News Bites

Anti-plagiarism software to be used in academia—Software used to catch cheating students may soon be employed by journal publishers to help detect plagiarism and duplication of articles. Two of the world's biggest academic publishers, Elsevier and Blackwell, are planning to use the software that highlights passages in articles published elsewhere. The true extent of plagiarism is unknown, but rising cases of suspect submissions are forcing editors to take action (Times Higher Education Supplement 2005; May 27:1).

Medical students don't receive enough training on tobacco cessation techniques—Medical students rarely receive formal training for tobacco cessation techniques, although 90% of students think they should, a new study shows. The Global Health Professionals Survey, conducted in 10 countries, questioned third year medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students. It found that most students surveyed (between 87% and 99%) believed they should have a role in counselling patients to quit smoking. However, only 5%-37% of these students had actually received any formal training. The World Health Organization urges health professionals to engage more in tobacco control as smoking is projected to cause nearly 450 million deaths worldwide during the next 50 years. Studies have shown that even brief advice from health professionals can increase tobacco abstinence rates by up to 30% (www.who.int).

PHOTOS.COM

Doctors need to help this woman stop smoking

60% of doctors oppose ethics testing of medical students—Three out of five UK doctors are against compulsory ethics testing in medical school. The chair of the Shipman inquiry, Dame Janet Smith, proposed the tests last month as a way of removing unsuitable candidates from medicine before they begin practising. However, most doctors that answered to BMA News' monthly poll thought such tests would not stop the likes of Harold Shipman, a British general practitioner who was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients, practising medicine. Nevertheless, most doctors said good ethics teaching at university is very important (www.bma.org.uk).

AIDS outruns global efforts to stop it, UN says—Money available to fight AIDS has soared to an all-time high of $8bn, but the pandemic is spreading so fast that efforts to stop it are overwhelmed, a new United Nations' report says. Last year, there were 4.9 million new infections and 3.1 million deaths, which is more than ever before. Funds and programmes have succeeded in some parts of the world such as Brazil, Cambodia, Thailand, and East Africa, but failed in others such as South and West Africa. According to the UN only 12% of those who need treatment are receiving it. Effective prevention programmes, counselling, and testing services are the exception rather than the rule, and drugs still cost too much (www.un.org/issues/m-aids.asp).

Mass polio vaccinations in Indonesia—Health workers in Indonesia have inoculated 6.2 million children against polio as part of a major vaccination drive to halt an outbreak that has crippled 50 people by 20 of June. Indonesia was polio free for a decade until last month, when cases emerged near the West Java city of Sukabumi. The World Health ­Organization, which is campaigning to eradicate polio by the end of this year, has faced major setbacks as the virus has also spread across Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Somalia has also announced that it is launching a nationwide polio immunisation campaign as it is feared that Somalia could become reinfected with polio from nearby Ethiopia and Yemen (www.who.int).

Shortage of medical academics—The number of medical and dental academics has continued to fall, and urgent investment is needed to reverse the trend, says a survey conducted by the Council of Heads of Medical Schools (CHMS) and the Council of Heads and Deans of Dental Schools (CHDDS). The survey found that there had been a 14% decline in the number of junior level clinical lecturers between 2003 and 2004. Meanwhile, the number of clinical academics fell from 3617 to 3555, and a 6% drop was noted in the number of clinical academic dentists. The survey also reported a worrying decline in the number of academics teaching specialities such as pathology, psychiatry, anaesthesia, and surgery. The falling numbers come at a time of the largest ever increase in student intake. Peter Dangerfield, the deputy head of the British Medical Association's medical academics committee, says: "Short term contracts, long working hours, and university funding systems which threaten the stability of staff careers make becoming a medical academic deeply unattractive. Compared with their NHS colleagues, medical academics lose out—and they are clearly voting with their feet. Something must be done or the situation will reach meltdown" (www.chms.ac.uk/fchms_pubs.html).

Increase in alternative medicine teaching—The number of universities in the United States that teach complementary and alternative medicine is increasing. An Association of American Medical Colleges' report says that more than 95 of the country's 125 medical schools require some kind of complementary and alternative medicine coursework. A 2002 US government survey found that more than a third of American adults have tried alternative therapies, and now traditional medical schools are responding to their public popularity including in their curriculum's such treatments as acu­puncture, herbal remedies, and massage therapy (www.usatoday.com/news/health/).

Americans recommend career in medicine—"Be a doctor" is the most common career advice that Americans give young adults, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll found that almost a fifth of Americans recommend to girls and boys to become physicians. This represents the first time in 20 years that medicine has edged out computers as the leading recommended career choice for young people. A separate poll also found that being a doctor was the most popular career choice among US teenagers (www.gallup.com/poll/content/login.aspx?ci= 16048).