Covid-19: Emerging Considerations for Body Sourcing and Handling. A Perspective View from Nigeria

The current Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has spread to about 220 countries of the world and has resulted in a significant number of deaths globally. Infections are still on the rise, and the impact on the global death rate could be devastating. There are fears over the likely impact of a large number of deaths on body sourcing and handling of cadavers for teaching and research. Historically, epidemics come with several challenges and have often led to some level of negligence of ethical practices and health and safety regulations associated with body sourcing and handling. The authors highlighted some emerging problems in this article, focusing on Africa and Nigeria in particular. These problems include a higher risk of coronavirus exposure for body handlers, shortage of cadavers for teaching and learning, a lack of standard regulations leading to unethical body sourcing and handling, and a lack of monitoring and collaboration needed for a well-coordinated Covid-19 pandemic response strategy. If these issues are ignored, the previous gains made in anatomical ethical practices may be destroyed. Some useful recommendations for policymaking geared toward prevention or curtailing these emerging issues have been instilled in this article.     

The Unintentional Effects on Body Donation Programs of a Competency-Based Curriculum in Postgraduate Medical Education

As medical programs place increasing importance on competency-based training and surgical simulations for residents, anatomy laboratories, and body donation programs find themselves in a position of adapting to changing demands. To better assess the demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens and evaluate the possible impacts that competency-based medical education could have upon the body donation program of McGill University, Canada, the authors tracked, over the course of the last 10 years, the number of soft-embalmed specimens, along with the number of teaching sessions and the residents enrolled in competency-based programs that are using cadaveric material. The results reveal that the number of soft-embalmed specimens used within residency training increased from 5 in 2009 to 35 in 2019, representing an increase from 6% of bodies to 36.5% of the total number of body donors embalmed in this institution. Correspondingly, the number of annual teaching sessions for residents increased from 19 in 2012 to 116 in 2019. These increases in teaching are correlated with increasing number of residents enrolled in competency-based programs over the last 3 years (Pearson r ranging from 0.9705 to 0.9903, and R² ranging from 0.9418 to 0.9808). Those results suggest that the new skill-centered curricula which require residents to perform specific tasks within realistic settings, exhibit a growing demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens. Institutions’ body donation programs must, therefore, adapt to those greater need for cadaveric specimens, which presents many challenges, ranging from the logistical to the ethical.     

A Bioethos for Bodies: Respecting a Priceless Resource

The value that willed body donors provide to medical education is priceless. Their precious gift helps to teach anatomy, spatial relationships between morphological structures, anatomical variation, and professionalism to medical students in a way that plastic models, podcasts, and lectures cannot. They are also an important resource for medical research and a wide variety of postgraduate training opportunities. While many body donation programs throughout the world are nonprofit organizations, there are body donation companies in the United States that sell donors for-profit. These “body brokers” have accumulated large profits from this business. It is incongruous that others would profit from such a priceless, freely donated gift. To prevent this incongruity, it is proposed that the international anatomical community develop a normative culture (a bioethos) for body donation programs. This would involve the conscious and systematic development of ethical principles for the day-to-day policies and practices of institutions that collect and use human bodies. With the development of this bioethos, a cultural shift in how donors are treated would occur and, over time, this would become the normal practice. These principles would become fundamental and foundational for the procurement and use of priceless human tissues.     

奇效骨伤散在治疗老年运动性骨损伤中的应用

老年运动性骨损伤是近期逐渐增多的疾患 ,本门诊部近 1年半以来接诊此类病人 38例 ,应用外敷自拟奇效骨伤散为主进行治疗 ,可迅速使骨折端达到牢靠连接 ,解除制动进行功能锻炼 ,肢体功能恢复快。与常规骨损伤疗效相比 ,疗程显著缩短 ,具快捷安全、方便经济、适用范围广等特点。优良率达 10 0 % ,且无明显并发症及后遗症。     

信息时代的医学资料室与人文精神

针对信息时代技术主义的上亢和医疗行业中一些有违人愿的现象，认为医学资料室在高扬人文精神的同时应倡导医学人道精神、善美人格精神、敬业奉献精神和开拓、进取、创新精神。     

对当前大学生考试作弊问题的探讨

分析了高校学生考试作弊的现状,论述了引起大学生考试作弊的10种心理,并从加强思想教育、加强考试管理、加强教风学风建设、加大对考试违纪学生处理力度等方面提出了防治考试作弊的措施.     

"武科应试器械"考论

从体育文化角度对古代“武科”考试内容、应试器械等进行系统研究。结果显示:“武科”,又称“武举”,创立于唐武则天长安二年(702年),废于清末光绪二十七年(1901年8月29日),历经一千二百年。考试分外场(以长垛、马射、步射、刀术、枪术、翘关等体育项目为主)和内场(策论)。唐“武科”主要外场器械为弓箭,辅从刀、枪等。宋以弓箭刀枪为主同时将弩踏等作为考试项目。明代“武科”项目沿袭唐宋,外场器械未有变化。清代开始增加了“技勇”项目,分别为开硬弓、舞大刀、掇石。课题研究旨在为我国民族传统体育学的长足发展提供实质性的理论文献资料。     

顺德科举鼎盛背后的三级支持

顺德科举一直以数量多,人才精而名闻远近,究其原因,历代语焉未详。从历代政府部门、民间团体、乡间宗族对科举人士的经济支持和精神奖励入手,分析了顺德科举鼎盛背后从政府到社会至宗族所形成的三位一体的支持结构,以及因此所构成的科举人才产生的物质基础和精神动力。     

高校球类专项课的考核与心理训练

高校的大学生在球类专项课的考核中,心理障碍的表现十分普遍和频繁,本文对此进行了原因分析和有针对性的心理训练方法的探讨。     

循证医学和医学论文中统计学问题编辑鉴定的必要性

介绍循证医学这一新兴学说及其对21世纪临床医学的影响，指出为适应这一转变，开展医学论言语中统计学问题的编辑鉴定研究的必要性，开展此项研究可以：1）普及医学统计知识，2）提高临床与科研水平，3）提高作者撰写与阅读能力，4）提高医学期刊质量，5）丰富编辑学研究的内涵，并指出了编辑鉴审研究的初步思路。