We used quality control circles (QCC) followed by the PDCA Deming cycle and analyzed the application of QCC to the sustained improvement of a medical institution in Zhejiang province. Analyses of the tangible and intangible achievements of QCC revealed that the achievement indices for reductions in internal errors, reductions in ...

OBJECTIVES:: To investigate second year medical students' understanding of quality of life associated with childhood inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS:: Cross-sectional study in a major teaching institution in San Francisco. A questionnaire was administered following an hour long gastroenterology lecture which featured two young patients with pediatric-onset IBD who addressed ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Epinephrine is an important life-saving treatment in patients with anaphylaxis. However, despite the guidelines recommending the use of epinephrine in the management of all patients with anaphylaxis, many patients are either not prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors (EAIs) or remain hesitant to use them. RECENT FINDINGS: In this review, ...

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality developed Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) to screen for in-hospital complications and patient safety events through International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification coding. The purpose of this study was to validate 10 common surgically related PSIs at our academic medical center and ...

CONTEXT: The 2010 Resuscitation Guidelines require high-quality chest compression and rapid defibrillation for patients with ventricular fibrillation with rhythm analysis and defibrillation repeated every 2 min. A lack of adherence to the guidelines by medical students was observed during simulated resuscitation training. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether real-time cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidance, including ...

Bioethics promises a considered, unprejudicial approach to areas of medical decision-making. It does this, in theory, from the perspective of moral philosophy. But the promise of fairly considered, insightful commentary fails when word choices used in ethical arguments are prejudicial, foreclosing rather than opening an area of moral discourse. The ...

The article overviews some achievements and problems of Korean medical journals published in the highly competitive journal environment. Activities of Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE) are viewed as instrumental for improving the quality of Korean articles, indexing large number of local journals in prestigious bibliographic databases and launching ...

Hypothyroidism is a common medical problem easily treated when diagnosed but requiring regular follow-up and patient medication compliance. At times, this diagnosis can go untreated resulting in the development of severe consequences such as Myxedema Coma. Of all the clinical symptoms, cardiovascular manifestations tend to be especially severe and often ...

Nasal obstruction is one of the most common presenting symptoms requiring medical attention at both the primary care physician and the otorhinolaryngologists' level. Nasal obstruction may be caused by anatomic, physiological, or neurologic factors. Complexity is added to this situation because, often, the causation may be multifactorial. Nasal obstruction is ...

The new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty-hour standards for residents and fellows went into effect in 2011. These regulations were designed to reduce fatigue-related medical errors and improve patient safety. The new shift restrictions, however, have led to more frequent transitions in patient care (handoffs), resulting in ...

This is a tribute to one of the Institute of Medical Illustrators' most distinguished Honorary Fellows. It contains many personal impressions, recollections and anecdotes. No apologies are tendered for this. Nor will the account necessarily be in chronological order, because there are so many strands to Peter Cull's eventful career. ...

The circumstances that led to the death of Libby Zion in 1984 prompted national discussions about the impact of resident fatigue on patient outcomes. Nearly 30 years later, national duty hour reforms largely motivated by patient safety concerns have demonstrated a negligible impact of duty hour reductions on patient mortality. We ...

Given the huge burden of coronary artery disease and the effectiveness of medication therapy, understanding and quantifying known impacts of poor medication adherence for primary and secondary prevention is crucial. We sought to systematically review the literature on this topic area with a focus on quantified cost and clinical outcomes ...

PURPOSE: The aim of non-interventional studies (NIS) with medicinal products is to investigate the use of authorized medicinal products in daily routine. In the past, this type of study has been subject to frequent criticism, and many recommendations have been published. The aim of our study was to assess the ...

Suboptimal medication use may lead to morbidity, mortality and increased costs. In order to reduce unnecessary patient harm, medicines management including medication reviews can be provided by clinical pharmacists. Some recent studies have indicated a positive effect of this service, but the quality and outcomes vary among studies. Hence, there ...

We review the current application of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) and consider the evidence that earlier use of DBS confers long-term symptomatic benefit for patients compared to best medical therapy. Electronic searches were performed of PubMed, Web of Knowledge, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and ...

OBJECTIVES: To identify young adults' stated reasons for not taking asthma medication and to determine the significance of personality, asthma control and health-related quality of life in relation to these stated reasons. BACKGROUND: Reasons for non-adherence to asthma medication treatment have previously been studied, but research on the significance of ...

Wearable and everyday-carry medical devices can improve quality of life for individuals that need frequent health monitoring. Such tools can supplement ubiquitous home care environments populated with medical sensors, extending the reach of these environments and increasing the freedom of their occupants. This paper presents the concept design for an ...

The Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio (MLR) regulation requires insurers to spend 80 percent or 85 percent of premiums on medical claims and quality improvements. In 2011, insurers falling below this minimum paid more than $1 billion in rebates. This brief examines how insurers spend their premium dollars--particularly their ...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a local initiative, Project H3, which used housing first, harm reduction, and peer support models to provide housing for 47 homeless people who were medically vulnerable. Method: Comparisons of interviews with participants who were housed at the day ...

Insomnia is one of the most prevalent health concerns in the population and in clinical practice. Clinicians may be reluctant to address insomnia because of its many potential causes, unfamiliarity with behavioral treatments, and concerns about pharmacologic treatments. To review the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of insomnia in adults. Systematic ...

Subthalamic stimulation reduces motor disability and improves quality of life in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease who have severe levodopa-induced motor complications. We hypothesized that neurostimulation would be beneficial at an earlier stage of Parkinson's disease. In this 2-year trial, we randomly assigned 251 patients with Parkinson's disease and early ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Medical research productivity reflects the level of medical education and practice in a particular country. The objective of this study was to examine the quantity and quality of medical and biomedical research published from Palestine. FINDINGS: Comprehensive review of the literature indexed by Scopus was conducted. Data from ...

Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi in South West France. His parents were first cousins; this consanguineous marriage was responsible for his ugly deformities. Lautrec's life in Montmartre became the setting for much of his art and for his deliberate slow self-destruction. In addition to his artistic ability he was courageous, ...

We study the market for new medical technologies from a life cycle perspective, incorporating the fact that healthcare utilization is biased towards old age. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that price controls on medical innovations can expand investment in medical R&D and results in Pareto superior social outcomes, a ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Still picture transmission was performed using a telemedicine system in an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) during a prospective, controlled trial. In this ancillary, retrospective study the quality and content of the transmitted pictures and the possible influences of this application on prehospital time requirements were investigated. METHODS: A ...

A high-quality gold standard is vital for supervised, machine learning-based, clinical natural language processing (NLP) systems. In clinical NLP projects, expert annotators traditionally create the gold standard. However, traditional annotation is expensive and time-consuming. To reduce the cost of annotation, general NLP projects have turned to crowdsourcing based on Web ...

The current economic and regulatory healthcare climate benefits from the roles described for medical laboratory scientists and technician. These roles achieve high quality, cost-effective assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease to meet the needs of a changing healthcare environment.

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model has gained support, but the impact of this model on the quality and equity of care merits further evaluation. To determine if PCMHs are associated with improved quality and equity in pediatric primary care. Using the 2007/2008 National Survey of Children's Health, a nationally ...

Few studies on the breakfast consumption habits of medical students in China have been carried out. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of skipping breakfast and factors associated with skipping breakfast among medical students in Inner Mongolia of China, and to assist in the design ...

Saudi Arabia (SA), the largest country in the Gulf Region, has witnessed unprecedented expansion in undergraduate medical education (UME) with more than 200% increase in medical schools over the last five years. Such rapid expansion creates major challenges in relation to quality of outcomes to the extent that some authors ...

This article describes the authors' clinical experience of integrating psychodynamic therapeutic approaches in the care of medically ill children and their families. A case report of a boy with severe, chronic liver disease requiring a double organ transplant is described as an illustration of how such approaches cannot only improve ...

Background/Aims: Evaluation of the socioeconomic value of medical intervention and establishment of the resources necessary for clinical practice are important for new developments in medical technology. The aim of this study was to determine the socioeconomic value of on-line hemodiafiltration (HDF). Methods: The subjects were 24 patients who underwent hemodialysis ...

A decade after widespread recognition that adherence to medication regimens is key to antiretroviral effectiveness, considerable controversy remains regarding a "gold standard" for adherence measurement. Each adherence measurement approach has strengths and weaknesses and each rests on specific assumptions. The range of assumptions regarding adherence measurement and the diversity with ...

The authors describe the case of a 38-year-old man with a history of schizoaffective disorder, who attempted suicide following the recent starting of a neuroleptic agent that resulted in the development of intolerable akathisia. He survived the attempt, and following changes in his medications the akathisia resolved with no further ...

The 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education rule restricting interns' work hours is one of the bigger changes among reforms intended to improve patient safety, residents' education, and their quality of life by reducing fatigue for physicians-in-training. Several recent studies suggest the rule may have missed the mark. Reported ...

Although tension-type headache is ubiquitous, only a relatively small percentage of the population has these headaches occurring with sufficient frequency and severity to cause them to seek out medical attention. This small group, however, may have substantial impact from their disease on productivity and quality of life. Assessment of the ...

There is a familiar opposition between a 'Scientific Revolution' ethos and practice of experimentation, including experimentation on life, and a 'vitalist' reaction to this outlook. The former is often allied with different forms of mechanism - if all of Nature obeys mechanical laws, including living bodies, 'iatromechanism' should encounter no ...

The right quality control (QC) should ensure the detection of important errors. Statistical QC (SQC) should be included in all QC plans. The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) C24A3 provides guidance for the application of SQC in medical laboratories. It describes a QC planning process and provides an SQC ...

Objective: To analyze the extent to which Spanish leaflets and drug information on the Net met quality criteria. Research design and methods: A descriptive study was conducted comparing readability (REA) and comprehensibility (COM) criteria of a random sample of 77 marketed products of the 12 active ingredients most frequently sold ...

Objectives: We performed a systematic review to investigate the quality of diagnostic hospital discharge data (DHDD) in order to gain insight in the usefulness of these data for medical practice assessment. We investigated the methods used to evaluate data quality, factors that determine data quality and its consequences for medical ...

There are numerous examples of care gaps that could be reduced through enhanced knowledge exchange and practice collaboration between medical specialist physicians. In this paper, we report preliminary results on using speed-dating sessions (SDSs) to stimulate the development of continuing interdisciplinary education (CIDE) activities. In 2007, a 35-minute SDS was ...

Developments in legal and medical research concerning end-of-life decisions regarding severely suffering neonates in the Netherlands provide good cause for reflection on specific items of this issue. This article deals with the outcomes of the first national survey on end-of-life practice in Dutch Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and examines ...

Unlike drugs and medical devices, for which long standing and continuously improving quality assurance/quality control infrastructures exist, many nano-based products lack well-defined standards that are useful to manufacturers and regulators. Inherent variabilities in nanoparticle sizes and shapes, their large surface-to-volume ratios, and their mesoscale interactions with subcellular structures, suggest new ...

The ten-week Professionally Qualified Officers (PQO) course has been running successfully for a number of years and focuses on the values of officership, leadership and command. This article compares the principals embodied in the "Sandhurst Ethos" and the General Medical Council's "Duties of a Doctor" and examines how time spent ...

Behavior-based ergonomics therapy (BBET) has been proposed in the past as a viable individualized non-pharmacological intervention to manage challenging behaviors and promote engagement among long-term care residents diagnosed with Alzheimer's/dementia. We evaluate the effect of BBET on quality of life and behavioral medication usage in an 18-bed dementia care unit ...

Tracheobronchomalacia (TBM) and hyperdynamic airway collapse (HDAC) can be debilitating diseases associated with decreased functional capacity and poor quality of life, although there is no standard definition of this complex condition, and there are numerous terms used to describe it. The diverse etiology associated with TBM and HDAC can obscure ...

This case report describes a patient who had atropine ophthalmic drops prescribed and dispensed by hospice to be administered sublingually as needed for control of secretions at the end of life. However, even as she stabilized and discharged from hospice, these remained on her medication list. At a subsequent hospitalization, ...

The Technical Quality Assurance group was initiated by the EFSUMB Board in 2007 and met firstly in 2008 to discuss and evaluate methods and procedures published for performing technical quality assurance for diagnostic ultrasound devices. It is the aim of this group of experts to advise the EFSUMB Board of ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Medical education can affect medical students' physical and mental health as well as their quality of life. The aim of this study was to assess medical students' perceptions of their quality of life and its relationship with medical education. METHODS: First- to sixth-year students from six Brazilian medical ...