Assays for detecting somatic mutations are requested with higher sensitivity and more convenience. Here, we describe snapback primer mediated allele clamping enrichment polymerase chain reaction (SPACE-PCR), a novel form of PCR that amplifies minority alleles selectively from mixtures. We replaced regular PCR with SPACE-PCR before sequencing or genotyping assays to improve mutation detection se...

BACKGROUND Interruptions have been implicated as a cause of clinical errors, yet, to our knowledge, no empirical studies of this relationship exist. We tested the hypothesis that interruptions during medication administration increase errors. METHODS We performed an observational study of nurses preparing and administering medications in 6 wards at 2 major teaching hospitals in Sydney, Austra...

BACKGROUND Reason's Swiss cheese model has become the dominant paradigm for analysing medical errors and patient safety incidents. The aim of this study was to determine if the components of the model are understood in the same way by quality and safety professionals. METHODS Survey of a volunteer sample of persons who claimed familiarity with the model, recruited at a conference on quality i...

INTRODUCTION Self-medication is consumption of one or several medications without the physician's prescription. Given the risks of self-medication, this study was carried out to assess the prevalence of self-medication and its related factors among the elderly in Kermanshah-Iran METHOD In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 272 elderly visiting the private offices in Kermanshah were selec...