Reacting to Epidemics:The Innovative Imperial Public Health System during the Late Northern Song Dynasty

Song China was a period in which China experienced a great increase in its population.Concurrently,the Song dynasty also experienced a rise in the frequency of epidemics and two major wars with the Western Xia and Liao dynasties during the 1000s and 1040s.The consequences of these changes were exacerbated by the increased geographical mobility of certain social groups such as traders and examinees attending civil service examinations.Thus,casualties of wars,epidemics,or disease,especially of people whose families were far away and could not care for them were left without care and“their corpses often lay bare along the roads.”This new social environment created a need for general relief.The Northern Song government(960-1127 CE),especially during the reign of Emperor Huizong,established an innovative public health system to address this issue.The public health system included poorhouses,public hospitals,and pauper’s cemeteries.The first were more of charity organizations,whereas the latter two promoted public health by providing medical services for the poor and burial for those that nobody cared for.In terms of rationale behind these institutions,on the one hand,they constituted an attempt to get the poor and homeless off the streets while providing them relief or burial.On the other hand,it seems that Huizong’s deep concern with medicine propelled him to design and implement a comprehensive public health system oriented to prevent contagion and outbreak of epidemics.This article depicts the background,the organization,and the functions of the system.The article also discusses the conditions and reasons that gave rise to such a unique undertaking by the Northern Song government.

Radio-Medicine and Public Health in Rural Ghana

Radio is know-how that comes with low manufacturing costs, and low infrastructure costs and its marginal cost of distribution is very low which is close to zero. This study was conducted to examine the rate at which radios advertise medical services and products;the factors that promote the patronage of radio-medicine and evaluate the effects of radio-medicine on people who patronize it. The study took place at Agogo by interviewing 50 people belonging to 10 different professional groups as follows: Farmers, Drivers, shopkeepers, tailors/seamstresses, teachers, hairdressers, barbers, market women, students and the unemployed. Through SPSS, the data was analyzed and the result indicated that 44.0% listen to radio once a day, 14.0% listen every hour, and 42.0% listen all day. On the reasons for patronizing radio-medicine, 24% bought per testimonies shared from others, 12% said it is easy to patronize, 12.0% do that for affordability and effectiveness, 8.0% said it is good, 4.0% were highly convinced by suppliers, 4.0% patronized because there are no side effects, 12.0% were for just trials, 10.0% said there is no time to go to the hospital, 8.0% did so because they had minor conditions and 6.0% patronized for first aid and relieve of symptoms. In addition, 68.0% agreed that the medicine worked for them as expected but 32.0% agreed that the medicine did not work as expected. It was concluded that most people listen to radio all day and most of them participate, in medicines advertised on the radio, because of testimonies shared by others. Even-though majority of the respondents thought they could be affected they did not care about it. Recommendations have been made to the Ministry of Health to regulate radio-medicine and its patronage and also for further research by research institutions.

Public Health Campaigns and Medicine Use Awareness: A Systematic Literature Review

This study investigates the medicine awareness, which can be defined as the increase in knowledge and understanding of the general public on appropriate medicine use. Objective: To identify the characteristics of Public Health campaigns that focus on medicine use and/or medicine awareness. Study Design: Systematic review focusing on pre- and post-campaign surveys. Methods: Electronic databases: PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Global Health, and Google Scholar were searched. Articles within the last 10 years, with a focus on adults over the age of 18 were used to report findings. Results: A total of 4336 studies were reviewed after which eight were identified, which focused on medicines use and/or awareness. Most campaigns emphasized the knowledge and understanding of patients on the importance of appropriate medicine use and drew a comparison from pre- to post-campaign results. A limited number of Public Health campaigns demonstrated an increase in the level of medicines use awareness of patients. Various tools were used to portray the message across in the campaigns. These included, video, written information, face to face approaches, as well as educational games. Four studies demonstrated a statistically significant increase, in awareness of the public in regards to medication. However, the remaining studies were not successful in portraying a significant impact. Conclusion: Most campaigns demonstrated a limited increase in level of medicine use awareness in their post-campaign surveys. The results support the need for a comprehensive Public Health campaign that focuses on medicine use.

Application of VPN Technique in the Construction of Public Health Information System

Summary： Data communication and sharing of five level network of Public Health Information System, i.e. nation, province, district （city）, county, and town, as far as to the countryside level were described, and how to apply the three solutions, i.e. Access VPN, Intranet VPN, and Extranet VPN of VPN technique to achieve the appropriation of the public network was also presented.

Discussion on the Information Collection Methods of Public Health Emergency Files

In public health emergencies, the collection of archival information in the area of public health emergencies is very important, which can provide a reference for the early warning and processing mechanism. At the present stage, the unlimited demand of archival users for resources and the convenience of obtaining resources have become the two driving forces to promote the “transformation” and “growth” of archives. Public health emergencies, the transformation of archives collection and service mode, social media has become an indispensable platform for user information exchange, sharing and transmission, which requires archives to change the mode of archives acquisition and storage. Archival users require more interactive, targeted and cutting-edge forms of access and archival services are also developing toward diversified functions and connotations. Archival information resource sharing is also an important link in this development trend. This paper attempts to analyze the collection methods of archives departments in public health emergencies, and then puts forward the corresponding measures for archives departments to play their functions, such as flexibly solving the needs of archives access, strengthening the development of information resources, doing a good job in the collection of relevant archives, and publicizing archives work in combination with hot spots. This paper discusses the completeness of archival data collection, the means of archival management, the scientific classification of archival data, the ways of archival data collection and so on.

A study on predicting crisis information dissemination in epidemic-level public health events

Crisis information dissemination plays a key role in the development of emergency responses to epidemic-level public health events.Therefore,clarifying the causes of crisis information dissemination and making accurate predictions to effectively control such situations have attracted extensive attention.Based on media richness theory and persuasion theory,this study constructs an index system of crisis information dissemination impact factors from two aspects:the crisis information publisher and the published crisis information content.A multi-layer perceptron is used to analyze the weight of the index system,and the prediction is transformed into a pattern classification problem to test crisis information dissemination.In this study,COVID-19 is considered a representative event.An experiment is conducted to predict the crisis information dissemination of COVID-19 in two megacities.Data related to COVID-19 from these two megacities are acquired from the well-known Chinese social media platform Weibo.The experimental results show that not only the identity but also the social influence of the information publisher has a significant impact on crisis information dissemination in epidemic-level public health events.Furthermore,the proposed model achieves more than 95%test accuracy,precision rate,recall value and f1-score in the prediction task.The study provides decision-making support for government departments and a guide for correctly disseminating crisis information and public opinion during future epidemic-level public health events.

An everlasting role of genetics and genomics in public health: a meeting report of ACGA-HKSMG International Conference on Genetic and Genomic Medicine 2008

The Association of Chinese Geneticists in America （ACGA） and the Hong Kong Society of Medical Genetics （HKSMG） held their first joint Conference on Genetic and Genomic Medicine in Hong Kong from June 9-11 in 2008 at the Cheung Kung Hai Conference Center, William MW Mong Block, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong. Other co-organizers included the University of Hong Kong and Chinese Society of Medical Genetics. A satellite conference ＂ACGA-WZMC International Symposium of Genetics and Translational Medicine＂, co-organized with Wenzhou Medical College and Chinese Society of Medical Genetics, was held from June 12-14, 2008 at Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province of China.

Identification of Chinese Medicine Constitution in Public Health Services

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and prompting physical and mental health through evaluation, policy development and sanitary measures. The development of public health has become an important part of health care reform in China, and it requires the participation of Chinese medicine(CM) in the practice of public health. This study analyzed the problems of CM services in public health, suggested that the identification of CM constitution could propose an application paradigm of CM services in public health, and described from aspects of theory, technology and application. The identification of CM constitution gained national approval and support of government and industry. With the application and popularization of this technology, it will promote the establishment of characteristic CM preventive care system and the development of public health.

Promising of spatial-temporal model in public health

Investigating the transmission of infectious diseases, predicting the epidemic trend of an infectious disease and evaluating the effects of control measures are the continuing subject of public health participators. In recent years the spatial-temporal model has been proposed as a powerful tool to get this information from large incomplete and insufficiently general monitoring data.

Connecting Information to Promote Public Health

With the development of information technology in the past 12 years,China has established the specialized or vertical web-based information systems for data collection of disease and related risk factor.These information systems are described as public health information systems(PHIS) in China.When PHIS has thus evolved in a haphazard and fragmented way under the pressure administrative,economic and legal,local health workers who are overburdened with multiple and timeconsuming reporting requirements cannot deliver timely,accurate and complete data.Seeing that the information of disease surveillance is provided by hospitals and health service centers in China and that the development of electronic medical record(EMR) and electronic health record(EHR) occurs under the policy and investment of health since 2009 in China,there should be a connection and data sharing mechanism between EMR(EHR) and PHIS to support public health surveillance and public health decision-making.The paper aims at discussing current status and problems of PHIS in China,making a brief introduction on the blueprint of health information technology in China,exploring solution for interoperability between PHIS and EHR(EMR),and sharing some experiences and lessons from pilot project on automatic notifiable infectious disease reporting.

The Role of Library and Information Science Education in the Development of Community Health Information Services for People Living with HIV/AIDS: Perspectives of Directors and Managers of Public Libraries

This article identifies the role of library and information science (LIS) education in the development of community health information services for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Preliminary findings are presented from semi- structured qualitative interviews that were conducted with eleven directors and managers of local branches in the Knox County Public Library (KCPL) System that is located in the East Tennessee region in the United States. Select feedback reported by research participants is summarized in the article about strategies in LIS education that can help local public librarians and others in their efforts to become more responsive information providers to PLWHA. Research findings help better understand the issues and concerns regarding the development of digital and non-digital health information services for PLWHA in local public library institutions.

Preliminary Expert Consensus on the Scientific Evaluation Standard of Health Works for Public

The popularization of health science is an important part of the Plan of Healthy China 2030.It is of great significance to establish the evaluation standard of health works for public in order to solve the problem of mixed quality in the field of health science popularization in China.The scientific evaluation of health science should be based on evidence-based method,according to six aspects:author,evidence selection,evidence application,evidence evaluation,peer review&publishing platform and conflict of interest.

Literature,Medicine,and Public Health:An Interview with Sally Shuttleworth

Sally Shuttleworth is Professor of English and former Head of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy(FBA). In 2021, she was included in The Queens' s Birthday Honours List and became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE). She has published extensively on the interrelated study of Victorian literature and science, especially medicine and public health, including The Mind of the Child: Child Development in Literature, Science and Medicine, 1840-1900(2020) and Anxious Times: Medicine and Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Britain(2019). In this interview, which was conducted during the interviewer's visit at the University of Oxford in early 2023, Prof. Shuttleworth discusses several major issues concerning the interdisciplinary study of “literature-medicine”: the borders of this field, the rise of Health Humanities, women's writings and healthcare, and the mission of humanists in the post-epidemic period.

PPPM (Predictive, Preventive and Personalized Medicine) as a New Model of the National and International Healthcare Services and Thus a Promising Strategy to Prevent a Disease: From Basics to Practice

Nowadays the system of public health is constructed in such a manner so that its main objective is the recovery of an already sick person, while prediction and prevention receive little attention. Meanwhile the development of these aspects of medicine can lead to the ability to control morbidity among the population, to identify chronic and genetic diseases in the early stages of development, and thus to prevent their further progression. This will reduce traditionally high costs of sick people treatment and the number of disabled population, and improve the quality and duration of life. The elaboration of new fields of science that are working on the study and interpretation of data obtained during laboratory and clinical research, creation of new methods for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, provides an opportunity now to implement a new strategy, called PPPM, and gets promising results, which should lead to further development of an existing medicine.

Universal health coverage and public-private participation: towards a new balance?

This commentary discusses the emergence of a new paradigm to address the health policy issues through Public-Private Participation (PPP).The discussion provides a detailed literature review of PPPs by presenting an initial overview of the ideological shift from state to market intervention,then identifying arguments in support of or against public-private approaches and finally exploring the emergence of this new paradigm of PPP or its hybrid forms.It then discusses the contextual realities of Public-Private Participation in health care,and whether an optimal balance is possible with better government stewardship and private provision.Conceptually,the premise of stewardship in governance is that it is possible to create not only efficient but also effective systems.These ideas may find a receptive audience in many countries,especially in the emerging economies with improving standards.In East Asian societies,the concept of stewardship bears a strong resemblance to Confucian ideals of morality in government,with social expectations of those who govern to be principled and virtuous.Increasingly,a pragmatic theory of development seems to apply in public-private,similarly,through it is expected,that public-private participation in the healthcare system should also achieve the goal of Universal Health Coverage through good governance.

On Rural Medical Care and Health Undertaking Development during New Medical Reform

Based on in-depth survey of township hospitals in Lushan County of Henan Province, this paper studies the development situations of rural medical care and health undertaking in the course of new medical reform. Results show that both rural medical institution and public health undertaking have considerable development in this course. Working capital situation gradually turns better. However, there are still problems and challenge of shortage of high quality medical care personnel, lack of employment mechanism, poor medical environment, and imperfect bidding and purchasing system of medicines. To further develop rural medical situation, it should improve medical environment, speed up informationization construction, and give prominence to functional orientation.

The History of Controlling and Treating Infectious Diseases in Ancient China

Infectious diseases are the common enemies of mankind.In the course of historical development,they persistently threaten human health and safety.Even today,despite the developments in medical science,we cannot escape the fear and suffering caused by infectious diseases.Whether in ancient or modern times,the source of infection,route of transmission,and a susceptible population are the three key conditions for the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases.All factors closely related to these three conditions can affect the prevalence of infectious diseases.China is one of the cradles of world civilization.The ancient people accumulated a great deal of experience and lessons in the long struggle against infectious diseases.In the face of the current threat posed by widespread infectious disease,it is imperative to review and summarize ancient Chinese ideas and health policies on epidemic prevention and control to inspire contemporary efforts in the prevention and control of infectious disease.The combination of prevention-oriented epidemic prevention ideology and traditional medicine provides valuable insights,especially for impoverished and medically underserved regions.

新形势下提升预防医学专业学生实践能力的教学改革探索

文章旨在探讨如何通过改革教育教学体系,提高公共卫生专业学生的实践能力,培养高素质的医学人才。公共卫生教育和人才培养处于关乎国家建设、发展与安全的全局性、基础性和战略性地位。作为公共卫生队伍建设的重要一环,高校承担着公共卫生人才培养的重任。文章结合国家新形势发展的需要和预防医学实践能力的培养现状,提出了特色创新预防医学专业实践能力培养体系框架,并分别从实施改革教学方法、完善教学大纲、重视实践操作以及构建考核方式四个方面提出了具体的举措。这些改革措施能够有效规范学生的实践操作,夯实其工作技能,为国家公共卫生事业输送高素质的医学人才。文章的研究成果将对未来公共卫生教育和人才培养领域的发展和改革具有重要的指导意义。

临床医学专业学生对公共卫生课程认知与态度的调查研究

目的:明确临床医学专业学生对公共卫生课程教学评价现况与存在问题,优化公共卫生课程体系建设方案。方法:采用定量与定性研究相结合的方法,分析临床医学专业学生对公共卫生课程的认知、满意度与学习效果。结果:临床医学专业学生对公共卫生课程的认知情况整体较好,但仍有7%的学生对公共卫生课程不感兴趣,约10%的学生对教学方法不满意;10.6%的学生觉得公共卫生课程学习效果差。结论:应加强临床医学专业学生公共卫生思想教育,采用先进教学模式,合理增减、整合、序化教学内容,增加考核方法多样性,加大形成性评价力度。

突发公共卫生事件下的检验技术本科教学改革思考

近年来,在对不确定且影响范围较大的突发公共卫生事件处置中,检验专业发挥了重要的作用,同时也对检验技师在生物安全规范、检测技术整合及参与临床诊断上提出更高的要求.如何培养拥有更全面的理论及实践能力的检验专业人才显得尤为重要.本文从新型冠状病毒感染疫情带给检验专业的挑战及机遇出发,立足本科教育,通过对本科学生在校理论课程设置与临床实习两方面的改革,以期构建顺应突发公共卫生事件要求的检验本科教学体系.