To assess the knowledge of general physicians about the diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a self-administered questionnaire, containing 15 questions, was distributed to 160 doctors attending a pulmonary CME program in March 2002. After 15 minutes of response time, the questionnaires were collected. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS (Version 10.0) software. O...

BACKGROUND The hospitalist model is rapidly altering the landscape for inpatient care in the United States, yet evidence about the clinical and economic outcomes of care by hospitalists is derived from a small number of single-hospital studies examining the practices of a few physicians. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 76,926 patients 18 years of age or older who were hos...

The aim of the study was to establish whether the physicians' strike, which took place in Croatia in 2003, had an impact on the mortality of the population. Mortality data from the National Bureau of Statistics relating to the strike period (15 January - 14 February 2003) were selected and compared with the previous and subsequent periods of the same duration in 2001, 2002 and 2004. Of the 52,5...

BACKGROUND This article examines delicate issues in continuous deep sedation (CDS) from the perspectives of different types of physicians. The following sensitive issues involved in CDS were investigated: artificial hydration, sedation for nonphysical discomfort, the relationship between CDS and euthanasia, and patient involvement in decision making for CDS. METHODS A structured retrospective...

background defensive medicine prompts physicians not to admit high-risk patients who need intensive care. this phenomenon not only decreases the quality of healthcare services, but also wastes scarce health resources. defensive medicine occurs in negative and positive forms. hence, the present study aimed to determine frequency of positive and negative defensive medicine behaviors and their und...

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...

introduction. one of the most important reasons of failure of traditional medical education in preparing efficient and competent physicians for the real world of practice is using disease-oriented medical education. however patients never tell their diseases to physicians, but mostly they complain their symptoms and the physicians should diagnose the problem and attempt to its treatment. unfort...