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Biomedical subjects

W E Golden

Publications and source records attributed to W E Golden.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Health care report cards. Validity of case definitions.

Administrative databases are increasingly being used to construct health care report cards. We analyzed information from one of the original report cards, the Medicare Hospital Information Project. Assessment of mortality statistics for three clinical entities--coronary artery bypass surgery, hip reconstruction, and treatment of sepsis--demonstrated widespread outcome variances that reflected imperfect definitions rather than performance issues in clinical care. The use of administrative data sets to design report cards requires clinical expertise to ensure validity of the data. Designers of report card measures should share preliminary data with providers to enable feedback in methods and uncover definitional and validity concerns before widespread dissemination.

Bias↗
PubMed1995

Primary care physicians' response to dissemination of practice guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Much effort has gone into producing clinical practice guidelines, but relatively few studies address dissemination issues. Unless guidelines are used, little is gained. This study evaluates the effect of three methods to disseminate asthma guidelines on physicians' behavior and attitudes toward education strategies. METHODS: Asthma guidelines were mailed to 60 physicians in three Area Health Education Centers in Arkansas. Dissemination efforts at one site featured a short summary, telephone calls by "detailing" physicians, and a continuing medical education conference. Computer strategies were used at the second site, and a multimedia approach with facsimile messages, posters, videocassettes, audiocassettes, and a continuing medical education conference was used at the third site. A fourth site with 22 participants served as a comparison. Data were collected by mailed questionnaires, outpatient chart reviews, and physician interviews. Changes between baseline and posttest assessments following a 4-month intervention were calculated for medication use, and peak flow monitoring use was compared with the control group (general linear model). Regression analyses were used to identify physician and practice factors associated with particular education techniques. RESULTS: Each site improved in the use of medications or peak flow monitoring, but none improved in all areas. The multimedia, continual reminder approach was well accepted but there was little support for the computer strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Further efforts to disseminate clinical guidelines should include a variety of formats with an emphasis on short, concise summaries and frequent reminders. Social influence appears to play a role and will be a fruitful area for further research.

Area Health Education Centers↗
PubMed1992

Health status measurement. Implementation strategies.

The creation of valid instruments of health status measurement does not guarantee their use in the clinical setting. Traditional continuing medical education has not been shown to effect physician behavioral change. Examination of the literature on the dissemination of new technology underscores the need for the acceptance and use of new methods by local opinion leaders whose behavior serves as a model for their colleagues. Since health status measurement will require a new way of evaluating the patient visit and the creation of new provider behaviors, widespread implementation will require the recruitment of local clinical leaders to serve as spokesmen for reconsideration of office care procedures. Advocates of health status measurement should seize on a variety of opportunities to disseminate their work. Medical school curricula in courses such as physical diagnosis could expose different approaches to the patient encounter to a new generation of physicians in a fairly painless and seamless manner. Academic practice plans, by virtue of their increasing trend to centralization, could commit to patient-oriented data collection--if not for instructional purposes, then for the overall health of the delivery system. The instruction of nurses and paraprofessionals in the collection of these data could expand the measures and help drive the system when physicians are not embracing the technology. There is need to exploit the enhanced capacity of computer hardware and software in the service of efficient data collection and trend analysis of health status.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Algorithms↗
PubMed1991

Utilization of MEDFILE--a preprinted medical literature filing system.

To facilitate the creation of a personal medical literature filing system, we developed MEDFILE, a noncomputerized, preprinted medical literature filing system. A graduating medical school class that had access to MEDFILE and a control group of incoming interns were studied to ascertain satisfaction, usage, utility, and implementation of MEDFILE in comparison with traditional literature filing systems. Data were obtained from 52 recent graduates of the site school and 25 graduates of other institutions. MEDFILE users had a significantly higher satisfaction level (7.3 +/- 1.5 vs 4.5 +/- 2.7, p less than .0001, two-tailed t-test), a more extensive filing system (p less than .02, chi square), and greater confidence that their filing system would remain useful during residency (p less than .0001, Fisher's exact test) than new graduates who had created their own filing systems. The data indicate that MEDFILE is an efficient, effective, and inexpensive method of organizing medical reprints. It may be particularly useful for physicians entering primary care disciplines that require information processing over a wide range of clinical topics.

Databases, Bibliographic↗
PubMed1989

Acute postoperative confusion and hallucinations in Parkinson disease.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with Parkinson disease are at an increased risk for postoperative confusion. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of patients with Parkinson disease who remained in the hospital at least 48 hours after their surgery. Current data were compared with published historical controls. SETTING: Recent medical records of a university-affiliated hospital, Veterans Administration hospital, and community hospital. PATIENTS: Available charts of patients with Parkinson disease who had had surgery in the last 2 years. Patients were excluded if they were disoriented at admission or had serious metabolic disturbances. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Fifteen of twenty-five postoperative patients with Parkinson disease (60%; CI, 39% to 78%) suffered significant acute confusion, and 9 of these patients had documented hallucinations. Neuropsychiatric changes were frequently delayed after surgery. The acute confusional state lasted an average 2.5 days; several patients, however, were discharged before resolution. These disturbances did not appear to be related to type of anti-parkinsonian medication or anesthetic. CONCLUSION: In comparison with historical controls, the relative risk of patients with Parkinson disease having an acute postoperative confusional state is between 2.8 and 8.1. These patients may need environmental supports during the postoperative period.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Preoperative cardiac consultations in a teaching hospital.

Perioperative consultations may play a major role in the care of surgical patients in an era of prospective payments. Since insurance reimbursement policy favors limitations in the number of consultants on a case, general medicine ("holistic") consultation services may become preferred perioperative consultants in the future. To focus curriculum planning for perioperative consultants, we reviewed the content of 60 consecutive perioperative consultations by noncardiac surgery services to a university cardiology consultation team. Clinical descriptions of the patients' exercise tolerance showed that 95% of the patients belonged in functional classes I and II. One fourth of the requests were for routine preoperative clearance. The most frequent cardiac conditions for evaluation were congestive heart failure, old myocardial infarctions, murmurs, abnormal electrocardiograms, angina, and previous histories of coronary artery bypass surgery. Few patients needed management of arrhythmias. Physicians involved in perioperative care should assess their abilities in managing these cardiac conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Perioperative asymptomatic venous thrombosis: role of duplex scanning versus venography.

We compared combined B-mode/Doppler (duplex ultrasonic scanning and venography in routine preoperative and postoperative screening for major proximal deep vein thrombosis in 78 patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty. Of 309 extremity examinations, duplex scanning had an overall sensitivity of 85.7% (12/14) and a specificity of 97.3% (287/295). The preoperative prevalence and postoperative incidence of major deep vein thrombosis were 2.5% and 14.1% of patients, respectively, despite intensive mechanical and pharmacologic prophylaxis. In addition, venography documented a preoperative prevalence and postoperative incidence of isolated calf deep vein thrombosis in 2.5% and 16.7% of patients, respectively. Whereas such disease extended proximally even in the absence of anticoagulation in only 18% of patients studied by serial duplex scans, calf deep vein thrombosis accounted for the only two instances of pulmonary embolism in this study. There were no deaths related to pulmonary embolism. This study suggests that duplex scanning is useful in screening for perioperative deep vein thrombosis in patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty, which carries a significant risk of venous thromboembolism despite routine prophylaxis.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Initial career choices of medical school honors graduates in the early 1970s and 1980s.

To investigate the changes over time in the attractiveness of a number of medical specialties as careers, the author analyzed the initial career pathways of students who graduated with honors in 1972, 1973, 1982, and 1983 from nine of the most prestigious American medical schools. The data were analyzed to discern career selection differences among the total population studied, between the men and women, and between the graduates of public and private institutions. Internal medicine showed statistically significant declines in its attractiveness to the students in all the categories but remained overrepresented as a career choice by honors students compared with its attractiveness to medical students in general for the years studied. Radiology was chosen by an increasing percentage of the honors students in the 1980s, but mostly by students from private medical schools. The men who were honors graduates in the 1980s chose surgery fields more often, while women honors graduates tended to enter pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology. These data indicate that the career choices of honors graduates in the early 1980s more closely mirrored the career choices of all students entering medical specialty fields and do not reveal gross imbalances. Of the primary care disciplines, only internal medicine attracted fewer honors graduates in the 1980s.

Achievement↗
PubMed1987

Students evaluate MEDFILE, a preprinted medical literature filing system.

Medical professionals are highly dependent on personal libraries and reprint files as their sources for current information. A large population of practising doctors have poorly organized medical literature data bases in their professional environment. To expedite the development of a personal library data base by medical students, we created MEDFILE, a preprinted, cross-indexed file folder system for organizing the medical literature. This paper reports the results of two surveys performed in connection with the distribution of the MEDFILE system. One hundred per cent of the students who used MEDFILE found the system to be beneficial. Ninety-seven per cent felt their ability to find their personal literature improved by using MEDFILE, and 65% felt MEDFILE improved their clinical preparation. Of all surveyed recipients of the system, 96.8% felt MEDFILE would be useful in their future studies.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1987

Financial unbundling reduces outpatient laboratory use.

Previous studies have examined methods of reducing laboratory use, without great success. We studied the effects of the financial unbundling of clinical biochemistry determinations in a university outpatient clinic. After eliminating the charge structure that promoted panel use, the ordering of chemistry 19 panels fell dramatically, accompanied by an increase in orders for electrolyte and chemistry 6 panels. The total number of biochemical assay determinations fell by one third after this administrative intervention. Only orders for potassium and creatinine measurements remained relatively unchanged and eventually increased. The ordering of five analytes of the chemistry 19 profile was reduced by at least 50%. Reassessment of the intervention six months later demonstrated the sustained decline in laboratory use. We conclude that physicians are attuned to price inefficiencies in basic laboratory testing and can alter their ordering behavior accordingly. Facilities can change patterns of use by altering charge structures alone. The decline in laboratory testing also indicates that physicians receive unnecessary clinical data when they order biochemical profiles. Financially bundled chemistry profiles could be replaced by physiologically based test groupings.

Arkansas↗
PubMed1986

Megatrends in medical education.

Several major financial trends affecting medical education are delineated and their implications described. To channel these new economic forces in a productive manner, the curriculum of undergraduate and, especially, graduate medical education need to be reevaluated to ensure that medical training is accomplished in an efficient manner and reflects career opportunities of graduates in an era of excess physician supply.

Clinical Competence↗