Institute for Women's Health and Leadership

Background: Surprisingly little research is available to explain the well-documented organizational and societal influences on persistent inequities in advancement of women faculty. Methods: The Systems of Career Influences Model is a framework for exploring factors influencing women's progression to advanced academic rank, executive positions, and informal leadership roles in academic medicine. The model situates faculty as agents within a complex adaptive system consisting of a trajectory of career advancement with opportunities for formal professional development programming; a dynamic system of influences of organizational policies, practices, and culture; and a dynamic system of individual choices and decisions. These systems of influence may promote or inhibit career advancement. Within this system, women weigh competing influences to make career advancement decisions, and leaders of academic health centers prioritize limited resources to support the school's mission. Results and Conclusions: The Systems of Career Influences Model proved useful to identify key research questions. We used the model to probe how research in academic career development might be applied to content and methods of formal professional development programs. We generated a series of questions and hypotheses about how professional development programs might influence professional development of health science faculty members. Using the model as a guide, we developed a study using a quantitative and qualitative design. These analyses should provide insight into what works in recruiting and supporting productive men and women faculty in academic medical centers.

Context and objectives: Undergraduate medical training program accreditation is practiced in many countries, but information from developing countries is sparse. We compared medical training program accreditation systems in nine developing countries, and compared these with accreditation practices in the United States of America (USA). Methods: Medical program accreditation practices in nine developing countries were systematically analyzed using all available published documents. Findings were compared to USA accreditation practices. Findings: Accreditation systems with explicitly defined criteria, standards and procedures exist in all nine countries studied:

Previous investigations from our laboratories have demonstrated that cannabinoids possess immunosuppressive properties. The present studies were designed to determine whether these agents decrease host resistance to infections with Listeria monocytogenes and herpes simplex virus type 2. Host resistance was measured by changes in the 50% lethal dose of the pathogen in cannabinoid-treated and control mice. The effect of cannabinoids on resistance to L. monocytogens was dose dependent. Delta-9-tetrhydrocannabinol at doses of 38, 75, and 150 mg/kg suppressed resistance to infection by 10-, 17-, and 657-fold, respectively. Marijuana extract was less active but significantly reduced resistance to L. moncytogenes at all tested doses. Resistance to systemic herpes simplex virus type 2 infection was decreased 96-fold by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, although marijuana extract was inactive. The doses and regimen of treatment with cannabinoids that produced significant decreases in host resist...