Hasil untuk "Public aspects of medicine"

Pablo Bora, A. Majumdar

Adipose/fat tissue provides an abundant source of stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells for immediate administration and can also give rise to a substantial number of cultured, multipotent adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs). Recently, both SVF and ADSCs have gained wide-ranging translational significance in regenerative medicine. Initially used for cosmetic breast enhancement, this mode of treatment has found use in many diseases involving immune disorders, tissue degeneration, and ischaemic conditions. In this review, we try to address several important aspects of this field, outlining the biology, technology, translation, and challenges related to SVF- and ADSC-based therapies. Starting from the basics of SVF and ADSC isolation, we touch upon recently developed technologies, addressing elements of novel methods and devices under development for point-of-care isolation of SVF. Characterisation of SVF cells and ADSCs is also an evolving area and we look into unusual expression of CD34 antigen as an interesting marker for such purposes. Based on reports involving different cells of the SVF, we draw a potential mode of action, focussing on angiogenesis since it involves multiple cells, unlike immunomodulation which is governed predominantly by ADSCs. We have looked into the latest research, experimental therapies, and clinical trials which are utilising SVF/ADSCs in conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, osteoarthritis, diabetic foot ulcer, and so forth. However, problems have arisen with regards to the lack of proper regulatory guidelines for such therapies and, since the introduction of US Food and Drug Administration draft guidelines and the Reliable and Effective Growth for Regenerative Health Options that Improve Wellness (REGROW) Act, the debate became more public with regards to safe and efficacious use of these cells.

C. Pomba, M. Rantala, C. Greko et al.

Majani Edward

The United States is experiencing a resurgence of measles, a highly contagious disease previously declared eliminated in 2000. This article examines the current trends of this resurgence, focusing on the increasing number of cases and outbreaks, the factors contributing to low vaccination rates, and the critical role of vaccine hesitancy. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of May 15, 2025, are presented, highlighting the significant increase in measles activity and the concentration of cases within outbreaks. The analysis explores the epidemiological characteristics of these outbreaks, including severity and transmission dynamics, and examines the decline in national MMR vaccine coverage. Finally, the article discusses evidence-based strategies to enhance vaccine accessibility, combat misinformation, and improve outbreak response, emphasizing the urgent need for a coordinated public health approach to mitigate future outbreaks and protect vulnerable populations.

Le Liu, Junrui Liu, Yunhan Gao et al.

Aspect-based recommendation methods extract aspect terms from reviews, such as price, to model fine-grained user preferences on items, making them a critical approach in personalized recommender systems. Existing methods utilize graphs to represent the relationships among users, items, and aspect terms, modeling user preferences based on graph neural networks. However, they overlook the dynamic nature of user interests - users may temporarily focus on aspects they previously paid little attention to - making it difficult to assign accurate weights to aspect terms for each user-item interaction. In this paper, we propose a long-short-term aspect interest Transformer (LSA) for aspect-based recommendation, which effectively captures the dynamic nature of user preferences by integrating both long-term and short-term aspect interests. Specifically, the short-term interests model the temporal changes in the importance of recently interacted aspect terms, while the long-term interests consider global behavioral patterns, including aspects that users have not interacted with recently. Finally, LSA combines long- and short-term interests to evaluate the importance of aspects within the union of user and item aspect neighbors, therefore accurately assigns aspect weights for each user-item interaction. Experiments conducted on four real-world datasets demonstrate that LSA improves MSE by 2.55% on average over the best baseline.

Zsófia Zádor, Gergő Pintér, Máté Mizsák et al.

The 15-minute city is a powerful planning concept to counter car-dependence by promoting active mobility to amenities and fostering inclusive urban environments. However, this policy has challenges in amenity-poor urban peripheries. Public transport remains underexplored in this discourse despite its role in distant access. Here, we propose a framework that incorporates public transport into the 15-minute city model using openly available data. By comparing Helsinki, Madrid, and Budapest, we demonstrate that multimodal mobility substantially increases access to amenities and enhances socio-spatial integration within a 15-minute reach. Although urban periphery benefit significantly from radial or high-speed public transport lines in their social mixing potential, such lines alone do not improve their access to amenities. These findings underscore the need to optimize polycentric public transport networks that can improve inclusive urban accessibility and complement active mobility in polycentric cities.

Omer Atac, George C. Bryant, William B. Burrows et al.

Abstract Background The goal of this study was to examine referral and attendance patterns for diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) among patients with both type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) at a regional medical center in Kentucky, and to identify demographic and clinical factors associated with these outcomes. Methods We analyzed electronic health records of adults with diabetes (n = 10,587; n = 817 with T1D and n = 9,770 with T2D) who received care from 1/1/2016-12/31/2019 at University of Kentucky HealthCare. We compared DSMES referral and attendance rates by various demographic and clinical factors and used logistic regression models to examine the association between these factors and DSMES referrals/attendance. Results DSMES referrals were made for 6.9% (n = 726) of our sample, and 40.2% (n = 292) of those referred attended DSMES. Referral rates were 11.6% for T1D and 6.5% for T2D. Attendance rates were 41.1% for T1D and 40.1% for T2D. Referrals was more common among females (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.42–1.96), non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.12–1.65 and OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.03–2.35), and less common among those aged 65+ (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.20–0.48), those with public insurance (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.63–0.88), and rural residents (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.40–0.57). Patients with obesity (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.18–1.71) and ≥ 9% A1C (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.65–3.34) were also more likely to be referred. No factors were associated with DSMES attendance. Conclusions Despite clear guidelines recommending DSMES referrals for patients with diabetes, DSMES referral rates were low, and less than half of patients who were referred ultimately attended DSMES. Variation in referral rates across demographic and clinical characteristics highlights opportunities to improve and standardize referral processes.

Noor Syaqilah Shawaluddin, Tuan Mohd Amin Tuan Lah, Maznieda Mahjom et al.

Abstract Introduction Parent-adolescent relationships play a crucial role in influencing high-risk behaviors among adolescents. In Malaysia, there is limited research exploring the influence of parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent risk behaviors. This study aims to determine the role of parent-adolescent connectedness and parental monitoring against high-risk behaviors among Malaysian adolescents. Methods This study utilized data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022: Adolescent Health Survey, a cross-sectional study conducted from June to July 2022 among secondary school students. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling method was applied using a national sampling frame of 2,798 schools to ensure state and national representativeness. The Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) Malaysian version was used to collect data on health risk behavior and protective factors including parent-adolescent connectedness and parental monitoring. Descriptive analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used to analyzed the data. Results Among 33,523 adolescents, a total of 24.2% (95% CI: 23.7–24.7) of adolescents reported parental connectedness, while 33.4% (95% CI: 32.9–33.9) reported parental monitoring. By sociodemographic factors, Indians ethnicity had the highest odds of reporting both parental connectedness (aOR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.65, 2.28) and parental monitoring (aOR: 2.21, 95% CI: 1.82, 2.70), while adolescents in Labuan Federal Territory (a federally administered island region of Malaysia) had significantly lower odds for both measures. Adolescents with parents married and living together had significantly higher odds of reporting both parental connectedness (aOR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.40) and parental monitoring (aOR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.26, 1.44). Parental connectedness and monitoring were strong protective factors against all eight high-risk behaviors, including reduced odds of sexual activity (aOR: 0.63 and 0.58), e-cigarette use (aOR: 0.68 and 0.55), smoking, drug use, alcohol use, physical fights, being bullied, and cyberbullying. Conclusion This study found that parental connectedness and monitoring were significantly associated with lower odds of engaging in high-risk behaviors among Malaysian adolescents, with notable variations by ethnicity, parental marital status, and region. Strengthening parental involvement and addressing disparities in family dynamics are essential strategies for promoting adolescent health and well-being in Malaysia.

Massoud Hassani, Anahita Khodabakhshi-Koolaee, Asghar Jafary

Background: Behavioral issues, including bullying, often arise during early childhood. Mothers play a critical role in shaping their children’s psychological and social development. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of behavioral parent training (BPT) on improving the parenting sense of competence among mothers of school-aged boys who engage in bullying.Methods: This quantitative, quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design with a control group and a three-month follow-up. The study population included mothers of bullying boys aged 10–12 who attended Razi Psychological Services Clinic, affiliated with the Department of Education in Karaj, Alborz Province, Iran in 2024. The study participants were selected through convenience sampling technique. A total of 30 mothers were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups using the permuted block method. The intervention group participated in an eight-week BPT program, with one-hour sessions held weekly, whereas the control group did not receive any intervention during the study period. Data were collected using the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSCS) and analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc tests in SPSS version 26.Results: The analysis revealed significant differences in parenting competence between the intervention and control groups at both the post-test and follow-up stages, favoring the intervention group. Specifically, mothers in the intervention group showed improved parenting competence scores (pre-test: 2.40±2.58; post-test: 3±2.96) compared with the control group (pre-test: 2.80±1.14; post-test: 2.66±1.44). Additionally, significant differences were observed across the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up phases (P=0.02).Conclusions: The findings suggested that BPT effectively enhances mothers’ sense of parenting competence, fostering positive changes in parenting behaviors and approaches.

Stefanie Schwaar, Franziska Diez, Michael Trebing et al.

In German public administration, there are 45 different offices to which incoming messages need to be distributed. Since these messages are often unstructured, the system has to be based at least partly on message content. For public service no data are given so far and no pretrained model is available. The data we used are conducted by Governikus KG and are of highly different length. To handle those data with standard methods different approaches are known, like normalization or segmentation. However, text classification is highly dependent on the data structure, a study for public administration data is missing at the moment. We conducted such a study analyzing different techniques of classification based on segments, normalization and feature selection. Thereby, we used different methods, this means neural nets, random forest, logistic regression, SVM classifier and SVAE. The comparison shows for the given public service data a classification accuracy of above 80\% can be reached based on cross validation. We further show that normalization is preferable, while the difference to the segmentation approach depends mainly on the choice of algorithm.

Chengfeng Dou, Ying Zhang, Zhi Jin et al.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) plays a crucial role in the application of large language models (LLMs) in healthcare, as it provides reliable support for medical decision-making processes. Although it benefits from current retrieval-augmented generation~(RAG) technologies, it still faces two significant challenges: the collection of dispersed evidence and the efficient organization of this evidence to support the complex queries necessary for EBM. To tackle these issues, we propose using LLMs to gather scattered evidence from multiple sources and present a knowledge hypergraph-based evidence management model to integrate these evidence while capturing intricate relationships. Furthermore, to better support complex queries, we have developed an Importance-Driven Evidence Prioritization (IDEP) algorithm that utilizes the LLM to generate multiple evidence features, each with an associated importance score, which are then used to rank the evidence and produce the final retrieval results. Experimental results from six datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing RAG techniques in application domains of interest to EBM, such as medical quizzing, hallucination detection, and decision support. Testsets and the constructed knowledge graph can be accessed at \href{https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WJ9QTokK3MdkjEmwuFQxwH96j_Byawj_/view?usp=drive_link}{https://drive.google.com/rag4ebm}.

Joshua Tan, Nicholas Vincent, Katherine Elkins et al.

Open source projects have made incredible progress in producing transparent and widely usable machine learning models and systems, but open source alone will face challenges in fully democratizing access to AI. Unlike software, AI models require substantial resources for activation -- compute, post-training, deployment, and oversight -- which only a few actors can currently provide. This paper argues that open source AI must be complemented by public AI: infrastructure and institutions that ensure models are accessible, sustainable, and governed in the public interest. To achieve the full promise of AI models as prosocial public goods, we need to build public infrastructure to power and deliver open source software and models.

Stephina Kgomotso Mbele

Background. Multiple sexual partnerships are one of the sexual behaviors that predispose young women to different negative outcomes, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This study aimed to examine the factors associated with multiple sexual partnerships among young women in selected Southern African countries. Materials and Methods. This study used cross-sectional secondary data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of six countries in southern Africa (Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). The data were collected using probability sampling (with a stratified two-stage cluster design) and structured questionnaires. This study used a weighted sample of 29,348 young women aged 15–24 years. The study included univariate, bivariate, and multilevel logistic regression (MLR) analysis. Moreover, a two-level model was used to measure the relationship between the selected explanatory factors and multiple sexual partnerships. Results. The overall prevalence of multiple sexual partnerships was 2.2% for the selected countries, and it differed by country. The factors associated with multiple sexual partnerships were age, marital status, educational level, employment status, having an STI, non-condom use, age at first sex, sex of the household head, and type of residence. The findings showed some variation in multiple sexual partnerships across communities. The findings from the MLR revealed that multiple sexual partnerships were high among women who were never married, no longer married, women with lower levels of education, and women who were employed. Moreover, higher odds of multiple sexual partnerships were found among women who had an STI, women from rich households, and women residing in Lesotho and South Africa. Conclusion. The study revealed that young women’s multiple sexual partnerships in Southern Africa are influenced by various sociodemographic factors. The study’s findings suggest a need for educational programs that focus on sexual health and economic empowerment, especially among unmarried and less educated women, thus reducing the associated risks and enhancing wellbeing.

Fanjun Bu, Alexandra Bremers, Mark Colley et al.

Human-robot interaction requires to be studied in the wild. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, we deployed two trash barrel service robots through the wizard-of-oz protocol in public spaces to study human-robot interactions in urban settings. We deployed the robots at two different public plazas in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn for a collective of 20 hours of field time. To date, relatively few long-term human-robot interaction studies have been conducted in shared public spaces. To support researchers aiming to fill this gap, we would like to share some of our insights and learned lessons that would benefit both researchers and practitioners on how to deploy robots in public spaces. We share best practices and lessons learned with the HRI research community to encourage more in-the-wild research of robots in public spaces and call for the community to share their lessons learned to a GitHub repository.

Beth Goldberg, Diana Acosta-Navas, Michiel Bakker et al.

Two substantial technological advances have reshaped the public square in recent decades: first with the advent of the internet and second with the recent introduction of large language models (LLMs). LLMs offer opportunities for a paradigm shift towards more decentralized, participatory online spaces that can be used to facilitate deliberative dialogues at scale, but also create risks of exacerbating societal schisms. Here, we explore four applications of LLMs to improve digital public squares: collective dialogue systems, bridging systems, community moderation, and proof-of-humanity systems. Building on the input from over 70 civil society experts and technologists, we argue that LLMs both afford promising opportunities to shift the paradigm for conversations at scale and pose distinct risks for digital public squares. We lay out an agenda for future research and investments in AI that will strengthen digital public squares and safeguard against potential misuses of AI.

Kishi Kobe Yee Francisco, Andrane Estelle Carnicer Apuhin, Myles Joshua Toledo Tan et al.

Personalized medicine (PM) promises to transform healthcare by providing treatments tailored to individual genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. However, its high costs and infrastructure demands raise concerns about exacerbating health disparities, especially between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While HICs benefit from advanced PM applications through AI and genomics, LMICs often lack the resources necessary to adopt these innovations, leading to a widening healthcare divide. This paper explores the financial and ethical challenges of PM implementation, with a focus on ensuring equitable access. It proposes strategies for global collaboration, infrastructure development, and ethical frameworks to support LMICs in adopting PM, aiming to prevent further disparities in healthcare accessibility and outcomes.

Kailang Mu, Yuchen Liu, Gang Liu et al.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine together play an important value in the modern medicine system that is different from that of chemical drugs. Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine with hemostatic effect have unique advantages and development potential in the prevention and treatment of clinical hemorrhagic diseases, reflecting multi-component, multi-target and multi-pathway effects. AIM OF THE STUDY In this paper, the active ingredients related to the hemostatic effect of traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine are taken as the starting point, and the traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine with traditional hemostatic purposes are reviewed, and the existing research progress on the active ingredients and their mechanism of action of these drugs is systematically expounded, aiming to provide theoretical reference for the development of traditional hemostatic drugs, the discovery of hemostatic active ingredients and the research of new hemostatic methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS Hemostatic chinese medicine and ethnic medicine were collected and summarized from the classic books of Materia Medica, public literature database and doctoral or master's thesis repositories. At the same time, we discussed the classification of various types of hemostatic active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine according to the different mechanisms of hemostasis. RESULTS A total of 436 traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine with hemostatic effects have been collected, and their hemostatic active ingredients include alkaloids, quinones, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, organic acids, amino acids, terpenoids, steroids, phenols, tannins, esters, polysaccharides and herbal extracts, etc. These active ingredients accelerate the formation of hemostasis by improving endogenous and exogenous hemostatic pathways mainly through enhancing vascular wall contraction, increasing platelet aggregation, promoting coagulation system activation and inhibiting fibrinolysis. CONCLUSIONS This article reviews the previous data on various aspects of the hemostatic effect of traditional Chinese medicine and ethnomedicine. Many traditional hemostatic drugs have been discovered and many active ingredients and mechanisms have been reported. However, although there are a large number of drugs with traditional hemostatic effects, there are still few developed and applied. At the same time, the hemostatic components of many drugs still remain in the study of the activity of their total extracts, and the potential link between some drug components achieving hemostatic effects through different mechanisms remains to be elucidated.

C. Zardecki, Shuchismita Dutta, D. Goodsell et al.

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) archive is a rich source of information in the form of atomic‐level three‐dimensional (3D) structures of biomolecules experimentally determined using macromolecular crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and electron microscopy (3DEM). Originally established in 1971 as a resource for protein crystallographers to freely exchange data, today PDB data drive research and education across scientific disciplines. In 2011, the online portal PDB‐101 was launched to support teachers, students, and the general public in PDB archive exploration (pdb101.rcsb.org). Maintained by the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics PDB, PDB‐101 aims to help train the next generation of PDB users and to promote the overall importance of structural biology and protein science to nonexperts. Regularly published features include the highly popular Molecule of the Month series, 3D model activities, molecular animation videos, and educational curricula. Materials are organized into various categories (Health and Disease, Molecules of Life, Biotech and Nanotech, and Structures and Structure Determination) and searchable by keyword. A biennial health focus frames new resource creation and provides topics for annual video challenges for high school students. Web analytics document that PDB‐101 materials relating to fundamental topics (e.g., hemoglobin, catalase) are highly accessed year‐on‐year. In addition, PDB‐101 materials created in response to topical health matters (e.g., Zika, measles, coronavirus) are well received. PDB‐101 shows how learning about the diverse shapes and functions of PDB structures promotes understanding of all aspects of biology, from the central dogma of biology to health and disease to biological energy.

Małgorzata Pikala, Monika Burzyńska

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess mortality trends due to suicide in Poland in the years 2000–2019 with the use of joinpoint regression.Methods: The study analysed all suicide deaths in Poland in the years 2000–2019 (N = 113,355). Age-standardised death rates (SDRs), the annual percentage change (APC) and the average annual percentage change (AAPC) were determined.Results: In the male group, SDR was 29.3 in 2000 and 21.6 in 2019, in the female group, SDR decreased from 5.2 to 3.0. In 2019, the highest SDR values were noted in the group aged between 45 and 64 years. The most common method of suicide was hanging. In 2019, odds ratios (OR) of death due to suicide for age groups 15–24 years vs. 65 years or above were 51.47 among men and 181.89 among women. With regards to primary vs. tertiary education, OR values were 1.08 and 0.25, respectively; for single vs. widowed individuals 8.22 and 12.35; while for rural vs. urban residents 1.60 and 1.15.Conclusion: There is a need to implement educational programmes, primarily designed for young people.

Ruizhe Yu, Shihan Zhang, Dejian Zhao et al.

Abstract Background Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in late 2019, it has evolved into a global pandemic that has become a substantial public health concern. COVID-19 is still causing a large number of deaths in several countries around the world because of the lack of effective treatment. Aim To systematically compare the outcomes of COVID-19 patients treated with integrated Chinese with western (ICW) medicine versus western medicine (WM) alone by pooling the data of published literature, and to determine if ICW treatment of COVID-19 patients has better clinical outcomes. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China Clinical Trial Registry, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang databases using keywords related to COVID-19, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and treatment effect. The search deadline was until 10 February 2021. All randomised controlled (RC) and non-randomised controlled (NRC) clinical trials of the ICW or WM treatment of COVID-19 patients were included. We analysed the effective rate, cure rate, exacerbation rate, turning negative rate of viral nucleic acid, remission rate and remission time of symptoms such as fever, cough, feebleness and chest computed tomography (CT) and the number of white blood cells (WBCs) and lymphocytes (LYM) of the COVID-19 patients. For qualitative and quantitative data, the ratio risk (RR) and weighted mean difference (WMD) were used as the indexes of the statistical analysis, respectively. RevMan 5.4 was used to perform meta-analyses and forest plots with the fixed-effects and random-effects models. Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB 2.0) was used to assess the risk of bias in the included RC trials, whereas risk of bias in non-randomised studies of interventions was used to assess the risk of bias in NRC trials. Results This research includes 16 studies with 1645 valid confirmed COVID-19 patients, among which 895 patients of the experimental group received ICW treatment whereas 750 patients of the control group received WM treatment. The outcomes were assessed in three aspects, that is, overall indicator, symptoms indicator and blood indicator, respectively, and the results showed that the ICW group had better treatment outcomes compared with the WM. Among the overall indicators, the ICW group displayed a higher effective rate (RR = 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16–1.33), clinical cure rate (RR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.03–1.56) and lower exacerbation rate (RR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.25–0.52), but no statistical difference was observed in the turning negative rate of viral nucleic acid (RR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.78–1.85). Among the symptom indicators, the ICW group had a higher fever remission rate (RR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.09–1.42), less fever remission time (WMD = −1.49, 95% CI: −1.85 to −1.12), a higher cough remission rate (RR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.10–1.73) and a feebleness remission rate (RR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.18–1.77), less cough remission time (WMD = −1.61, 95% CI: −2.35 to −0.87) and feebleness remission time (WMD = −1.50, 95% CI: −2.38 to −0.61) and better improvement in chest CT (RR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.11–1.28). For blood indicator, the number of WBCs in the blood of patients of ICW group rebounded significantly (WMD = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.16–0.54), and the recovery of LYM in the blood was more obvious (WMD = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.06–0.40). Conclusion The results of this study show that the outcomes in COVID-19 patients treated by the ICW is better than those treated by the WM treatment alone, suggesting that WM and TCM can be complementary in the treatment of COVID-19.

M. Marengo, Colin J. Martin, S. Rubow et al.

Medical radiation accidents and unintended events may lead to accidental or unintended medical exposure of patients and exposure of staff or the public. Most unintended exposures in nuclear medicine will lead to a small increase in risk; nevertheless, these require investigation and a clinical and dosimetric assessment. Nuclear medicine staff are exposed to radiation emitted directly by radiopharmaceuticals and by patients after administration of radiopharmaceuticals. This is particularly relevant in PET, due to the penetrating 511 keV γ-rays. Dose constraints should be set for planning the exposure of individuals. Staff body doses of 1-25 µSv/GBq are reported for PET imaging, the largest component being from the injection. The preparation and administration of radiopharmaceuticals can lead to high doses to the hands, challenging dose limits for radionuclides such as 90Y and even 18F. The risks of contamination can be minimized by basic precautions, such as carrying out manipulations in purpose-built facilities, wearing protective clothing, especially gloves, and removing contaminated gloves or any skin contamination as quickly as possible. Airborne contamination is a potential problem when handling radioisotopes of iodine or administering radioaerosols. Manipulating radiopharmaceuticals in laminar air flow cabinets, and appropriate premises ventilation are necessary to improve safety levels. Ensuring patient safety and minimizing the risk of incidents require efficient overall quality management. Critical aspects include: the booking process, particularly if qualified medical supervision is not present; administration of radiopharmaceuticals to patients, with the risk of misadministration or extravasation; management of patients' data and images by information technology systems, considering the possibility of misalignment between patient personal data and clinical information. Prevention of possible mistakes in patient identification or in the management of patients with similar names requires particular attention. Appropriate management of pregnant or breast-feeding patients is another important aspect of radiation safety. In radiopharmacy activities, strict quality assurance should be implemented at all operational levels, in addition to adherence to national and international regulations and guidelines. This includes not only administrative aspects, like checking the request/prescription, patient's data and the details of the requested procedure, but also quantitative tests according to national/international pharmacopoeias, and measuring the dispensed activity with a calibrated activity meter prior to administration. In therapy with radionuclides, skin tissue reactions can occur following extravasation, which can result in localized doses of tens of Grays. Other relevant incidents include confusion of products for patients administered at the same time or malfunction of administration devices. Furthermore, errors in internal radiation dosimetry calculations for treatment planning may lead to under or over-treatment. According to literature, proper instructions are fundamental to keep effective dose to caregivers and family members after patient discharge below the Dose constraints. The IAEA Basic Safety Standards require measures to minimize the likelihood of any unintended or accidental medical exposures and reporting any radiation incident. The relative complexity of nuclear medicine practice presents many possibilities for errors. It is therefore important that all activities are performed according to well established procedures, and that all actions are supported by regular quality assurance/QC procedures.