Despite European and American initiatives aiming to promote greater awareness and research in the paediatric population, these data demonstrate that there is still a high percentage of unlicensed or off-label drugs use in neonatology, underlining the need to stimulate scientific data collection by means of experimental studies or outcome research.
The use of unlicensed or off-label drugs use is common practice in NICU, with wide variation in local policies and newborn characteristics. Well-designed and -conducted pharmaceutical studies in newborns are needed to increase the number of licensed drugs, thereby reducing any risk for patients due to over- or under-treatment, and also legal issues for clinicians.
Two cases of positive identification of burnt bodies by radiographic comparison are reported. They emphasize that antemortem radiographs of the head are an important but sometimes overlooked source of information which can frequently provide useful objective data for comparison purposes. A positive identification can easily be achieved by medical examiners through visual comparison of the antemortem with the postmortem cranial and facial structures, even of bodies severely damaged by fire. In these bodies the radiographs of the skull can graphically depict structures which are often unique to the individual, such as the frontal sinus pattern and the morphology of dental restorations. However, the process of identification through radiographs is appropriate only in burnt bodies in which antemortem radiographs of the alleged deceased are available for comparison and unique craniofacial structures are still present on the body in a well-preserved state or at least not completely destroyed by fire, depending on the extent of the burn injury. Matching of corresponding features seems preferable to other methods of personal identification such as skull-photo superimposition, morphometric analysis, and/or other computer-aided methods since these techniques need trained personnel, as well as expensive equipment which is not invariably available in the medical examiner's office or department of anthropology.
Telemedicine services can be classified into the macro-categories of specialist Telemedicine, Tele-health and Tele-assistance. From a regulatory perspective, in Italy, the first provision dedicated to the implementation of Telemedicine services is represented by the Agreement between the Government and the Regions on the document bearing “Telemedicine—National guidelines,” approved by the General Assembly of the Superior Health Council in the session of 10th July 2012 and by the State Regions Conference in the session of 20th February 2014. Scientifically, several studies in the literature state that information and communication technologies have great potential to reduce the costs of health care services in terms of planning and making appropriate decisions that provide timely tools to patients. Another clear benefit is the equity of access to health care. The evolution of telemedicine poses a series of legal problems ranging from the profiles on the subject of authorization and accreditation to those concerning the protection of patient confidentiality, the definition and solution of which, in the absence of specific regulatory provisions, is mainly left to the assessment of compatibility of the practices adopted so far, with the general regulatory framework. In terms of professional liability, it is necessary to first clarify that the telemedicine service is comparable to any diagnostic-therapeutic health service considering that the telemedicine service does not replace the traditional health service, but integrates the latter to improve its effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related infection has a major impact on public health, and healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to high biological risk. This paper describes the prevention procedures introduced at the University Hospital of Bari, Italy to reduce the risk to HCWs, consisting of enhanced preventive measures and activation of a report system to collect HCWs' contacts. Twenty-three confirmed cases of infection (0.4% of all HCWs) were reported in the 30-day observation period following implementation of the protocol. This shows that correct management of HCWs' contacts is essential to avoid nosocomial clusters.
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