The purpose of the current study is to understand the nature of the challenges that sales representatives face as a result of operating within a highly mobile and heterogeneous work environment. The paper also focuses on how the sales representatives manage their information needs and discusses the properties of mobile support systems that would enable them to work effectively despite their bei...

BACKGROUND Family Medicine/General Practice (FM/GP) has not developed in a similar way worldwide. In countries that are not primary care oriented, the discipline of FM/GP may be less developed because this is not a career option for medical graduates. In such a situation, FM/GP will not be regarded as a required clinical experience during medical school. OBJECTIVES To define the 'minimal requ...

The American College of Physicians (ACP), representing over 116,000 internal medicine physicians and medical students, is pleased to provide written comments on the Federal role in promoting health information technology (HIT) to improve quality and the value of patient care. These comments are provided for the July 22, 2004 hearing held by the United States (U.S.) Health Subcommittee of the Ho...

In the May 2012 issue of Medical Laboratory Observer; I had the honor to provide readers with the first four of nine sales principles for field representatives who have the responsibility of selling laboratory services to physician offices, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations. Principle # 1 was "Strategy is the foundation." Principle # 2 was "Reps must first be sold themselves." Princ...

The European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology held a consensus workshop in Manchester, UK in December 2003 to discuss issues relating to the care of GH-treated patients in the transition from paediatric to adult life. Clinicians experienced in the care of paediatric and adult patients on GH treatment, from a wide range of countries, as well as medical representatives from the pharmaceutical...

Verona’s School of Homeopathic Medicine (www.omeopatia.org) organized a day of full immersion in the field of homeopathy, focusing on the validity of this much-debated discipline. There is widespread consensus in the medical community that evidence-based medicine is the best standard for assessing efficacy and safety of healthcare practices, and systematic reviews with strict protocols are esse...

The expression “nothing about us without us” was first coined by disability rights activists to convey the idea that no policy should be reached without full participation of representatives of all stakeholders. 2 More recently, it has been adopted by patient communities seeking broader involvement with the healthcare system. Although the drive for patient involvement has come from patients, th...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the relationship between the opinions of inpatients and the degree to which hospitals are improving in performance over time. The aim of this study was to determine the personal assessment level of inpatients or their representatives regarding aspects of health care in an internal medicine ward. METHODS We carried out a questionnaire in September 2011 with 284...

The Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which came into force in the UK in May 2004, cover the conduct of clinical trials on medicinal products. They allow a legal representative (a person not connected with the conduct of the trial) to consent to the participation of incompetent adults in medical research. Currently, very little is known about how such representatives w...