Posts

On This Day … 20 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1913 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neuropsychologist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994).

People (Deaths)

  • 1985 – Donald O. Hebb, Canadian psychologist and academic (b. 1904).

Roger Wolcott Sperry

Roger Wolcott Sperry (20 August 1913 to 17 April 1994) was an American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate who, together with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work with split-brain research.

A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Sperry as the 44th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Donald O. Hebb

Donald Olding Hebb FRS (22 July 1904 to 20 August 1985) was a Canadian psychologist who was influential in the area of neuropsychology, where he sought to understand how the function of neurons contributed to psychological processes such as learning.

He is best known for his theory of Hebbian learning, which he introduced in his classic 1949 work The Organisation of Behaviour. He has been described as the father of neuropsychology and neural networks. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Hebb as the 19th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. His views on learning described behaviour and thought in terms of brain function, explaining cognitive processes in terms of connections between neuron assemblies.

What is ICPC-2 Plus?

Published on by Andrew Marshall3 Comments

Introduction

ICPC-2 PLUS is an extended terminology classified to ICPC-2 (International Classification of Primary Care), which aids data entry, retrieval and analysis.

Background

ICPC-2 PLUS takes into account the frequency distribution of problems seen in primary health care. It allows for the classification of the patient’s reason for encounter (RFE), the problems/diagnosis managed, primary care interventions, and the ordering of the data of the primary care session in an episode of care structure.

ICPC-2 PLUS provides a list of possible terms matching a keyword (or start of a keyword) entered by the user. The user then selects the most appropriate term. Each term is already classified to ICPC-2 rubrics and a system of additional groupers that may include terms from multiple ICPC-2 rubrics.

Each term has one or more keywords linked to it which may include abbreviations, synonyms, generics or specifics. The keyword searching is thus much broader, faster and better controlled than text mining of free text and labels. Instead of guessing what the physician meant by a term (in free text) prior to classification, the physician is actually prompted with a small list of terms to select from which are already classified.

The product also includes a “natural language” label for each term which can be used for reports and letters.

Note: The PLUS extension mentioned here is not part of the ICPC-2 standard. The World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) and the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC) have no control over it although they do have control over the ICPC classification which the PLUS extension makes use of. It is similar to the difference between a car and fuel.

Brief History

ICPC-2 PLUS was the successor to ‘ICPC PLUS’ and were both designed by the Family Medicine Research Centre(FMRC) for use in Australia. ICPC 2 PLUS responsibility was transferred to the NCCH in July 2016 which continues to update and support ICPC-2 PLUS.

ICPC is being developed by the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC), and the first version was published as ICPC-1 in 1987 by Oxford University Press (OUP), and a revision and inclusion of criteria and definitions, was published in 1998 as ICPC-2.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICPC-2_PLUS >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

On This Day … 19 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1911 – Anna Terruwe, Dutch psychiatrist and author (d. 2004).

Anna Terruwe

Dr. Anna A. A. Terruwe (19 August 1911 to 28 April 2004, Deurne) was a Catholic psychiatrist from the Netherlands. She discovered emotional deprivation disorder and how obsessive-compulsive disorder could be healed: the “bevestigingsleer,” the idea of “affirmation.”

Terruwe based her work on that of Thomas Aquinas and “the relevance of Thomistic rational psychology to neurosis and its treatment.” Her work is also based on that of Professor W.J.A.J. Duynstee, C.SS.R., LL.D. who studied Aquinas. Her theories are based on Aquinas’ understanding of what he calls the “nature of man.”

On This Day … 18 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1914 – Lucy Ozarin, United States Navy lieutenant commander and psychiatrist (d. 2017).

People (Deaths)

  • 1990 – B.F. Skinner, American psychologist and philosopher, invented the Skinner box (b. 1904).

Lucy Ozarin

Lucy Dorothy Ozarin (18 August 1914 to 17 September 2017) was a psychiatrist who served in the United States Navy.

She was one of the first women psychiatrists commissioned in the Navy, and she was one of seven female Navy psychiatrists who served during World War II.

B.F. Skinner

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (20 March 1904 to 18 August 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviourist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.

Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions, a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement: If the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger.

Skinner developed behaviour analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviourism, and founded the experimental analysis of behaviour, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behaviour, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner’s most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement.

Skinner was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles. He imagined the application of his ideas to the design of a human community in his 1948 utopian novel, Walden Two, while his analysis of human behaviour culminated in his 1958 work, Verbal Behaviour.

Skinner, John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov, are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviourism. Accordingly, a June 2002 survey listed Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.

On This Day … 16 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1832 – Wilhelm Wundt, German physician, psychologist, and physiologist (d. 1920).

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (16 August 1832 to 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology.

Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, was the first person ever to call himself a psychologist. He is widely regarded as the “father of experimental psychology”. In 1879, at the University of Leipzig, Wundt founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research. This marked psychology as an independent field of study. By creating this laboratory he was able to establish psychology as a separate science from other disciplines. He also formed the first academic journal for psychological research, Philosophische Studien (from 1881 to 1902), set up to publish the institute’s research.

A survey published in American Psychologist in 1991 ranked Wundt’s reputation as first for “all-time eminence” based on ratings provided by 29 American historians of psychology. William James and Sigmund Freud were ranked a distant second and third.

What is the International Classification of Primary Care?

Published on by Andrew Marshall4 Comments

Introduction

The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) is a classification method for primary care encounters. It allows for the classification of the patient’s reason for encounter (RFE), the problems/diagnosis managed, primary or general health care interventions, and the ordering of the data of the primary care session in an episode of care structure.

Refer to ICPC-2 Plus.

It was developed by the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC), and was first published in 1987 by Oxford University Press (OUP). A revision and inclusion of criteria and definitions was published in 1998. The second revision was accepted within the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Family of International Classifications.

The classification was developed in a context of increasing demand for quality information on primary care as part of growing worldwide attention to global primary health care objectives, including the WHO’s target of “health for all”.

Brief History

The first version of ICPC, which was published in 1987, is referred to as ICPC-1. A subsequent revision which was published in the 1993 publication The International Classification of Primary Care in the European Community: With a Multi-Language Layer is known as ICPC-E.

The 1998 publication, of version 2, is referred to as ICPC-2. The acronym ICPC-2-E, refers to a revised electronic version, which was released in 2000. Subsequent revisions of ICPC-2 are also labelled with a release date.

Refer to ICPC-2 Plus.

Structure

Chapters

The ICPC contains 17 chapters:

  • A General and unspecified.
  • B Blood, blood forming organs, lymphatics, spleen.
  • D Digestive.
  • F Eye.
  • H Ear.
  • K Circulatory.
  • L Musculoskeletal.
  • N Neurological.
  • P Psychological.
  • R Respiratory.
  • S Skin.
  • T Endocrine, metabolic and nutritional.
  • U Urology.
  • W Pregnancy, childbirth, family planning.
  • X Female genital system and breast.
  • Y Male genital system.
  • Z Social problems.

Components

The ICPC classification, within each chapter, is based on 3 components coming from 3 different classifications:

  • Reason for Encounter Classification (1981).
  • International Classification of Process in Primary Care (IC-Process-PC) (1985).
  • International Classification of Health Problem in Primary Care (ICHPPC-2-d) (1976, 1983).

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Classification_of_Primary_Care >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

What is the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (Canada)?

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Introduction

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (French: Conseil d’examen du prix des médicaments brevetés) is a federal quasi-judicial regulatory and reporting agency in Canada with a mandate to protect consumers by ensuring that the prices of patented medication charged by manufacturers of patented drugs are not excessive. The board does this through its role as a regulator, and through its reporting on trends, research and development in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry.

The board investigates, reviews and negotiates the price of individual drugs that are still under patent and which have no generic substitutes. It establishes the maximum prices that can be charged in Canada for patented drugs.

Accountability

The board is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Health, the elected official responsible for the health portfolio. Under sections 89 and 100 of the Patent Act, the board produces an annual report submitted to the minister, who tables it in the House of Commons.

Background

Bill C-22, which was passed in 1987, established a compulsory licensing system under which drug patent holders were required to allow competing drug manufacturers to import their patented drug in exchange for a very modest 4% royalty, which resulted in an increase in the market share of generic drugs.  At the same time, it established the federal Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. The board determines a maximum price for individual drugs through a review process, and negotiates “voluntary compliance agreements” with drug companies to ensure that “manufacturer prices are within justification, and [are] not excessive”.

Annual Reports

According to their annual report for the fiscal year 2017, there were 1,391 patented medicines for human use that were reported, which included 80 new medicines. By 31 December 2017, there were 14 voluntary compliance undertakings accepted. Patented medicines represented 61.5% of the total medicine sales in Canada in 2017 up from 60.8% in 2016.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patented_Medicine_Prices_Review_Board >; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

On This Day … 15 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1958 – Simon Baron-Cohen, English-Canadian psychiatrist and author.

Simon Baron-Cohen

Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen FBA FBPsS FMedSci (born 15 August 1958) is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university’s Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1985, Baron-Cohen formulated the mind-blindness theory of autism, the evidence for which he collated and published in 1995. In 1997, he formulated the foetal sex steroid theory of autism, the key test of which was published in 2015.

He has also made major contributions to the fields of typical cognitive sex differences, autism prevalence and screening, autism genetics, autism neuroimaging, autism and technical ability, and synaesthesia. Baron-Cohen was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to autistic people.

On This Day … 14 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Births)

  • 1840 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German-Austrian psychologist and author (d. 1902).

Richard von Krafft-Ebing

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 to 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work Psychopathia Sexualis (1886).

Krafft-Ebing was born on 14 August 1840 in Mannheim, Germany. He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, where he specialised in psychiatry. He later practised in psychiatric asylums. After leaving his work in asylums, he pursued a career in psychiatry, forensics, and hypnosis.

He died in Graz on 22 December 1902. He was recognised as an authority on deviant sexual behaviour and its medico-legal aspects.

On This Day … 13 August [2022]

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

People (Deaths)

  • 1995 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech-English psychologist and author (b. 1926).

Jan Kresadlo

Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava (09 December 1926 to 13 August 1995), better known by his pen name Jan Křesadlo, was a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet.

An anti-communist, Pinkava emigrated to Britain with his wife and four children following the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet-led armies of the Warsaw pact. He worked as a clinical psychologist until his early retirement in 1982, when he turned to full-time writing. His first novel “Mrchopěvci” (GraveLarks) was published by Josef Škvorecký’s emigre publishing house 68 Publishers, and earned the 1984 Egon Hostovský prize.

He chose his pseudonym (which means firesteel) partly because it contains the uniquely Czech sound ř; in addition, he was fond of creating more pseudonyms such as Jake Rolands (an anagram), J.K. Klement (after his grandfather, for translations into English), Juraj Hron (for his Slovak-Moravian writings), Ferdinand Lučovický z Lučovic a na Suchým dole (for his music), Kamil Troud (for his illustrations), Ἰωάννης Πυρεῖα (for his Astronautilia), and more.

Pinkava was also active in choral music, composing (among others) a Glagolitic Mass. As well, he worked in mathematical logic, discovering the many-valued logic algebra which bears his name.

A polymath and polyglot, Pinkava was fond of setting intense goals for himself, such as translating Jaroslav Seifert’s interwoven sonnet cycle about Prague, ‘A Wreath of Sonnets’. He published a collection of his own poems in seven languages. Perhaps his most staggering achievement is ΑΣΤΡΟΝΑΥΤΙΛΙΑ Hvězdoplavba, a 6575-line science fiction epic poem, an odyssey in classical Homeric Greek, with its parallel hexameter translation into Czech. This was published shortly after his death, in a limited edition. (ISBN 80-237-2452-5) Only his first, prize-winning novel has been published in English translation, as GraveLarks in a bilingual edition in 1999 (ISBN 9788086013817) and in a revised edition in 2015 (ISBN 9780993377303).

He is the father of film director Jan Pinkava who received an Oscar for Geri’s Game in 1998 and also illustrated GraveLarks.