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Biomedical subjects

F Macfarlane

Publications and source records attributed to F Macfarlane.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

RCGP Quality Team Development programme: an illuminative evaluation.

BACKGROUND: There is increasing interest in quality initiatives that are locally owned and delivered, team based, multiprofessional, and formative. The Royal College of General Practitioners' Quality Team Development (QTD) programme is one such initiative aimed at developing primary healthcare teams and their services. AIMS: To evaluate QTD from the perspective of participants and assessors. SETTING: UK primary health care. DESIGN AND METHOD: Twelve of 14 practices and all four primary care organisations (PCOs) approached agreed to participate. Thirty four semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and analysed using the constant comparative method. RESULTS: The QTD programme appears to be highly valued by participating organisations. Practice based respondents perceived it as acceptable and feasible, and reported positive changes in teamwork and patient services. They valued its formative, participative, and multiprofessional nature, especially the peer review element. PCOs saw QTD as a method of delivering on prevailing national policies on clinical quality and modernization agendas as well as promoting interorganizational collaboration. The main concerns raised were the workload, particularly for assessors, and maintaining the quality of the assessments and the programme. CONCLUSION: This qualitative study suggests positive benefits for participants in the QTD programme. However, such practices are a self-selecting innovative minority. Further research is needed on more typical practices to identify barriers to their participation in QTD or other formative, team based quality improvement programmes.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1999

Influence on general practitioners of teaching undergraduates: qualitative study of London general practitioner teachers.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the perceived effect of teaching clinical skills and associated teacher training programmes on general practitioners' morale and clinical practice. DESIGN: Qualitative semistructured interview study. SETTING: General practices throughout north London. SUBJECTS: 30 general practitioners who taught clinical skills were asked about the effect of teaching and teacher training on their morale, confidence in clinical and teaching skills, and clinical practice. RESULTS: The main theme was a positive effect on morale. Within teacher training this was attributed to developing peer and professional support; improved teaching skills; and revision of clinical knowledge and skills. Within teaching this was attributed to a broadening of horizons; contact with enthusiastic students; increased time with patients; improved clinical practice; improved teaching skills; and an improved image of the practice. Problems with teaching were due to external factors such as lack of time and space and anxieties about adequacy of clinical cover while teaching. CONCLUSION: Teaching clinical skills can have a positive effect on the morale of general practitioner teachers as a result of contact with students and peers, as long as logistic and funding issues are adequately dealt with.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1991

Brown fat-specific mitochondrial uncoupling protein in adipose tissues of newborn reindeer.

Reindeer inhabit a severe arctic or subarctic environment, with the young born in early spring under adverse weather conditions. The extreme northern climate imposes a major thermal challenge to the newborn, and in the present study we have examined fetal, neonatal, and young (from 2 wk before birth to 16 mo postpartum) semidomesticated reindeer from northern Finland for the presence of thermogenic brown adipose tissue. Adipose tissues were removed, mitochondria were prepared, and the proteins were separated by molecular weight and blotted onto nitrocellulose membranes. The membranes were then probed for the presence of the 32,000-relative molecular weight mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) unique to brown fat by use of a rabbit anti-(ground squirrel UCP) serum. Immunoreactivity at the molecular weight characteristic of UCP was present in perirenal, abdominal, inter(pre)scapular, sternal, intralumbar, vertebral, tracheal, inguinal, and omental-mesenteral adipose tissues of newborn reindeer (0-2 days of age). No immunoreactivity was detected in coronary adipose tissue. UCP was found at high levels in interscapular and perirenal adipose tissues of fetal reindeer at 2 wk before birth. Although the protein was present during the first few days postpartum, little immunoreactivity was found at 1 mo of age, and none was evident by 2 mo. UCP and its mRNA were also apparent in perirenal adipose tissue of the newborn of another species of Cervidae, the red deer. It is concluded, on the basis of the immunologic identification of UCP, that most adipose tissues of newborn reindeer represent functional brown fat but that there is a subsequent conversion to white adipose tissue by the 2nd mo of life.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adipose Tissue↗