a decade ago, sub-saharan africa accounted for 24% of the global disease burden but was served by only 4% of the global health workforce. the chronic shortage of medical doctors has led other health professionals especially nurses to perform the role of healthcare providers. these health workers have been variously named clinical officers, health officers, physician assistants, nurse practition...

Physician assistants (PAs) have been used for decades in the Canadian military. Now, PAs are being introduced in various clinical settings to provide patient care for the general population. This article reviews major developments in the PA profession across Canada over the last decade. Nearly 541 PAs are employed in Canada or work for a Canadian agency. Growing evidence demonstrates the positi...

BACKGROUND Intensive endurance training has been associated with a high prevalence of symptoms compatible with asthma in elite athletes. It is not known, however, whether there is an association between the type of training for competitive events and the risk of asthma in highly trained athletes. METHODS Two hundred and thirteen track and field athletes, mostly from Finnish national teams, an...

BACKGROUND Community health centers (CHCs) receive $2.9 billion in federal funding to provide primary care to 20 million people annually, and these numbers are increasing. Understanding of physician satisfaction in CHCs may help guide recruitment and retention efforts aimed at expanding CHC programs. The objective of this study was to contrast the satisfaction of family physicians working in CH...

This paper presents information from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) on the certification and practice of international medical graduates (IMGs). IMGs constitute 25 percent of the U.S. physician workforce, and there is a vigorous pipeline of highly qualified candidates seeking graduate training in the United States. When considering how to address the potential ...

BACKGROUND Despite growing concern about the potential impact of managed care on the physician-patient relationship, efforts to enhance the quality of communication between practicing clinicians and their patients have been limited. OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of a 1-day educational workshop. DESIGN Clinician self-assessment of interviewing skills measured immediately before an...

Previous studies of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) have examined its use in several clinical settings, but no study to date has been specific to emergency medicine. This article examines the use of OMT in the practice of emergency medicine by osteopathic physicians. Osteopathic physicians who identified their practice as emergency medicine were surveyed to determine OMT use, including...

In this paper, I first address what medical students learn about appropriate (or tolerated) professional attitudes and emotions in the clinical context and how the performance of emotional positions that create distance between doctor and patient and the defining of patients as other is encouraged through the informal and hidden curricula. Next, I examine what we know about medical students’ em...

The Physician Manager Institute, developed 12 years ago by the CMA and the Canadian College of Health Service Executives, provides training that is designed to improve physicians' management and leadership skills. Changes within health care are prompting more doctors to seek this training in order to become managers within a reformed health care system.

Since the epochal work of Itard at the beginning of the nineteenth century the training of the feebleminded, apart from their mere custodial care, has been a concern of psychologist, physician, educator and sociologist alike. Numerous schools have been established by the state for such training throughout the country, but everyone at all acquainted with this problem knows that there are not nea...