Few air travelers passing through metal detectors while their bags are being X-rayed realize that they may also be undergoing a subtler, usually unnoticed psychological scan by behavioral detection officers (BDOs) alert for telltale facial expressions or body movements indicating fear or deception.
    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has trained more than 2,000 officers (the exact number is classified) in techniques to identify suspicious actions and micro indications in facial expression that unconsciously reveal furtive intentions. They employ methods refined for more than 50 years by clinical psychologist Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
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     Primary health care remains unreachable for many people in the United States. More than 3,000 areas in our country are currently designated as underserved in health care delivery, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
    Barriers to care extend beyond the obvious difficulty in traveling to health care centers from isolated areas or recruiting health care providers to distant locations. Barriers are also imposed by financial burdens, which include lack of health insurance or ability to pay out-of-pocket costs, educational limitations, which prevent patients from identifying problems or knowing how to access care, and cultural barriers that restrict seeking care, including language and social barriers.
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    Leon J. Hoffman, Ph.D., encourages psychologists to provide pro bono services. Pro bono publico originally referred to performing legal work donated especially for the public good. It has come to be understood more broadly as providing professional services for free.
    Pro bono as recommended here embraces the financial spectrum from full-fee to nothing. The psychologist should feel permitted, indeed encouraged, to flex as needed to best fit the financial realities of the patient while also attending to his or her own circumstances.
    Why should one do pro bono work?
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