least advantaged categories (rural, non-educated and poorest women) or the most advantaged categories (urban, educated and richest women). Concentration curves were used to observe the degree of wealth-related inequality in access to C-sections and facility based deliveries. We analysed 47,302 childbirths (23,266 in Benin and 24,036 in Mali). In Benin, we found no significant difference in access to C-sections between urban and rural women or between educated and non-educated women. However, the richest women had greater access to C-sections than the poorest women. There was no significant change in these inequalities in terms of access to C-sections and facility based deliveries after introduction of the free C-section policy. In Mali, we found a reduction in education-related inequalities in access to C-sections after implementation of the policy (p-value = 0.043). Inequalities between urban and rural areas had already decreased prior to implementation of the policy, but wealth-related inequalities were still present. Urban/rural and socioeconomic inequalities in

  19. Improving access to adequate pain management in Taiwan.

    PubMed

    Scholten, Willem

    2015-06-01

    There is a global crisis in access to pain management in the world. WHO estimates that 4.65 billion people live in countries where medical opioid consumption is near to zero. For 2010, WHO considered a per capita consumption of 216.7 mg morphine equivalents adequate, while Taiwan had a per capita consumption of 0.05 mg morphine equivalents in 2007. In Asia, the use of opioids is sensitive because of the Opium Wars in the 19th century and for this reason, the focus of controlled substances policies has been on the prevention of diversion and dependence. However, an optimal public health outcome requires that also the beneficial aspects of these substances are acknowledged. Therefore, WHO recommends a policy based on the Principle of Balance: ensuring access for medical and scientific purposes while preventing diversion, harmful use and dependence. Furthermore, international law requires that countries ensure access to opioid analgesics for medical and scientific purposes. There is evidence that opioid analgesics for chronic pain are not associated with a major risk for developing dependence. Barriers for access can be classified in the categories of overly restrictive laws and regulations; insufficient medical training on pain management and problems related to assessment of medical needs; attitudes like an excessive fear for dependence or diversion; and economic and logistical problems. The GOPI project found many examples of such barriers in Asia. Access to opioid medicines in Taiwan can be improved by analysing the national situation and drafting a plan. The WHO policy guidelines Ensuring Balance in National Policies on Controlled Substances can be helpful for achieving this purpose, as well as international guidelines for pain treatment. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  20. Reproductive policy and the social construction of motherhood.

    PubMed

    Bonnie, Stabile

    2016-01-01

    Reproductive technologies allow women to embrace or forgo motherhood, but a woman's ability to make autonomous reproductive choices depends on access to these technologies. In the United States, public policies - laws, regulations, appropriations, and rulings - have either broadened or narrowed this access. Have U.S. public policies affecting reproductive choices conformed to attitudinal distinctions about motherhood itself? I identified policies covering infertility, contraception, and abortion and examined them contextually within the Ingram-Schneider social construction framework. Women's choices fell within social construction quadrants as being positively portrayed and powerful; negatively portrayed but powerful; positively portrayed but powerless; and negatively portrayed and powerless. Married heterosexual women embracing motherhood were likely to be viewed positively and to reap benefits. Women forgoing motherhood, poor women, and women seeking to form nontraditional families were likely to be viewed negatively and to bear burdens; critical among these burdens was restriction of access to technologies that could be used to support a decision to avoid motherhood or to achieve motherhood through nontraditional methods. Yes, U.S. public policies affecting reproductive choices have conformed to attitudinal distinctions about motherhood itself. These policies may also have altered those choices.

  1. The Free Senior High Policy: An Appropriate Replacement to the Progressive Free Senior High Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abdul-Rahaman, Nurudeen; Rahaman, Abdul Basit Abdul; Ming, Wan; Ahmed, Abdul-Rahim; Salma, Abdul-Rahaman S.

    2018-01-01

    Governments all over the world have been improving their educational sector through funding programs aimed at reducing the financial burden on parents, increasing access and quality to education. The government of Ghana in 2017 switched policy to a free senior high school policy to reduce poverty by finally eliminating the financial burdens…

  2. 1 CFR 456.4 - Public access to information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 1 General Provisions 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Public access to information. 456.4 Section 456.4 General Provisions MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES NATIONAL CAPITAL PLANNING COMMISSION (FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REGULATIONS) § 456.4 Public access to information. (a) General policy. It is the Commission's...

  3. Obesity prevention programs and policies: practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of feasibility and effectiveness.

    PubMed

    Cleland, Verity; McNeilly, Briohny; Crawford, David; Ball, Kylie

    2013-09-01

    The aims of this study were to map obesity prevention activity being implemented by government, non-government, and community-based organizations; to determine practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of the feasibility and effectiveness of a range of evidence-based obesity prevention strategies; and to determine practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of preferred settings for obesity prevention strategies. This study involved a cross-sectional survey of 304 public health practitioners and policy-makers from government, non-government, and community organizations across Victoria, Australia. Participants reported their organizations' current obesity prevention programs and policies, their own perceptions of the feasibility and effectiveness of strategies to prevent obesity and their preferred settings for obesity prevention. Thirty-nine percent had an obesity prevention policy, and 92% were implementing obesity prevention programs. The most common programs focused on education, skill-building, and increasing access to healthy eating/physical activity opportunities. School curriculum-based initiatives, social support for physical activity, and family-based programs were considered the most effective strategies, whereas curriculum-based initiatives, active after-school programs, and providing access to and information about physical activity facilities were deemed the most feasible strategies. Schools were generally perceived as the most preferred setting for obesity prevention. Many organizations had obesity prevention programs, but far fewer had obesity prevention policies. Current strategies and those considered feasible and effective are often mismatched with the empirical literature. Systems to ensure better alignment between researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers, and identifying effective methods of translating empirical evidence into practice and policy are required. Copyright © 2012 The Obesity Society.

  4. 22 CFR 212.51 - General policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... affecting the national security, the maintenance of friendly relations with other nations, the efficient operation of the Agency, or the administrative feasibility of servicing requests for access to such records. (b) Access for research purposes to the classified foreign policy records in the Agency's custody...

  5. Access to Health Care Services among Young People Exchanging Sex in Detroit.

    PubMed

    Knittel, Andrea K; Graham, Louis F; Peterson, Jerry; Lopez, William; Snow, Rachel C

    2018-04-05

    Within the related epidemics of sex exchange, drug use, and poverty, access to health care is shaped by intersecting identities, policy, and infrastructure. This study uses a unique survey sample of young adults in Detroit, who are exchanging sex on the street, in strip clubs, and at after-hours parties and other social clubs. Factors predicting access to free or affordable health care services, such as venue, patterns of sexual exchange influence, drug use and access to transportation, were examined using multivariable logistic regression and qualitative comparative analysis. The most significant predictors of low access to health care services were unstable housing and lack of access to reliable transportation. In addition, working on the street was associated with decreased access to services. Coordinated policy and programming changes are needed to increase health care access to this group, including improved access to transportation, housing, and employment, and integration of health care services.

  6. A Conceptual Framework of Mapping Access to Health Care across EU Countries: The Patient Access Initiative.

    PubMed

    Souliotis, Kyriakos; Hasardzhiev, Stanimir; Agapidaki, Eirini

    Research evidence suggests that access to health care is the key influential factor for improved population health outcomes and health care system sustainability. Although the importance of addressing barriers in access to health care across European countries is well documented, little has been done to improve the situation. This is due to different definitions, approaches and policies, and partly due to persisting disparities in access within and between European countries. To bridge this gap, the Patient Access Partnership (PACT) developed (a) the '5As' definition of access, which details the five critical elements (adequacy, accessibility, affordability, appropriateness, and availability) of access to health care, (b) a multi-stakeholders' approach for mapping access, and (c) a 13-item questionnaire based on the 5As definition in an effort to address these obstacles and to identify best practices. These tools are expected to contribute effectively to addressing access barriers in practice, by suggesting a common framework and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and expertise, in order to improve access to health care between and within European countries. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  7. Examining the Impact of the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy on the Citation Rates of Journal Articles

    PubMed Central

    De Groote, Sandra L.; Shultz, Mary; Smalheiser, Neil R.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose To examine whether National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded articles that were archived in PubMed Central (PMC) after the release of the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy show greater scholarly impact than comparable articles not archived in PMC. Methods A list of journals across several subject areas was developed from which to collect article citation data. Citation information and cited reference counts of the articles published in 2006 and 2009 from 122 journals were obtained from the Scopus database. The articles were separated into categories of NIH funded, non-NIH funded and whether they were deposited in PubMed Central. An analysis of citation data across a five-year timespan was performed on this set of articles. Results A total of 45,716 articles were examined, including 7,960 with NIH-funding. An analysis of the number of times these articles were cited found that NIH-funded 2006 articles in PMC were not cited significantly more than NIH-funded non-PMC articles. However, 2009 NIH funded articles in PMC were cited 26% more than 2009 NIH funded articles not in PMC, 5 years after publication. This result is highly significant even after controlling for journal (as a proxy of article quality and topic). Conclusion Our analysis suggests that factors occurring between 2006 and 2009 produced a subsequent boost in scholarly impact of PubMed Central. The 2008 Public Access Policy is likely to be one such factor, but others may have contributed as well (e.g., growing size and visibility of PMC, increasing availability of full-text linkouts from PubMed, and indexing of PMC articles by Google Scholar). PMID:26448551

  8. 7 CFR 2903.18 - Access to review information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Access to review information. 2903.18 Section 2903.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF ENERGY POLICY AND NEW USES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION PROGRAM Supplementary Information § 2903.18 Access to...

  9. 7 CFR 2903.18 - Access to review information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Access to review information. 2903.18 Section 2903.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF ENERGY POLICY AND NEW USES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION PROGRAM Supplementary Information § 2903.18 Access to...

  10. 7 CFR 2903.18 - Access to review information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Access to review information. 2903.18 Section 2903.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF ENERGY POLICY AND NEW USES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION PROGRAM Supplementary Information § 2903.18 Access to...

  11. 7 CFR 2903.18 - Access to review information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Access to review information. 2903.18 Section 2903.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF ENERGY POLICY AND NEW USES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION PROGRAM Supplementary Information § 2903.18 Access to...

  12. 7 CFR 2903.18 - Access to review information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Access to review information. 2903.18 Section 2903.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF ENERGY POLICY AND NEW USES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BIODIESEL FUEL EDUCATION PROGRAM Supplementary Information § 2903.18 Access to...

  13. Behavioral health problems, ex-offender reentry policies, and the "Second Chance Act".

    PubMed

    Pogorzelski, Wendy; Wolff, Nancy; Pan, Ko-Yu; Blitz, Cynthia L

    2005-10-01

    The federal "Second Chance Act of 2005" calls for expanding reentry services for people leaving prison, yet existing policies restrict access to needed services for those with criminal records. We examined the interaction between individual-level characteristics and policy-level restrictions related to criminal conviction, and the likely effects on access to resources upon reentry, using a sample of prisoners with Axis I mental disorders (n=3073). We identified multiple challenges related to convictions, including restricted access to housing, public assistance, and other resources. Invisible punishments embedded within existing policies were inconsistent with the call for second chances. Without modification of federal and state policies, the ability of reentry services to foster behavioral health and community reintegration is limited.

  14. Access and success with less: improving productivity in broad-access postsecondary institutions.

    PubMed

    Jenkins, Davis; Rodríguez, Olga

    2013-01-01

    Achieving national goals for increased college completion in a time of scarce resources will require the postsecondary institutions that enroll the majority of undergraduates--community colleges and less-selective public universities--to graduate more students at a lower cost. Davis Jenkins and Olga Rodriguez examine research on how these "broad-access" institutions can do so without sacrificing access or quality. Research indicates that the strategies broad-access institutions have relied on in the past to cut costs--using part-time instructors and increasing student-faculty ratios--may in fact reduce productivity and efficiency. The limited evidence available suggests that some of the most popular strategies for improving student success are not cost-effective. New strategies to cut costs and improve college success are therefore imperative. Some believe that redesigning courses to make use of instructional technologies will lead to better outcomes at lower cost, although the evidence is mixed. Recently, a growing number of institutions are going beyond redesigning courses and instead changing the way they organize programs and supports along the student's "pathway" through college. These efforts are promising, but their effects on cost per completion are not yet certain. Meager funding has so far hampered efforts by policy makers to fund colleges based on outcomes rather than how many students they enroll, but some states are beginning to increase the share of appropriations tied to outcomes. Jenkins and Rodriquez argue that as policy makers push colleges to lower the cost per graduate, they must avoid providing incentives to lower academic standards. They encourage policy makers to capitalize on recent research on the economic value of postsecondary education to measure quality, and urge colleges and universities to redouble efforts to define learning outcomes and measure student mastery.

  15. EPA Policy and Guidance

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The policy establishes the principles for accessible Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) and complying with Section 508 requirements. The guidance defines EIT and the technical and functional performance criteria necessary for compliance.

  16. United States Federal Health Care Websites: A Multimethod Evaluation of Website Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brobst, John L.

    2012-01-01

    The problem addressed by this study is the observed low levels of compliance with federal policy on website accessibility. The study examines the two key federal policies that promote website accessibility, using a side-by-side policy analysis technique. The analysis examines the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 508 of the…

  17. Policy Route Map for Academic Libraries' Digital Content

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koulouris, Alexandros; Kapidakis, Sarantos

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a policy decision tree for digital information management in academic libraries. The decision tree is a policy guide, which offers alternative access and reproduction policy solutions according to the prevailing circumstances (for example acquisition method, copyright ownership). It refers to the digital information life cycle,…

  18. Nanotechnology: A Policy Primer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-06-02

    States of 24 million barrels of oil.3 • Universal access to clean water. Nanotechnology water desalination and filtration systems may offer...CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Nanotechnology : A Policy Primer John F. Sargent Jr. Specialist...00-00-2010 to 00-00-2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Nanotechnology : A Policy Primer 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT

  19. 48 CFR 313.003 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... CONTRACT TYPES SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES 313.003 Policy. EIT products and services, including EIT... Section 508 accessibility standards. Commercial nonavailability exception determinations for EIT products...

  20. Regulating assisted reproductive technologies in Victoria: the impact of changing policy concerning the accessibility of in vitro fertilisation for preimplantation tissue-typing.

    PubMed

    Smith, Malcolm K

    2012-06-01

    On 1 January 2010, the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic) came into force. The legislation was the outcome of a detailed review and consultation process undertaken by the Victorian Law Reform Commission. Arguably, the change to the regulatory framework represents a significant shift in policy compared to previous regulatory approaches on this topic in Victoria. This article considers the impact of the new legislation on eligibility for reproductive treatments, focusing on the accessibility of such services for the purpose of creating a "saviour sibling". It also highlights the impact of the Victorian regulatory body's decision to abolish its regulatory policies on preimplantation genetic diagnosis and preimplantation tissue-typing, concluding that the regulatory approach in relation to these latter issues is similar to other Australian jurisdictions where such practices are not addressed by a statutory framework.

  1. Type-Based Access Control in Data-Centric Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caires, Luís; Pérez, Jorge A.; Seco, João Costa; Vieira, Hugo Torres; Ferrão, Lúcio

    Data-centric multi-user systems, such as web applications, require flexible yet fine-grained data security mechanisms. Such mechanisms are usually enforced by a specially crafted security layer, which adds extra complexity and often leads to error prone coding, easily causing severe security breaches. In this paper, we introduce a programming language approach for enforcing access control policies to data in data-centric programs by static typing. Our development is based on the general concept of refinement type, but extended so as to address realistic and challenging scenarios of permission-based data security, in which policies dynamically depend on the database state, and flexible combinations of column- and row-level protection of data are necessary. We state and prove soundness and safety of our type system, stating that well-typed programs never break the declared data access control policies.

  2. Stakeholders' perspectives on access-to-medicines policy and research priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean: face-to-face and web-based interviews.

    PubMed

    Azeredo, Thiago Botelho; Luiza, Vera Lucia; Oliveira, Maria Auxiliadora; Emmerick, Isabel Cristina Martins; Bigdeli, Maryam

    2014-06-25

    This study aims to rank policy concerns and policy-related research issues in order to identify policy and research gaps on access to medicines (ATM) in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as perceived by policy makers, researchers, NGO and international organization representatives, as part of a global prioritization exercise. Data collection, conducted between January and May 2011, involved face-to-face interviews in El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Suriname, and an e-mail survey with key-stakeholders. Respondents were asked to choose the five most relevant criteria for research prioritization and to score policy/research items according to the degree to which they represented current policies, desired policies, current research topics, and/or desired research topics. Mean scores and summary rankings were obtained. Linear regressions were performed to contrast rankings concerning current and desired policies (policy gaps), and current and desired research (research gaps). Relevance, feasibility, and research utilization were the top ranked criteria for prioritizing research. Technical capacity, research and development for new drugs, and responsiveness, were the main policy gaps. Quality assurance, staff technical capacity, price regulation, out-of-pocket payments, and cost containment policies, were the main research gaps. There was high level of coherence between current and desired policies: coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.46 (Health system structure; r = 0.68, P <0.01) to 0.86 (Sustainable financing; r = 0.93, P <0.01). There was also high coherence between current and desired research on Rational selection and use of medicines (r = 0.71, P <0.05, R2 = 0.51), Pricing/affordability (r = 0.82, P <0.01, R2 = 0.67), and Sustainable financing (r = 0.76, P <0.01, R2 = 0.58). Coherence was less for Health system structure (r = 0.61, P <0.01, R2 = 0.38). This study combines metrics approaches

  3. Stakeholders’ perspectives on access-to-medicines policy and research priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean: face-to-face and web-based interviews

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background This study aims to rank policy concerns and policy-related research issues in order to identify policy and research gaps on access to medicines (ATM) in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as perceived by policy makers, researchers, NGO and international organization representatives, as part of a global prioritization exercise. Methods Data collection, conducted between January and May 2011, involved face-to-face interviews in El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Suriname, and an e-mail survey with key-stakeholders. Respondents were asked to choose the five most relevant criteria for research prioritization and to score policy/research items according to the degree to which they represented current policies, desired policies, current research topics, and/or desired research topics. Mean scores and summary rankings were obtained. Linear regressions were performed to contrast rankings concerning current and desired policies (policy gaps), and current and desired research (research gaps). Results Relevance, feasibility, and research utilization were the top ranked criteria for prioritizing research. Technical capacity, research and development for new drugs, and responsiveness, were the main policy gaps. Quality assurance, staff technical capacity, price regulation, out-of-pocket payments, and cost containment policies, were the main research gaps. There was high level of coherence between current and desired policies: coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.46 (Health system structure; r = 0.68, P <0.01) to 0.86 (Sustainable financing; r = 0.93, P <0.01). There was also high coherence between current and desired research on Rational selection and use of medicines (r = 0.71, P <0.05, R2 = 0.51), Pricing/affordability (r = 0.82, P <0.01, R2 = 0.67), and Sustainable financing (r = 0.76, P <0.01, R2 = 0.58). Coherence was less for Health system structure (r = 0.61, P <0.01, R2 = 0.38). Conclusions This

  4. Shaping Policy Change in Population Health: Policy Entrepreneurs, Ideas, and Institutions.

    PubMed

    Béland, Daniel; Katapally, Tarun R

    2018-01-14

    Political realities and institutional structures are often ignored when gathering evidence to influence population health policies. If these policies are to be successful, social science literature on policy change should be integrated into the population health approach. In this contribution, drawing on the work of John W. Kingdon and related scholarship, we set out to examine how key components of the policy change literature could contribute towards the effective development of population health policies. Shaping policy change would require a realignment of the existing school of thought, where the contribution of population health seems to end at knowledge translation. Through our critical analysis of selected literature, we extend recommendations to advance a burgeoning discussion in adopting new approaches to successfully implement evidence-informed population health policies. © 2018 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

  5. Aviation or space policy: New challenges for the insurance sector to private human access to space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Oijhuizen Galhego Rosa, Ana Cristina

    2013-12-01

    The phenomenon of private human access to space has introduced a new set of problems in the insurance sector. Orbital and suborbital space transportation will surely be unique commercial services for this new market. Discussions are under way regarding space insurance, in order to establish whether this new market ought to be regulated by aviation or space law. Alongside new definitions, infrastructures, legal frameworks and liability insurances, the insurance sector has also been introducing a new approach. In this paper, I aim to analyse some of the possibilities of new premiums, capacities, and policies (under aviation or space insurance rules), as well as the new insurance products related to vehicles, passengers and third party liability. This paper claims that a change toward new insurance regimes is crucial, due to the current stage in development of space tourism and the urgency to adapt insurance rules to support future development in this area.

  6. 78 FR 13876 - Content Policy

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-01

    ... EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES Content Policy This notice is to inform the public that the Export-Import Bank of the United States is in the process of reviewing its content policy. A list of the questions and issues that the Bank is addressing can be accessed here: http://www.exim.gov/generalbankpolicies/content/2013-Content-Review.cfm...

  7. 78 FR 48640 - Special Access Proceeding; Comment Deadline Extension

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-09

    ... CONTACT: William Layton, Pricing Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, 202-418-0868 or William...-198. See 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4). For further information, please contact William Layton, Pricing Policy... its rules for granting pricing flexibility for the special access services provided by incumbent local...

  8. Measuring food access in Melbourne: access to healthy and fast foods by car, bus and foot in an urban municipality in Melbourne.

    PubMed

    Burns, C M; Inglis, A D

    2007-12-01

    Access to healthy food can be an important determinant of a healthy diet. This paper describes the assessment of access to healthy and unhealthy foods using a GIS accessibility programme in a large outer municipality of Melbourne. Access to a major supermarket was used as a proxy for access to a healthy diet and fast food outlet as proxy for access to unhealthy food. Our results indicated that most (>80%) residents lived within an 8-10 min car journey of a major supermarket i.e. have good access to a healthy diet. However, more advantaged areas had closer access to supermarkets, conversely less advantaged areas had closer access to fast food outlets. These findings have application for urban planners, public health practitioners and policy makers.

  9. A review of global access to emergency contraception.

    PubMed

    Westley, Elizabeth; Kapp, Nathalie; Palermo, Tia; Bleck, Jennifer

    2013-10-01

    Emergency contraception has been known for several decades, and dedicated products have been on the market for close to 20 years. Yet it is unclear whether women, particularly in low-resource countries, have access to this important second-chance method of contraception. To review relevant policies, regulations, and other factors related to access to emergency contraception worldwide. A wide range of gray literature was reviewed, several specific studies were commissioned, and a number of online databases were searched. Several positive policies and regulations are in place: emergency contraception products are registered in the majority of countries around the world, listed in many countries' essential medicines lists, included in widely used guidance, and supported by most donors. Yet analysis of demographic data shows that the majority of women in low-income countries have never heard of emergency contraception, and surveys find that many providers have negative attitudes toward providing emergency contraception. Despite more than a decade of concerted international and country-level efforts to ensure that women have access to emergency contraception, accessibility remains limited. © 2013.

  10. Limited access to HIV prevention in French prisons (ANRS PRI2DE): implications for public health and drug policy

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Overpopulation, poor hygiene and disease prevention conditions in prisons are major structural determinants of increased infectious risk within prison settings but evidence-based national and WHO guidelines provide clear indications on how to reduce this risk. We sought to estimate the level of infectious risk by measuring how French prisons adhere to national and WHO guidelines. Methods A nationwide survey targeting the heads of medical (all French prisons) and psychiatric (26 French prisons) units was conducted using a postal questionnaire and a phone interview mainly focusing on access to prevention interventions, i.e. bleach, opioid substitution treatment (OST), HBV vaccination and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for French prisoners. Two scores were built reflecting adherence to national and WHO international guidelines, ranging from 0 (no adherence) to 10 (maximum adherence) and 0 to 9 respectively. Results A majority (N = 113 (66%)) of the 171 prisons answered the questionnaires, representing 74% coverage (46,786 prisoners) of the French prison population: 108 were medical units and 12 were psychiatric units. Inmate access to prevention was poor. The median[IQR] score measuring adherence to national guidelines was quite low (4.5[2.5; 5.5]) but adherence to WHO guidelines was even lower 2.5[1.5; 3.5]; PEP was absent despite reported risky practices. Unsuitable OST delivery practices were frequently observed. Conclusions A wide gap exists between HIV prevention policies and their application in prisons. Similar assessments in other countries may be needed to guide a global policy reform in prison settings. Adequate funding together with innovative interventions able to remove structural and ideological barriers to HIV prevention are now needed to motivate those in charge of prison health, to improve their working environment and to relieve French prisoners from their currently debilitating conditions. PMID:21619573

  11. Evaluation of spatial accessibility to primary healthcare using GIS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jamtsho, S.; Corner, R. J.

    2014-11-01

    Primary health care is considered to be one of the most important aspects of the health care system in any country, which directly helps in improving the health of the population. Potential spatial accessibility is a very important component of the primary health care system. One technique for studying spatial accessibility is by computing a gravity-based measure within a geographic information system (GIS) framework. In this study, straight-line distances between the associated population clusters and the health facilities and the provider-to-population ratio were used to compute the spatial accessibility of the population clusters for the whole country. Bhutan has been chosen as the case study area because it is quite easy to acquire and process data for the whole country due to its small size and population. The spatial accessibility measure of the 203 sub-districts shows noticeable disparities in health care accessibility in this country with about only 19 sub-districts achieving good health accessibility ranking. This study also examines a number of different health accessibility policy scenarios which can assist in identifying the most effective health policy from amongst many probable planning scenarios. Such a health accessibility measuring system can be incorporated into an existing spatial health system in developing countries to facilitate the proper planning and equitable distribution of health resources.

  12. Access management : transportation policy considerations for a growing Virginia.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1998-01-01

    This report analyzes comprehensive highway access management programs and looks at the potential benefits and legal limits to Virginia adopting such a program to replace Virginia's rather limited site specific permitting process. In 1942, Virginia pa...

  13. Policy Driven Development: Flexible Policy Insertion for Large Scale Systems.

    PubMed

    Demchak, Barry; Krüger, Ingolf

    2012-07-01

    The success of a software system depends critically on how well it reflects and adapts to stakeholder requirements. Traditional development methods often frustrate stakeholders by creating long latencies between requirement articulation and system deployment, especially in large scale systems. One source of latency is the maintenance of policy decisions encoded directly into system workflows at development time, including those involving access control and feature set selection. We created the Policy Driven Development (PDD) methodology to address these development latencies by enabling the flexible injection of decision points into existing workflows at runtime , thus enabling policy composition that integrates requirements furnished by multiple, oblivious stakeholder groups. Using PDD, we designed and implemented a production cyberinfrastructure that demonstrates policy and workflow injection that quickly implements stakeholder requirements, including features not contemplated in the original system design. PDD provides a path to quickly and cost effectively evolve such applications over a long lifetime.

  14. Accessibility of health clubs for people with mobility disabilities and visual impairments.

    PubMed

    Rimmer, James H; Riley, Barth; Wang, Edward; Rauworth, Amy

    2005-11-01

    We sought to examine the accessibility of health clubs to persons with mobility disabilities and visual impairments. We assessed 35 health clubs and fitness facilities as part of a national field trial of a new instrument, Accessibility Instruments Measuring Fitness and Recreation Environments (AIMFREE), designed to assess accessibility of fitness facilities in the following domains: (1) built environment, (2) equipment, (3) swimming pools, (4) information, (5) facility policies, and (6) professional behavior. All facilities had a low to moderate level of accessibility. Some of the deficiencies concerned specific Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines pertaining to the built environment, whereas other deficiency areas were related to aspects of the facilities' equipment, information, policies, and professional staff. Persons with mobility disabilities and visual impairments have difficulty accessing various areas of fitness facilities and health clubs. AIMFREE is an important tool for increasing awareness of these accessibility barriers for people with disabilities.

  15. Does small equal predatory? Analysis of publication charges and transparency of editorial policies in Croatian open access journals.

    PubMed

    Stojanovski, Jadranka; Marušić, Ana

    2017-06-15

    We approach the problem of "predatory" journals and publishers from the perspective of small scientific communities and small journals that may sometimes be perceived as "predatory". Among other characteristics of "predatory" journals two most relevant are their business model and the quality of the editorial work. We analysed 444 Croatian open access (OA) journals in the Hrčak (portal of Croatian scientific journals) digital journal repository for the presence of article processing charges as a business model and the transparency of editorial policies. The majority of journals do not charge authors or require submission or article processing charges, which clearly distinguishes them from "predatory" journals. Almost all Hrčak OA journals have publicly available information on editorial boards, including full names and affiliations, and detailed contact information for the editorial office at the Hrčak website. The journal names are unique and cannot be easily confused with another journal or intend to mislead about the journal's origin. While most journals provide information on peer review process, many do not provide guidelines for reviewers or other editorial and publication ethics standards. In order to clearly differentiate themselves from predatory journals, it is not enough for journals from small research communities to operate on non-commercial bases, but also to have transparent editorial policies.

  16. Private Sector Leadership in Global Policy Reform.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ritter, Jeffrey

    1997-01-01

    The global dimension of the Internet requires new approaches to formulating policy infrastructures. Commerce must invest in the development of policy infrastructures and governments must support these new approaches; an effective balance between commercial needs and social requirements is necessary in order to achieve universal access. The…

  17. A review of promoting access to medicines in China - problems and recommendations.

    PubMed

    Sun, Jing; Hu, Cecile Jia; Stuntz, Mark; Hogerzeil, Hans; Liu, Yuanli

    2018-02-20

    Despite recent reforms, distorting funding mechanisms and over-prescribing still maintain severe financial barriers to medicines access in China. Complicated and interrelated problems in the pharmaceutical sector require a common framework to be resolved as fragmented solutions do not work. We present a preliminary assessment of the impact of the national healthcare reforms on access to medicines, and propose policy recommendations for promoting universal access to medicines in China. Drawing on multiple sources of information, including a review of published literatures and official national data, field investigations in six provinces and interviews with key opinion leaders, this paper presents a preliminary assessment of the impact of the national healthcare reforms on access to medicines, and proposes policy recommendations for promoting universal access to medicines in China. Public expenditure on medicines has been strictly controlled since the national healthcare reforms of 2009. Yet total pharmaceutical expenditure (TPE) and total health expenditure growth rates continuously outpaced the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). With 2.4% of GDP, TPE now exceeds that of most high income countries. The distorted provider and consumer incentives in the Chinese health system have not fundamentally changed. Price-setting and reimbursement mechanisms do not promote cost-effective use of medicines. Inappropriate price controls and perverse financial incentives are the un-resolved root causes of preference of originator brands for some major diseases and shortages of low-cost and low-consumption medicines. In addition, access to expensive life-saving medicines is yet systematically addressed. The complicated and interdependent problems interact in a way that leads to significant system problems in China, which create dual challenges that both the developing country and the developed countries are facing. To further promote access to medicines, China should speed up

  18. The Impact of School Closures on Equity of Access in Chicago

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Jin; Lubienski, Christopher

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the impact of school closures on the sociospatial distribution of equitable access to schooling following the school closure policy pursued by the Chicago Public Schools in 2013. By examining access in terms of proximity between students and schools, the study estimates the changes in accessibility before and after school…

  19. Toward Privacy-preserving Content Access Control for Information Centric Networking

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-03-01

    REPORT Toward Privacy-preserving Content Access Control for Information Centric Networking 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: Information...regardless the security mechanisms provided by different content hosting servers. However, using ABE has a drawback that the enforced content access...Encryption (ABE) is a flexible approach to enforce the content access policies regardless the security mechanisms provided by different content hosting

  20. 32 CFR 2400.26 - Access by historical researchers and former Presidential appointees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding § 2400.26 Access by historical researchers and... be granted only if the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy: (1) Determines in writing...

  1. 32 CFR 2400.26 - Access by historical researchers and former Presidential appointees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding § 2400.26 Access by historical researchers and... be granted only if the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy: (1) Determines in writing...

  2. 32 CFR 2400.26 - Access by historical researchers and former Presidential appointees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding § 2400.26 Access by historical researchers and... be granted only if the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy: (1) Determines in writing...

  3. 32 CFR 2400.26 - Access by historical researchers and former Presidential appointees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding § 2400.26 Access by historical researchers and... be granted only if the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy: (1) Determines in writing...

  4. 32 CFR 2400.26 - Access by historical researchers and former Presidential appointees.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Defense OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT E.O. 12356; OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Safeguarding § 2400.26 Access by historical researchers and... be granted only if the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy: (1) Determines in writing...

  5. Accelerated Learning Options: A Promising Strategy for States. Policy Insights

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Michelau, Demaree

    2006-01-01

    This issue of Policy Insights draws on findings from WICHE's report Accelerated Learning Options: Moving the Needle on Access and Success, to lay out some of the important policy issues that decision makers might consider when adopting new state policy related to accelerated learning or modifying policies already in existence. The publication…

  6. Access to What? Access, Diversity and Participation in India's Schools. Research Monograph No. 32

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Juneja, Nalini

    2010-01-01

    India has witnessed substantial diversification of provision to basic education. Policy changes from 1980s onwards, has seen the creation of para-formal delivery systems and the inclusion in the system of non state providers. The Education Guarantee Scheme and the Alternate Initiatives in Education programmes have generated new pathways to access.…

  7. An Information Policy for the Information Age.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blake, Virgil; Surprenant, Thomas

    1988-01-01

    Discusses recent federal information policies that pose a threat to access to information. A short-lived policy for protection of sensitive but unclassified information is criticized, and the Computer Security Act of 1987, currently under consideration in Congress, is described. Involvement by the library and information community in developing…

  8. Perceived impact and feasibility of strategies to improve access to healthy foods in Washington State, USA.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Donna B; Quinn, Emilee L; Podrabsky, Mary; Beckwith-Stanley, Nadia; Chan, Nadine; Ellings, Amy; Kovacs, Tricia; Lane, Claire

    2013-12-01

    The present study measured the perceived impact and political and implementation feasibility of state-level policy strategies related to increasing access to healthy foods and limiting unhealthy foods. Potential state-level policy strategies to improve access to healthy foods were identified through a review of evidence-based literature and policy recommendations. Respondents rated the perceived impact and political and implementation feasibility of each policy on a five-point scale using online surveys. Washington State policy process. Forty-nine content experts (national researchers and subject experts), forty policy experts (state elected officials or their staff, gubernatorial or legislative policy analysts) and forty-five other stakeholders (state-level advocates, programme administrators, food producers). In aggregate, respondents rated policy impact and implementation feasibility higher than political feasibility. Policy experts rated policy strategies as less politically feasible compared with content experts (P < 0·02) or other stakeholders (P < 0·001). Eight policy strategies were rated above the median for impact and political and implementation feasibility. These included policies related to nutrition standards in schools and child-care facilities, food distribution systems, urban planning projects, water availability, joint use agreements and breast-feeding supports. Although they may be perceived as potentially impactful, some policies will be more difficult to enact than others. Information about the potential feasibility of policies to improve access to healthy foods can be used to focus limited policy process resources on strategies with the highest potential for enactment, implementation and impact.

  9. Development of an Army Stationary Axle Efficiency Test Stand - Interim Report TFLRF No. 471

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-09-01

    Santena 1 10029 Villastellone (TO) Italy 31-Jul-18 PRI GL 0632 Tutela Transmission X-Road SAE 75W-90 Petronas Lubrificantes Brasil S.A. Avenida Trajano de...Araujo Viana 2500 Contagem - MG Brasil 30-Nov-19 PRI GL 0703 Tutela TRD 85W-140 SAE 85W-140 Phillips 66 (previously known as ConocoPhillips prior to

  10. Reinventing from within: Thinking Spherically as a Policy Imperative in Music Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schmidt, Patrick

    2009-01-01

    If policy is the most significant gatekeeping element for access to and development of community goods and services, and if music educators have historically lived at the margins of policy, then who procures access for the field? How are visions for musical and educational development articulated and what are the resulting implications? This…

  11. Application-Defined Decentralized Access Control

    PubMed Central

    Xu, Yuanzhong; Dunn, Alan M.; Hofmann, Owen S.; Lee, Michael Z.; Mehdi, Syed Akbar; Witchel, Emmett

    2014-01-01

    DCAC is a practical OS-level access control system that supports application-defined principals. It allows normal users to perform administrative operations within their privilege, enabling isolation and privilege separation for applications. It does not require centralized policy specification or management, giving applications freedom to manage their principals while the policies are still enforced by the OS. DCAC uses hierarchically-named attributes as a generic framework for user-defined policies such as groups defined by normal users. For both local and networked file systems, its execution time overhead is between 0%–9% on file system microbenchmarks, and under 1% on applications. This paper shows the design and implementation of DCAC, as well as several real-world use cases, including sandboxing applications, enforcing server applications’ security policies, supporting NFS, and authenticating user-defined sub-principals in SSH, all with minimal code changes. PMID:25426493

  12. 45 CFR 1619.2 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ....2 Policy. A recipient shall adopt a procedure for affording the public appropriate access to the Act... determines should be disclosed. The procedure adopted shall be subject to approval by the Corporation. ...

  13. Accessibility of Health Clubs for People with Mobility Disabilities and Visual Impairments

    PubMed Central

    Rimmer, James H.; Riley, Barth; Wang, Edward; Rauworth, Amy

    2005-01-01

    Objective. We sought to examine the accessibility of health clubs to persons with mobility disabilities and visual impairments. Methods. We assessed 35 health clubs and fitness facilities as part of a national field trial of a new instrument, Accessibility Instruments Measuring Fitness and Recreation Environments (AIMFREE), designed to assess accessibility of fitness facilities in the following domains: (1) built environment, (2) equipment, (3) swimming pools, (4) information, (5) facility policies, and (6) professional behavior. Results. All facilities had a low to moderate level of accessibility. Some of the deficiencies concerned specific Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines pertaining to the built environment, whereas other deficiency areas were related to aspects of the facilities’ equipment, information, policies, and professional staff. Conclusions. Persons with mobility disabilities and visual impairments have difficulty accessing various areas of fitness facilities and health clubs. AIMFREE is an important tool for increasing awareness of these accessibility barriers for people with disabilities. PMID:16254234

  14. The role of public policies in reducing smoking and deaths caused by smoking in Vietnam: results from the Vietnam tobacco policy simulation model.

    PubMed

    Levy, David T; Bales, Sarah; Lam, Nguyen T; Nikolayev, Leonid

    2006-04-01

    A simulation model is developed for Vietnam to project smoking prevalence and associated premature mortality. The model examines independently and as a package the effects of five types of tobacco control policies: tax increases, clean air laws, mass media campaigns, advertising bans, and youth access policies. Predictions suggest that the largest reductions in smoking rates will result from implementing a comprehensive tobacco control policy package. Significant inroads may be achieved through tax increases. A media campaign along with programs to publicize and enforce clean air laws, advertising bans and youth access laws would further reduce smoking rates. Tobacco control policies have the potential to make large dents in smoking rates, which in turn could lead to many lives saved. In the absence of these measures, deaths from smoking will increase. The model also helps to identify information gaps pertinent both to modeling and policy-making.

  15. Healthcare access and mobility between the UK and other European Union states: an 'implementation surplus'.

    PubMed

    Sheaff, R

    1997-12-01

    European Union (EU) policy on mobility requires ensuring healthcare access for EU residents who travel between EU states. This case-study investigates how this policy has been implemented in respect of EU visitors to the UK. EU visitors to the UK have similar access to 'immediately needed' National Health Service (NHS) healthcare to UK residents. For non-urgent healthcare, the NHS has official systems to discourage 'medical tourism' and divert such patients to the private sector or to reclaim the costs of NHS hospital treatment for EU visitors. Yet these official systems contrast with the flexibility and liberality of actual NHS practice towards EU visitors. Research on health policy implementation mostly examines reasons for 'implementation failure'. However, the present study indicates a health policy being implemented more fully than policy-makers may have anticipated. In the case of healthcare access for EU visitors to the UK, an implementation surplus is evident rather than an implementation deficit.

  16. Access to health care: solidarity and justice or egoism and injustice?

    PubMed

    Prudil, Lukas

    2008-09-01

    The aim of this paper is to answer the question whether there is a real demand for equal access to health care or--better--to medical care and which interest groups (patients, health care professionals, policy makers and others) are interested in equal access. The focus is on EU countries including recent case law from the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. We discuss whether there is a need to have legislative safeguards to protect equal access to medical care and whether such norms really work. The paper concludes that some of the key players in medical care are not primarily governed by a real willingness to have equal and just access to medical care, but by rather egoistic approaches. It seems that policy makers and politicians are the only ones who, surprisingly, must at least formally call for and enforce equal access to medical care. Interests of other groups seem to be different.

  17. Assessment of policy and access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for men who have sex with men and for sex workers in Burkina Faso and Togo.

    PubMed

    Duvall, Sandra; Irani, Laili; Compaoré, Cyrille; Sanon, Patrice; Bassonon, Dieudonne; Anato, Simplice; Agounke, Jeannine; Hodo, Ama; Kugbe, Yves; Chaold, Gertrude; Nigobora, Berry; MacInnis, Ron

    2015-03-01

    In Burkina Faso and Togo, key populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW) have a disproportionately higher HIV prevalence. This study analyzed the 2 countries' policies impacting MSM and SW; to what extent the policies and programs have been implemented; and the role of the enabling environment, country leadership, and donor support. The Health Policy Project's Policy Assessment and Advocacy Decision Model methodology was used to analyze policy and program documents related to key populations, conduct key informant interviews, and hold stakeholder meetings to validate the findings. Several policy barriers restrict MSM/SW from accessing services. Laws criminalizing MSM/SW, particularly anti-solicitation laws, result in harassment and arrests of even nonsoliciting MSM/SW. Policy gaps exist, including few MSM/SW-supportive policies and HIV prevention measures, e.g., lubricant not included in the essential medicines list. The needs of key populations are generally not met due to policy gaps around MSM/SW participation in decision-making and funding allocation for MSM/SW-specific programming. Misaligned policies, eg, contradictory informed consent laws and protocols, and uneven policy implementation, such as stockouts of sexually transmitted infection kits, HIV testing materials, and antiretrovirals, undermine evidence-based policies. Even in the presence of a supportive donor and political community, public stigma and discrimination (S&D) create a hostile enabling environment. Policies are needed to address S&D, particularly health care provider and law enforcement training, and to authorize, fund, guide, and monitor services for key populations. MSM/SW participation and development of operational guidelines can improve policy implementation and service uptake.

  18. Pathways to achieve universal household access to modern energy by 2030

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pachauri, Shonali; van Ruijven, Bas J.; Nagai, Yu; Riahi, Keywan; van Vuuren, Detlef P.; Brew-Hammond, Abeeku; Nakicenovic, Nebojsa

    2013-06-01

    A lack of access to modern energy impacts health and welfare and impedes development for billions of people. Growing concern about these impacts has mobilized the international community to set new targets for universal modern energy access. However, analyses exploring pathways to achieve these targets and quantifying the potential costs and benefits are limited. Here, we use two modelling frameworks to analyse investments and consequences of achieving total rural electrification and universal access to clean-combusting cooking fuels and stoves by 2030. Our analysis indicates that these targets can be achieved with additional investment of US200565-86 billion per year until 2030 combined with dedicated policies. Only a combination of policies that lowers costs for modern cooking fuels and stoves, along with more rapid electrification, can enable the realization of these goals. Our results demonstrate the critical importance of accounting for varying demands and affordability across heterogeneous household groups in both analysis and policy setting. While the investments required are significant, improved access to modern cooking fuels alone can avert between 0.6 and 1.8 million premature deaths annually in 2030 and enhance wellbeing substantially.

  19. Navigating the science-policy spectrum: Opportunities to work on policies related to your research

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Licker, R.; Ekwurzel, B.; Goldman, G. T.; DeLonge, M. S.

    2017-12-01

    Many scientists conduct research with direct policy relevance, whether it be producing sea-level projections that are taken-up by local decision-makers, or developing new agricultural technologies. All scientists are affected by policies made by their respective local, regional, and federal governments. For example, budgets affect the grant resources available to conduct research and policies on visas influence the accessibility of new positions for foreign scientists. As a result, many scientists would like to engage with the policy domain, and either bring their science to bear on new policies that are in the works (science-for-policy) or inform policies on the scientific research enterprise (policy-for-science). Some scientists prefer to engage and be neutral to the policy outcome, serving primarily as an information resource. Many may choose to also advocate for a particular outcome based on their expertise and experience. Research shows that policy decisions benefit greatly from the input of scientific experts. We explore the spectrum between informing policies in a "non-prescriptive" manner to working on policies in an advocacy space. We highlight tips for successful engagement along this spectrum. Finally, we review current science-for-policy and policy-for-science issues of relevance to the geophysical sciences.

  20. 42 CFR 121.4 - OPTN policies: Secretarial review and appeals.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ORGAN PROCUREMENT AND TRANSPLANTATION NETWORK § 121.4 OPTN policies: Secretarial... Social Security Act. The OPTN shall also continuously maintain OPTN policies for public access on the...

  1. Local Implementation of Drug Policy and Access to Treatment Services for Juveniles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Terry-McElrath, Yvonne M.; McBride, Duane C.

    2004-01-01

    Although there is a vigorous national debate regarding effective drug policy, such policies are implemented at the local level. Using a national sample of prosecutors, we examine reported typical processing for first-time juvenile marijuana, cocaine, or crack possession/sales offenders. The relationship between drug offense charge and adjudication…

  2. Changing global essential medicines norms to improve access to AIDS treatment: lessons from Brazil.

    PubMed

    Nunn, A; Fonseca, E Da; Gruskin, S

    2009-01-01

    Brazil's large-scale, successful HIV/AIDS treatment programme is considered by many to be a model for other developing countries aiming to improve access to AIDS treatment. Far less is known about Brazil's important role in changing global norms related to international pharmaceutical policy, particularly international human rights, health and trade policies governing access to essential medicines. Prompted by Brazil's interest in preserving its national AIDS treatment policies during World Trade Organisation trade disputes with the USA, these efforts to change global essential medicines norms have had important implications for other countries, particularly those scaling up AIDS treatment. This paper analyses Brazil's contributions to global essential medicines policy and explains the relevance of Brazil's contributions to global health policy today.

  3. Changing global essential medicines norms to improve access to AIDS treatment: Lessons from Brazil

    PubMed Central

    Nunn, A.; Fonseca, E. Da; Gruskin, S.

    2009-01-01

    Brazil's large-scale, successful HIV/AIDS treatment programme is considered by many to be a model for other developing countries aiming to improve access to AIDS treatment. Far less is known about Brazil's important role in changing global norms related to international pharmaceutical policy, particularly international human rights, health and trade policies governing access to essential medicines. Prompted by Brazil's interest in preserving its national AIDS treatment policies during World Trade Organisation trade disputes with the USA, these efforts to change global essential medicines norms have had important implications for other countries, particularly those scaling up AIDS treatment. This paper analyses Brazil's contributions to global essential medicines policy and explains the relevance of Brazil's contributions to global health policy today. PMID:19333805

  4. Pharmaceutical companies' policies on access to trial data, results, and methods: audit study.

    PubMed

    Goldacre, Ben; Lane, Síle; Mahtani, Kamal R; Heneghan, Carl; Onakpoya, Igho; Bushfield, Ian; Smeeth, Liam

    2017-07-26

    Objectives  To identify the policies of major pharmaceutical companies on transparency of trials, to extract structured data detailing each companies' commitments, and to assess concordance with ethical and professional guidance. Design  Structured audit. Setting  Pharmaceutical companies, worldwide. Participants  42 pharmaceutical companies. Main outcome measures  Companies' commitments on sharing summary results, clinical study reports (CSRs), individual patient data (IPD), and trial registration, for prospective and retrospective trials. Results  Policies were highly variable. Of 23 companies eligible from the top 25 companies by revenue, 21 (91%) committed to register all trials and 22 (96%) committed to share summary results; however, policies commonly lacked timelines for disclosure, and trials on unlicensed medicines and off-label uses were only included in six (26%). 17 companies (74%) committed to share the summary results of past trials. The median start date for this commitment was 2005. 22 companies (96%) had a policy on sharing CSRs, mostly on request: two committed to share only synopses and only two policies included unlicensed treatments. 22 companies (96%) had a policy to share IPD; 14 included phase IV trials (one included trials on unlicensed medicines and off-label uses). Policies in the exploratory group of smaller companies made fewer transparency commitments. Two companies fell short of industry body commitments on registration, three on summary results. Examples of contradictory and ambiguous language were documented and summarised by theme. 23/42 companies (55%) responded to feedback; 7/1806 scored policy elements were revised in light of feedback from companies (0.4%). Several companies committed to changing policy; some made changes immediately. Conclusions  The commitments made by companies to transparency of trials were highly variable. Other than journal submission for all trials within 12 months, all elements of best practice

  5. 77 FR 42339 - Improving Contracting Officers' Access to Relevant Integrity Information

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-07-18

    ... OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET Office of Federal Procurement Policy Improving Contracting Officers' Access to Relevant Integrity Information AGENCY: Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget. ACTION: Notice of Request for Comment. SUMMARY: The Office of Federal Procurement...

  6. CAN I ACCESS MY PERSONAL GENOME? THE CURRENT LEGAL POSITION IN THE UK

    PubMed Central

    Kaye, Jane; Kanellopoulou, Nadja; Hawkins, Naomi; Gowans, Heather; Curren, Liam; Melham, Karen

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses the nature of genomic information, and the moral arguments in support of an individual's right to access it. It analyses the legal avenues an individual might take to access their sequence information. The authors describe the policy implications in this area and conclude that, for now, the law appears to strike an appropriate balance, but new policy will need to be developed to address this issue. PMID:24136352

  7. Barriers to treatment access for Chagas disease in Mexico.

    PubMed

    Manne, Jennifer M; Snively, Callae S; Ramsey, Janine M; Salgado, Marco Ocampo; Bärnighausen, Till; Reich, Michael R

    2013-01-01

    According to World Health Organization (WHO) prevalence estimates, 1.1 million people in Mexico are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease (CD). However, limited information is available about access to antitrypanosomal treatment. This study assesses the extent of access in Mexico, analyzes the barriers to access, and suggests strategies to overcome them. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 key informants and policymakers at the national level in Mexico. Data on CD cases, relevant policy documents and interview data were analyzed using the Flagship Framework for Pharmaceutical Policy Reform policy interventions: regulation, financing, payment, organization, and persuasion. Data showed that 3,013 cases were registered nationally from 2007-2011, representing 0.41% of total expected cases based on Mexico's national prevalence estimate. In four of five years, new registered cases were below national targets by 11-36%. Of 1,329 cases registered nationally in 2010-2011, 834 received treatment, 120 were pending treatment as of January 2012, and the treatment status of 375 was unknown. The analysis revealed that the national program mainly coordinated donation of nifurtimox and that important obstacles to access include the exclusion of antitrypanosomal medicines from the national formulary (regulation), historical exclusion of CD from the social insurance package (organization), absence of national clinical guidelines (organization), and limited provider awareness (persuasion). Efforts to treat CD in Mexico indicate an increased commitment to addressing this disease. Access to treatment could be advanced by improving the importation process for antitrypanosomal medicines and adding them to the national formulary, increasing education for healthcare providers, and strengthening clinical guidelines. These recommendations have important implications for other countries in the region with similar problems in access to

  8. Barriers to Treatment Access for Chagas Disease in Mexico

    PubMed Central

    Manne, Jennifer M.; Snively, Callae S.; Ramsey, Janine M.; Salgado, Marco Ocampo; Bärnighausen, Till; Reich, Michael R.

    2013-01-01

    Background According to World Health Organization (WHO) prevalence estimates, 1.1 million people in Mexico are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease (CD). However, limited information is available about access to antitrypanosomal treatment. This study assesses the extent of access in Mexico, analyzes the barriers to access, and suggests strategies to overcome them. Methods and Findings Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 key informants and policymakers at the national level in Mexico. Data on CD cases, relevant policy documents and interview data were analyzed using the Flagship Framework for Pharmaceutical Policy Reform policy interventions: regulation, financing, payment, organization, and persuasion. Data showed that 3,013 cases were registered nationally from 2007–2011, representing 0.41% of total expected cases based on Mexico's national prevalence estimate. In four of five years, new registered cases were below national targets by 11–36%. Of 1,329 cases registered nationally in 2010–2011, 834 received treatment, 120 were pending treatment as of January 2012, and the treatment status of 375 was unknown. The analysis revealed that the national program mainly coordinated donation of nifurtimox and that important obstacles to access include the exclusion of antitrypanosomal medicines from the national formulary (regulation), historical exclusion of CD from the social insurance package (organization), absence of national clinical guidelines (organization), and limited provider awareness (persuasion). Conclusions Efforts to treat CD in Mexico indicate an increased commitment to addressing this disease. Access to treatment could be advanced by improving the importation process for antitrypanosomal medicines and adding them to the national formulary, increasing education for healthcare providers, and strengthening clinical guidelines. These recommendations have important implications for other countries in

  9. Perspectives in understanding open access to research data - infrastructure and technology challenges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bigagli, Lorenzo; Sondervan, Jeroen

    2014-05-01

    The Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) project, started in February 2013 with a duration of two years, has the objective to identify a series of targeted and over-arching policy recommendations for Open Access to European research data, based on existing good practice and addressing such hindering factors as stakeholder fragmentation, technical and infrastructural issues, ethical and legal issues, and financial and institutional policies. In this work we focus on the technical and infrastructural aspect, where by "infrastructure" we mean the technological assets (hardware and software), the human resources, and all the policies, processes, procedures and training for managing and supporting its continuous operation and evolution. The context targeted by RECODE includes heterogeneous networks, initiatives, projects and communities that are fragmented by discipline, geography, stakeholder category (publishers, academics, repositories, etc.) as well as other boundaries. Many of these organizations are already addressing key technical and infrastructural barriers to Open Access to research data. Such barriers may include: lack of automatic mechanisms for policy enforcement, lack of metadata and data models supporting open access, obsolescence of infrastructures, scarce awareness about new technological solutions, lack of training and/or expertise on IT and semantics aspects. However, these organizations are often heterogeneous and fragmented by discipline, geography, stakeholder category (publishers, academics, repositories, etc.) as well as other boundaries, and often work in isolation, or with limited contact with one another. RECODE has addressed these challenges, and the possible solutions to mitigate them, engaging all the identified stakeholders in a number of ways, including an online questionnaire, case studies interviews, literature review, a workshop. The conclusions have been validated by the RECODE Advisory Board and

  10. An implementation evaluation of a policy aiming to improve financial access to maternal health care in Djibo district, Burkina Faso.

    PubMed

    Belaid, Loubna; Ridde, Valéry

    2012-12-08

    . Implementation analysis in the context of improving financial access to health care in African countries is still scarce, especially at the micro level. The strained relations of the providers with patients and the communities may have an influence on the implementation process and on the effects of this health policy. Therefore, power relations between actors of the health system and the community should be taken into consideration. More studies are needed to better understand the influence of power relations on the implementation process in low-income countries.

  11. An implementation evaluation of a policy aiming to improve financial access to maternal health care in Djibo district, Burkina Faso

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    effectiveness of the policy. Conclusions Implementation analysis in the context of improving financial access to health care in African countries is still scarce, especially at the micro level. The strained relations of the providers with patients and the communities may have an influence on the implementation process and on the effects of this health policy. Therefore, power relations between actors of the health system and the community should be taken into consideration. More studies are needed to better understand the influence of power relations on the implementation process in low-income countries. PMID:23216874

  12. Health Policy on the pages of Revista de Saúde Pública

    PubMed Central

    Bousquat, Aylene; Tanaka, Oswaldo Yoshimi

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT We carried out a narrative review of the scientific production in the area of Policy, Planning and Management in Revista de Saúde Pública (RSP), between 1967 and 2015. All the fascicles of RSP, in the period, were accessed via SciELO platform, which provides all articles online. We selected and classified the articles according to the main topics of scientific production in the area of Policy, Planning and Management. Revista de Saúde Pública has published 343 articles on this subject, with significant growth in the last two decades. The most discussed topics were Health Economics, Primary Health-care, Access and Use of Health Services, and Evaluation of Services and Programs. In the last decade, the topics of Policy and Access to Medicines and Public-Private Relationship, including judicialization, gained importance. The pages of RSP embraced the vast and diverse production of Policy, Planning and Management in its first 50 years, contributing to the consolidation of the area in Brazil. PMID:27849292

  13. NREL: International Activities - Energy Access

    Science.gov Websites

    experience with off-grid solutions to support mini and microgrid projects, policies, and programs that are prohibitively expensive. Investment interest in mini and microgrids for energy access has been growing among Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) for mini-grids was developed to address the root challenges to providing

  14. Measuring Access to Learning Opportunities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawley, Willis D., Ed.; Ready, Timothy, Ed.

    This study examined the continued relevance and adequacy of the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report (E&S Survey) as a tool for enforcing civil rights laws in education, monitoring quality of access to learning opportunities, and research on other current issues of educational policy and practice. The Committee on…

  15. Enforcing Memory Policy Specifications in Reconfigurable Hardware

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-10-01

    we explain the algorithms behind our reference monitor design flow. In Section 4, we describe our access policy language including several example...NFA from this regular expression using Thompson’s Algorithm [1] as implemented by Gerzic [19]. Figure 4 shows the NFA for our policy. Notice that the... Algorithm [1] as implemented by Grail [49] to minimize the DFA. Figure 5 shows the minimized DFA for our policy. Processing the Ranges Before we can

  16. State High School Graduation Requirements and Access to Postsecondary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanton, Roseanna

    2010-01-01

    This study examined the relationship between state policies mandating increased mathematics credits for high school graduation and access to postsecondary education. The purpose of this study was to determine if the state policy intervention of increasing high school mathematics requirements was related to a higher likelihood that students would…

  17. Operationalisation of the construct of access to dental care: a position paper and proposed conceptual definitions.

    PubMed

    Harris, R V

    2013-06-01

    'Access' is a term readily used in a political and policy context, but one which has not leant itself to measurement of progress towards policy goals or comparisons between health systems. Like 'quality', 'access' is a multi-dimensional construct, but currently often remains a vague and abstract concept which is difficult to translate into something specific, concrete and therefore measureable. The paper describes previous work and identifies a need for a greater consensus and conceptual clarity in the selection of metrics for dental access. The construct of dental access is described as involving the concepts of 1: opportunity for access; 2, realised access (utilisation); 3, equity and 4, outcomes. Proposed conceptual definitions are given and a case made for measuring 'initial utilisation' separately from 'continued utilisation', reflecting modern approaches which distinguish 'entry access' (gaining entry to the dental care system), from the process of gaining access to higher levels of care. Using a distinction between 'entry access' and 'effective access' allows a choice of whether to restrict measurement to mainly supply side considerations, or alternatively to extend the measurement to include whether there is equity in the proportion of patients who are able obtain effective needed interventions. A development of conceptual definitions of dental access could facilitate measurement of progress towards policy goals and operationalisation of the construct.

  18. Optimization modeling to maximize population access to comprehensive stroke centers

    PubMed Central

    Branas, Charles C.; Kasner, Scott E.; Wolff, Catherine; Williams, Justin C.; Albright, Karen C.; Carr, Brendan G.

    2015-01-01

    Objective: The location of comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs) is critical to ensuring rapid access to acute stroke therapies; we conducted a population-level virtual trial simulating change in access to CSCs using optimization modeling to selectively convert primary stroke centers (PSCs) to CSCs. Methods: Up to 20 certified PSCs per state were selected for conversion to maximize the population with 60-minute CSC access by ground and air. Access was compared across states based on region and the presence of state-level emergency medical service policies preferentially routing patients to stroke centers. Results: In 2010, there were 811 Joint Commission PSCs and 0 CSCs in the United States. Of the US population, 65.8% had 60-minute ground access to PSCs. After adding up to 20 optimally located CSCs per state, 63.1% of the US population had 60-minute ground access and 86.0% had 60-minute ground/air access to a CSC. Across states, median CSC access was 55.7% by ground (interquartile range 35.7%–71.5%) and 85.3% by ground/air (interquartile range 59.8%–92.1%). Ground access was lower in Stroke Belt states compared with non–Stroke Belt states (32.0% vs 58.6%, p = 0.02) and lower in states without emergency medical service routing policies (52.7% vs 68.3%, p = 0.04). Conclusion: Optimal system simulation can be used to develop efficient care systems that maximize accessibility. Under optimal conditions, a large proportion of the US population will be unable to access a CSC within 60 minutes. PMID:25740858

  19. Optimization modeling to maximize population access to comprehensive stroke centers.

    PubMed

    Mullen, Michael T; Branas, Charles C; Kasner, Scott E; Wolff, Catherine; Williams, Justin C; Albright, Karen C; Carr, Brendan G

    2015-03-24

    The location of comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs) is critical to ensuring rapid access to acute stroke therapies; we conducted a population-level virtual trial simulating change in access to CSCs using optimization modeling to selectively convert primary stroke centers (PSCs) to CSCs. Up to 20 certified PSCs per state were selected for conversion to maximize the population with 60-minute CSC access by ground and air. Access was compared across states based on region and the presence of state-level emergency medical service policies preferentially routing patients to stroke centers. In 2010, there were 811 Joint Commission PSCs and 0 CSCs in the United States. Of the US population, 65.8% had 60-minute ground access to PSCs. After adding up to 20 optimally located CSCs per state, 63.1% of the US population had 60-minute ground access and 86.0% had 60-minute ground/air access to a CSC. Across states, median CSC access was 55.7% by ground (interquartile range 35.7%-71.5%) and 85.3% by ground/air (interquartile range 59.8%-92.1%). Ground access was lower in Stroke Belt states compared with non-Stroke Belt states (32.0% vs 58.6%, p = 0.02) and lower in states without emergency medical service routing policies (52.7% vs 68.3%, p = 0.04). Optimal system simulation can be used to develop efficient care systems that maximize accessibility. Under optimal conditions, a large proportion of the US population will be unable to access a CSC within 60 minutes. © 2015 American Academy of Neurology.

  20. Toward a US technology policy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Branscomb, L.M.

    1991-01-01

    The search for a political and economic middle ground between a laissez-faire economic policy and a full-blown industrial policy made little progress until quite recently. A new approach, which appears to have the makings of a consensus, urges the development of a U.S. technology policy, in which the federal government helps develop and provide access to the technical knowledge on which the competitiveness of commercial enterprises depends. Among the advocates of an explicit technology policy are science and technology policy are science and technology policy scholars, civilian high-tech industry executives (including members of the private Council on Competitiveness), some microeconomists,more » and several influential technology advocates within the Bush administration, including Assistant to the President for Science and Technology D. Allan Bromley, Department of Commerce Undersecretary for Technology Robert White, and former National Science Foundation director Erich Bloch. This article addresses the basics of a technology policy and the steps needed to implement it.« less

  1. Publisher's Note: EPL and Open Access Articles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ancarani, Barbara; Brassac, Catherine; Burr, Frédéric; Dose, Volker; King, Caroline

    2008-01-01

    In May 2007 the EPLA Board of Directors welcomed the CERN initiative for the creation of a Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3) and agreed to enter into negotiations to enable high energy physics papers to be published in EPL with selective open access. At a subsequent meeting in August 2007, the Board decided to offer substantial initial discount while open access remained a small fraction of the content of EPL. A necessary precursor to negotiation with SCOAP3 is a general open access policy. The Directors agreed that this policy should offer a free-to-read option for all authors in all sections of EPL and so provide fair opportunities across the broad range of physics covered by EPL. The policy for the journal should allow individual authors, their institutions, funding agencies or sponsoring consortia to pay for published articles to be freely available to all, permanently. The Board stressed the importance of maintaining EPL as a refereed journal with robust and reliable content, in contrast to a repository or preprint server. EPL would remain a subscription journal for content that is not free to read and authors, institutions or funding agencies may choose to pay for their articles to be open access. As an initial step in this open access venture, a single-article fee of € 1000 ( 1330) can now be paid by individuals who choose to have their article published free to all. This pricing, which is substantially discounted, ensures that EPL remains competitive with other similar journals. EPL will continue to ensure this policy is sustainable although the journal must remain financially viable and the pricing scheme will be under continual review. At this stage we welcome enquires concerning an institutional membership fee that would allow that institute to pay in advance for open access publications in EPL for authors from that institute. The fee would follow a band structure, based on the number of articles that

  2. BCO-DMO: Enabling Access to Federally Funded Research Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kinkade, D.; Allison, M. D.; Chandler, C. L.; Groman, R. C.; Rauch, S.; Shepherd, A.; Gegg, S. R.; Wiebe, P. H.; Glover, D. M.

    2013-12-01

    In a February, 2013 memo1, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) outlined principles and objectives to increase access by the public to federally funded research publications and data. Such access is intended to drive innovation by allowing private and commercial efforts to take full advantage of existing resources, thereby maximizing Federal research dollars and efforts. The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO; bco-dmo.org) serves as a model resource for organizations seeking compliance with the OSTP policy. BCO-DMO works closely with scientific investigators to publish their data from research projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), within the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Sections (OCE) and the Division of Polar Programs Antarctic Organisms & Ecosystems Program (PLR). BCO-DMO addresses many of the OSTP objectives for public access to digital scientific data: (1) Marine biogeochemical and ecological data and metadata are disseminated via a public website, and curated on intermediate time frames; (2) Preservation needs are met by collaborating with appropriate national data facilities for data archive; (3) Cost and administrative burden associated with data management is minimized by the use of one dedicated office providing hundreds of NSF investigators support for data management plan development, data organization, metadata generation and deposition of data and metadata into the BCO-DMO repository; (4) Recognition of intellectual property is reinforced through the office's citation policy and the use of digital object identifiers (DOIs); (5) Education and training in data stewardship and use of the BCO-DMO system is provided by office staff through a variety of venues. Oceanographic research data and metadata from thousands of datasets generated by hundreds of investigators are now available through BCO-DMO. 1 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Memorandum for

  3. Does government oversight improve access to nursing home care? Longitudinal evidence from US counties.

    PubMed

    Howard, Larry L

    2014-01-01

    Gains in life expectancy around the world have increasingly placed pressure on governments to ensure that the elderly receive assistance with activities of daily living. This research examines the impact of government oversight of Medicaid payment policies on access to nursing home care services in the United States. Variation in price levels induced by a federal policy shift in 1997 is used to identify the effect of Medicaid reimbursements on the number of nursing homes and beds available. Court rulings prior to the policy change are used to categorically define a range of oversight treatments at the state level. Difference-in-differences estimates indicate a significant decline in access to nursing home care services for individuals living in states in which courts consistently ruled that Medicaid reimbursements did not meet the minimum standard implied by federal law. The findings suggest that nursing home care services were made more accessible through a combination of legislative and judicial oversight of Medicaid payment policies. © The Author(s) 2014.

  4. Does Government Oversight Improve Access to Nursing Home Care? Longitudinal Evidence From US Counties

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Gains in life expectancy around the world have increasingly placed pressure on governments to ensure that the elderly receive assistance with activities of daily living. This research examines the impact of government oversight of Medicaid payment policies on access to nursing home care services in the United States. Variation in price levels induced by a federal policy shift in 1997 is used to identify the effect of Medicaid reimbursements on the number of nursing homes and beds available. Court rulings prior to the policy change are used to categorically define a range of oversight treatments at the state level. Difference-in-differences estimates indicate a significant decline in access to nursing home care services for individuals living in states in which courts consistently ruled that Medicaid reimbursements did not meet the minimum standard implied by federal law. The findings suggest that nursing home care services were made more accessible through a combination of legislative and judicial oversight of Medicaid payment policies. PMID:25526725

  5. Can conditional health policies be justified? A policy analysis of the new NHS dental contract reforms.

    PubMed

    Laverty, Louise; Harris, Rebecca

    2018-06-01

    Conditional policies, which emphasise personal responsibility, are becoming increasingly common in healthcare. Although used widely internationally, they are relatively new within the UK health system where there have been concerns about whether they can be justified. New NHS dental contracts include the introduction of a conditional component that restricts certain patients from accessing a full range of treatment until they have complied with preventative action. A policy analysis of published documents on the NHS dental contract reforms from 2009 to 2016 was conducted to consider how conditionality is justified and whether its execution is likely to cause distributional effects. Contractualist, paternalistic and mutualist arguments that reflect notions of responsibility and obligation are used as justification within policy. Underlying these arguments is an emphasis on preserving the finite resources of a strained NHS. We argue that the proposed conditional component may differentially affect disadvantaged patients, who do not necessarily have access to the resources needed to meet the behavioural requirements. As such, the conditional component of the NHS dental contract reform has the potential to exacerbate oral health inequalities. Conditional health policies may challenge core NHS principles and, as is the case with any conditional policy, should be carefully considered to ensure they do not exacerbate health inequities. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  6. Open Access to research data - final perspectives from the RECODE project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bigagli, Lorenzo; Sondervan, Jeroen

    2015-04-01

    Many networks, initiatives, and communities are addressing the key barriers to Open Access to data in scientific research. These organizations are typically heterogeneous and fragmented by discipline, location, sector (publishers, academics, data centers, etc.), as well as by other features. Besides, they often work in isolation, or with limited contacts with one another. The Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) project, which will conclude in the first half of 2015, has scoped and addressed the challenges related to Open Access, dissemination and preservation of scientific data, leveraging the existing networks, initiatives, and communities. The overall objective of RECODE was to identify a series of targeted and over-arching policy recommendations for Open Access to European research data based on existing good practice. RECODE has undertaken a review of the existing state of the art and examined five case studies in different scientific disciplines: particle physics and astrophysics, clinical research, medicine and technical physiology (bioengineering), humanities (archaeology), and environmental sciences (Earth Observation). In particular for the latter discipline, GEOSS has been an optimal test bed for investigating the importance of technical and multidisciplinary interoperability, and what the challenges are in sharing and providing Open Access to research data from a variety of sources, and in a variety of formats. RECODE has identified five main technological and infrastructural challenges: • Heterogeneity - relates to interoperability, usability, accessibility, discoverability; • Sustainability - relates to obsolescence, curation, updates/upgrades, persistence, preservation; • Volume - also related to Big Data, which is somehow implied by Open Data; in our context, it relates to discoverability, accessibility (indexing), bandwidth, storage, scalability, energy footprint; • Quality - relates to completeness

  7. Accessibility of School Districts' Web Sites: A Descriptive Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bray, Marty; Flowers, Claudia; Gibson, Patricia

    2003-01-01

    Many school districts (SDs) use the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) to disseminate a wide variety of information about things such as district events, policies, and a wide variety of student information. On-line barriers limit the accessibility of the WWW for persons and students with disabilities and thus can limit their access to vital information.…

  8. Does small equal predatory? Analysis of publication charges and transparency of editorial policies in Croatian open access journals

    PubMed Central

    Stojanovski, Jadranka; Marušić, Ana

    2017-01-01

    Introduction We approach the problem of "predatory" journals and publishers from the perspective of small scientific communities and small journals that may sometimes be perceived as "predatory". Among other characteristics of "predatory" journals two most relevant are their business model and the quality of the editorial work. Materials and methods We analysed 444 Croatian open access (OA) journals in the Hrčak (portal of Croatian scientific journals) digital journal repository for the presence of article processing charges as a business model and the transparency of editorial policies. Results The majority of journals do not charge authors or require submission or article processing charges, which clearly distinguishes them from “predatory” journals. Almost all Hrčak OA journals have publicly available information on editorial boards, including full names and affiliations, and detailed contact information for the editorial office at the Hrčak website. The journal names are unique and cannot be easily confused with another journal or intend to mislead about the journal’s origin. While most journals provide information on peer review process, many do not provide guidelines for reviewers or other editorial and publication ethics standards. Conclusion In order to clearly differentiate themselves from predatory journals, it is not enough for journals from small research communities to operate on non-commercial bases, but also to have transparent editorial policies. PMID:28694721

  9. Fine-grained policy control in U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) multimodal signatures database

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bennett, Kelly; Grueneberg, Keith; Wood, David; Calo, Seraphin

    2014-06-01

    The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Multimodal Signatures Database (MMSDB) consists of a number of colocated relational databases representing a collection of data from various sensors. Role-based access to this data is granted to external organizations such as DoD contractors and other government agencies through a client Web portal. In the current MMSDB system, access control is only at the database and firewall level. In order to offer finer grained security, changes to existing user profile schemas and authentication mechanisms are usually needed. In this paper, we describe a software middleware architecture and implementation that allows fine-grained access control to the MMSDB at a dataset, table, and row level. Result sets from MMSDB queries issued in the client portal are filtered with the use of a policy enforcement proxy, with minimal changes to the existing client software and database. Before resulting data is returned to the client, policies are evaluated to determine if the user or role is authorized to access the data. Policies can be authored to filter data at the row, table or column level of a result set. The system uses various technologies developed in the International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Science (ITA) for policy-controlled information sharing and dissemination1. Use of the Policy Management Library provides a mechanism for the management and evaluation of policies to support finer grained access to the data in the MMSDB system. The GaianDB is a policy-enabled, federated database that acts as a proxy between the client application and the MMSDB system.

  10. Evolution of information-driven HIV/AIDS policies in China.

    PubMed

    Sun, Xinhua; Lu, Fan; Wu, Zunyou; Poundstone, Katharine; Zeng, Gang; Xu, Peng; Zhang, Dapeng; Liu, Kangmai; Liau, Adrian

    2010-12-01

    As China continues to commit to universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care services, its HIV/AIDS policies have become increasingly information driven. We review China's key national-level HIV/AIDS policies and discuss policy gaps and challenges ahead. We conducted a desk review of key national-level policies that have had a major impact on China's HIV/AIDS epidemic, and examined recent epidemiological data relevant to China's HIV response. National-level policies that have had a major impact on China's HIV/AIDS response include: 'Four Frees and One Care'; 5-year action plans; and HIV/AIDS regulation. These landmark policies have facilitated massive scaling up of services over the past decade. For example, the number of drug users provided with methadone maintenance treatment significantly increased from 8116 in 2005 to 241 975 in 2009; almost a 30-fold increase. The 'Four Frees and One Care' policy has increased the number of people living with AIDS on anti-retroviral treatment from some 100 patients in 2003 to over 80 000 in 2009. However, stigma and discrimination remains major obstacles for people living with HIV/AIDS trying to access services. China's current national policies are increasingly information driven and responsive to changes in the epidemic. However, gaps remain in policy implementation, and new policies are needed to meet emerging challenges.

  11. Corporate social responsibility to improve access to medicines: the case of Brazil.

    PubMed

    Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla; Ovtcharenko, Natasha; Kohler, Jillian Clare

    2017-02-21

    Access to medicines and the development of a strong national pharmaceutical industry are two longstanding pillars of health policy in Brazil. This is reflected in a clear emphasis by Brazil's Federal Government on improving access to medicine in national health plans and industrial policies aimed at promoting domestic pharmaceutical development. This research proposes that such policies may act as incentives for companies to pursue a strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. CSR that supports Governmental priorities could help companies to benefit significantly from the Governmental industrial policy. We sought to determine whether CSR activities of Brazilian pharmaceutical firms are currently aligned with the Federal Government's health prioritization. To do so we examined key Brazilian health related policies since 2004, including the specific priorities of Brazil's 2012-2015 Health Plan, and compared these with CSR initiatives that are reported on the websites of select pharmaceutical firms in Brazil. Brazil's national health plans and industrial policies demonstrated that the Federal Government has followed diverse approaches for improving access to medicines, including strengthening health care infrastructure, increasing transparency, and supporting product development partnerships. Case studies of six pharmaceutical firms, representing both public and private companies of varying size, support the perspective that CSR is a priority for firms. However, while many programs target issues such as health infrastructure, health care training, and drug donation, more programs focus on areas other than health and do not seem to be connected to Governmental prioritization. This research suggests that there are loose connections between Governmental priorities and pharmaceutical firm CSR. However, there remains a significant opportunity for greater alignment, which could improve access to medicines in the country and foster a stronger relationship between

  12. Work-life policies for faculty at the top ten medical schools.

    PubMed

    Bristol, Mirar N; Abbuhl, Stephanie; Cappola, Anne R; Sonnad, Seema S

    2008-10-01

    There exists a growing consensus that career flexibility is critical to recruiting and retaining talented faculty, especially women faculty. This study was designed to determine both accessibility and content of work-life policies for faculty at leading medical schools in the United States. The sample includes the top ten medical schools in the United States published by U.S. News and World Report in August 2006. We followed a standardized protocol to collect seven work-life policies at each school: maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, extension of the probationary period for family responsibilities, part-time faculty appointments, job sharing, and child care. A review of information provided on school websites was followed by e-mail or phone contact if needed. A rating system of 0-3 (low to high flexibility) developed by the authors was applied to these policies. Rating reflected flexibility and existing opinions in published literature. Policies were often difficult to access. Individual scores ranged from 7 to 15 out of a possible 21 points. Extension of the probationary period received the highest cumulative score across schools, and job sharing received the lowest cumulative score. For each policy, there were important differences among schools. Work-life policies showed considerable variation across schools. Policy information is difficult to access, often requiring multiple sources. Institutions that develop flexible work-life policies that are widely promoted, implemented, monitored, and reassessed are likely at an advantage in attracting and retaining faculty while advancing institutional excellence.

  13. Toward Reproducible Computational Research: An Empirical Analysis of Data and Code Policy Adoption by Journals.

    PubMed

    Stodden, Victoria; Guo, Peixuan; Ma, Zhaokun

    2013-01-01

    Journal policy on research data and code availability is an important part of the ongoing shift toward publishing reproducible computational science. This article extends the literature by studying journal data sharing policies by year (for both 2011 and 2012) for a referent set of 170 journals. We make a further contribution by evaluating code sharing policies, supplemental materials policies, and open access status for these 170 journals for each of 2011 and 2012. We build a predictive model of open data and code policy adoption as a function of impact factor and publisher and find higher impact journals more likely to have open data and code policies and scientific societies more likely to have open data and code policies than commercial publishers. We also find open data policies tend to lead open code policies, and we find no relationship between open data and code policies and either supplemental material policies or open access journal status. Of the journals in this study, 38% had a data policy, 22% had a code policy, and 66% had a supplemental materials policy as of June 2012. This reflects a striking one year increase of 16% in the number of data policies, a 30% increase in code policies, and a 7% increase in the number of supplemental materials policies. We introduce a new dataset to the community that categorizes data and code sharing, supplemental materials, and open access policies in 2011 and 2012 for these 170 journals.

  14. Toward Reproducible Computational Research: An Empirical Analysis of Data and Code Policy Adoption by Journals

    PubMed Central

    Stodden, Victoria; Guo, Peixuan; Ma, Zhaokun

    2013-01-01

    Journal policy on research data and code availability is an important part of the ongoing shift toward publishing reproducible computational science. This article extends the literature by studying journal data sharing policies by year (for both 2011 and 2012) for a referent set of 170 journals. We make a further contribution by evaluating code sharing policies, supplemental materials policies, and open access status for these 170 journals for each of 2011 and 2012. We build a predictive model of open data and code policy adoption as a function of impact factor and publisher and find higher impact journals more likely to have open data and code policies and scientific societies more likely to have open data and code policies than commercial publishers. We also find open data policies tend to lead open code policies, and we find no relationship between open data and code policies and either supplemental material policies or open access journal status. Of the journals in this study, 38% had a data policy, 22% had a code policy, and 66% had a supplemental materials policy as of June 2012. This reflects a striking one year increase of 16% in the number of data policies, a 30% increase in code policies, and a 7% increase in the number of supplemental materials policies. We introduce a new dataset to the community that categorizes data and code sharing, supplemental materials, and open access policies in 2011 and 2012 for these 170 journals. PMID:23805293

  15. Challenges and strategies to improve the availability and geographic accessibility of physicians in Portugal.

    PubMed

    de Oliveira, Ana Paula Cavalcante; Dussault, Gilles; Craveiro, Isabel

    2017-03-23

    Shortages of physicians in remote, rural and other underserved areas and lack of general practitioners limit access to health services. The aims of this article are to identify the challenges faced by policy and decision-makers in Portugal to guarantee the availability and geographic accessibility to physicians in the National Health Service and to describe and analyse their causes, the strategies to tackle them and their results. We also raise the issue of whether research evidence was used or not in the process of policy development. We analysed policy and technical documents, peer-reviewed papers and newspaper articles from 1995 to 2015 through a structured search of government websites, Portuguese online newspapers and PubMed and Virtual Health Library (Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS)) databases; key informants were consulted to validate and complement the documentary search. The challenges faced by decision-makers to ensure access to physicians were identified as a forecasted shortage of physicians, geographical imbalances and maldistribution of physicians by level of care. To date, no human resources for health policy has been formulated, in spite of most documents reviewed stating that it is needed. On the other hand, various isolated and ad hoc strategies have been adopted, such as incentives to choose family health as a specialty or to work in an underserved region and recruitment of foreign physicians through bilateral agreements. Health workforce research in Portugal is scarce, and therefore, policy decisions regarding the availability and accessibility of physicians are not based on evidence. The policy interventions described in this paper should be evaluated, which would be a good starting point to inform health workforce policy development.

  16. Proximity and Policy: Negotiating Safe Spaces between Immigration Policy and School Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crawford, Emily R.; Fishman-Weaver, Kathryn

    2016-01-01

    Policy around the legal status and social rights of the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants is unresolved, making it imperative that PK-12 schools and educators prepare for challenges to undocumented students' educational access. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appeared near an elementary school, which required…

  17. Sociocritical Matters: Migrant Students' College Access

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Núñez, Anne-Marie; Gildersleeve, Ryan Evely

    2016-01-01

    Migrant students face many educational, economic, social, and cultural challenges to college access. Anti-bilingual, anti-affirmative action, and anti-immigrant policies also constrain their postsecondary pathways. With these issues in mind, this article draws on quantitative and qualitative research to examine the influence of a residential…

  18. Accelerating global access to plant diversity information.

    PubMed

    Lughadha, Eimear Nic; Miller, Chuck

    2009-11-01

    Botanic gardens play key roles in the development and dissemination of plant information resources. Drivers for change have included progress in information technology, growing public expectations of electronic access and international conservation policy. Great advances have been made in the quantity, quality and accessibility of plant information in digital form and the extent to which information from multiple providers can be accessed through a single portal. However, significant challenges remain to be addressed in making botanic gardens resources maximally accessible and impactful, not least the overwhelming volume of material which still awaits digitisation. The year 2010 represents an opportunity for botanic gardens to showcase their collaborative achievements in delivery of electronic plant information and reinforce their relevance to pressing environmental issues.

  19. Acceptable Care? Illness Constructions, Healthworlds, and Accessible Chronic Treatment in South Africa

    PubMed Central

    Harris, Bronwyn; Eyles, John; Moshabela, Mosa

    2015-01-01

    Achieving equitable access to health care is an important policy goal, with access influenced by affordability, availability, and acceptability of specific services. We explore patient narratives from a 5-year program of research on health care access to examine relationships between social constructions of illness and the acceptability of health services in the context of tuberculosis treatment and antiretroviral therapy in South Africa. Acceptability of services seems particularly important to the meanings patients attach to illness and care, whereas—conversely—these constructions appear to influence what constitutes acceptability and hence affect access to care. We highlight the underestimated role of individually, socially, and politically constructed healthworlds; traditional and biomedical beliefs; and social support networks. Suggested policy implications for improving acceptability and hence overall health care access include abandoning patronizing approaches to care and refocusing from treating “disease” to responding to “illness” by acknowledging and incorporating patients’ healthworlds in patient–provider interactions. PMID:25829509

  20. Acceptable care? Illness constructions, healthworlds, and accessible chronic treatment in South Africa.

    PubMed

    Fried, Jana; Harris, Bronwyn; Eyles, John; Moshabela, Mosa

    2015-05-01

    Achieving equitable access to health care is an important policy goal, with access influenced by affordability, availability, and acceptability of specific services. We explore patient narratives from a 5-year program of research on health care access to examine relationships between social constructions of illness and the acceptability of health services in the context of tuberculosis treatment and antiretroviral therapy in South Africa. Acceptability of services seems particularly important to the meanings patients attach to illness and care, whereas-conversely-these constructions appear to influence what constitutes acceptability and hence affect access to care. We highlight the underestimated role of individually, socially, and politically constructed healthworlds; traditional and biomedical beliefs; and social support networks. Suggested policy implications for improving acceptability and hence overall health care access include abandoning patronizing approaches to care and refocusing from treating "disease" to responding to "illness" by acknowledging and incorporating patients' healthworlds in patient-provider interactions. © The Author(s) 2015.

  1. 32 CFR 1701.4 - Privacy Act responsibilities/policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Privacy Act responsibilities/policy. 1701.4... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATION OF RECORDS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 Protection of Privacy and Access to Individual Records Under the Privacy Act of 1974 § 1701.4 Privacy Act responsibilities/policy...

  2. 32 CFR 1701.4 - Privacy Act responsibilities/policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Privacy Act responsibilities/policy. 1701.4... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATION OF RECORDS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 Protection of Privacy and Access to Individual Records Under the Privacy Act of 1974 § 1701.4 Privacy Act responsibilities/policy...

  3. 32 CFR 1701.4 - Privacy Act responsibilities/policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Privacy Act responsibilities/policy. 1701.4... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATION OF RECORDS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 Protection of Privacy and Access to Individual Records Under the Privacy Act of 1974 § 1701.4 Privacy Act responsibilities/policy...

  4. 32 CFR 1701.4 - Privacy Act responsibilities/policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Privacy Act responsibilities/policy. 1701.4... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATION OF RECORDS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 Protection of Privacy and Access to Individual Records Under the Privacy Act of 1974 § 1701.4 Privacy Act responsibilities/policy...

  5. 32 CFR 1701.4 - Privacy Act responsibilities/policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Privacy Act responsibilities/policy. 1701.4... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATION OF RECORDS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 Protection of Privacy and Access to Individual Records Under the Privacy Act of 1974 § 1701.4 Privacy Act responsibilities/policy...

  6. Improving Access to Data While Protecting Confidentiality: Prospects for the Future.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duncan, George T.; Pearson, Robert W.

    Providing researchers, especially those in the social sciences, with access to publicly collected microdata furthers research while advancing public policy goals in a democratic society. However, while technological improvements have eased remote access to these databases and enabled computer using researchers to perform sophisticated statistical…

  7. Access to anti-cancer drugs in India: is there a need to revise reimbursement policies?

    PubMed

    Haitsma, Gertruud; Patel, Himanshu; Gurumurthy, Parthasarathi; Postma, Maarten J

    2018-06-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the access of Indian cancer patients to optimum cancer care under selected government schemes by reviewing reimbursement schemes for cancer care in India. All cancer care reimbursement schemes in India were identified and three highly utilized schemes (VAS, RAS, CMCHS) were selected. Quality of breast, colorectal, lung, head & neck, and gastric cancer care was reviewed with respect to NCCN guidelines. Direct medical costs and shortage of budget in reimbursed amounts were calculated for each listed chemotherapy regimen. Medical oncology practice following the schemes' formularies is inferior to recommendations by the NCCN guidelines. Innovative treatment (targeted therapies) like trastuzumab, pertuzumab (breast), bevacizumab, cetuximab, panitumumab (colorectal), erlotinib, gefitinib, crizotinib, and nivolumab (lung) are either not reimbursed (VAS, CMCHS) or partially reimbursed (RAS). Average shortage of budget was found to be 43% (breast), 55% (colorectal), 74% (lung), 7% (head & neck), and 51% (gastric cancer). Policy makers should consider addition of newer treatments, exclusion of sub-optimal treatments, increments in per patient budget and optimization of supportive care, which may contribute to improvements in survival and quality of life for Indian cancer patients.

  8. Education Policy. IDRA Focus.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    IDRA Newsletter, 1998

    1998-01-01

    This theme issue includes five articles that focus on educational policy in the Texas legislature in relation to student retention, Internet access, and sexual harassment. "1999 Texas Legislative Session--End of an Era?" (Albert Cortez, Maria Robledo Montecel) examines educational equity issues facing legislators: school funding,…

  9. An access control model with high security for distributed workflow and real-time application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Han, Ruo-Fei; Wang, Hou-Xiang

    2007-11-01

    The traditional mandatory access control policy (MAC) is regarded as a policy with strict regulation and poor flexibility. The security policy of MAC is so compelling that few information systems would adopt it at the cost of facility, except some particular cases with high security requirement as military or government application. However, with the increasing requirement for flexibility, even some access control systems in military application have switched to role-based access control (RBAC) which is well known as flexible. Though RBAC can meet the demands for flexibility but it is weak in dynamic authorization and consequently can not fit well in the workflow management systems. The task-role-based access control (T-RBAC) is then introduced to solve the problem. It combines both the advantages of RBAC and task-based access control (TBAC) which uses task to manage permissions dynamically. To satisfy the requirement of system which is distributed, well defined with workflow process and critically for time accuracy, this paper will analyze the spirit of MAC, introduce it into the improved T&RBAC model which is based on T-RBAC. At last, a conceptual task-role-based access control model with high security for distributed workflow and real-time application (A_T&RBAC) is built, and its performance is simply analyzed.

  10. 48 CFR 742.1502 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 742.1502 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT MANAGEMENT CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION Contractor Performance Information 742.1502 Policy. (a) USAID contracting... prescribed by the NIH Contractor Performance System. (Access to the system by USAID contracting office...

  11. 48 CFR 742.1502 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 742.1502 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT MANAGEMENT CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION Contractor Performance Information 742.1502 Policy. (a) USAID contracting... prescribed by the NIH Contractor Performance System. (Access to the system by USAID contracting office...

  12. Collaborative Approaches and Policy Opportunities for Accelerated Progress toward Effective Disease Prevention, Care, and Control: Using the Case of Poverty Diseases to Explore Universal Access to Affordable Health Care.

    PubMed

    Laokri, Samia

    2017-01-01

    There is a massive global momentum to progress toward the sustainable development and universal health coverage goals. However, effective policies to health-care coverage can only emerge through high-quality services delivered to empowered care users by means of strong local health systems and a translational standpoint. Health policies aimed at removing user fees for a defined health-care package may fail at reaching desired results if not applied with system thinking. Secondary data analysis of two country-based cost-of-illness studies was performed to gain knowledge in informed decision-making toward enhanced access to care in the context of resource-constraint settings. A scoping review was performed to map relevant experiences and evidence underpinning the defined research area, the economic burden of illness. Original studies reflected on catastrophic costs to patients because of care services use and related policy gaps. Poverty diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) may constitute prime examples to assess the extent of effective high-priority health-care coverage. Our findings suggest that a share of the economic burden of illness can be attributed to implementation failures of health programs and supply-side features, which may highly impair attainment of the global stated goals. We attempted to define and discuss a knowledge development framework for effective policy-making and foster system levers for integrated care. Bottlenecks to effective policy persist and rely on interrelated patterns of health-care coverage. Health system performance and policy responsiveness have to do with collaborative work among all health stakeholders. Public-private mix strategies may play a role in lowering the economic burden of disease and solving some policy gaps. We reviewed possible added value and pitfalls of collaborative approaches to enhance dynamic local knowledge development and realize integration with the various health-care silos. Despite a large political

  13. 25 CFR 170.121 - What is a cultural access road?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is a cultural access road? 170.121 Section 170.121 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LAND AND WATER INDIAN RESERVATION ROADS PROGRAM Indian Reservation Roads Program Policy and Eligibility Use of Irr and Cultural Access Roads § 170...

  14. 25 CFR 170.127 - What terms apply to access roads?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What terms apply to access roads? 170.127 Section 170.127 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LAND AND WATER INDIAN RESERVATION ROADS PROGRAM Indian Reservation Roads Program Policy and Eligibility Irr Housing Access Roads § 170.127 What...

  15. Deja Vu--The Access/Success Pendulum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gandara, Patricia; Orfield, Gary

    2010-01-01

    In education, reform tends to follow cycles, often bouncing from one extreme to another without considering the possibility of incorporating multiple perspectives simultaneously. Policies aimed at helping more underrepresented students enter college and complete degrees have bounced from one pole to another, embracing access as the primary goal…

  16. Restricting access to publications from funded research: ethical issues and solutions.

    PubMed

    Manikandan, S; Vani, N Isai

    2010-01-01

    India is becoming one of the hubs of clinical research. Commensurate with these advances, the government funding for biomedical research in thrust areas is also increasing. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST) are some of the government organizations which provide financial support for various research projects. The results of the funded research projects are published in various international journals. Most of these journals have an access to paid subscribers only. Hence it is unethical to use the research grants from government (people's money) and not allow the scientific community free access to the results of the study. To tackle such issues, these agencies should sign the Berlin declaration and create open access repositories. A public access policy should be formulated and listed in JULIET. The funding bodies in India should also join Pubmed Central (PMC) to form PMC India so that every investigator who has received grants would submit the full text of the paper published from his study and these can be made freely accessible to everyone. Universities and research institutions should also develop institutional open access repositories. The public access policy has definitive advantages and should be implemented.

  17. Accessing evidence to inform public health policy: a study to enhance advocacy.

    PubMed

    Tabak, R G; Eyler, A A; Dodson, E A; Brownson, R C

    2015-06-01

    Improving population health often involves policy changes that are the result of complex advocacy efforts. Information exchanges among researchers, advocates, and policymakers is paramount to policy interventions to improve health outcomes. This information may include evidence on what works well for whom and cost-effective strategies to improve outcomes of interest. However, this information is not always readily available or easily communicated. The purposes of this paper are to describe ways advocates seek information for health policy advocacy and to compare advocate demographics. Cross-sectional telephone survey. Seventy-seven state-level advocates were asked about the desirable characteristics of policy-relevant information including methods of obtaining information, what makes it useful, and what sources make evidence most reliable/trustworthy. Responses were explored for the full sample and variety of subsamples (i.e. gender, age, and position on social and fiscal issues). Differences between groups were tested using t-tests and one-way analysis of variance. On average, advocates rated frequency of seeking research information as 4.3 out of five. Overall, advocates rated the Internet as the top source, rated unbiased research and research with relevancy to their organization as the most important characteristics, and considered information from their organization as most reliable/believable. When ratings were examined by subgroup, the two characteristics most important for each question in the total sample (listed above) emerged as most important for nearly all subgroups. Advocates are a resource to policymakers on health topics in the policy process. This study, among the first of its kind, found that advocates seek research information, but have a need for evidence that is unbiased and relevant to their organizations and report that university-based information is reliable. Researchers and advocates should partner so research is useful in advocating for

  18. Review of Progress in Vocational Education and Training Reform of the Candidate Countries for Accession to the European Union in the Light of Developments in European Policy on Vocational Training.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    European Training Foundation, Turin (Italy).

    This document reviews progress in vocational education and training (VET) reform in the candidate countries for accession to the European Union in light of developments in European policy on vocational training. The document consists of a cross-country overview and individual overviews of VET in 12 candidate countries: Bulgaria, the Czech…

  19. US hospital-based direct access with radiology referral: an administrative case report.

    PubMed

    Keil, Aaron; Brown, Suzanne Robben

    2015-01-01

    Legislative gains in the US allow physical therapists to function in expanded scopes of practice including direct access and referral to specialists. The combination of direct access with privileges to order imaging studies directly offers a desirable practice status for many physical therapists, especially in musculoskeletal focused settings. Although direct access is legal in all US jurisdictions, institutional-based physical therapy settings have not embraced these practices. Barriers cited to implementing direct access with advanced practice are concerns over medical and administrative opposition, institutional policies, provider qualifications and reimbursement. This administrative case report describes the process taken to allow therapists to see patients without a referral and to order diagnostic imaging studies at an academic medical center. Nine-month implementation results show 66 patients seen via direct access with 15% referred for imaging studies. Claims submitted to 20 different insurance providers were reimbursed at 100%. While institutional regulations and reimbursement are reported as barriers to direct access, this report highlights the process one academic medical center used to implement direct access and advanced practice radiology referral by updating policies and procedures, identifying advanced competencies and communicating with necessary stakeholder groups. Favorable reimbursement for services is documented.

  20. Negotiating Narratives, Accessing Asylum: Evaluating Language Policy as Multi-Level Practice, Beliefs and Management

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith-Khan, Laura

    2017-01-01

    Theories of language policy increasingly emphasise focusing on the specific contexts in which language management occurs. In government settings, policy seeks to shape how individuals interact with officials. Australian asylum procedure is an area where policy aims at tight control. I examine how communication is managed in this setting, in which…

  1. 25 CFR 170.122 - Can a tribe close a cultural access road?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Can a tribe close a cultural access road? 170.122 Section... ROADS PROGRAM Indian Reservation Roads Program Policy and Eligibility Use of Irr and Cultural Access Roads § 170.122 Can a tribe close a cultural access road? (a) A tribe with jurisdiction over a cultural...

  2. 25 CFR 170.122 - Can a tribe close a cultural access road?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Can a tribe close a cultural access road? 170.122 Section... ROADS PROGRAM Indian Reservation Roads Program Policy and Eligibility Use of Irr and Cultural Access Roads § 170.122 Can a tribe close a cultural access road? (a) A tribe with jurisdiction over a cultural...

  3. Rising Expectations: Access to Biomedical Information

    PubMed Central

    Lindberg, D. A. B.; Humphreys, B. L.

    2008-01-01

    Summary Objective To provide an overview of the expansion in public access to electronic biomedical information over the past two decades, with an emphasis on developments to which the U.S. National Library of Medicine contributed. Methods Review of the increasingly broad spectrum of web-accessible genomic data, biomedical literature, consumer health information, clinical trials data, and images. Results The amount of publicly available electronic biomedical information has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. Rising expectations regarding access to biomedical information were stimulated by the spread of the Internet, the World Wide Web, advanced searching and linking techniques. These informatics advances simplified and improved access to electronic information and reduced costs, which enabled inter-organizational collaborations to build and maintain large international information resources and also aided outreach and education efforts The demonstrated benefits of free access to electronic biomedical information encouraged the development of public policies that further increase the amount of information available. Conclusions Continuing rapid growth of publicly accessible electronic biomedical information presents tremendous opportunities and challenges, including the need to ensure uninterrupted access during disasters or emergencies and to manage digital resources so they remain available for future generations. PMID:18587496

  4. A Policy Reader in Universal Design for Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gordon, David T., Ed.; Gravel, Jenna W., Ed.; Schifter, Laura A., Ed.

    2009-01-01

    Universal Design for Learning (UDL) stands at the forefront of contemporary efforts to create access to education curricula for all students, including those with disabilities. This policy reader comprises a notably wide range of articles that address the challenges and opportunities facing policy makers as they consider UDL's implications for…

  5. Improving Nigerian health policymakers' capacity to access and utilize policy relevant evidence: outcome of information and communication technology training workshop.

    PubMed

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ezeoha, Abel Ebeh; Uro-Chukwu, Henry; Ezeonu, Chinonyelum Thecla; Ogbu, Ogbonnaya; Onwe, Friday; Edoga, Chima

    2015-01-01

    Information and communication technology (ICT) tools are known to facilitate communication and processing of information and sharing of knowledge by electronic means. In Nigeria, the lack of adequate capacity on the use of ICT by health sector policymakers constitutes a major impediment to the uptake of research evidence into the policymaking process. The objective of this study was to improve the knowledge and capacity of policymakers to access and utilize policy relevant evidence. A modified "before and after" intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = grossly inadequate, 4 = very adequate was employed. This study was conducted in Ebonyi State, south-eastern Nigeria and the participants were career health policy makers. A two-day intensive ICT training workshop was organized for policymakers who had 52 participants in attendance. Topics covered included: (i). intersectoral partnership/collaboration; (ii). Engaging ICT in evidence-informed policy making; use of ICT for evidence synthesis; (iv) capacity development on the use of computer, internet and other ICT. The pre-workshop mean of knowledge and capacity for use of ICT ranged from 2.19-3.05, while the post-workshop mean ranged from 2.67-3.67 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 8.3%-39.1%. Findings of this study suggest that policymakers' ICT competence relevant to evidence-informed policymaking can be enhanced through training workshop.

  6. Energy Access Solutions Advance Gender Mainstreaming in West African States

    Science.gov Websites

    | Integrated Energy Solutions | NREL Energy Access Solutions Advance Gender Mainstreaming in West African States Energy Access Solutions Advance Gender Mainstreaming in West African States Under a expertise to an innovative policy that not only supports women in energy, but also helps bring clean energy

  7. Beyond physical access: a qualitative analysis into the barriers to policy implementation and service provision experienced by persons with disabilities living in a rural context.

    PubMed

    Neille, Joanne; Penn, Claire

    2015-01-01

    Persons with disabilities make up approximately 15% of the world's population, with vulnerable communities disproportionately affected by the incidence of disability. Research reflects that persons with disabilities are vulnerable to stigma and discrimination, social isolation, and have physical barriers to accessing support services, all of which serve to perpetuate a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability within their lives. Recently a number of policies and models of intervention have been introduced intended to protect the rights of those affected by disability, yet limited research has been conducted into the lived experiences of persons with disabilities, particularly in rural contexts. This implies that little is known about the impact of the rural context on the lived experience of disability and the ways in which context impacts on the implementation of policies and practices. The current study employed a qualitative design underpinned by the principles of narrative inquiry and participant observation. Thirty adults with a variety of congenital and acquired disabilities (15 men and 15 women, ranging in age from 19 to 83 years) living in 12 rural communities in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa were recruited through snowball sampling. Data collection comprised a combination of narrative inquiry and participant observation. Narratives were collected in SiSwati with the assistance of a SiSwati-speaking research mediator and were transcribed and translated into English. Data were analysed inductively according to the principles of thematic analysis. Findings confirmed that the experience of living with a disability in a rural area is associated with discrimination, social exclusion, and isolation and barriers to accessing services, underpinned by numerous context-specific experiences, including mortality rates, exposure to numerous and repeated forms of violence across the lifespan, and corruption and lack of transparency in the implementation of

  8. Values, inter-attitudinal structure, and attitude change: value accessibility can increase a related attitude's resistance to change.

    PubMed

    Blankenship, Kevin L; Wegener, Duane T; Murray, Renee A

    2015-12-01

    Accessibility is one of the most basic structural properties of an attitude and an important factor to consider in attitude strength. Despite its importance, relatively little work has examined the role of attitude accessibility in an inter-attitudinal context, particularly as it relates to the strength of related attitudes in the network. The present research examines accessibility as a property of one attitude (toward an abstract goal or end-state, that is, a value) that might influence the strength of a different but related attitude (toward a social policy conceptually related to the value). In Study 1, a highly accessible evaluative component of a value increased resistance to change of attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a social policy related to that value. Similarly, a manipulation of value accessibility (Studies 2 and 3) led to increased resistance of attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a social policy related to that value. Implications for the role of accessibility in inter-attitudinal strength are discussed. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  9. Website Policies / Important Links | sciencecinema

    Science.gov Websites

    Budget (OMB) as implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy. ➤ Disclaimer ➤ Freedom of Information ⠞¤ Acceptable Use Policy ➤ Information Quality ➤ User Privacy ➤ No Fear Act ➤ Copyright ➤ Schedule for Posting Information ➤ Attribution ➤ Comments Policy ➤ Accessibility/Section 508 ➤ USAJOBS â

  10. Improving Health Care Accessibility: Strategies and Recommendations.

    PubMed

    Almorsy, Lamia; Khalifa, Mohamed

    2016-01-01

    Access time refers to the interval between requesting and actual outpatient appointment. It reflects healthcare accessibility and has a great influence on patient treatment and satisfaction. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia studied the accessibility to outpatient services in order to develop useful strategies and recommendations for improvement. Utilized, unutilized and no-show appointments were analyzed. It is crucial to manage no-shows and short notice appointment cancellations by preparing a waiting list for those patients who can be called in to an appointment on the same day using an open access policy. An overlapping appointment scheduling model can be useful to minimize patient waiting time and doctor idle time in addition to the sensible use of appointment overbooking that can significantly improve productivity.

  11. The Role of Public Policies in Reducing Smoking Prevalence in California: Results from the California Tobacco Policy Simulation Model

    PubMed Central

    Levy, David T.; Hyland, Andrew; Higbee, Cheryl; Remer, Lillian; Compton, Christine

    2009-01-01

    Summary Tobacco control policies are examined utilizing a simulation model for California, the state with the longest running comprehensive program. We assess the impact of the California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) and surrounding price changes on smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths. Modeling begins in 1988 and progresses chronologically to 2004, and considers four types of policies (taxes, mass media, clean air laws, and youth access policies) independently and as a package. The model is validated against existing smoking prevalence estimates. The difference in trends between predicted smoking rates from the model and other commonly used estimates of smoking prevalence for the overall period were generally small. The model also predicted some important changes in trend, which occurred with changes in policy. The California SimSmoke model estimates that tobacco control policies reduced smoking rates in California by an additional 25% relative to the level that they would have been if policies were kept at their 1988 level. By 2004, the model attributes over 60% of the reduction to price increases, over 25% of the overall effect to media policies, 10% to clean air laws, and only a small percent to youth access policies. The model estimates that over 5,000 lives will be saved in the year 2010 alone as a result of the CTCP and industry-initiated price increases, and that over 50,000 lives were saved over the period 1988-2010. Tobacco control policies implemented as comprehensive tobacco control strategies have significantly impacted smoking rates. Further tax increases should lead to additional lives saved, and additional policies may result in further impacts on smoking rates, and consequently on smoking-attributable health outcomes in the population. PMID:17055104

  12. A Qualitative Exploration of Low-Income Women's Experiences Accessing Abortion in Massachusetts.

    PubMed

    Dennis, Amanda; Manski, Ruth; Blanchard, Kelly

    2015-01-01

    At a time when most states are working to restrict abortion, Massachusetts stands out as one of the few states with multiple state-level policies in place that support abortion access for low-income women. In 2006, Massachusetts passed health care reform, which resulted in almost all residents having insurance. Also, almost all state-level public and subsidized insurance programs cover abortion and there are fewer restrictions on abortion in Massachusetts compared with other states. We explored low-income women's experiences accessing abortion in Massachusetts through 27 in-depth telephone interviews with a racially diverse sample of low-income women who obtained abortions. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed thematically. Most women described having access to timely, conveniently located, affordable, and highly acceptable abortion care. However, a sizable minority of women had difficulty enrolling in or staying on insurance, making abortion expensive. A small minority of women said their abortion care could be improved by increasing emotional support and privacy, and decreasing appointment times. Some limited data also suggest that young women and immigrant women face specific barriers to care. This study provides important, novel information about the need for state-level policies that support access to health insurance and comprehensive abortion coverage. Such policies, along with a well-functioning health care environment, help to ensure that low-income women have access to abortion. However, not all abortion access challenges have been resolved in Massachusetts. More work is needed to ensure that all women can access affordable, confidential care that is responsive to their specific needs and preferences. Copyright © 2015 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. User Centric Policy Management

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cheek, Gorrell P.

    2013-01-01

    Internet use, in general, and online social networking sites, in particular, are experiencing tremendous growth with hundreds of millions of active users. As a result, there is a tremendous amount of privacy information and content online. Protecting this information is a challenge. Access control policy composition is complex, laborious and…

  14. HIV policy and implementation: a national policy review and an implementation case study of a rural area of northern Malawi.

    PubMed

    Dasgupta, Aisha N Z; Wringe, Alison; Crampin, Amelia C; Chisambo, Christina; Koole, Olivier; Makombe, Simon; Sungani, Charles; Todd, Jim; Church, Kathryn

    2016-09-01

    Malawi is a global leader in the design and implementation of progressive HIV policies. However, there continues to be substantial attrition of people living with HIV across the "cascade" of HIV services from diagnosis to treatment, and program outcomes could improve further. Ability to successfully implement national HIV policy, especially in rural areas, may have an impact on consistency of service uptake. We reviewed Malawian policies and guidelines published between 2003 and 2013 relating to accessibility of adult HIV testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and HIV care and treatment services using a policy extraction tool, with gaps completed through key informant interviews. A health facility survey was conducted in six facilities serving the population of a demographic surveillance site in rural northern Malawi to investigate service-level policy implementation. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Policy implementation was assessed by comparing policy content and facility practice using pre-defined indicators covering service access: quality of care, service coordination and patient tracking, patient support, and medical management. ART was rolled out in Malawi in 2004 and became available in the study area in 2005. In most areas, practices in the surveyed health facilities complied with or exceeded national policy, including those designed to promote rapid initiation onto treatment, such as free services and task-shifting for treatment initiation. However, policy and/or practice were/was lacking in certain areas, in particular those strategies to promote retention in HIV care (e.g., adherence monitoring and home-based care). In some instances, though, facilities implemented alternative progressive practices aimed at improving quality of care and encouraging adherence. While Malawi has formulated a range of progressive policies aiming to promote rapid initiation onto ART, increased investment in policy implementation

  15. Balancing Open Access with Academic Standards: Implications for Community College Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gabbard, Anita; Mupinga, Davison M.

    2013-01-01

    Community colleges act as the gateway for students to higher education. Many of these colleges realize this mission through open-door policies where students lacking in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills can enroll. But, this open-access policy often creates challenges when meeting academic standards. Based on data collected from…

  16. Conversion of School Nurse Policy and Procedure Manual to Electronic Format

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Randall, Joellyn; Knee, Rachel; Galemore, Cynthia

    2006-01-01

    Policy and procedure manuals are essential to establishing standards of practice and ensuring quality of care to students and families. The Olathe District Schools (Kansas) Technology Department created the Virtual File Cabinet to provide online access to employee policies, school board policies, forms, and other documents. A task force of school…

  17. EUA's Open Access Checklist for Universities: A Practical Guide on Implementation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morais, Rita; Lourenço, Joana; Smith, John H.; Borrell-Damian, Lidia

    2015-01-01

    Open Access (OA) to research publications has received increased attention from the academic community, scientific publishers, research funding agencies and governments. This movement has been growing exponentially in recent years, both in terms of the increasing number of Open Access journals and the proliferation of policies on this topic. The…

  18. Conceptualizing a Human Right to Prevention in Global HIV/AIDS Policy

    PubMed Central

    Meier, Benjamin Mason; Brugh, Kristen Nichole; Halima, Yasmin

    2012-01-01

    Given current constraints on universal treatment campaigns, recent advances in public health prevention initiatives have revitalized efforts to stem the tide of HIV transmission. Yet, despite a growing imperative for prevention—supported by the promise of behavioral, structural and biomedical approaches to lower the incidence of HIV—human rights frameworks remain limited in addressing collective prevention policy through global health governance. Assessing the evolution of rights-based approaches to global HIV/AIDS policy, this review finds that human rights have shifted from collective public health to individual treatment access. While the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic gave meaning to rights in framing global health policy, the application of rights in treatment access litigation came at the expense of public health prevention efforts. Where the human rights framework remains limited to individual rights enforced against a state duty bearer, such rights have faced constrained application in framing population-level policy to realize the public good of HIV prevention. Concluding that human rights frameworks must be developed to reflect the complementarity of individual treatment and collective prevention, this article conceptualizes collective rights to public health, structuring collective combination prevention to alleviate limitations on individual rights frameworks and frame rights-based global HIV/AIDS policy to assure research expansion, prevention access and health system integration. PMID:23226723

  19. Informal alcohol in Malawi: stakeholder perceptions and policy recommendations.

    PubMed

    Limaye, Rupali J; Rutkow, Lainie; Rimal, Rajiv N; Jernigan, David H

    2014-02-01

    Through the eyes of those involved in the alcohol policy-making process in Malawi, we explored the role of informal (non-commercial) alcohol in rural communities, its harmful effects, and implications for appropriate national policy. Harms included early drinking initiation, violence, and sexual risk exposure. Informants suggested that policy should address informal alcohol's content, selling times, and easy access. Because most informal alcohol producers are women who rely upon sales for subsistence, policies must avoid limiting women's economic opportunities while protecting community health.

  20. Stakeholder values and ecosystems in developing open access to research data.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wessels, Bridgette; Sveinsdottir, Thordis; Smallwood, Rod

    2014-05-01

    One aspect of understanding how to develop open access to research data is to understand the values of stakeholders in the emerging open data ecosystem. The EU FP7 funded project Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) (Grant Agreement No: 321463) undertook such research to identify stakeholder values and mapped the emerging ecosystem. In this paper we outline and discuss the findings of this research. We address three key objectives, which are: (a) the identification and mapping of the diverse range of stakeholder values in Open Access data and data dissemination and preservation; (b) mapping stakeholder values on to research ecosystems using case studies from different disciplinary perspectives; and (c) evaluate and identify good practice in addressing conflicting value chains and stakeholder fragmentation. The research was structured on three related actions: (a) an analysis of policy and related documents and protocols, in order to map the formal expression of values and motivations; (b) conducting five case studies in particle physics, health sciences, bioengineering, environmental research and archaeology. These explored issues of data size; quality control, ethics and data security; replication of large datasets; interoperability; and the preservation of diverse types of data; and (c) undertaking a validation and dissemination workshop that sought to better understand how to match policies with stakeholder drivers and motivations to increase their effectiveness in promoting Open Access to research data. The research findings include that there is clearly an overall drive for Open Data Access within the policy documents, which is part of a wider drive for open science in general. This is underpinned by the view of science as an open enterprise. Although there is a strong argument for publicly funded science to be made open to the public the details of how to make research data open as yet still unclear. Our research found

  1. Inequality in Preschool Quality? Community-Level Disparities in Access to High-Quality Learning Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bassok, Daphna; Galdo, Eva

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, unequal access to high-quality preschool has emerged as a growing public policy concern. Because of data limitations, it is notoriously difficult to measure disparities in access to early learning opportunities across communities and particularly challenging to quantify gaps in access to "high-quality" programs. Research…

  2. Asylum seekers, refugees, and the politics of access to health care: a UK perspective

    PubMed Central

    Taylor, Keith

    2009-01-01

    The UK government has recently consulted on proposals to prohibit access to health care for some asylum seekers. This discussion paper considers the wider ethical, moral, and political issues that may arise from this policy. In particular, it explores the relationship between immigration and health and examines the impact of forced migration on health inequalities. It will be argued that it is both unethical and iniquitous to use health policy as a means of enforcing immigration policy. Instead, the founding principle of the NHS of equal access on the basis of need should be borne in mind when considering how to meet the needs of this population. PMID:19732492

  3. Children's Access to Public Library Services: Prince George's County Memorial Public Library, Maryland, 1980.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gerhardt, Lillian N.

    1981-01-01

    Evaluates the Prince George's County Memorial Public Library's approach to providing access to its services for children, and examines policies, regulations, practices, and conditions that affect such access. Six references are cited. (FM)

  4. Public Policy Agenda 1991.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC.

    This document articulates the directives of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AASCU) in achieving its major goal of providing citizens with equal opportunity for access to a college education. Based on the policy directives of the AASCU Board of Directors and the recommendations of the Council of State Representatives, the…

  5. The Genesis of the 1986 National Policy on Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghosh, Suresh Chandra

    This paper discusses India's 1986 National Policy on Education and describes the policy's emphasis on the essential characteristics of a national educational system that provides opportunities for equal access to education irrespective of class, caste, creed, sex, or geographic location. The development of Indian education is featured, and the…

  6. Falling through the Coverage Cracks: How Documentation Status Minimizes Immigrants' Access to Health Care.

    PubMed

    Joseph, Tiffany D

    2017-10-01

    Recent policy debates have centered on health reform and who should benefit from such policy. Most immigrants are excluded from the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to federal restrictions on public benefits for certain immigrants. But, some subnational jurisdictions have extended coverage options to federally ineligible immigrants. Yet, less is known about the effectiveness of such inclusive reforms for providing coverage and care to immigrants in those jurisdictions. This article examines the relationship between coverage and health care access for immigrants under comprehensive health reform in the Boston metropolitan area. The article uses data from interviews conducted with a total of 153 immigrants, health care professionals, and immigrant and health advocacy organization employees under the Massachusetts and ACA health reforms. Findings indicate that respondents across the various stakeholder groups perceive that immigrants' documentation status minimizes their ability to access health care even when they have health coverage. Specifically, respondents expressed that intersecting public policies, concerns that using health services would jeopardize future legalization proceedings, and immigrants' increased likelihood of deportation en route to medical appointments negatively influenced immigrants' health care access. Thus, restrictive federal policies and national-level anti-immigrant sentiment can undermine inclusive subnational policies in socially progressive places. Copyright © 2017 by Duke University Press.

  7. Eighth Grade Algebra Placement Policies: Promoting Equity, Achievement, and Access

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wambsgans, Cynthia

    2014-01-01

    This study was an investigation of a standardized 8th grade Algebra I placement policy across multiple educational districts. Researchers have documented benefits of students' 8th grade Algebra I education, while others have detailed the consequences of algebra enrollment without necessary prerequisite skills. The purpose of this study was to…

  8. Evolution of area access safety training required for gaining access to Space Shuttle launch and landing facilities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Willams, M. C.

    1985-01-01

    Assuring personnel and equipment are fully protected during the Space Shuttle launch and landing operations has been a primary concern of NASA and its associated contractors since the inception of the program. A key factor in support of this policy has been the area access safety training requirements for badging of employees assigned to work on Space Shuttle Launch and Facilities. This requirement was targeted for possible cost savings and the transition of physical on-site walkdowns to the use of television tapes has realized program cost savings while continuing to fully satisfy the area access safety training requirements.

  9. Comprehensive taxonomy and worldwide trends in pharmaceutical policies in relation to country income status.

    PubMed

    Maniadakis, N; Kourlaba, G; Shen, J; Holtorf, A

    2017-05-25

    Rapidly evolving socioeconomic and technological trends make it challenging to improve access, effectiveness and efficiency in the use of pharmaceuticals. This paper identifies and systematically classifies the prevailing pharmaceutical policies worldwide in relation to a country's income status. A literature search was undertaken to identify and taxonomize prevailing policies worldwide. Countries that apply those policies and those that do not were then grouped by income status. Pharmaceutical policies are linked to a country's socioeconomics. Developed countries have universal coverage and control pharmaceuticals with external and internal price referencing systems, and indirect price-cost controls; they carry out health technology assessments and demand utilization controls. Price-volume and risk-sharing agreements are also evolving. Developing countries are underperforming in terms of coverage and they rely mostly on restrictive state controls to regulate prices and expenditure. There are significant disparities worldwide in the access to pharmaceuticals, their use, and the reimbursement of costs. The challenge in high-income countries is to maintain access to care whilst dealing with trends in technology and aging. Essential drugs should be available to all; however, many low- and middle-income countries still provide most of their population with only poor access to medicines. As economies grow, there should be greater investment in pharmaceutical care, looking to the policies of high-income countries to increase efficiency. Pharmaceutical companies could also develop special access schemes with low prices to facilitate coverage in low-income countries.

  10. Women's Declining Employment with Access to Higher Education: Issues and Challenges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sangar, Sunita

    2014-01-01

    Access to higher education opened up avenues for more women workforce in decent employment contributing to the national economy. Government policies/schemes played a significant role in improving this significant indicator of women empowerment. This access also had an impact on their enrolment and choice of subjects but was accompanied by several…

  11. The Role of the Access Services Manager in the Virtual Library

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jetton, Lora Lennertz; Bailey, Alberta S.

    2010-01-01

    This article updates a previous article published in 1992 that described the role of the access services manager in policy formation. Since that time, the access services department and mission has matured and evolved to a prominent position within the library organization. Technological changes and innovation in the marketplace of wired and…

  12. Fair Access to Higher Education: Global Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mountford-Zimdars, Anna, Ed.; Sabbagh, Daniel, Ed.; Post, David, Ed.

    2015-01-01

    What does "fairness" mean internationally in terms of access to higher education? Increased competition for places in elite universities has prompted a worldwide discussion regarding the fairness of student admission policies. Despite budget cuts from governments--and increasing costs for students--competition is fierce at the most…

  13. Civil Society-Driven Drug Policy Reform for Health and Human Welfare-India.

    PubMed

    Vallath, Nandini; Tandon, Tripti; Pastrana, Tania; Lohman, Diederik; Husain, S Asra; Cleary, James; Ramanath, Ganpati; Rajagopal, M R

    2017-03-01

    The lack of adequate access to opioids in India as analgesics and for agonist therapies, forces millions to live with severe unalleviated pain, or languish with suffering associated with drug dependence. Although India is a major opium exporter, the excessively prohibitive 1985 narcotics law formulated to control harmful use of drugs, impeded the availability and access to opioids for medical and scientific purposes. Amendment of this law in 2014 established a new national regulatory framework for improved access to essential opioid analgesics. This article reflects on key elements and processes that led to this landmark achievement. Unlike quick timelines associated with effecting policy reforms for law enforcement, realizing the 2014 drug policy change primarily to mitigate human suffering, was a 22-year-long process. The most exacting challenges included recognizing the multilayered complexities of the prior policy framework and understanding their adverse impact on field practices to chart an appropriate and viable path for reform. The evolution of an informal civil society movement involving health care professionals, lawyers, media, policy analysts, government officials, and the public was pivotal in addressing these challenges and garnering momentum for reform. The success of the effort for improving access to opioid medications was underpinned by a three-pronged strategy of 1) persuading the executive arm of the government to take interim enabling measures; 2) leveraging judicial intervention through public interest litigation; and 3) crafting a viable policy document for legislative approval and implementation. We hope our findings are useful for realizing drug policy reforms, given the current transformed global policy mandates emphasizing humanitarian, healthcare, and quality-of-life considerations. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Generic medicines policies in the Asia Pacific region: ways forward.

    PubMed

    Nguyen, Tuan A; Hassali, Mohamed A A; McLachlan, Andrew

    2013-01-01

    Generic medicines are a key strategy used by governments and third-party payers to contain medicines costs and improve the access to essential medicines. This strategy represents an important opportunity provided by the global intellectual property regimes to discover and develop copies of original products marketed by innovator companies once the patent protection term is over. While there is an extensive experience regarding generic medicines policies in developed countries, this evidence may not translate to developing countries. The generic medicines policies workshop at the Asia Pacific Conference on National Medicines Policies 2012 provided an important opportunity to discuss and document country-specific initiatives for improving access to and the rational of use of generic medicines in the Asia Pacific region. Based on the identified barriers and enablers to implementation of generic medicines policies in the region, a set of future action plans and recommendations has been made.

  15. President Carter's Urban Policy: A Critique.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, William L.

    1978-01-01

    The Carter Administration's urban policy is weak with respect to the targeting of Federal assistance to those communities most in need of help, and ignores the problem of restricted access to jobs, housing, and services. (Author/RLV)

  16. Indigence and access to health care in sub-Saharan Africa.

    PubMed

    Stierle, F; Kaddar, M; Tchicaya, A; Schmidt-Ehry, B

    1999-01-01

    Access to health care services for the poor and indigent is hampered by current policies of health care financing in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews the issue as it is discussed in the international literature. No real strategies seem to exist for covering the health care of the indigent. Frequently, definitions of poverty and indigence are imprecise, the assessment of indigence is difficult for conceptual and technical reasons, and, therefore, the actual extent of indigence in Africa is not well known. Explicit policies rarely exist, and systematic evaluation of experiences is scarce. Results in terms of adequately identifying the indigent, and of mechanisms to improve indigents' access to health care, are rather deceiving. Policies to reduce poverty, and improve indigents' access to health care, seem to pursue strategies of depoliticizing the issue of social injustice and inequities. The problem is treated in a 'technical' manner, identifying and implementing 'operational' measures of social assistance. This approach, however, cannot resolve the problem of social exclusion, and, consequently, the problem of excluding large parts of African populations from modern health care. Therefore, this approach has to be integrated into a more 'political' approach which is interested in the process of impoverishment, and which addresses the macro-economic and social causes of poverty and inequity.

  17. Policy alternatives for reducing tobacco sales to minors: results from a national survey of retail chain and franchise stores.

    PubMed

    Altman, D G; Linzer, J; Kropp, R; Descheemaeker, N; Feighery, E; Fortmann, S P

    1992-01-01

    Minors' access to tobacco has become an important public health issue. Little is known, however, about the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior toward access among executives from businesses that sell tobacco. This study examined access from the perspective of corporate and regional headquarters of retail chains and franchises that sell tobacco. A total of 148 U.S. companies with the largest overall retail sales volume that sold tobacco were asked to participate; 91 agreed. The sample included grocery stores, convenience stores, gas station mini-marts, liquor stores, and drug stores. Data revealed at least moderate support for policies limiting youth tobacco access. Although most companies reported having in place policies to prevent minors from purchasing tobacco, these policies did not seem intensive. In addition, executives underestimated the extent of youth access. We conclude that the time is right for passage of bold policies to protect young people from tobacco.

  18. Improving Nigerian health policymakers’ capacity to access and utilize policy relevant evidence: outcome of information and communication technology training workshop

    PubMed Central

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ezeoha, Abel Ebeh; Uro-Chukwu, Henry; Ezeonu, Chinonyelum Thecla; Ogbu, Ogbonnaya; Onwe, Friday; Edoga, Chima

    2015-01-01

    Information and communication technology (ICT) tools are known to facilitate communication and processing of information and sharing of knowledge by electronic means. In Nigeria, the lack of adequate capacity on the use of ICT by health sector policymakers constitutes a major impediment to the uptake of research evidence into the policymaking process. The objective of this study was to improve the knowledge and capacity of policymakers to access and utilize policy relevant evidence. A modified “before and after” intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = grossly inadequate, 4 = very adequate was employed. This study was conducted in Ebonyi State, south-eastern Nigeria and the participants were career health policy makers. A two-day intensive ICT training workshop was organized for policymakers who had 52 participants in attendance. Topics covered included: (i). intersectoral partnership/collaboration; (ii). Engaging ICT in evidence-informed policy making; use of ICT for evidence synthesis; (iv) capacity development on the use of computer, internet and other ICT. The pre-workshop mean of knowledge and capacity for use of ICT ranged from 2.19-3.05, while the post-workshop mean ranged from 2.67-3.67 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 8.3%-39.1%. Findings of this study suggest that policymakers’ ICT competence relevant to evidence-informed policymaking can be enhanced through training workshop. PMID:26448807

  19. Was access to health care easy for immigrants in Spain? The perspectives of health personnel in Catalonia and Andalusia.

    PubMed

    Vázquez, María-Luisa; Vargas, Ingrid; Jaramillo, Daniel López; Porthé, Victoria; López-Fernández, Luis Andrés; Vargas, Hernán; Bosch, Lola; Hernández, Silvia S; Azarola, Ainhoa Ruiz

    2016-04-01

    Until April 2012, all Spanish citizens were entitled to health care and policies had been developed at national and regional level to remove potential barriers of access, however, evidence suggested problems of access for immigrants. In order to identify factors affecting immigrants' access to health care, we conducted a qualitative study based on individual interviews with healthcare managers (n=27) and professionals (n=65) in Catalonia and Andalusia, before the policy change that restricted access for some groups. A thematic analysis was carried out. Health professionals considered access to health care "easy" for immigrants and similar to access for autochthons in both regions. Clear barriers were identified to enter the health system (in obtaining the health card) and in using services, indicating a mismatch between the characteristics of services and those of immigrants. Results did not differ among regions, except for in Catalonia, where access to care was considered harder for users without a health card, due to the fees charged, and in general, because of the distance to primary health care in rural areas. In conclusion, despite the universal coverage granted by the Spanish healthcare system and developed health policies, a number of barriers in access emerged that would require implementing the existing policies. However, the measures taken in the context of the economic crisis are pointing in the opposite direction, towards maintaining or increasing barriers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Policy prescriptions to preserve mobility for seniors--A dose of realism.

    PubMed

    Staplin, Loren; Freund, Katherine

    2013-12-01

    This paper advocates policy change in three key areas: infrastructure, driver licensing, and access to private resources for transportation alternatives. Policy makers are encouraged to plan for the transportation future of our aging society by prioritizing public expenditures for roads and highways according to design and engineering practices already proven to assist older drivers and pedestrians. By adopting minimum, evidence-based requirements for visual, mental and physical capability for licensure and uniformly applying them at all ages, across all states, policy makers can improve the safety of older drivers without unfairly restricting their mobility-and need not increase the regulatory burden in doing so. By reviewing and replicating already successful state policies that either create incentives or remove barriers to the use of private resources for non-profit, senior transportation, policy makers can help communities access the labor and capital, as well as manage the risks of market-oriented, non-profit mobility solutions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Reproductive Health Policy in Tunisia

    PubMed Central

    Goicolea, Isabel; Hernandez, Alison

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Although Tunisia is regarded as a pioneer in the Middle East and North Africa in terms of women’s status and rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, evidence points to a number of persisting challenges. This article uses the Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI) to analyze Tunisia’s reproductive health policy between 1994 and 2014. It explores the extent to which reproductive rights have been incorporated into the country’s reproductive health policy, the gaps in the implementation of this policy, and the influence of this policy on gender empowerment. Our results reveal that progress has been slow in terms of incorporating reproductive rights into the national reproductive health policy. Furthermore, the implementation of this policy has fallen short, as demonstrated by regional inequities in the accessibility and availability of reproductive health services, the low quality of maternal health care services, and discriminatory practices. Finally, the government’s lack of meaningful engagement in advancing gender empowerment stands in the way as the main challenge to gender equality in Tunisia. PMID:28559685

  2. 7 CFR 1755.508 - Customer access location protection.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Customer access location protection. 1755.508 Section 1755.508 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICIES ON SPECIFICATIONS, ACCEPTABLE MATERIALS, AND STANDARD...

  3. 7 CFR 1755.508 - Customer access location protection.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Customer access location protection. 1755.508 Section 1755.508 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICIES ON SPECIFICATIONS, ACCEPTABLE MATERIALS, AND STANDARD...

  4. 7 CFR 1755.508 - Customer access location protection.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Customer access location protection. 1755.508 Section 1755.508 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICIES ON SPECIFICATIONS, ACCEPTABLE MATERIALS, AND STANDARD...

  5. [How to establish the hospital information system security policies].

    PubMed

    Gong, Qing-Yue; Shi, Cheng

    2008-03-01

    It is important to establish the hospital information system security policies. While these security policies are being established, a comprehensive consideration should be given to the acceptable levels of users, IT supporters and hospital managers. We should have a formal policy designing process that is consistently followed by all security policies. Reasons for establishing the security policies and their coverage and applicable objects should be stated clearly. Besides, each policy should define user's responsibilities and penalties of violation. Every organization will need some key policies, such as of information sources usage, remote access, information protection, perimeter security, and baseline host/device security. Security managing procedures are the mechanisms to enforce the policies. An incident-handling procedure is the most important security managing procedure for all organizations.

  6. Optimizing Input/Output Using Adaptive File System Policies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madhyastha, Tara M.; Elford, Christopher L.; Reed, Daniel A.

    1996-01-01

    Parallel input/output characterization studies and experiments with flexible resource management algorithms indicate that adaptivity is crucial to file system performance. In this paper we propose an automatic technique for selecting and refining file system policies based on application access patterns and execution environment. An automatic classification framework allows the file system to select appropriate caching and pre-fetching policies, while performance sensors provide feedback used to tune policy parameters for specific system environments. To illustrate the potential performance improvements possible using adaptive file system policies, we present results from experiments involving classification-based and performance-based steering.

  7. 76 FR 68517 - Request for Information: Public Access to Digital Data Resulting From Federally Funded Scientific...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-11-04

    ... OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY Request for Information: Public Access to Digital Data... Technology Policy (OSTP) on behalf of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). SUPPLEMENTARY... costs. Federal science agencies already have some experience with policies to promote long- term...

  8. What drives health policy formulation: insights from the Nepal maternity incentive scheme?

    PubMed

    Ensor, Tim; Clapham, Susan; Prasai, Devi Prasad

    2009-05-01

    Although maternal health outcomes have improved considerably in Nepal, continued low levels of skilled attendance and unequal access to safe emergency obstetric care continues to be central policy concern. The financial costs of delivery exacerbated are thought to continue to represent a major barrier to care to accessing services. Policy interest in this area moved swiftly. Skilled birth attendance came under the spotlight in 2001 while research on costs was commissioned in 2003. The resulting conclusions suggested substantial costs particularly on the demand side in the form of transport costs. After the research was completed the Government moved quickly to develop policy on financial barriers to skilled attendance leading to the Maternity Incentive Scheme that was implemented in 2005. We explored the reasons for policy acceptance and implementation based on recent studies in this area and a series of key informant interviews in the country. A variety of reasons can be shown to be important in ensuring that the research was utilised quickly. The conduct of the research process was importance, particularly by ensuring that results were communicated widely in a way that responded to both technical and political policy-making concerns. A convergence of political interests that meant that the policy became an ideal vehicle for improving the flagging fortunes of the government was also seen as crucial in expediting policy change although it also meant that the policy had to be adjusted to cater to political rather purely technical concerns. The experience also underlines the importance of political champions within or close to government in advocating a strong policy line through channels that researchers can rarely access.

  9. Databases as policy instruments. About extending networks as evidence-based policy.

    PubMed

    de Bont, Antoinette; Stoevelaar, Herman; Bal, Roland

    2007-12-07

    This article seeks to identify the role of databases in health policy. Access to information and communication technologies has changed traditional relationships between the state and professionals, creating new systems of surveillance and control. As a result, databases may have a profound effect on controlling clinical practice. We conducted three case studies to reconstruct the development and use of databases as policy instruments. Each database was intended to be employed to control the use of one particular pharmaceutical in the Netherlands (growth hormone, antiretroviral drugs for HIV and Taxol, respectively). We studied the archives of the Dutch Health Insurance Board, conducted in-depth interviews with key informants and organized two focus groups, all focused on the use of databases both in policy circles and in clinical practice. Our results demonstrate that policy makers hardly used the databases, neither for cost control nor for quality assurance. Further analysis revealed that these databases facilitated self-regulation and quality assurance by (national) bodies of professionals, resulting in restrictive prescription behavior amongst physicians. The databases fulfill control functions that were formerly located within the policy realm. The databases facilitate collaboration between policy makers and physicians, since they enable quality assurance by professionals. Delegating regulatory authority downwards into a network of physicians who control the use of pharmaceuticals seems to be a good alternative for centralized control on the basis of monitoring data.

  10. Access to Schooling in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: Linking Concepts to Context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fataar, Aslam

    1997-07-01

    This paper focuses on the policy issue of expanding schooling in a post-apartheid South Africa. The Project of placing about two million children of school-going age in school is viewed as central to the rebuilding of South Africa. The paper argues that this project should be located within the peculiar history of this country's educational underdevelopment. Challenging the constraining influence of the New Right context should be central in conceptualising the provision of expanded school access. Access policy should be based on a notion of educational development that is linked to the overall socioeconomic development of this society. The view is promoted in this paper that a policy of quantitative expansion of schooling should not ignore the quality of such schooling.

  11. Increased Access to Unrestricted Pharmacy Sales of Syringes in Seattle–King County, Washington: Structural and Individual-Level Changes, 1996 Versus 2003

    PubMed Central

    Deibert, Ryan J.; Goldbaum, Gary; Parker, Theodore R.; Hagan, Holly; Marks, Robert; Hanrahan, Michael; Thiede, Hanne

    2006-01-01

    We examined pharmacists’ attitudes and practices related to syringe sales to injection drug users before and after legal reform and local programming to enhance sterile syringe access. We replicated a 1996 study by conducting pharmacist phone surveys and syringe test-buys in randomly selected pharmacies. Test-buy success increased from 48% in 1996 to 65% in 2003 (P=.04). Pharmacists agreeing that syringes should be available to injection drug users through pharmacy purchase increased from 49% to 71% (P<.01). Pharmacy policies and pharmacist attitudes were strongly associated with syringe access. Structural changes, including policy reform and pharmacy outreach, appear to increase syringe access. Interventions should address pharmacy policies and pharmacist attitudes and policies. PMID:16809607

  12. "High" Achievers? Cannabis Access and Student Performance. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1340

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marie, Olivier; Zölitz, Ulf

    2015-01-01

    This paper investigates how legal cannabis access affects student performance. Identification comes from an exceptional policy introduced in the city of Maastricht which discriminated legal access based on individuals' nationality. We apply a difference-in-difference approach using administrative panel data on over 54,000 course grades of local…

  13. Not sold here: limited access to legally available syringes at pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Sterile syringe access is a critical component of HIV prevention programs. Although retail pharmacies provide convenient outlets for syringe access, injection drug users (IDUs) may encounter barriers to syringe purchase even where purchase without a prescription is legal. We sought to obtain an objective measure of syringe access in Tijuana, Mexico, where IDUs report being denied or overcharged for syringes at pharmacies. Methods Trained "mystery shoppers" attempted to buy a 1 cc insulin syringe according to a predetermined script at all retail pharmacies in three Tijuana neighborhoods. The same pharmacies were surveyed by telephone regarding their syringe sales policies. Data on purchase attempts were analyzed using basic statistics to obtain an objective measure of syringe access and compared with data on stated sales policies to ascertain consistency. Results Only 46 (28.4%) of 162 syringe purchase attempts were successful. Leading reasons for unsuccessful attempts were being told that the pharmacy didn't sell syringes (35.3%), there were no syringes in stock (31.0%), or a prescription was required (20.7%). Of 136 pharmacies also surveyed by telephone, a majority (88.2%) reported selling syringes but only one-third (32.5%) had a successful mystery shopper purchase; the majority of unsuccessful purchases were attributed to being told the pharmacy didn't sell syringes. There was similar discordance regarding prescription policies: 74 pharmacies said in the telephone survey that they did not require a prescription for syringes, yet 10 of these pharmacies asked the mystery shopper for a prescription. Conclusions IDUs in Tijuana have limited access to syringes through retail pharmacies and policies and practices regarding syringe sales are inconsistent. Reasons for these restrictive and inconsistent practices must be identified and addressed to expand syringe access, reduce syringe sharing and prevent HIV transmission. PMID:21609471

  14. Not sold here: limited access to legally available syringes at pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico.

    PubMed

    Pollini, Robin A; Rosen, Perth C; Gallardo, Manuel; Robles, Brenda; Brouwer, Kimberly C; Macalino, Grace E; Lozada, Remedios

    2011-05-24

    Sterile syringe access is a critical component of HIV prevention programs. Although retail pharmacies provide convenient outlets for syringe access, injection drug users (IDUs) may encounter barriers to syringe purchase even where purchase without a prescription is legal. We sought to obtain an objective measure of syringe access in Tijuana, Mexico, where IDUs report being denied or overcharged for syringes at pharmacies. Trained "mystery shoppers" attempted to buy a 1 cc insulin syringe according to a predetermined script at all retail pharmacies in three Tijuana neighborhoods. The same pharmacies were surveyed by telephone regarding their syringe sales policies. Data on purchase attempts were analyzed using basic statistics to obtain an objective measure of syringe access and compared with data on stated sales policies to ascertain consistency. Only 46 (28.4%) of 162 syringe purchase attempts were successful. Leading reasons for unsuccessful attempts were being told that the pharmacy didn't sell syringes (35.3%), there were no syringes in stock (31.0%), or a prescription was required (20.7%). Of 136 pharmacies also surveyed by telephone, a majority (88.2%) reported selling syringes but only one-third (32.5%) had a successful mystery shopper purchase; the majority of unsuccessful purchases were attributed to being told the pharmacy didn't sell syringes. There was similar discordance regarding prescription policies: 74 pharmacies said in the telephone survey that they did not require a prescription for syringes, yet 10 of these pharmacies asked the mystery shopper for a prescription. IDUs in Tijuana have limited access to syringes through retail pharmacies and policies and practices regarding syringe sales are inconsistent. Reasons for these restrictive and inconsistent practices must be identified and addressed to expand syringe access, reduce syringe sharing and prevent HIV transmission.

  15. The relationship between state policies for competitive foods and school nutrition practices in the United States.

    PubMed

    Merlo, Caitlin L; Olsen, Emily O'Malley; Galic, Mara; Brener, Nancy D

    2014-04-24

    Most students in grades kindergarten through 12 have access to foods and beverages during the school day outside the federal school meal programs, which are called competitive foods. At the time of this study, competitive foods were subject to minimal federal nutrition standards, but states could implement additional standards. Our analysis examined the association between school nutrition practices and alignment of state policies with Institute of Medicine recommendations (IOM Standards). For this analysis we used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) report, Competitive Foods and Beverages in US Schools: A State Policy Analysis and CDC's 2010 School Health Profiles (Profiles) survey to examine descriptive associations between state policies for competitive foods and school nutrition practices. Access to chocolate candy, soda pop, sports drinks, and caffeinated foods or beverages was lower in schools in states with policies more closely aligned with IOM Standards. No association was found for access to fruits or nonfried vegetables. Schools in states with policies more closely aligned with the IOM Standards reported reduced access to less healthful competitive foods. Encouraging more schools to follow these standards will help create healthier school environments and may help promote healthy eating among US children.

  16. Assessment and Educational Policy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Virginia B.

    1975-01-01

    Because of increased access of postsecondary education in the 1950's and 1960's, higher education cost analysis gained importance. Attempts have been made to develop a standard unit cost, but it is hard to see unit cost accounting by itself as a valuable tool for public accountability or policy making. For these purposes a cost-effectiveness ratio…

  17. 10 CFR 10.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Policy. 10.4 Section 10.4 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO RESTRICTED DATA OR NATIONAL... Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out its responsibility for the security of the nuclear energy...

  18. 10 CFR 10.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Policy. 10.4 Section 10.4 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO RESTRICTED DATA OR NATIONAL... Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out its responsibility for the security of the nuclear energy...

  19. 10 CFR 10.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Policy. 10.4 Section 10.4 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO RESTRICTED DATA OR NATIONAL... Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out its responsibility for the security of the nuclear energy...

  20. 10 CFR 10.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 10.4 Section 10.4 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO RESTRICTED DATA OR NATIONAL... Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out its responsibility for the security of the nuclear energy...

  1. 10 CFR 10.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Policy. 10.4 Section 10.4 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO RESTRICTED DATA OR NATIONAL... Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out its responsibility for the security of the nuclear energy...

  2. The effect of tobacco control policies on smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths. Findings from the Netherlands SimSmoke Tobacco Control Policy Simulation Model.

    PubMed

    Nagelhout, Gera E; Levy, David T; Blackman, Kenneth; Currie, Laura; Clancy, Luke; Willemsen, Marc C

    2012-02-01

    To develop a simulation model projecting the effect of tobacco control policies in the Netherlands on smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths. Netherlands SimSmoke-an adapted version of the SimSmoke simulation model of tobacco control policy-uses population, smoking rates and tobacco control policy data for the Netherlands to predict the effect of seven types of policies: taxes, smoke-free legislation, mass media, advertising bans, health warnings, cessation treatment and youth access policies. Outcome measures were smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths. With a comprehensive set of policies, as recommended by MPOWER, smoking prevalence can be decreased by as much as 21% in the first year, increasing to a 35% reduction in the next 20 years and almost 40% by 30 years. By 2040, 7706 deaths can be averted in that year alone with the stronger set of policies. Without effective tobacco control policies, almost a million lives will be lost to tobacco-related diseases between 2011 and 2040. Of those, 145,000 can be saved with a comprehensive tobacco control package. Smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable deaths in the Netherlands can be reduced substantially through tax increases, smoke-free legislation, high-intensity media campaigns, stronger advertising bans and health warnings, comprehensive cessation treatment and youth access laws. The implementation of these FCTC/MPOWER recommended policies could be expected to show similar or even larger relative reductions in smoking prevalence in other countries which currently have weak policies. © 2011 The Authors, Addiction © 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  3. Sexual stigma, criminalization, investment, and access to HIV services among men who have sex with men worldwide.

    PubMed

    Arreola, Sonya; Santos, Glenn-Milo; Beck, Jack; Sundararaj, Mohan; Wilson, Patrick A; Hebert, Pato; Makofane, Keletso; Do, Tri D; Ayala, George

    2015-02-01

    Globally, HIV disproportionately affects men who have sex with men (MSM). This study explored associations between access to HIV services and (1) individual-level perceived sexual stigma; (2) country-level criminalization of homosexuality; and (3) country-level investment in HIV services for MSM. 3,340 MSM completed an online survey assessing access to HIV services. MSM from over 115 countries were categorized according to criminalization of homosexuality policy and investment in HIV services targeting MSM. Lower access to condoms, lubricants, and HIV testing were each associated with greater perceived sexual stigma, existence of homosexuality criminalization policies, and less investment in HIV services. Lower access to HIV treatment was associated with greater perceived sexual stigma and criminalization. Criminalization of homosexuality and low investment in HIV services were both associated with greater perceived sexual stigma. Efforts to prevent and treat HIV among MSM should be coupled with structural interventions to reduce stigma, overturn homosexuality criminalization policies, and increase investment in MSM-specific HIV services.

  4. Measuring and monitoring equity in access to deceased donor kidney transplantation.

    PubMed

    Stewart, D E; Wilk, A R; Toll, A E; Harper, A M; Lehman, R R; Robinson, A M; Noreen, S A; Edwards, E B; Klassen, D K

    2018-05-07

    The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network monitors progress toward strategic goals such as increasing the number of transplants and improving waitlisted patient, living donor, and transplant recipient outcomes. However, a methodology for assessing system performance in providing equity in access to transplants was lacking. We present a novel approach for quantifying the degree of disparity in access to deceased donor kidney transplants among waitlisted patients and determine which factors are most associated with disparities. A Poisson rate regression model was built for each of 29 quarterly, period-prevalent cohorts (January 1, 2010-March 31, 2017; 5 years pre-kidney allocation system [KAS], 2 years post-KAS) of active kidney waiting list registrations. Inequity was quantified as the outlier-robust standard deviation (SD w ) of predicted transplant rates (log scale) among registrations, after "discounting" for intentional, policy-induced disparities (eg, pediatric priority) by holding such factors constant. The overall SD w declined by 40% after KAS implementation, suggesting substantially increased equity. Risk-adjusted, factor-specific disparities were measured with the SD w after holding all other factors constant. Disparities associated with calculated panel-reactive antibodies decreased sharply. Donor service area was the factor most associated with access disparities post-KAS. This methodology will help the transplant community evaluate tradeoffs between equity and utility-centric goals when considering new policies and help monitor equity in access as policies change. © 2018 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

  5. Paying more for faster care? Individuals' attitude toward price-based priority access in health care.

    PubMed

    Benning, Tim M; Dellaert, Benedict G C

    2013-05-01

    Increased competition in the health care sector has led hospitals and other health care institutions to experiment with new access allocation policies that move away from traditional expert based allocation of care to price-based priority access (i.e., the option to pay more for faster care). To date, little is known about individuals' attitude toward price-based priority access and the evaluation process underlying this attitude. This paper addresses the role of individuals' evaluations of collective health outcomes as an important driver of their attitude toward (price-based) allocation policies in health care. The authors investigate how individuals evaluate price-based priority access by means of scenario-based survey data collected in a representative sample from the Dutch population (N = 1464). They find that (a) offering individuals the opportunity to pay for faster care negatively affects their evaluations of both the total and distributional collective health outcome achieved, (b) however, when health care supply is not restricted (i.e., when treatment can be offered outside versus within the regular working hours of the hospital) offering price-based priority access affects total collective health outcome evaluations positively instead of negatively, but it does not change distributional collective health outcome evaluations. Furthermore, (c) the type of health care treatment (i.e., life saving liver transplantation treatment vs. life improving cosmetic ear correction treatment - priced at the same level to the individual) moderates the effect of collective health outcome evaluations on individuals' attitude toward allocation policies. For policy makers and hospital managers the results presented in this article are helpful because they provide a better understanding of what drives individuals' preferences for health care allocation policies. In particular, the results show that policies based on the "paying more for faster care" principle are more

  6. Public policy: effective treatment for tobacco disease.

    PubMed

    Scheg, K E

    1996-01-01

    Public policy initiatives offer greater promise than other strategies for reducing the major public health problem of death and disease due to smoking. Three of the most critical public policy areas today are smoke-free environments, youth access, and advertising. While earlier laws separated smokers and nonsmokers into separate sections, the focus now is on smoke-free environments. Various places, however, most notably restaurants, often remain polluted with tobacco smoke and put women at heightened risk of disease and death. Restricting youth access to tobacco products has also gained momentum in the 1990s. The recently proposed Food and Drug Administration regulations designed to reduce smoking by minors by 50% over seven years are the most significant national public policy initiatives ever to address the problem of children smoking. Measures to counter the tobacco industry's massive advertising and promotion campaigns have also increased. The federal government has begun enforcing the prohibition on cigarette advertising on television, and local jurisdictions have restricted tobacco billboards and point-of-sale advertising.

  7. The Policy Implications of Internet Connectivity in Public Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jaeger, Paul T.; Bertot, John Carlo; McClure, Charles R.; Langa, Lesley A.

    2006-01-01

    The provision of public Internet access and related networked services by public libraries is affected by a number of information policy issues. This article analyzes the policy dimensions of Internet connectivity in public libraries in light of the data and findings from a national survey of public libraries conducted by the authors of this…

  8. Allocation and User Account Policies | High-Performance Computing | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    Allocation and User Account Policies Allocation and User Account Policies For using NREL's high . When a project enters the Ended state: User access to project data is disabled. We reserve the right to agreements expire one (1) year after they become active or when the contractual arrangement between the

  9. A Logic for Reasoning About Time-Dependent Access Control Policies

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-20

    41 4.3.2 Filling Painkiller Prescriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 4.3.3 A Homework Assignment Administration System...4.3.2 Filling Painkiller Prescriptions We now consider the specification of pharmacy policies for dispensing painkilling medications in ηL logic. To...prevent addiction, painkillers are tightly regulated. A patient must submit a valid doctor’s prescription to the pharmacist and may only receive a few

  10. [Access control management in electronic health records: a systematic literature review].

    PubMed

    Carrión Señor, Inmaculada; Fernández Alemán, José Luis; Toval, Ambrosio

    2012-01-01

    This study presents the results of a systematic literature review of aspects related to access control in electronic health records systems, wireless security and privacy and security training for users. Information sources consisted of original articles found in Medline, ACM Digital Library, Wiley InterScience, IEEE Digital Library, Science@Direct, MetaPress, ERIC, CINAHL and Trip Database, published between January 2006 and January 2011. A total of 1,208 articles were extracted using a predefined search string and were reviewed by the authors. The final selection consisted of 24 articles. Of the selected articles, 21 dealt with access policies in electronic health records systems. Eleven articles discussed whether access to electronic health records should be granted by patients or by health organizations. Wireless environments were only considered in three articles. Finally, only four articles explicitly mentioned that technical training of staff and/or patients is required. Role-based access control is the preferred mechanism to deploy access policy by the designers of electronic health records. In most systems, access control is managed by users and health professionals, which promotes patients' right to control personal information. Finally, the security of wireless environments is not usually considered. However, one line of research is eHealth in mobile environments, called mHealth. Copyright © 2011 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  11. PRN 97-4: Consumer Access Numbers on Pesticide Labels

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This notice describes EPA policy on including telephone numbers and other access numbers or internet addresses, on pesticide product labeling. It also explains how the telephone number of the National Pesticide Information Center hotline may be used.

  12. Building Global Support for Open Data Access

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Key, E.; Samors, R. J.; Seltzer, C. E.; Orr, B. J.

    2017-12-01

    The Belmont Forum, a global partnership of funding organizations, international science councils, and regional consortia is committed to the advancement of international transdisciplinary research providing knowledge for understanding, mitigating and adapting to global environmental change. The Forum is also committed to ensuring appropriate, recognizable credit is awarded to the creators of that data, each and every time it is used. At its 2015 plenary meeting, the Belmont Forum agreed on and adopted an open data policy and principles. The principles are designed to widen access to data and promote its long-term preservation in global change research; help improve data management and exploitation; coordinate and integrate disparate organizational and technical elements; fill critical global e-infrastructure gaps; share best practices; and foster new data literacy. To help implement the policy and principles, the Belmont Forum has established the e-Infrastructures and Data Management (e-I&DM) Initiative which will leverage existing knowledge and resources to illuminate achievable, reproducible systems for effective, sustainable data management practices. The overall objective of the e-I&DM Initiative is to provide advice and recommendations to the Belmont Forum member and partner organizations regarding policies, programs, procedures that could be adopted to accelerate open data sharing, data reproducibility, data curation, and other aspects of long-term data management and access. This presentation will explore current Belmont Forum activities through the e-I&DM Initiative to develop policies and practices that could be adopted by funders, publishers and researchers alike that will lead to increased data sharing with more widespread data citation/attribution - giving credit where credit is due.

  13. Factors Influencing the Accessibility of Education for Children with Disabilities in India

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Limaye, Sandhya

    2016-01-01

    The Central and State governments in India have formulated programs and policies over the years for children with disabilities in order to help them to enter mainstream society. However, despite these policies, children with disabilities are amongst the most disadvantaged in terms of access to schooling and completion of elementary education, as…

  14. Leading Dynamic Schools: How to Create and Implement Ethical Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rallis, Sharon F.; Rossman, Gretchen B.; Cobb, Casey D.; Reagan, Timothy G.; Kuntz, Aaron

    2007-01-01

    This companion book to "Principals of Dynamic Schools" and "Dynamic Teachers" brings to life the process of making and enacting educational policy and helps decision makers evaluate, interpret, and analyze the policies that govern their schools. In accessible language, this book presents educational leaders with a conceptual framework for…

  15. The Challenge of Access in Indian Higher Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chitnis, Suma

    2000-01-01

    With an ancient tradition of educational exclusion, modern India has set democratic goals for educational access and quality, though discrimination still challenges public policy goals. Highlights: Buddhism's ancient challenges to exclusion; early declines of education; missionary education; colonial higher education; distance from the lives of…

  16. 15 CFR 2004.5 - Accessing records without request.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Accessing records without request. 2004.5 Section 2004.5 Commerce and Foreign Trade Regulations Relating to Foreign Trade Agreements OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES...

  17. 48 CFR 27.402 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... and disclosure. The protection of such data is also necessary to encourage qualified contractors to... REQUIREMENTS PATENTS, DATA, AND COPYRIGHTS Rights in Data and Copyrights 27.402 Policy. (a) To carry out their missions and programs, agencies acquire or obtain access to many kinds of data produced during or used in...

  18. 48 CFR 27.402 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... and disclosure. The protection of such data is also necessary to encourage qualified contractors to... REQUIREMENTS PATENTS, DATA, AND COPYRIGHTS Rights in Data and Copyrights 27.402 Policy. (a) To carry out their missions and programs, agencies acquire or obtain access to many kinds of data produced during or used in...

  19. 10 CFR 11.5 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Policy. 11.5 Section 11.5 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO OR CONTROL OVER SPECIAL NUCLEAR... concepts of justice, a personnel security program in the interests of the common defense and security for...

  20. 10 CFR 11.5 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 11.5 Section 11.5 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO OR CONTROL OVER SPECIAL NUCLEAR... concepts of justice, a personnel security program in the interests of the common defense and security for...

  1. 10 CFR 710.4 - Policy.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 710.4 Section 710.4 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED MATTER OR SPECIAL NUCLEAR... security of its programs in a manner consistent with traditional American concepts of justice and fairness...

  2. Healthcare organizational change: implications for access to care and its measurement.

    PubMed Central

    Miller, R. H.

    1998-01-01

    , MANAGEMENT, AND/OR POLICY: Changes in market competition are leading to organizational changes that affect access to care for vulnerable HMO enrollee populations. Public and/or private policies that improve measurement and reporting can affect market competition and improve access to care. PMID:9685111

  3. Spin as Symbolic Capital: The Fields of Journalism and Education Policy-Making

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stack, Michelle L.

    2010-01-01

    How do policy-makers and journalists accumulate symbolic capital in terms of their strategic positioning in relation to policy making? How do they negotiate their impact on policy making across fields? How do they gain access to information, and how is this information constructed in terms of education and schooling? This paper focuses on…

  4. UPM: unified policy-based network management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Law, Eddie; Saxena, Achint

    2001-07-01

    Besides providing network management to the Internet, it has become essential to offer different Quality of Service (QoS) to users. Policy-based management provides control on network routers to achieve this goal. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has proposed a two-tier architecture whose implementation is based on the Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). However, there are several limitations to this design such as scalability and cross-vendor hardware compatibility. To address these issues, we present a functionally enhanced multi-tier policy management architecture design in this paper. Several extensions are introduced thereby adding flexibility and scalability. In particular, an intermediate entity between the policy server and policy rule database called the Policy Enforcement Agent (PEA) is introduced. By keeping internal data in a common format, using a standard protocol, and by interpreting and translating request and decision messages from multi-vendor hardware, this agent allows a dynamic Unified Information Model throughout the architecture. We have tailor-made this unique information system to save policy rules in the directory server and allow executions of policy rules with dynamic addition of new equipment during run-time.

  5. FERC examines transmission access pricing policies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Burkhart, L.A.

    1993-02-15

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved two orders dealing with transmission pricing issues that evolved from its March 1992 Pennsylvania Electric Co. (Penelec) decision dealing with cost recovery of transmission plant expansion. Commissioner Betsy Moler said the cases represented the first time the FERC has used incremental rates for wheeling transactions. In the first new order, Public Service Electric Gas Co. proposed charging for third-party transmission services to recover the sum of its standard embedded cost rate and the net incremental cost of making upgrades to its integrated transmission system. Public Service sought to provide service to EEAmore » I Limited, which proposed building and operating a cogeneration facility at a United States Gypsum Co. plant in New Jersey. Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc. had agreed to purchase the project's output. In rejecting Public Service's proposal, the FERC ruled the utility must charge a transmission rate that is the higher of either its embedded cost rate or its incremental cost rate of accelerated expansion. (In this instance, the incremental rate was higher). In the second new order, Public Service Co. of Colorado (PSCC) filed a proposed open access transmission service tariff related to its acquisition of facilities from Colorado-Ute Electric Association Inc. The FERC rejected PSCC's tariff request that would have required a new transmission customer (in the event PSCC modified its integrated transmission grid) to pay the sum of PSCC's standard transmission rate (reflecting the average cost of the grid facilities) plus the expansion cost (reflecting the incremental facility cost).« less

  6. Access of primary and secondary literature by health personnel in an academic health center: implications for open access*

    PubMed Central

    Steinberg, Ryan M.; Moorhead, Laura; O'Brien, Bridget; Willinsky, John

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The research sought to ascertain the types and quantity of research evidence accessed by health personnel through PubMed and UpToDate in a university medical center over the course of a year in order to better estimate the impact that increasing levels of open access to biomedical research can be expected to have on clinical practice in the years ahead. Methods: Web log data were gathered from the 5,042 health personnel working in the Stanford University Hospitals (SUH) during 2011. Data were analyzed for access to the primary literature (abstracts and full-text) through PubMed and UpToDate and to the secondary literature, represented by UpToDate (research summaries), to establish the frequency and nature of literature consulted. Results: In 2011, SUH health personnel accessed 81,851 primary literature articles and visited UpToDate 110,336 times. Almost a third of the articles (24,529) accessed were reviews. Twenty percent (16,187) of the articles viewed were published in 2011. Conclusion: When it is available, health personnel in a clinical care setting frequently access the primary literature. While further studies are needed, this preliminary finding speaks to the value of the National Institutes of Health public access policy and the need for medical librarians and educators to prepare health personnel for increasing public access to medical research. PMID:23930091

  7. Inclusion and Human Rights in Health Policies: Comparative and Benchmarking Analysis of 51 Policies from Malawi, Sudan, South Africa and Namibia

    PubMed Central

    MacLachlan, Malcolm; Amin, Mutamad; Mannan, Hasheem; El Tayeb, Shahla; Bedri, Nafisa; Swartz, Leslie; Munthali, Alister; Van Rooy, Gert; McVeigh, Joanne

    2012-01-01

    While many health services strive to be equitable, accessible and inclusive, peoples’ right to health often goes unrealized, particularly among vulnerable groups. The extent to which health policies explicitly seek to achieve such goals sets the policy context in which services are delivered and evaluated. An analytical framework was developed – EquiFrame – to evaluate 1) the extent to which 21 Core Concepts of human rights were addressed in policy documents, and 2) coverage of 12 Vulnerable Groups who might benefit from such policies. Using this framework, analysis of 51 policies across Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Sudan, confirmed the relevance of all Core Concepts and Vulnerable Groups. Further, our analysis highlighted some very strong policies, serious shortcomings in others as well as country-specific patterns. If social inclusion and human rights do not underpin policy formation, it is unlikely they will be inculcated in service delivery. EquiFrame facilitates policy analysis and benchmarking, and provides a means for evaluating policy revision and development. PMID:22649488

  8. Youth access to tobacco.

    PubMed

    Rigotti, N A

    1999-01-01

    To start smoking, young people need a supply of tobacco products. Reducing youth access to tobacco is a new approach to preventing tobacco use that has been a focus of federal, state, and local tobacco control efforts over the past decade. All 50 states ban tobacco sales to minors, but compliance is poor because laws are not enforced. Consequently, young people have little trouble obtaining tobacco products. Commercial sources of tobacco (stores and vending machines) are important for underage smokers, who often purchase their own cigarettes. Underage youths also obtain tobacco from noncommercial sources such as friends, relatives, older adolescents, and adults. Educating retailers about tobacco sales laws has not produced long-term improvement in their compliance. Active enforcement of tobacco sales laws changes retailer behavior, but whether this reduces young people's access to tobacco or their tobacco use is not clear. The effectiveness of new local, state, and federal actions that aim to reduce youth access to tobacco remains to be determined. Can enforcing tobacco sales laws reduce young people's access to tobacco? If so, will this prevent or delay the onset of their tobacco use? How will youths' sources of tobacco change as commercial sources are restricted? What are the social (noncommercial) sources of tobacco for minors and how can youths' access to tobacco from these sources be reduced? What is the impact of the new federal policies aimed at reducing youth access to tobacco? Do new state and local laws that ban youth possession or use of tobacco have a net positive or negative impact on youth attitudes, access to tobacco, or tobacco use? What is the relative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of efforts to reduce the supply of tobacco compared to those that aim to reduce demand for tobacco? Will either work alone or are both necessary to achieve reductions in youth smoking?

  9. Breaking and Fixing Origin-Based Access Control in Hybrid Web/Mobile Application Frameworks.

    PubMed

    Georgiev, Martin; Jana, Suman; Shmatikov, Vitaly

    2014-02-01

    Hybrid mobile applications (apps) combine the features of Web applications and "native" mobile apps. Like Web applications, they are implemented in portable, platform-independent languages such as HTML and JavaScript. Like native apps, they have direct access to local device resources-file system, location, camera, contacts, etc. Hybrid apps are typically developed using hybrid application frameworks such as PhoneGap. The purpose of the framework is twofold. First, it provides an embedded Web browser (for example, WebView on Android) that executes the app's Web code. Second, it supplies "bridges" that allow Web code to escape the browser and access local resources on the device. We analyze the software stack created by hybrid frameworks and demonstrate that it does not properly compose the access-control policies governing Web code and local code, respectively. Web code is governed by the same origin policy, whereas local code is governed by the access-control policy of the operating system (for example, user-granted permissions in Android). The bridges added by the framework to the browser have the same local access rights as the entire application, but are not correctly protected by the same origin policy. This opens the door to fracking attacks, which allow foreign-origin Web content included into a hybrid app (e.g., ads confined in iframes) to drill through the layers and directly access device resources. Fracking vulnerabilities are generic: they affect all hybrid frameworks, all embedded Web browsers, all bridge mechanisms, and all platforms on which these frameworks are deployed. We study the prevalence of fracking vulnerabilities in free Android apps based on the PhoneGap framework. Each vulnerability exposes sensitive local resources-the ability to read and write contacts list, local files, etc.-to dozens of potentially malicious Web domains. We also analyze the defenses deployed by hybrid frameworks to prevent resource access by foreign-origin Web content

  10. Breaking and Fixing Origin-Based Access Control in Hybrid Web/Mobile Application Frameworks

    PubMed Central

    Georgiev, Martin; Jana, Suman; Shmatikov, Vitaly

    2014-01-01

    Hybrid mobile applications (apps) combine the features of Web applications and “native” mobile apps. Like Web applications, they are implemented in portable, platform-independent languages such as HTML and JavaScript. Like native apps, they have direct access to local device resources—file system, location, camera, contacts, etc. Hybrid apps are typically developed using hybrid application frameworks such as PhoneGap. The purpose of the framework is twofold. First, it provides an embedded Web browser (for example, WebView on Android) that executes the app's Web code. Second, it supplies “bridges” that allow Web code to escape the browser and access local resources on the device. We analyze the software stack created by hybrid frameworks and demonstrate that it does not properly compose the access-control policies governing Web code and local code, respectively. Web code is governed by the same origin policy, whereas local code is governed by the access-control policy of the operating system (for example, user-granted permissions in Android). The bridges added by the framework to the browser have the same local access rights as the entire application, but are not correctly protected by the same origin policy. This opens the door to fracking attacks, which allow foreign-origin Web content included into a hybrid app (e.g., ads confined in iframes) to drill through the layers and directly access device resources. Fracking vulnerabilities are generic: they affect all hybrid frameworks, all embedded Web browsers, all bridge mechanisms, and all platforms on which these frameworks are deployed. We study the prevalence of fracking vulnerabilities in free Android apps based on the PhoneGap framework. Each vulnerability exposes sensitive local resources—the ability to read and write contacts list, local files, etc.—to dozens of potentially malicious Web domains. We also analyze the defenses deployed by hybrid frameworks to prevent resource access by foreign

  11. Using research evidence to reframe the policy debate around mental illness and guns: process and recommendations.

    PubMed

    McGinty, Emma E; Frattaroli, Shannon; Appelbaum, Paul S; Bonnie, Richard J; Grilley, Anna; Horwitz, Joshua; Swanson, Jeffrey W; Webster, Daniel W

    2014-11-01

    Recent mass shootings have prompted a national dialogue around mental illness and gun policy. To advance an evidence-informed policy agenda on this controversial issue, we formed a consortium of national gun violence prevention and mental health experts. The consortium agreed on a guiding principle for future policy recommendations: restricting firearm access on the basis of certain dangerous behaviors is supported by the evidence; restricting access on the basis of mental illness diagnoses is not. We describe the group's process and recommendations.

  12. Alcohol misuse, firearm violence perpetration, and public policy in the United States.

    PubMed

    Wintemute, Garen J

    2015-10-01

    Firearm violence is a significant public health problem in the United States, and alcohol is frequently involved. This article reviews existing research on the relationships between alcohol misuse; ownership, access to, and use of firearms; and the commission of firearm violence, and discusses the policy implications of these findings. Narrative review augmented by new tabulations of publicly-available data. Acute and chronic alcohol misuse is positively associated with firearm ownership, risk behaviors involving firearms, and risk for perpetrating both interpersonal and self-directed firearm violence. In an average month, an estimated 8.9 to 11.7 million firearm owners binge drink. For men, deaths from alcohol-related firearm violence equal those from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. Enforceable policies restricting access to firearms for persons who misuse alcohol are uncommon. Policies that restrict access on the basis of other risk factors have been shown to reduce risk for subsequent violence. The evidence suggests that restricting access to firearms for persons with a documented history of alcohol misuse would be an effective violence prevention measure. Restrictions should rely on unambiguous definitions of alcohol misuse to facilitate enforcement and should be rigorously evaluated. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Policy offers protection from harassment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McNutt, Marcia

    We face a number of legal and ethical issues in our work as scientists and as AGU members. To uphold the highest ethical standards in our professional activities, the Council has adopted policies on free access to published material, ethics in publishing, and misconduct in science. But what about guidelines to govern the personal behavior that constitutes harassment, sexual or otherwise?For years the AGU headquarters staff has had a policy that offers protection from harassment and rules for dealing with it, but the membership went without one until 1994. That year the Council adopted a policy that extends to the membership as well as to the staff and the vendors they encounter at meetings. The law only requires a policy to prevent harassment in the workplace, but the Council felt that a harassment policy was particularly important for members because the subtle behavior that can constitute harassment is most likely to occur at events that combine work and social interaction, such as the meetings, conferences, and training seminars that AGU members attend.

  14. Extending key sharing: how to generate a key tightly coupled to a network security policy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kazantzidis, Matheos

    2006-04-01

    Current state of the art security policy technologies, besides the small scale limitation and largely manual nature of accompanied management methods, are lacking a) in real-timeliness of policy implementation and b) vulnerabilities and inflexibility stemming from the centralized policy decision making; even if, for example, a policy description or access control database is distributed, the actual decision is often a centralized action and forms a system single point of failure. In this paper we are presenting a new fundamental concept that allows implement a security policy by a systematic and efficient key distribution procedure. Specifically, we extend the polynomial Shamir key splitting. According to this, a global key is split into n parts, any k of which can re-construct the original key. In this paper we present a method that instead of having "any k parts" be able to re-construct the original key, the latter can only be reconstructed if keys are combined as any access control policy describes. This leads into an easily deployable key generation procedure that results a single key per entity that "knows" its role in the specific access control policy from which it was derived. The system is considered efficient as it may be used to avoid expensive PKI operations or pairwise key distributions as well as provides superior security due to its distributed nature, the fact that the key is tightly coupled to the policy, and that policy change may be implemented easier and faster.

  15. 1 CFR 500.150 - Program accessibility: Existing facilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... BASIS OF HANDICAP IN PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR EMPLOYMENT POLICY... or activity so that the program or activity, when viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to... activity or in undue financial and administrative burdens. In those circumstances where agency personnel...

  16. Social Policy and Immigrant Joblessness in Britain, Germany and Sweden

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kesler, Christel

    2006-01-01

    I examine patterns of joblessness among immigrant men and women from 33 countries of origin now living in Britain, Germany and Sweden. Access to welfare, access to the labor market, job segregation and institutional support for women's employment define distinct policy configurations in these three destinations. Findings show that gaps in…

  17. elevatr: Access Elevation Data from Various APIs | Science ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Several web services are available that provide access to elevation data. This package provides access to several of those services and returns elevation data either as a SpatialPointsDataFrame from point elevation services or as a raster object from raster elevation services. Currently, the package supports access to the Mapzen Elevation Service, Mapzen Terrain Service, and the USGS Elevation Point Query Service. The R language for statistical computing is increasingly used for spatial data analysis . This R package, elevatr, is in response to this and provides access to elevation data from various sources directly in R. The impact of `elevatr` is that it will 1) facilitate spatial analysis in R by providing access to foundational dataset for many types of analyses (e.g. hydrology, limnology) 2) open up a new set of users and uses for APIs widely used outside of R, and 3) provide an excellent example federal open source development as promoted by the Federal Source Code Policy (https://sourcecode.cio.gov/).

  18. Apparatus, method and system to control accessibility of platform resources based on an integrity level

    DOEpatents

    Jenkins, Chris; Pierson, Lyndon G.

    2016-10-25

    Techniques and mechanism to selectively provide resource access to a functional domain of a platform. In an embodiment, the platform includes both a report domain to monitor the functional domain and a policy domain to identify, based on such monitoring, a transition of the functional domain from a first integrity level to a second integrity level. In response to a change in integrity level, the policy domain may configure the enforcement domain to enforce against the functional domain one or more resource accessibility rules corresponding to the second integrity level. In another embodiment, the policy domain automatically initiates operations in aid of transitioning the platform from the second integrity level to a higher integrity level.

  19. Improving Access to Hospice Care: Informing the Debate

    PubMed Central

    CARLSON, MELISSA D.A.; MORRISON, R. SEAN; BRADLEY, ELIZABETH H.

    2015-01-01

    The most frequently cited policy solution for improving access to hospice care for patients and families is to expand hospice eligibility criteria under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. However, the substantial implications of such a policy change have not been fully articulated or evaluated. This paper seeks to identify and describe the implications of expanding Medicare Hospice Benefit eligibility on the nature of hospice care, the cost of hospice care to the Medicare program, and the very structure of hospice and palliative care delivery in the United States. The growth in hospice has been dramatic and the central issue facing policymakers and the hospice industry is defining the appropriate target population for hospice care. As policymakers and the hospice industry discuss the future of hospice and potential changes to the Medicare Hospice Benefit, it is critical to clearly delineate the options—and the implications and challenges of each option—for improving access to hospice care for patients and families. PMID:18363486

  20. Ocean Drilling Program: Web Site Access Statistics

    Science.gov Websites

    and products Drilling services and tools Online Janus database Search the ODP/TAMU web site ODP's main See statistics for JOIDES members. See statistics for Janus database. 1997 October November December accessible only on www-odp.tamu.edu. ** End of ODP, start of IODP. Privacy Policy ODP | Search | Database