In today’s talking points: Fewer men entering the nursing profession in China, as a result of widely held views and prejudice; Regrowing tissues or organs if illness or injury strikes, may be just around the corner; Concerns obtaining new medicines due to the ‘barricade’ regulations; Global organ transplantation community to learn from the expertise of Chinese doctors
Can We Grow Human Organs in Space?
A worldwide goal of discovering and enabling humans to regrow tissues or organs if illness or injury strikes, may be just around the corner. Chinese scientist from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are currently working on stem cell research on the Tianzhou-1 China’s first cargo spacecraft. The overall aim is to create cultures of functional tissues like hearts, kidneys, livers and spleens confirms member of the research team Lei Xiaohua. These embryotic stem cells can self-renew and become and type of cell in the body. The experiments are currently remotely controlled adding a level of difficulty, however scientist are looking to conduct their experiments on the effects of micro-gravity on embryonic stem cell proliferation and differentiation in the near future in person. Being one of the most highly regarded research fields in the 21st century, new methods may improve in-vitro expansion of the embryonic stems cell in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Read more at news.xinhuanet.com
Why Accelerated Medicines are Critical to Australian Patients
Access to new medicines play a vital role in the lives of many Australian patients and the success of their treatments. Usually in excellent range of high-class therapies recent concerns have been voiced about obtaining these new medicines due to the ‘barricade’ of the regulatory (Therapeutic Goods Administration/TGA) and reimbursement (Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee/PBAC) processes that are time-consuming and explicably high levels of safety evidence are costing patients time. Efforts are now in the process to expedite access to medicines and introduce efforts to streamline regulatory company approvals. Although substantial research has been conducted worldwide, especially within the UK’s Cancer Drugs Fund which ultimately proved to exceed the budget by 50% having little patient survival impact. A topic to be monitored by health organisations, this issue remains to lack evidence available encircling safely, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Read more at hospitalhealth.com
China’s Expertise in Organ Donation: a Global Example
Australian organ trafficking researcher, Campbell Fraser, has urged the global organ transplantation community to learn from the expertise of Chinese doctors in this field. Wang Haibo, director of the China Organ Transplant Response System has reported that China’s reforms in the organ transplantation field have been increasingly recognised overseas, culminating in China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee briefing the Political Academy Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism at the Vatican earlier this year.
China has introduced a number of reforms to end the practice of gaining organs from executed prisoners and have since established a public organ donation system. The use of organs harvested from executed prisoners has since been banned. Findings of a recent survey have revealed that approximately 70% of the Chinese public supported organ donation.
Read more at ChinaDaily
Hospitals look to remedy the low levels of male Nurses
Recent findings show that far fewer men are entering the nursing profession in China, as a result of widely held views and prejudice. Little over 3% of a single year’s cohort in nursing at Hefei Vocational and Technical College is male. On a national scale, a 2014 study showed that only 1.9% of all nurses in China were male. This can be explained by the widely held opinion that nursing is traditionally a female occupation and the fact that some patients are not well-adjusted to male nurses, some even refusing treatment from them. Director of nursing at Hefei First Hospital Group, states that these perceptions are outdated and flawed. She highlights its complexity and advocates for reform, pointing out that in some cases, male nurses may even be more suitable than females, particularly those involving intensive and elderly care.
Read more at ChinaDaily