Suchergebnisse

Knowledge is missing of how participation in informnation system design is built in practice and, particularily, of the interaction taking place within multi-disciplinary design groups. The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics of small-group design meetings where rules for a democratic dialogue are used. Using the grounded theory method, a descriptive model is inductively composed in which actions and events during the meetings are related to frames of sociocultural reference. This model can be employed as a theoretical background in the planning, performance, and evaluation of participatory design projects.

This paper presents 10 recommendations for improving the European Medicines Agency's guidance for environmental risk assessment of human pharmaceutical products. The recommendations are based on up-to-date, available science in combination with experiences from other chemical frameworks such as the REACH-legislation for industrial chemicals. The recommendations concern: expanding the scope of the current guideline; requirements to assess the risk for development of antibiotic resistance; jointly performed assessments; refinement of the test proposal; mixture toxicity assessments on active pharmaceutical ingredients with similar modes of action; use of all available ecotoxicity studies; mandatory reviews; increased transparency; inclusion of emission data from production; and a risk management option. We believe that implementation of our recommendations would strengthen the protection of the environment and be beneficial to society. Legislation and guidance documents need to be updated at regular intervals in order to incorporate new knowledge from the scientific community. This is particularly important for regulatory documents concerning pharmaceuticals in the environment since this is a research field that has been growing substantially in the last decades.