OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of performance-based financial incentives on the influenza immunization rate in primary care physicians' offices. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial during the 1991 influenza immunization season. SETTING Rochester, New York, and surrounding Monroe County during the Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration Project. PARTICIPANTS A total of 54 solo or grou...

OBJECTIVES Current health care management has resulted in a change in referral patterns. The present study was undertaken to define the efficacy and value of pediatric echocardiography performed and interpreted in adult laboratories. METHODS We reviewed the findings in 100 consecutive pediatric patients 1 month to 18 years of age referred for possible heart disease and evaluated previously by...

OBJECTIVE To provide FPs with detailed knowledge of automated office blood pressure (AOBP) measurement, its potential role in primary care, and its proper use in the diagnosis and management of hypertension. SOURCES OF INFORMATION Comprehensive monitoring and collection of scientific articles on AOBP by the authors since its introduction. MAIN MESSAGE Automated office blood pressure measure...

OBJECTIVE Describe the content and frequency of provider-patient dietary supplement discussions during primary care office visits. METHODS Inductive content analysis of 1477 transcribed audio-recorded office visits to 102 primary care providers was combined with patient and provider surveys. Encounters were collected in Los Angeles, CA (2009-2010), geographically diverse practice settings acr...

INTRODUCTION Patient and practice perspectives can inform development of team-based approaches to improving blood pressure control in primary care. We used a community-based participatory research approach to assess patient and practice perceptions regarding the value of team-based strategies for controlling blood pressure in a rural North Carolina population from 2010 through 2012. METHODS I...

the situation of people with disabilities in the developing countries should be a matter of great concern. there are today close to 250 million severely and moderately disabled persons in these countries; the annual increase is 10 million. most of them are poor, dependent neglected, excluded from education, training and jobs; they die early and have no power while alive. between 15 and 20% of a...

background: primary health care workers (phcw) are the front-liners in any infectious disease outbreaks. the recent outbreak of h1n1 influenza demonstrated that uptake of h1n1 vaccination remained low amongst pchw despite its proven effectiveness. this trend is worrying as phcw are the first point of contact in any emerging outbreak of future influenza epidemic. purpose: to investigate factors ...

background: lifestyle factors such as weight, salt intake, and physical activity have shown to be important in treating hypertension.the object of this study was to describe feasibility and to assess the effectiveness of a multicomponent lifestyle intervention on high blood pressure (bp) of iranian women. materials and methods: this randomized controlled trial was conducted in four health cente...

irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders particularly affecting the quality of life (qol). evaluating qol in ibs patients is a valuable method of defining a psychobiological pattern of disease. various disease specific and general instruments are now available to measure health-related qol (hrqol) in ibs patients. though, no comparison has been made be...

objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the type, severity and progression of psychiatric pathologies in a sample of 372 outpatients (age range 18–65 years) referred by their primary general practitioners (gps) to an urgent referral team (urt) based in a psychiatric hospital in aberdeen, scotland. this team offers immediate appointments (1- to 7-day delays) for rapid assessments and ea...