BACKGROUND Estimates of colorectal cancer test use vary widely by data source. Medicare claims offer one source for monitoring test use, but their utility has not been validated. We compared ascertainment of sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy between three data sources: self reports, Medicare claims, and medical records. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study population included Medicare enrollees residi...

BACKGROUND We sought to identify predictors of asthma development following severe early childhood RSV bronchiolitis. Different definitions of asthma were also compared. METHODS This longitudinal, observational study (N = 343) followed patients (<2 years old) from a placebo-controlled trial (N = 979) of montelukast after RSV bronchiolitis to identify clinical, demographic, or biochemical pred...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact on the reported cause-of-death patterns of a verbal autopsy coding strategy based on a review of every death by multiple coders versus a single coder. METHODS Deaths in 45 villages (total population 180,162) in southern India were documented during 12 months in 2003-2004, and a standard verbal autopsy questionnaire was completed for each death. Two physician cod...

OBJECTIVE To define the range of clinical conditions Canadian emergency pediatricians consider appropriate for management by physician assistants (PAs) and the degree of autonomy PAs should have in the pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional, pan-Canadian survey using electronic questionnaire technology: the Active Campaign Survey tool. We targeted PED phy...

background: the family physician program and referral system considered as one of the important programs of country’s health that has been implemented since 2005.considerng that health is a spontaneous phenomenon and information in this regard should be given to individuals, the present study was conducted to determine the relationship between knowledge and attitudes of rural people with inform...

A senior community-based physician practicing in Rhode Island established a physician-patient relationship with a wealthy patient. Over the course of several years, the patient, who happened to be both his neighbor and insurance agent, lent $177,000 to this physician. These loans were documented as part of the medical record. As the patient’s health declined, the physician provided home care, a...

BACKGROUND Self-assessments of health are a strong predictor of mortality. Whether self-assessment of health provides additional information beyond a physician's assessment is unclear. METHODS We analyzed data on 14,530 US adults from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. General self-rated health (GSRH)-"In general, would you say your health is Excellent, Very Good, Goo...

BACKGROUND the substantial decline in oldest old mortality has led to more people surviving to very old age. As morbidity and disability generally increases with age epidemiological research in ageing has focused on the health of oldest olds. However, most studies are based on self-reported or physician-reported information, not objective health information. OBJECTIVE to estimate and compare ...

Study Objectives. We identified the associated conditions of patients less than 12 months of age who were referred for polysomnogram (PSG) studies. We collated PSG findings and physician interpretation. We determined the correlation between the recommended treatment by the PSG interpreting physician and actual prescribed treatment by the referring or subjects' physician. We determined adherence...

Introduction: It is recommended that the physician apply at least a semi-quantitative segmental scoring system in myocardial perfusion SPECT.  We aimed to assess the agreement between automated semi-quantitative analysis using QPS (quantitative Perfusion SPECT) software and visual approach for calculation of summed stress  score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS) and summed difference score (SDS). ...