Overemphasis on appearance and strong appearance stereotypes to date are expected to contribute to the challenges and distress of people who live with skin conditions and those with appearance distress. Skin conditions are highly prevalent and are often associated with high levels of distress and disruption in the life and well-being of patients.…

Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis projects obtain, harmonise, and synthesise original data from multiple studies. Many IPD meta-analyses of randomised trials are initiated to identify treatment effect modifiers at the individual level, thus requiring statistical modelling of interactions between treatment effect and participant-level…

This article introduces an innovative teaching and learning tool called "Edelman Gamblegrams" that aims to help medical learners better understand disorders related to water/plasma tonicity homeostasis, i.e., hyponatremia and hypernatremia. Gamblegrams, named after physician James L. Gamble, are bar diagrams displaying the relative…

In this article, we begin by discussing approximately thirty picture books dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic published digitally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other English-speaking countries in the first six months of 2020. The worldwide impact of COVID-19 resulted in the rapid global digital publication of numerous…

Spinal osteochondrosis is an urgent problem of modern medicine, sociology, psychology, and a number of other disciplines. The interdisciplinary status of degenerative-dystrophic diseases of the spine is indicated by the fact that they are a manifestation of both a number of somatic and neurological diseases. Every year the number of patients with…

Rare diseases are usually complex syndromes, which sometimes cause extensive functional impairments affecting everyday life. The number of rare diseases and of people having one is increasing. Children with rare diseases often display special education needs and require support and adapted pedagogical methods to participate and achieve academic…

Health services play one of the important roles in achieving equity in health. In the absence of equity awareness, health services searching for practice excellence will themselves inadvertently be causing health inequity rather than closing the gap. The elderly are increasingly occupying considerable capacities of health services to all. This…

There was a time when science was viewed as inherently objective, without bias. We now know that isn't true--scientists bring their life experiences and beliefs with them to work. The designing, funding, and reporting of research are all framed by societal influences and implemented by those who have been privileged to serve in these roles.…

Longstanding impressions of children as innocent to human frailty, alongside the emphasis on efficiency and management in schools, play undeniable roles in the way teachers engage with children experiencing death and illness. This paper draws from a larger study of 116 written childhood memories from prospective teachers and practitioners enrolled…

Gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction is a common comorbidity of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and is associated with increased severity of characteristic autism-associated symptoms. However, the underlying biological mechanisms for GI dysfunction symptoms in children with ASD are unknown. This review explores potential explanations for these…

This article examines the chronic health conditions of African Americans who experience disparities because of poverty, low literacy, and cultural practices that affect decisions about food, nutrition, and health care. It will examine governmental policies, for example, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Artiga et al., 2020), and how these policies…

Aragón, Acevedo-Díaz and García-Carmona study prospective biology teachers' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS). In my comment, I would first like to step back and ask "what it is to understand something", i.e. the sciences. I will turn to a quasi-Wittgensteinian epistemological tradition and suggest that, contrary to our habit…

Meta-analyses of clinical trials typically focus on one outcome at a time. However, treatment decision-making depends on an overall assessment of outcomes balancing benefit in various domains and potential risks. This calls for meta-analysis methods for combined outcomes that encompass information from different domains. When individual patient…

Over the past decade, the development of three-dimensional mammalian cell organization--called human organoids--from stem cells has provided a framework for future clinical therapies. As human organoid research progresses, we also need to keep in mind the cross-cultural and ethical dimensions of human organoids research. Our review article aims to…

Biology is a data-driven discipline facilitated greatly by computer programming skills. This article describes an introductory experiential programming activity that can be integrated into distance learning environments. Students are asked to develop their own Python programs to identify the nature of alleles linked to disease. This activity…