With increasing numbers of general medical practitioners (GMPs) becoming purchasers of health care, providers of surgical services need to understand factors influencing GMP referrals. Using an anonymous postal questionnaire, criteria used by 400 randomly selected general medical practitioners to make referral decisions were assessed. Issues regarding the importance of waiting ...

This paper is concerned with a Filipino 'psychic surgeon' confronted by a particularly challenging case of a kind perhaps unprecedented in his practice. The paper describes and analyzes how the practitioner modified his usual clinical performance and adapted his actions to demands of an extremely difficult situation. The case is ...

BACKGROUND: The 1990 Contract encouraged general practitioners to participate in continuing medical education by providing a financial incentive. AIM: The study was designed: to determine the motivation of general practitioners attending education events; and to compare motivation and reasons for attendance pre- and post-Contract at commercial and non-commercial meetings, and ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine reliability of the measurement of hip movements (flexion, internal rotation, and external rotation) between medical practitioners. METHODS: Six clinicians carried out measurements of hip movements on each of six patients with osteoarthritis of one hip, using a specifically designed plurimeter. RESULTS: There was no evidence of any ...

This paper reviews the empirical evidence about the effects of the 1990 general practitioner (GP) contract on the provision of medical services in the United Kingdom. A brief outline of the major changes instigated by the 1990 GP contract is given. Studies of the implementation of the changes tend to ...

Since the work of Dr William Ogle in 1886 the health and mortality of members of the Victorian medical profession has been a relatively neglected subject. 'Physicians, surgeons and general practitioners' represents probably the only occupation whose mortality experience--both in terms of age and cause of death--may be traced continuously ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between emergency practitioner level of training and cosmetic appearance of primarily closed wounds as evaluated at the time of suture removal. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of wound registry data was performed. At the time of wound closure, standard data were collected including details of patient ...

As biomedicine evolved into the preserve of upper-class and upper-middle-class physicians, working-class and lower-middle-class individuals turned to chiropractic as a vehicle of upward social mobility. Practice-building seminars constitute a largely overlooked strategy by which many chiropractors have sought to address their marginal status within the U.S. medical system. Using archival ...

Variation in aspects of medical practice such as diagnosis, has been studied at different levels of aggregation. At the inter-practitioner aggregation level, attention is increasingly being paid to factors explaining medical variation which are attributed to 'professional uncertainty'. The concept of 'professional uncertainty' refers to variability that is considered to ...

This paper describes the emergence of motivational interviewing in the addictions field, and the development of broader negotiating methods for use in medical consultations about behaviour change. It is argued that much of this material should be relevant to the treatment of obesity in brief medical consultations. It should be ...

A brief demographic profile of the 466 physicians applying for licensure in Rhode Island in the year 1895, is presented here. The typical Rhode Island physician of a century ago was a New England-born 39-year-old white male general practitioner who had little undergraduate education, received his medical diploma from an ...

Concepts of disease, illness (being ill), and criteria for issuing sickness certificate for musculoskeletal pain have been investigated by a postal survey based on case histories. Questionnaires were filled in by 898 individuals; 194 General Practitioners, 76 medical consultants working for the National Insurance Administration, 307 insurance clerks, and a ...

A small survey in Peninsular Malaysia indicates a marked tendency among the general population to treat minor ailments by self-medication with over-the-counter drugs and/or traditional medicines. The use of over-the-counter drugs appears to be favoured for skin conditions, general health care, aches and pains, and problems affecting the eyes, ears, ...

British general practitioners, who are tired of their 24-hour responsibility, recently had a showdown with government about providing medical care outside normal hours. Physicians will be paid more for after-hours calls, but many would prefer not to do the work at all. They say such calls are often a waste ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of general practitioner (GP) medical records. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: One hundred and fifty fee-for-service GPs in suburban Brisbane. SETTING OF STANDARDS: Standards were set at meetings with general practitioner educators, and refined after circulating drafts to participants. Criteria were established in the 12 areas of: ...

This study was designed to quantify the willingness of emergency departments (EDs) and private care practitioners to see medically indigent patients. Three case scenarios were developed to represent severe, moderate, and mild problems that typically confront ED physicians. A female investigator made telephone calls using these scenarios, each time declaring ...

John Hamilton North who was recipient of the 1994 Rose Hunt Award for outstanding service to the RACGP is renowned for his many skills--clinical, administrative and political. A very congenial personality, this astute ex-rural Tasmanian general practitioner served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II before entering ...

Thyroid and non-thyroid inflammations are acute conditions accompanied by severe pain. It is impossible for general practitioners who have to refer patients to various outpatients department or specialised hospitals to distinguish between these conditions, even with the help of medical history, palpation and findings of laberatory investigations. Therefore, patients are ...

Diarrhoea is an important public health problem in Balochistan, the westernmost province of Pakistan. Although the use of oral rehydration solutions (ORS) has been widely promoted, no studies have been reported on the actual uses of ORS in treating infant diarrhoea by the medical doctors in this region. The medical ...

Malaria is an ever present danger to those who travel in endemic areas. Falciparum malaria may be a life-threatening condition, even when treated promptly and appropriately. It is important that practitioners be aware that international travelers are at risk for malaria. It is also important to advise patients to seek ...

AIM: The Medical Council of New Zealand has adopted a policy which presumes that any sexual contact between a doctor and patient is unacceptable. This 'zero tolerance' approach will presumably form the basis of disciplinary investigations and charges. METHODS: All 412 Auckland general practitioners on the indicative register were surveyed ...

Impacted teeth are a medical deformity brought about by the dietary changes of modern civilization. Ample studies exist to show that the lack of a coarse, abrasive diet--an attritive diet--is the major cause of this problem in modern civilization. Our recent ancestors did not experience this problem or the problem ...

OBJECTIVE: To identify, from a list of conditions prepared by leaders in the Australian chiropractic profession, disorders that medical practitioners regard as suitable for referral for chiropractic care. DESIGN: A descriptive study in which eight hundred and twenty (820) medical practitioners with an interest in "unconventional" interventions were invited to ...

PURPOSE AND DESIGN: One of the more difficult tasks that clinicians must perform as part of their care of patients is that of conveying bad news, such as a severe diagnosis or death. However, there is a paucity of empirically founded information that relates to the specific steps for breaking ...

OBJECTIVES: To determine prevalence of rectal bleeding in the community and to examine factors that lead some patients to consult their general practitioner about rectal bleeding while others do not. DESIGN: Questionnaire survey followed by semistructured interviews of sample of respondents with rectal bleeding. SETTING: Two general practices on Tyneside. ...

A questionnaire survey of 225 general practitioners was carried out to establish the proportion of their workload formed by paediatric ENT problems. Approximately 50% of children seeking medical care from their general practitioners had problems in this area. Infections of the upper respiratory tract and associated organs were the most ...

Reducing systematic bias in any group of study participants should be a priority of any researcher. This can be achieved by ensuring the sampling framework is adequate and by increasing response rates. Response rates in studies of general practitioners have to date tended to be low. Generalization of results to ...

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the attitude toward chiropractic care of Australian medical practitioners who had previously demonstrated a willingness to contemplate a nonconventional mode of clinical intervention. DESIGN: A descriptive study in which eight hundred and twenty (820) medical practitioners were invited to respond to a mailed questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS: Only medical ...

AIM: To describe doctors' attitudes towards their own medical care. METHODS: Postal survey asking 2564 doctors about their access to, and use of, medical services. The sample, 14% of all New South Wales doctors, was randomly selected from the NSW Register of Medical Practitioners. To ensure anonymity, non-respondents were not ...

The models used to describe the kinetics of inert gases during underwater diving are inadequate. Medical practitioners and scientists interested in such diving have attempted to quantitatively describe the behaviour of nitrogen in compressed air diving since 1908, with little success. The problems encountered during this diving research are relevant ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an intervention designed to reduce the number of benign melanocytic lesions excised from the skin. DESIGN: A randomised controlled field trial based in the medical practices of two cities. Examination of histopathological reports of 5823 melanocytic skin lesions excised over the intervention period and in the preceding ...

OBJECTIVES: (a) To investigate defensive medical practices among general practitioners; (b) to compare any such practices with general practitioners' understanding of certain aspects of the terms of service and medical negligence and practitioners' concerns about the risk of being sued or having a complaint lodged. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey. Each ...

Medical botanists formed a major and growing element in the delivery of medical care in Victorian Britain, supplementing the provision made by qualified physicians. Medical reform, introduced into Britain from the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, combined botanical treatment, including a strong emphasis on the use ...

Patients (n = 256), consulting either a general practitioner (GP) or one of three complementary practitioners (osteopath, homeopath, or acupuncturist), completed a seven-part questionnaire that looked at demographic data, medical history, familiarization with complementary therapies, health beliefs and life-style, health locus of control, scientific health beliefs, and their perceptions of ...

This is a study about the current status of knowledge and level of insight in treatment possibilities of pediatric urological diseases in daily practice of Dutch general practitioners (GPs). A questionnaire was mailed to GPs with questions concerning the structure of their medical practice, the localization, the received education in ...

Our view of the meeting of Greek doctors and Roman patients is not yet clear and not well-balanced in that its non-medical aspects have been over-emphasized. It is useful to look at current work of medical anthropologists and to see if we can define the problem itself more clearly by ...

Complaints against medical practitioners are of interest to all the stakeholders in health care who are concerned with quality assurance and its definition, implementation and monitoring. New South Wales,Australia, has recently made statutory provision for independent structures of complaint investigation and resolution, including revised disciplinary proceedings to protect the public ...

Archaeological evidence, in the form of sets of instruments and doctors' tombstones, can provide pointers towards the varied roles of Greco-Roman medical personnel. A number of recent discoveries have prompted a consideration of the range of instruments in those instrumentaria which are believed to be complete. The variety of instruments, ...

A significant proportion of patients seen in ophthalmic Accident and Emergency departments are referred by other medical practitioners. Two hundred and twenty-six referral letters from general practitioners to the Accident and Emergency Department of a large regional ophthalmology centre were examined. Information that was poorly recorded in the referral letters ...

This article emphasizes the need to publish well-edited versions of Tamil medical works. Some illustrative examples from Vaittiyacintamani - 800 of Yukimuni and Nayanaviti-500 of Akattiyar are presented in support of the suggestion.

De Clerambault's syndrome or erotomania is a condition in which a patient, usually a woman, develops a delusional belief that a man, usually older and of higher social status, is in love with her. This paper describes such cases where medical practitioners were involved. In a case where a doctor ...

Death and injury rates associated with commercial vehicle driving are unacceptably high. Pre-existing medical conditions may contribute to road accidents and the National Road Transport Commission (NRTC) has developed a set of uniform guidelines, based on best available evidence, which might preclude at risk individuals from holding commercial licences. Standardised ...

In an earlier paper, we defined a medical photograph as one that accurately maximizes clinical information while minimizing irrelevant data. This paper expands on this concept, providing specific hints to assist the practitioner in obtaining consistent high-quality clinical photos. We review the important question every medical photographer must ask when ...

The aim of this study was to compare and contrast the views of general practitioners (GPs), hospital doctors and medical students to alternative medicine. A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 100 GPs and 100 hospital doctors in the South West Thames Regional Health Authority (SWTRHA). A convenience ...

OBJECTIVE: To record doctors' attitudes towards, and practice of, active voluntary euthanasia (AVE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. METHODS: A postal survey was sent to a random sample of 2000 practitioners on the Medical Register of NSW (which includes medical practitioners in ...

This revision and update of an article published previously in Hospital Pharmacy (1992; 27:690-699) alerts healthcare practitioners about medications that should not be crushed. This list serves those who dispense and administer medications so that potential problems associated with disruption of special pharmaceutical formulations may be prevented. Products are identified ...

Systems for preventing and treating animal diseases have been employed in Sri Lanka since ancient times, long before the advent of modern veterinary science. Many such methods have been used, mainly in ruminants but also in trained elephants. Records of animal treatments can be found in historical documents. The first ...

U.S. medical products are marketed globally and are designed to meet needs of medical practitioners and their patients throughout the world. However, differences in how these products are regulated in different countries can pose challenges for the global marketer. This paper explores some of the differences between proposed and extant ...

There are many more 'family matters' issues worthy of reflection, but the examples represent some of the more common personal dilemmas facing medical practitioners, and in particular women doctors, based on both my own experience and conversations with colleagues. There are no simple or universally appropriate answers to any of ...

Generic substitution of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) has been controversial, with many alleged instances of biologic and therapeutic inequivalence reported. The recall of a generic phenytoin (PHT) formulation used in the Veterans Administration (VA) medical system allowed us to evaluate the question of biologic equivalence systematically in a relatively large number ...