No abstract

The media plays a vital role in disseminating medical information to the public. However, the accuracy of the health information that is available varies widely. What is published in the media has important consequences on patients' decisions about their health, be it their faith in vaccines or the specific medication that they take. It can also influence the general public's perceptions of healthcare. There is a dire need for professionalism in health-related reporting which will ensure that the anonymity and autonomy of the subject as well as the receivers are protected. Inaccurate journalism can generate both false hopes and unnecessary fears. On the other hand, critical health journalism can help set records straight. This paper looks at both positive and negative impacts of medical journalism. It also outlines some of the challenges and deficiencies in medical journalism, and obstacles faced by journalists in reporting health news. We conclude with key aspects that need to be implemented for the successful reporting and dissemination of health-related information.

The human placenta is a fetomaternal organ involved in nutrition, waste elimination and gas exchange between the mother and her developing fetus. In the recent years, it has gained popularity as an organ of immense regenerative potential. Thus, cells and tissues isolated from placentae, are being used for a multitude of clinical applications. As such there are 3 main entities that can be harvested from a term placenta which is usually discarded following delivery. Most research published in this area focuses on two main cell types mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from various parts of the placenta and epithelial cells isolated from amniotic membrane and the amniotic membrane by itself for its numerous biological properties. The two cell types show phenotypic plasticity and lineage specific differentiation potential. The aim of this review is to provide clinicians an insight to the regenerative capacity of cells and tissues of placental origin and to summarize their current clinical applications.

IntroductionVenous leg ulcers are the commonest type of chronic lower leg ulcers worldwide. It impacts the patient's quality of life significantly. Our objective was to assess current evidence on using human amniotic membranes (HAM) in venous leg ulcer management. MethodsGoogle Scholar, PubMed, and the Cochrane library were utilized to search the following search terms (MeSH terms in PubMed) in the abstract field or in the title, "Amnion" OR "Placenta" AND "Varicose ulcer "OR "Stasis ulcer" OR "Chronic venous ulceration" in studies published until the 1st of March 2022. We used standard methods to assess the quality of the published articles. The articles thus included were cohort studies (both retrospective and prospective) and randomized control trials. ResultsWhen the above criteria were used in the search, 12, 8, 15,6, and 4 citations were found in MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Embase, and Web of Science respectively. The 15 nonduplicate studies were screened with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we selected 7 studies for this review. However, the amniotic membrane preparations used in these studies were not uniform. All randomized controlled trials (n=3) have concluded that there is an improvement in healed ulcer percentage at the end of the study in the interventional group when compared to the control group, which was statistically significant (p<0.05%). The percentage of ulcers that had healed at the end study was 60% in interventional groups of the above trials. One prospective study showed that the recurrence rate was less than 30% at a 3-year follow-up examination. We couldn't perform a meta-analysis due to study heterogeneity.

specialists to medical students. Since the expected number of calls was high, the service decided to recruit and train medical students as first contact responders. At the time of initiation, medical education of students in Sri Lanka was limited to online lectures and clinical training was on halt for most academic batches. Thus, recruiting medical students to the system created the opportunity to train them in healthcare provision without actually exposing them to the ongoing pandemic.Volunteers were invited through social media groups. The volunteers, including doctors and medical students, were trained separately via initial online training programmes. Training needs were identified according to the diverse levels of knowledge and experience of volunteers. A range of competencies, including clinical reasoning, patient management, communication skills, teamwork, health education and handling difficult situations had to be inculcated. This included training on how to assess a patient and get all essential information within the system allocated time limit of 10 minutes.