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Five Questions For Daniel Kruger, PhD - American Psychological Association
The following "Five Questions for ò€¦" feature was produced by the American Psychological Association. Feel free to use it in its entirety or in part; we only request that you credit APA as the . We also have a photograph of the researcher available to reprint, as well as other experts on this topic.

Salon Opinion Piece Questions Obama's Pick To Head Office Of Faith-Based And Community Partnerships
President Obama"s appointment of Alexia Kelley, founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, as director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships at HHS "took the pro-choice movement by surprise," Salon contributor Frances Kissling, a former president of Catholics for Choice, writes in an opinion piece. According to Kissling, abortion-rights supporters "want to know ... why the post, which includes oversight of the department"s faith-based grant-making in family planning, HIV and AIDS and in small-scale research into the effect of religion and spirituality on early sexual behavior, has gone to someone who both believes abortion should be illegal and opposes contraception." She adds that Kelley and CACG have "sought to narrow the interpretation of common ground on abortion to efforts to reduce the number of abortions by providing women who are already pregnant with economic support for continuing the pregnancy and making adoption easier."Kissling notes that the "HHS budget for family-planning services grants to faith-based and community groups is more than $20 million." She asks, "Can pro-family-planning religious groups expect a fair deal from a director who believes that birth control, even for married couples, is immoral? Will programs that provide contraception to adolescents get funded?" Kissling continues that Obama"s February executive order on the office directed it to work to prevent teen pregnancy and reduce the need for abortion. She says of Kelley, "How can an opponent of the single most effective way to do both -- contraception -- lead that effort in HHS enthusiastically and effectively?"Kissling also notes Kelley"s accomplishments, writing that she "has much to offer in government -- but not at HHS." There are "10 other government agencies that have faith-based offices," and a "far less controversial placement could have been found at Labor, Housing and Urban Development, or the Department of Education," according to Kissling.Kissling continues that some leaders in the abortion-rights movement "have not yet commented on the Kelley appointment; most are still reeling from Dr. Tiller"s murder." However, "One hopes they will turn their attention to this appointment and demand a review of Kelley"s qualifications for this post," Kissling writes. She continues, "Pro-choice groups also contributed to the president"s election. They deserve appointees who agree with the platform on which the president ran. The pro-choice movement"s recommendations for pro-choice appointees to the faith-based office"s advisory council were ignored."Kissling adds that the "mission going forward must be to ensure that any additional staff members appointed to faith-based centers in Cabinet-level agencies reflect the pro-choice, pro-family-planning values of the administration." She concludes that as abortion-rights supporters "try to get to the bottom of the Kelley appointment, greater oversight of, and consultation on, future appointments need to be secured" (Kissling, Salon, 6/7).
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President Obama Receives Warm Welcome From AMA Physicians
The American Medical Association warmly welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama to its 158th annual meeting in Chicago. Like the president, the AMA is committed to health reform this year that provides all Americans with affordable, high-quality health coverage.
Oncology

Is It Time To Consider A Role For MRI Before Prostate Biopsy?

UroToday.com - The prevailing view is that MRI has a limited role in the management of prostate cancer. Currently, the threshold for requesting a pre-treatment staging MRI is variable with most advocating this for only those classified as high risk localized prostate cancer, although some also advocate men with intermediate risk disease. The rationale for this view is that verification of organ-confined cancer in men with a low risk of locally advanced disease using a test that is both expensive and time consuming is not warranted. It has arisen due to poor quality scans as a result of low-resolution magnetic field strengths combined with biopsy artifact. There is increasing evidence, however, that the threshold for requesting MRI should be lowered. This is related to improved technology, but is also linked to changes in diagnosis and management of prostate cancer, in which improved risk stratification is linked to reductions in treatment burden. In this Review, we outline the artifact problem that occurs if MRI is used after biopsy. We also discuss the potential advantages in diagnosis and risk stratification that may be derived from using MRI prior to biopsy. Pre-biopsy MRI is currently nested within a small number of groups in France, Japan, India and in our own centre. We describe how local staging may improve as a result of using MRI and its association with improved clinical outcomes. Finally, we review the limitations in the current literature and recommend strategies that will overcome these limitations. Advocating the widespread use of MRI prior to biopsy in a population of men with risk parameters for harboring prostate cancer has a number of advantages which may ultimately benefit the care these men undergo. Increasing the detection of prostate cancer that requires treatment whilst avoiding biopsy - and hence unnecessary treatment - in those with insignificant or no cancer are compelling arguments for this approach. Conferring better staging accuracy and determining disease burden may also lead to greater benefit for those who undergo treatment. Key Points: 1. The role of MRI in prostate cancer management is controversial; most guidelines recommend its use only in high-risk patients based on evidence that used early-generation machines rather than using up-to-date data 2. The use of spectroscopy, dynamic contrast enhancement and diffusion weighting in combination with traditional T2-weight scans increases the accuracy of MRI to detect and stage prostate cancer 3. If multi-sequence MRI was applied in the pre-biopsy setting to overcome biopsy artifact, it could potentially increase the detection of significant prostate cancer, and decrease the diagnosis of indolent disease that requires no treatment 4. Such scans could potentially guide traditional therapy such as surgery and radiotherapy and also select those men with high-risk disease that require dose escalation whilst selecting groups with a low burden of disease that would be candidates for surveillance Written by: H.U. Ahmed, M. Arya, R. Illing, A. Kirkham, C. Allen, A. Freeman and M. Emberton as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroTodya.com. Author Print Biographies HU Ahmed is an MRC Clinical Research Fellow and Specialist Registrar in Urology, and M Arya is a Specialist Registrar in Urology, both at the Division of Surgical and Interventional Sciences, University College London, UK. R Illing is a Specialist Academic Registrar in Radiology and A Kirkham and C Allen are both Consultant Radiologists, both at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with specialist expertise in uro-radiology. A Freeman is a Consultant Histopathologist with expertise in uro-oncology based at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. M Emberton is Reader in Interventional Oncology and Consultant Urological Surgeon, University College London as well as Clinical Director of the Clinical Effectiveness Unit, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln Inn Fields, London, UK. Conflicts of Interest and Funding Hashim Uddin Ahmed and Mark Emberton receive funding from the following charities: The Medical Research Council, Pelican Cancer Foundation, Prostate Research Campaign UK, Prostate Cancer Research Centre UK and St Peters Trust for work in focal therapy of prostate cancer. In addition, Mark Emberton receives funding from Negma Lerads, France (manufacturers of TOOKAD, a photodynamic agent used in prostate cancer therapy) and Misonix/Focus Surgery (manufacturers of the Sonablate® 500 HIFU device) as a Medical Consultant. Manit Arya, Clare Allen, Alex Kirkham and Alex Freeman have no conflicts of interest. None of the funding s had any role in the writing of this article. UroToday - the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice. To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to: www.urotoday.com Copyright © 2009 - UroToday


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