| NCI-C | National Cancer Institute of Canada |
|---|---|
| NHLBI | National Heart Lung and Blood Institute |
| NIBSC | National Institute for Biological Standards and Control |
| NICE | National Institute for Clinical Excellence |
| NIOSH | National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health |
| national health programs | Components of a national health care system which administer specific services, e.g., national health insurance. (12 Dec 1998) |
|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health | <organisation> A nonregulatory U.S. Federal agency which has oversight of research activities that the agency funds. (09 Oct 1997) |
| national library of medicine | An agency of the national institutes of health concerned with overall planning, promoting, and administering programs pertaining to various aspects of documentation and library services in the field of medicine. (12 Dec 1998) |
| national practitioner data bank | A databank established by the health care quality improvement act of 1986 authorizing the department of health and human services to collect and release information on the professional competence and conduct of physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health care practitioners. The data include adverse actions on physicians' malpractice, licensure, hospital privileges, concealing of pertinent information, and the like. (12 Dec 1998) |
| National Science Foundation | <organisation> A nonregulatory U.S. Federal agency which has oversight of biotechnology research activities that the agency funds. (09 Oct 1997) |
| united states national aeronautics and space administration | An independent federal agency established in 1958. It conducts research for the solution of problems of flight within and outside the earth's atmosphere and develops, constructs, tests, and operates aeronautical and space vehicles. (12 Dec 1998) |
| los alamos national laboratory | <radiobiology> Major DOE research facility, located in Los Alamos, new Mexico, about an hour west of Santa Fe. Former home of a frozen-deuterium-fibre Z-pinch device, which was dismantled. Home to an active theory division, including the Numerical Tokamak Grand Challenge (being performed on the CM-5 massively-parallel supercomputer). Also home to former alternative-concepts experimental devices like Scyllac, FRX-A, FRX-B, FRX-C/LSM, ZT40, and the aborted CPRF which was killed in 1991 when it was almost complete (budget cuts). Currently there are some small in-house experiments, including one on electrostatic confinement as a possible fusion device, and/or a compact neutron source. They also do theory and experimental collaboration with other labs worldwide. (09 Oct 1997) |
| abnormalities, drug-induced | Congenital abnormalities caused by medicinal substances or drugs of abuse given to or taken by the mother, or to which she is inadvertently exposed during the manufacture of such substances. The concept excludes abnormalities resulting from exposure to non-medicinal chemicals in the environment. (12 Dec 1998) |
| activity, drug | A measure of the physiological response a drug produces in the body. A less active drug produces less response (and visa versa). (12 Dec 1998) |
| addictive drug | Any drug that creates a certain degree of euphoria and has a strong potential for addiction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adverse drug reaction reporting systems | Systems developed for collecting reports from government agencies, manufacturers, hospitals, physicians, and other sources on adverse drug reactions. (12 Dec 1998) |
| akathisia, drug-induced | Motor restlessness with sensations of quivering and an urge to move about constantly resulting from the use of certain drugs, such as neuroleptic drugs, which affect the extrapyramidal region of the brain. This differs from dyskinesia, drug-induced in that long-term antipsychotic drug exposure is significantly correlated with the increased prevalence of akathisia while there is no such correlation with dyskinesia. The primary observable distinction between tardive akathisia and dyskinesia appears to be in the repetitive, stereotypy of the dyskinesic movements (lip smacking, for example), while akathisia is associated with anxiety, restlessness, and agitation (psychomotor agitation). (12 Dec 1998) |
| antineoplastic drug | A drug that stops or slows the maturation and spread of tumour cells (benign or malignant). (09 Oct 1997) |
| maintenance drug therapy | In chemotherapy, systematic dosage at a level that maintains protection against exacerbation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rational drug design | <pharmacology> Modeling the molecular structure of the target of a drug, for example, an antigen, and then designing a drug that will attack it. (17 Dec 1997) |