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Biomedical subjects

A F Shaughnessy

Publications and source records attributed to A F Shaughnessy.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Teaching information mastery: evaluating information provided by pharmaceutical representatives.

BACKGROUND: The pharmaceutical industry plays a large role in the lifelong learning of family physicians. Controversy exists over how to integrate this potential information source into residency curricula. METHODS: Based on a a faculty and resident needs assessment, a curriculum was designed to teach the evaluation of pharmaceutical representatives' (PRs) presentations. The Pharmaceutical Representative Evaluation Form is the keystone of the curriculum. This evaluation form guides discussion of pharmaceutical presentation to facilitate understanding of the sales process and help residents confirm or dispute the presentation's content, based on the sales methods used. A second goal of the evaluation program is to improve the content of the PRs' presentations. RESULTS: Residents rapidly acquire the ability to identify potential fallacies of logic and other misleading sales techniques in representatives' presentations. Compared with pretest results, residents' posttest scores demonstrate an understanding that PRs and the acceptance of promotional items can affect their prescribing behavior. Most PRs are pleased that their role is seen as educational. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians must function more as information managers than as information repositories, and it is important that residents be able to obtain useful information from PRs. Our curriculum has been effective in increasing residents' abilities to evaluate the pharmaceutical sales process and allowing them to separate the ¿wheat from the chaff¿ contained in this ubiquitous source of information.

Advertising↗
PubMed1994

Becoming an information master: a guidebook to the medical information jungle.

The medical information system is a "jungle" in which the unguided visitor can become lost or disoriented. This paper, the second in a series on becoming a medical information master, is a guidebook for traveling through this jungle. It focuses on techniques for efficiently obtaining patient-oriented evidence that matters (POEM). From original research to clinical experience, each source of medical information is valuable; the trick is to learn which source is best for the specific information being sought. Armed with this guide, clinicians can find the most appropriate source of information, evaluate it quickly, and apply it confidently in their efforts to provide the best care for their patients.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗
PubMed1994

Long-term experience with a program to improve prescription-writing skills.

BACKGROUND: Prescription-writing skills are often overlooked in resident education. The present study evaluates a method of improving prescription-writing skills over a 2-year period. METHODS: This was a prospective, nonblinded, nonrandomized trial of an educational method to improve prescription-writing abilities of a class of 12 family practice residents. The intervention included evaluation and feedback of prescription writing by a clinical pharmacist using copies of prescriptions written over a 2-year period and applying previously defined criteria for determining prescription-writing errors. RESULTS: The baseline prescription-writing error rate was 14.4%. Over the 2-year intervention, prescription-writing errors by all residents decreased to 6.0% (P = .0002). Error rates decreased 58% from the baseline during the last 6 months of the intervention (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: Continuous evaluation and feedback improved prescription-writing skills and improved communication with pharmacists and patients.

Drug Prescriptions↗
PubMed1994

Oral cephalosporins: newer agents and their place in therapy.

Cefprozil, cefpodoxime and loracarbef are three new oral cephalosporins available for the treatment of common community-acquired infections. They share with other cephalosporins a low incidence of side effects and offer the convenience of twice-daily dosing. These agents can be considered effective, although expensive, alternatives to traditional antibiotics in the treatment of skin, respiratory tract and urinary tract infections. Oral cefpodoxime offers an alternative to intramuscular antibiotics in the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1994

Becoming a medical information master: feeling good about not knowing everything.

The body of knowledge in medicine is growing at a phenomenal pace. Clinicians rely on many sources of medical information--journal articles and reviews, textbooks, colleagues, continuing medical education conferences, videotapes and audiotapes, and pharmaceutical representatives--although they probably have had little formal training in assessing the clinical usefulness of the information obtained from each source. Excellent reader guides on how to evaluate clinical trials and review articles have been published, but these techniques are time-consuming and are rarely employed by busy clinicians. In this paper, we present a "user-friendly" method of managing new information in a practical and time-efficient manner. This approach allows clinicians to disregard most of the available medical information and focus on patient-oriented evidence that truly matters.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1993

Drug samples.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Drug Industry↗
PubMed1991

Improving prescription-writing skills in a family practice residency.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a novel method of physician education that uses copies of prescriptions written by study participants to provide feedback on their prescription-writing skills. A prospective, blind, completely random before-after design was used, with observation, intervention, and postintervention periods, each lasting four months. The study group comprised 20 family practice residents, stratified by year of training and randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Copies of all prescriptions written by participating residents were evaluated for prescription-writing errors. During the intervention phase, prescription copies with errors were returned to the treatment group residents with a tactful comment pointing out the error and suggesting changes. Over the three time periods, there was a continuous decline in the rate of prescription-writing errors in the treatment group, but not in the control group. A significant number of physicians who received the feedback improved their prescription writing (p less than 0.01), but logistic regression failed to show a difference attributable to the intervention. In conclusion, written feedback on copies of prescriptions produced a small decrease in the number of prescription-writing errors. Further, long-term study may show a magnified effect of this teaching method.

Double-Blind Method↗
PubMed1990

Clinical pharmacists in family practice residency programs.

A project was undertaken to determine the number, specific activities, and demographics of clinical pharmacists directly involved with residency programs in family practice. A survey was mailed to the directors of all 381 family practice residencies, with a request either to forward it to the participating pharmacist or to return the survey if a pharmacist did not directly participate in the teaching program. With two mailings, responses were received from 85.3% of the residencies, with 80 pharmacists completing surveys. While the involvement of pharmacists in family practice residencies was similar to that reported in a survey 9 years ago, academic appointments and funding, in whole or in part by a college of medicine, had increased. This increased involvement may represent an acknowledgment by medical educators in family practice of the value of pharmacists participating in residency programs.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Prescription-writing patterns and errors in a family medicine residency program.

Copies of 1814 prescriptions written by 20 residents were reviewed to determine prescribing patterns and the incidence of prescription-writing errors. An average of 0.69 prescriptions were written per patient visit at an average cost (to the pharmacist) of $13.35. Over one third of all prescriptions were written using the generic name, and "dispense as written" was specified on only 3.25%. On average, 21% (n = 373) of all prescriptions collected contained at least one prescription-writing error. Errors were characterized as omissions (6%), unfulfilled legal requirements (1%), incomplete directions (1%), dose or direction errors (3%), unclear quantity to be dispensed (3%), or prescriptions written for nonprescription products (5%). A correct diagnosis and treatment plan can be undermined by a written prescription that is incorrect or miscommunicates the intention of the prescriber.

Adolescent↗