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Biomedical subjects

G A Silver

Publications and source records attributed to G A Silver.

61 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1965

Electrical impedance of isolated amnion.

The electrical impedance of the guinea pig amniotic membrane was measured, under standardized conditions, over the frequency range of 20 to 7000 cycles/second. This impedance can be represented analytically by a simple frequency-dependent function which is precisely of the form of the Debye relaxation equation. The observed data exhibit a broad dispersion centered at a frequency of 1050 cycles/second and a narrow distribution of time constants centered about 152 microseconds, both effects being due to the polydisperse nature of amniotic tissue. If the narrow time-constant distribution is approximated by a single time constant, amnion impedance can be simulated by a simple electrical circuit of frequency-independent elements. The Maxwell-Wagner interfacial treatment, although successfully adapted for cell suspensions, is shown to lose its quantitative significance in the case of the tightly structured amnion. In addition, determinations were made on the chemical composition of amniotic fluid, fetal blood and urine, and maternal blood and urine; the DC potential across the amniotic membrane was also measured.

Amnion↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The route to a national health policy lies through the states.

National health program legislation has been becalmed in the Congress for almost 80 years. Despite periodic cries of "crisis," legislation never emerges from committee. Periodically, campaigns have been mounted without success. Tactical efforts to circumvent direct action by legislating bits and pieces of related programs, Medicare and Medicaid, health maintenance organization support, and pre-budgeting, have complicated operation of the medical care system and stimulated intractable cost inflation. For the first 150 years of American history, responsibility for public health and welfare legislation rested with the states. Most public health policies originated in a state or a few states and then later became national legislation. The state efforts were, in effect, natural experiments. After the Depression and the flood of funding from the federal government in subsequent years, the states faded as innovators. It is proposed that funding a few state models to restimulate state initiative in this regard will provide a more effective route to a national health program.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social medicine and social policy.

Social medicine as a term has achieved acceptance in medical education and medical practice, although there is still some question as to its acceptance in reality. The term had its origin in the vigorous nineteenth-century efforts at both medical and social reform, combining the two in a recognition of the intimate connection between social factors and the causation of disease. Henry Ernest Sigerist, a Swiss physician and noted scholar of medical history, formulated the broadest concept in the 1930s, attracting students and a latent American reform movement toward the idea of restructuring medical education as one part of social reform, and indicating ways of restructuring medical practice as another element in improving medical care at the same time. In addition to promulgating the doctrine, he established the policy of examining and describing systems of medical education and medical care in other parts of the world, not only to assist in improving medical care in countries with well-organized systems, but to assist countries with poor resources and lesser organizational capability in meeting the goals of social medicine. Doubt as to the durability of the concept has been expressed, insofar as the recommended improvements have lagged behind the expression, and because so many changes have taken place in the nature of medical practice, medical discoveries, and advances in technology. A closer examination of Sigerist's writings on the subject and evaluation of the circumstances around present-day problems would seem to indicate that the flaw is not in the doctrine, but in the lack of social application.

Curriculum↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ordering social objectives: National Health Service and National Health Insurance as policy options in organizing the medical care system.

For many years, a sharp distinction was made between NHS and NHI on the basis of payment and program focus. First, NHS was defined as a program essentially based on Congressional appropriations (general revenues); while NHI would be based on premiums largely derived from the insured. Second, NHS guaranteed service while NHI guaranteed only payment for services rendered.The distinctions were later extended from these definitions to include differences in response to resource needs, changing task descriptions and personnel assignments, more equitable redistribution of manpower, centralized administration and consumer participation.In general, if the goal were equity, NHS seemed more responsive than NHI.However, in recent years, the approach to NHI has been modified in response to criticism as well as increasing recognition of changed needs, and proposals for NHI like the Kennedy-Corman bill have become more like proposals for a NHS. In short, the difference today is largely one of immediate as against eventual transformation of the medical care system into a social instrument aiming to achieve equity. The major disagreement is whether the present medical care system lends itself to modification so as to achieve that end.

Community Participation↗