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。     

学校体育及身体保健设问精解

针对学校体育及身体保健方面许多常识性问题上存在的认识偏误，设置40问并从体育基本理论的高度分别进行了简明解说。     

太极拳的保健作用与机理探讨

从运动生理学的角度对太极拳运动的保健作用与机理进行了论述。     

高校体育保健康复专业的发展及可行性分析

体育保健康复专业是近年来随着我国城市功能的逐渐完善,社会体育、休闲体育及社区体育的快速发展而逐渐“兴旺”起来的热门专业。由于我国大部分体育院校并未开设这一专业,面对人才供应的短缺,建议部分具备开设这一专业条件的体育院校应开设体育保健康复专业,以推动我国社会体育事业的健康发展。     

直面惨淡的人生——刘恒解读

刘恒的创作缺乏快乐,他看到的是生命的困惑,致力于探究生存之道,探索人性之谜,揭示无所不在的人生宿命。存在与消亡,实有与虚无,意义与空无,成为他永恒的话题。     

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。