An automated environment for implementing and monitoring care plans and practice guidelines is very important to the reduction of hospital costs and optimization of medical care. The goal of our research effort is to design a general system architecture that facilitates the implementation of (potentially) numerous care plans. Our approach is unique in that we apply the principles and technologi...

PURPOSE There has been little research on the accessibility and quality of primary care services for epilepsy and emergency hospital admissions for epilepsy. METHODS We examined time trends in admissions for epilepsy in England between 2004-2005 and 2010, and the association of admission rates with population and primary care factors. The units of analysis were the registered populations of 8...

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between the structure of care for diabetes in general practice and the corresponding admission rates for diabetic patients to hospital. A questionnaire was sent to 350 group or single handed practices in the Oxford region and a retrospective analysis was made of admission rates using hospital activity analysis. Admission rat...

An Address given to the Ulster Medical Society IT is unusual for a paper to a Medical Society to deal with a special branch of medical practice as a whole, instead of focussing upon a part. I have, however, decided to deal with the whole field of the practice of psychological medicine, in a general manner, by describing cases illustrating the different types of problem with which one is called ...

OBJECTIVE To develop a method of identifying patients at high risk of readmission to hospital in the next 12 months for practical use by primary care trusts and general practices in the NHS in England. DATA SOURCES Data from hospital episode statistics showing all admissions in NHS trusts in England over five years, 1999-2000 to 2003-4; data from the 2001 census for England. Population All re...

OBJECTIVE  To assess whether continuity of care with a general practitioner is associated with hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions for older patients. DESIGN  Cross sectional study. SETTING  Linked primary and secondary care records from 200 general practices participating in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink in England. PARTICIPANTS  230 472 patients aged b...

Pure tone audiometry was obtained for both ears of 32 children by a general practitioner using a simple audiometer in his surgery, and by audiometricians in a hospital department on the same day. Comparing the worst hearing threshold at any of the three tested frequencies, the general practitioner did not find any ears to hear more than 10 dB better than the hospital (no false negatives). Howev...

The purpose of this study was to assess reasons students seek a career in dentistry, their perceptions of the dental school admissions process, and their expectations of the profession. Of 155 predental students participating in a dental school simulation course offered at a Nevada dental school, 152 participated in this study (68.4 percent [n=104] male, and 31.6 percent [n=48] female). When as...

AIM To determine the reliability of international normalised ratio (INR) measurement in primary care by practice nurses using near patient testing (NPT), in comparison with results obtained within hospital laboratories by varied methods. METHODS As part of an MRC funded study into primary care oral anticoagulation management, INR measurements obtained in general practice were validated agains...