The Medicare Current Beneficiary Sur­ vey (MCBS) contains a vast amount of information about the Medicare popula­ tion. Common characteristics such as demographic, health status, and utilization of various services are included in the survey as well as other less known information. This highlight will look into the use of computers and Internet service by the Medicare population over time using...

BACKGROUND The rhetoric of primary health care philosophy in the district health system is widely cited as a fundamental component of the health transformation process in post-apartheid South Africa. Despite South Africa's progress and attempts at implementing primary health care, various factors still limit its success. DISCUSSION Inconsistencies and poor understanding of primary care and pr...

Josep Vidal-Alaball honorary research fellow [email protected] Christopher C Butler professor of primary care medicine, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4YS Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure. pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: (1) No fi...