Primary healthcare offers significant benefits to Canadians and to the healthcare system as a whole. The Taber Integrated Primary Healthcare Project (TIPHP) was a three-year primary healthcare renewal initiative involving rural physicians and the Chinook Health Region in Taber, Alberta, Canada. The goal of the project was to improve healthcare services delivery through integration of the servic...

BACKGROUND As part of efforts to reduce maternal deaths in Nigeria, pregnant women are being encouraged to give birth in healthcare facilities. However, little is known about whether or not available healthcare facilities can cope with an increasing demand for obstetric care. We thus carried out this survey as a rapid and tactical assessment of facility quality. We visited 121 healthcare facili...

Introduction Managing venous leg ulcers presents challenges to the individuals who live with them and the healthcare providers participating in their care. Adding to the burden of every venous leg ulcer is the risk that it will recur after it has healed, an outcome which represents personal, social, financial and psychological costs to the individual and further economic burden to healthcare pr...

Background Pediatric health research is important for improving the health and well-being of children and their families. To foster the development of physicians' research competencies, it is vital to integrate practical and context-specific research training into residency programs. Purpose To describe the development of a resident research training program at one tertiary care pediatric acade...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy and optimal timing of physician prognostication in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, a prototypical neurological disease characterized by variable outcomes and frequent disability. METHODS From October 2009 to April 2010, treating neurologists at a tertiary care academic medical center made daily predictions o...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We seek to provide current, comprehensive, and physician-level data for critical procedures performed in a high-volume pediatric emergency department (ED). METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of all critical procedures performed in the ED of a tertiary care pediatric institution. Data were collected from written records of resuscitative care provided. The primary outcom...

The ability of neuropsychological tests to predict rehabilitation outcome is unclear, particularly when other ratings of cognition are available. Neuropsychological test scores and functional ratings of cognition (Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Cognition score) were used to predict improvement in patient mobility and self-care skill, as measured by the FIM Motor score. Regression models ...

OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of discontinuing treatment with amoxicillin after three days or eight days in adults admitted to hospital with mild to moderate-severe community acquired pneumonia who substantially improved after an initial three days' treatment. DESIGN Randomised, double blind, placebo controlled non-inferiority trial. SETTING Nine secondary and tertiary care hospita...

IMPORTANCE Determining if relatives of patients diagnosed as having papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) are at increased risk of developing the same cancer--and if so, which relatives and to what degree--would help identify those who require closer clinical attention. This could lead to earlier cancer detection and improved prognoses. OBJECTIVE To define the familial risk of PTC using a unique ...

OBJECTIVES To review studies eliciting patient and healthcare provider preferences for healthcare interventions using discrete choice experiments (DCEs) to (1) review the methodology to evaluate similarities, differences, rigour of designs and whether comparisons are made at the aggregate level or account for individual heterogeneity; and (2) quantify the extent to which they demonstrate concor...