BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers amongst men, yet it is a surprisingly complex disease. There are currently multiple options for treatment, depending on the stage of the cancer, with new methods currently under investigation. Patients can easily get confused about these treatments including the risks/benefits of each, even after consulting a urologist. Consequently, patients have been increasingly using the internet to learn about various diseases, including prostate cancer. However, because online health information is largely unregulated in the United States, it can be difficult for patients to accurately determine the quality of a website. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the readability and quality of websites describing prostate cancer treatments. This study hypothesizes that in general, most websites will be both too difficult to read for an average patient, and of an inferior quality. METHODS: This study is a review of websites that could potentially be found by a patient just diagnosed with prostate cancer. Two search engines, Google and Bing, were used with the search terms “prostate cancer” and “prostate cancer treatments”. To evaluate each website’s readability, three readability formulas were used (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, and SMOG), while the DISCERN tool was used to evaluate each website’s quality. These scores will be analyzed using a two-tailed, one sample t-test to evaluate whether the readability of prostate cancer treatment websites is more difficult than the AMA/NIH recommended 7th grade level as well as if there is a difference in quality between advertisement and non-advertisement sponsored websites. RESULTS: 40 unique websites were found and 26 of them were analyzed for this study. 7 of these websites were marked as advertisements. The average readability of prostate cancer treatment websites was around an 11th grade reading level, which was significantly higher than the AMA/NIH recommended 7th grade level. Based on DISCERN, there was a significant difference in quality between the advertisement and non-advertisement websites with the average quality of non-advertisement websites being rated as “Good”, while advertisement websites were rated as “Poor”. CONCLUSION: We found that the internet can provide high quality prostate cancer information for patients. However, many of these websites require a high school education to properly interpret. Overall, the internet can act as a useful and informative supplement to a patient’s healthcare. However, given the variable quality of websites, it is important for medical professionals to take an active role in how their patient’s obtain medical information. Medical professionals need to ensure that their own websites are updated regularly, and help guide their patients to find unbiased online health information.

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The major purpose of this study was to investigate the question: Do the usual and traditional criteria for judging admissions to medical school, principally traditional academic criteria, in fact, provide the best predictors of success for Blacks or are there other factors, characteristics or variables, non-traditional in nature which are better predictors of Blacks' successful completion from medical school? Specifically this study attempted to determine the impact of the following factors on the successful completion of medical school for Blacks: (1) Demographic factors such as race, religion, cost or medical school indebtedness. (2) Family income. (3) Factors influencing the decision to pursue a medical education. (4) Barriers obstructing their pursuit of a medical degree. (5) Factors contributing to the successful completion of medical school for Blacks. The findings of this study suggests the following factors, characteristics and variables do contribute to the successful completion of medical school for Blacks. (1) Exposure to the field of medicine. (2) Personal characteristics, i.e., having a high degree of self-confidence and self-esteem, motivation, having an unyielding sense of determination, perseverance and endurance, being able to delay one's rewards or gratification, discipline and being able to withstand racism. (3) Support systems: (a) parental and family support; (b) peer support; (c) minority affairs office; (d) mentorship program; (e) church support. (4) Financial resources. (5) Specially designed medical school programs. (6) Non-traditional approaches used by medical school admission committees.

The hypothesis of the research was that a dental health-related, client-administered, computerized nutritional assessment and individualized education program would be appropriate, feasible, and effective in a dental client setting. Two surveys of dental facilities in Western Massachusetts and Portland, Oregon were conducted to establish a need for nutritional assessment and education in dental practices, to define an appropriate time allowance for on-site nutritional education programs, and to identify the target population for such a program. A 10-20 minute time allowance was subsequently set for the proposed program which was targeted at English-speaking adult dental clients with diverse educational backgrounds. A FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire) was chosen as the method of choice to rapidly assess dietary intake of the nutrients of concern in dental health. An abbreviated 38-item Dental Food Frequency Questionnaire was adapted from the FFQ component of the Health Habits and History Questionnaire developed by Block et al at the National Cancer Institute. The dietary assessment was supplemented by questions designed to assess intake of foods associated with development of plaque and cariogenicity. A brief educational presentation was designed to address the same dietary issues. HyperCard$\circler$ software was used to adapt the assessment and educational components to the Macintosh$\circler$ computer. Strategies were employed to make the prototype rapidly functioning, visually appealing, and simple for non-computer-literate persons to operate. The final prototype utilized 426 Kbytes of memory. The prototype was field tested with 20 clients in an urban dental practice. The program was easily operable by clients and required from about 10 to 25 minutes to complete the assessment. A pre- and post-knowledge test indicated that the educational component impacted client knowledge positively in the short term.

American medicine has undergone dramatic changes in the past two decades. The launching of Sputnik I by the Russians in 1957 led the United States government to place an extraordinary emphasis upon science and technology that has been responsible for a staggering array of technological and knowledge breakthrough in medicine. Social changes have created stresses that have resulted in a high percentage of emotional and psychological illnesses. As a result of the impersonal nature of modern technological medicine and the need for emotional and psychological guidance, the American public has turned recently toward alternate methods of healing. Many of these alternate health practices are of Chinese origin. The synthesis of Western medicine and selected alternate techniques for disease prevention and control is known as "Holistic Health." With few exceptions, American medical schools, while recognizing the value of holistic health, have not incorporated holistic approaches or techniques into the medical school curriculum. Many physicians, interested in learning holistic theory and techniques, have been restricted to seminars, workshops, and other cursory reviews of Holistic Health that have been found to be inadequate. Because of the demonstrated need for a guiding philosophy of education and because of the substantial element of Chinese philosophy involved in Holistic Health, an educational philosophy for American medical schools that incorporates appropriate elements of Western and Eastern philosophy has been shown in the study to be necessary. The purpose of the study has been to identify such a philosophy. The study has been an historical analysis of Western and Eastern philosophies, including relationships between them, and examples of the effects of philosophy upon medicine in China and the United States. The study revealed that elements of three major Western philosophies have sufficient overlap with Chinese philosophy to be used, in synthesis, as a philosophical basis for Holistic Health education and practice. The Western philosophies of Pragmatism, Naturalism and Existentialism have been combined to form a educational philosophy for American medical schools. This hybrid philosophy has been named "Medical Holism." The ontology, epistemology, and axiology of Medical Holism have been discussed, and found to be eclectic in nature, a characteristic that is congruent with an holistic philosophy. Using the Taba-Tyler rationale, appropriate learning theories (psychologies) have been developed for Medical Holism. Further, the study has made recommendations for content and process changes in American medical school curricula that would reflect an educational philosophy of Medical Holism.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), sometimes referred to as Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been vital as far as health matters go in the United States of America. Regardless of reports that brand the legislation as unfair, it has to a great extent improved the healthcare sector in the country. It is also important to note that the act has faced numerous social, political or economic challenges (D’Elia, & Norpoth, 2014). The ACA was signed into law by president Barack Obama on March, 23, 2010, and then supported by the Supreme Court on June, 28, 2012. This act has been one of the key changes in the U.S health sector brought about by the Obama administration. It has developed a system making it mandatory for all citizen’s to acquire health insurance coverage, in which they are to pay the monthly premiums. If U.S citizens fail to comply with these guidelines a penalty will be imposed as a result of being uninsured. This paper will primarily focus on the advantages of the ACA to the American citizens. It will include an introduction, literature review, research methodology, findings, conclusion and recommendations.

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