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Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is recommended for a growing range of patients with severe aortic stenosis in the European Society of Cardiology and European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (ESC/EACTS) 2021 Guidelines update. However, guideline implementation programs are needed to ensure the application of clinical recommendations which will favorably influence disease outcomes. An Expert Council was convened to identify whether cardiology services across Europe are set up to address the growing needs of patients with severe aortic stenosis for increased access to TAVI by identifying the key challenges faced in growing TAVI programs and mapping associated solutions. Wide variation exists across Europe in terms of TAVI availability and capacity to deliver the increased demand for TAVI in different countries. The recommendations of this Expert Council focus on the short-to-medium-term aspects where the most immediate, actionable impact can be achieved. The focus on improving procedural efficiency and optimizing the patient pathway via clinical practice and patient management demonstrates how to mitigate the current major issues of shortfall in catheterization laboratory, workforce, and bed capacity. Procedural efficiencies may be achieved through steps including streamlined patient assessment, the benchmarking of standards for minimalist procedures, standardized approaches around patient monitoring and conduction issues, and the implementation of nurse specialists and dedicated TAVI coordinators to manage organization, logistics, and early mobilization. Increased collaboration with wider stakeholders within institutions will support successful TAVI uptake and improve patient and economic outcomes. Further, increased education, collaboration, and partnership between cardiology centers will facilitate sharing of expertise and best clinical practice.

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BACKGROUND: Scientific research has an essential role in building up the basics of public health and clinical care. As a developing country, Syria has a limited contribution to scientific research. Besides, the current Syrian crisis has inflicted severe damage to the infrastructure of the country, which, in turn, negatively affected the scientific sphere. This study examines the scientific publishing in Syria from 2011 until 2020. It aims to define the real and deep reasons for the slow-down in publication to get over them, push Syria to keep track of the latest updates, and take its place in scientific research. METHODS: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of articles published in (PubMed and Scopus) Databases from 1/1/2011 until 26/12/2020, using the following search terms (("Syrian Arab Republic") OR (Syria) OR (Syrian)) limiting the search to (Affiliation) fields. RESULTS: Syrian medical, dental and pharmaceutical institutions published 1403 papers from 2011 until 2020. There were only 55 papers in 2011, and a peak with 180 papers in 2018. Besides, publications in the last 4 years were 1.135 times more than publications in the last 6 years. CONCLUSION: We noticed a peak in quantity of Syrian medical, dental and pharmaceutical publications in the last decade. Accordingly, we recommend enhancing research skills, paying more attention to the quality of researches, and holding research workshops and Evidence Based conferences to enhance the scientific endeavor.

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The use of herbs to treat various human diseases has been recorded for thousands of years. In Asia's current medical system, numerous herbal formulas have been repeatedly verified to confirm their effectiveness in different periods, which is a great resource for drug innovation and discovery. Through the mining of these clinical effective formulas by network pharmacology and bioinformatics analysis, important biologically active ingredients derived from these natural products might be discovered. As modern medicine requires a combination of multiple drugs for the treatment of complex diseases, previously clinical formulas are also combinations of various herbs according to the main causes and accompanying symptoms. However, the herbs that play a major role in the treatment of diseases are always unclear. Therefore, how to rank each herb's relative importance and determine the core herbs, is the first step to assisting herb selection for active ingredients discovery. To solve this problem, we built the platform FangNet, which ranks all herbs on their relative topological importance using the PageRank algorithm, based on the constructed symptom-herb network from a collection of clinical empirical prescriptions. Three types of herb hidden knowledge, including herb importance rank, herb-herb co-occurrence, and associations to symptoms, were provided in an interactive visualization. Moreover, FangNet has designed role-based permission for teams to store, analyze, and jointly interpret their clinical formulas, in an easy and secure collaboration environment, aiming at creating a central hub for massive symptom-herb connections. FangNet can be accessed at http://fangnet.org or http://fangnet.herb.ac.cn.

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Managing patients with severe asthma during the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 is a challenge. Authorities and physicians are still learning how COVID-19 affects people with underlying diseases, and severe asthma is not an exception. Unless relevant data emerge that change our understanding of the relative safety of medications indicated in patients with asthma during this pandemic, clinicians must follow the recommendations of current evidence-based guidelines for preventing loss of control and exacerbations. Also, with the absence of data that would indicate any potential harm, current advice is to continue the administration of biological therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic in patients with asthma for whom such therapies are clearly indicated and have been effective. For patients with severe asthma infected by SARS-CoV-2, the decision to maintain or postpone biological therapy until the patient recovers should be a case-by-case based decision supported by a multidisciplinary team. A registry of cases of COVID-19 in patients with severe asthma, including those treated with biologics, will help to address a clinical challenge in which we have more questions than answers.

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The purpose of this special article is to describe a new, 4-year Science of Health Care Delivery curriculum at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, including curricular content and structure, methods for instruction, partnership with Arizona State University, and implementation challenges. This curriculum is intended to ensure that graduating medical students enter residency prepared to train and eventually practice within person-centered, community- and population-oriented, science-driven, collaborative care teams delivering high-value care. A Science of Health Care Delivery curriculum in undergraduate medical education is necessary to successfully prepare physicians so as to ensure the best clinical outcomes and patient experience of care, at the lowest cost.

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OBJECTIVE: To analyse the advanced systems of urology residency in the developed world, to compare them to a system in the developing world, and thereby identify the shortcomings and make recommendations to improve residency programmes for urology in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. METHODS: A survey was conducted amongst the urology Residents (55) in the three governorates of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, to assess the accessibility of the training programme, the types of the residency programmes, skills acquisition, the use of modern technology for teaching and assessment, the environment of the settings of practice, and the status of research in their training. RESULTS: An overwhelming majority (88%) of trainees reported difficulty in securing a training position. A high proportion (43%) felt disappointed at the beginning of their training. There is no unified curriculum of training, and more than two-thirds of the respondents reported a lack of a proper evidence-based medical education. There is no formal subspecialty training programme. Of the respondents, 65% referred to the difficulties in the environment for training, and that there was a low level of research involvement (12%). CONCLUSIONS: Urology training is not easily accessible, there is no unified programme of residency, there are limited facilities, and a minimal assessment of practical skills. The environment for practice needs enormous improvements and a strong foundation for research should be created.

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OBJECTIVE: From the trainers' perspective percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is one of the most challenging endourological procedures. In this review we examine the problems arising when training residents in PCNL, and how to facilitate this process. METHODS: The recommendations are derived from discussions and consensus during the First European Urolithiasis Society (EULIS) meeting held in London in September 2011. In addition, we searched Medline for articles identified using the keywords 'training', 'percutaneous surgery', 'renal calculi', 'PCNL', 'virtual reality' and 'simulators'. We also assessed the effect of modern technology, including the availability of virtual reality models vs. operating room training, and how international organisations like EULIS and European Urological Association can help. RESULTS: The difficulty of training residents in PCNL is partly due to the complexity of obtaining a safe access to the kidney for lithotripsy. The most common way of obtaining access is guided by imaging only, and usually only fluoroscopic imaging is available. This has the potential for injuring structures from the skin to the renal capsule. Minor vascular injuries are relatively common, although most are self-limiting. Visceral injuries that are particularly important are pleural and less commonly colonic injuries, but they are more complex and often require additional procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Teaching the skills is more challenging than performing PCNL. In most urological training programmes it is difficult to incorporate teaching and training skills when performing PCNL. To train an academic stone doctor, proficiency in the safe conduct of PCNL is mandatory.

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CONTEXT: Despite producing some of the leading urologists in the world, urological training in the developing world is marred by inconsistency, and a lack of structure and focus on evidence-based practice. In this review we address these issues from the trainers' perspective. INTRODUCTION: Teaching the art and science of urological practice is a demanding task. It not only involves helping the resident to develop the depth of cognitive knowledge, but also to have an appropriate surgical judgement, and an ability to act quickly but thoughtfully and, when necessary, decisively. DISCUSSION: The surgeon must have compassion, communication skills, be perceptive and dedicated. Most importantly, however, he or she should have the ability to cut and suture. Not all of these can be inculcated in the training programme, even with the best of efforts. The selection of an appropriate candidate therefore becomes an issue of pivotal importance. The changing focus of urological training incorporates research and evidence-based practice as essential components. It is particularly important in the developing world, as there is a dearth of standardised practice models across the healthcare system. Encouraging female residents can be done by improving and tailoring the working conditions. The 'brain drain' is a major problem in the developing world, and bureaucracy and government need to take appropriate measures to provide high-quality healthcare facilities with room for professional growth. CONCLUSIONS: The future of urology will depend on improved education and training, leading to high-quality urological care, and to developing a service that is patient focused.

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The modern medicine in Japan made a remarkable progress according to development of Western medicine and further studies made it possible to understand almost of all diseases as cell and gene abnormalities using scientific approach such as imaging diagnosis or blood biochemistry. Kampo medicine, on the other hand, developed especially in Japan and is defined as holistic medicine because many diseases can be induced by responses of whole body against various causes instead of cell or organ abnormalities.<br>Recently EBM (Evidence based medicine) is required in the clinical field.<br>Though the evidence cannot be obtained easily in the clinical field, the concept of EBM seems to be important in achieving clinical practice even from the stand view point of cost-benefit and many trials began to accept this EBM in the field of Western medicine.<br>On the other hand, usefulness of Kampo medicine on various diseases was elucidated by means of Western analysis such as double blind test and the “Shou”, unique diagnostic method for Kampo medicine, turned out not to be necessary in all cases for the best treatment. Doctors engaging in Kampo medicine began to change their attitude to accept EBM by their newly considered method including conventional “Shou”<br>Both medicines, Western and Kampo medicine, have various features and merits or demerits for the treatment of diseases respectively. Therefore, a trial to combine Kampo and Western medicine should be taken into consideration, to improve the clinical practice.

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The first Japan-Korea workshop on acupuncture and EBM was held on June 4, 2004 at Chiba in the 53rd annual scientific meeting of the JSAM. The purpose of this workshop was to exchange the experiences of clinical researches on acupuncture and moxibustion therapies, and to find out the issues and their solutions for developing the excellent clinical research to establish strong evidence. The final purpose was to develop aprotocol for the collaborative work between both countries.<BR>Drs. Kawakita (JSAM) and Jang (KAMS) chaired the workshop. Three speakers from Japan (Drs Takahashi, Nabeta, and Tsukayama) and three Korean speakers (Drs Seo, Lee and Moon) presented their data on the clinical researches of acupuncture, moxibustion and bee-venom injection. After their paper presentations, various issues were discussed on their research methodology for establishing more strong evidence of acupuncture.We got interesting new findings and understood various issues for conducting clinical researches especially RCT.<BR>Although we could not develop a protocol for the collaborative research in this workshop, it was very fruitful workshop as the first step for the future Japan-Korea collaborative clinical study. The most important product of this workshop was we could understand each other and we confirmed the necessity of the future collaborative clinical research on acupuncture.