SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Certification”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources

PubMed2006

Primary certification in vascular surgery: what does this really mean?

A primary certificate for vascular surgery has recently been approved by both the American Board of Medical Specialties and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. This new training paradigm will allow training and certification in vascular surgery without first obtaining American Board of Surgery certification in general surgery. There are now several pathways ways to obtain vascular surgery certification, which are described in this article. All programs require an MD or DO degree from an institution accredited by the Liaison Committee of Medical Education or by the American Osteopathic Association. Graduates of schools of medicine from countries other than the United States or Canada must present evidence of final certification by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.

Certification↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Strengthening end-of-life care through specialty nursing certification.

The purpose of this study was to determine the adequacy of content related to end-of-life (EOL) care in materials used in the nursing certification process across clinical nursing specialties. Thirty-eight certification examination blueprints, 18 specialty nursing scope and standards of practice documents, and 28 specialty nursing core curriculum text books were analyzed by using descriptive statistics to determine the quantity and quality of content related to nine critical areas of EOL content contained in them. Fifteen (38 per cent) of the certification examination blueprints contained at least one of the critical EOL content areas. Eight (44 per cent) of the scope and standards of practice documents contained at least one sentence on EOL care. Seven (25 per cent) of the 28 textbooks contained at least one chapter dedicated to EOL care content, and 129.5 (0.8 per cent) of the 15,706 textbook pages reviewed were dedicated to EOL care content. Expert ratings regarding the overall accuracy, currency, and comprehensiveness of EOL content found in the textbooks were poor to good. An increased focus on EOL care in the nursing specialty certification process is warranted. The content of nursing specialty certification examinations has a direct influence on nursing education as well as a significant impact on nursing practice in clinical specialty areas.

Certification↗

PubMed1998

Lack of precision in neonatal death classifications based on the underlying causes of death stated on death certificates.

Large-scale analyses of causes of neonatal deaths are usually based on death-certificate information. A new computer-based method has been introduced to define the cause of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in large amounts of material and to classify them according to two different models [Wigglesworth and Neonatal and Intrauterine death Classification according to (a)Etiology (NICE)]. The method is based on a combination of detailed information from health care registries and the death-certificate information. The present study aimed to compare these two classification models with a previously published method based solely on death certificate information [International Collaborative Effort (ICE)]. The study population comprised 2378 neonatal deaths in Sweden between 1987 and 1992. Cross-tabulation was made between the ICE classification and the other two classification models. In addition, case examples are presented in detail, exemplifying how classification errors arose. The ICE classification gives a rather low precision, notably for two important causes of death: asphyxia and immaturity. Among 328 infants dying from asphyxia according to computerized Wigglesworth classification, ICE classified 59% as asphyxia and 22% were labelled immaturity. When ICE classified the deaths as due to asphyxia, this was verified in only 50%. Among 792 infants dying from immaturity according to computerized Wigglesworth classification, 64% were classified as such by ICE. The findings cast doubts on the results of studies based exclusively on death-certificate information. Whenever possible in the analysis of neonatal deaths, death-certificate information should be supplemented with more detailed data. The computer-based method introduced here makes such analyses possible for large databases.

Cause of Death↗

PubMed1990

Certification for oncology nurses: maturing of a discipline.

Certification for oncology nurses shares many similarities with board certification in medicine. Within the specialty of oncology nursing, certification provides one measure of excellence and signals a commitment to oncology nursing practice. Since the beginning of oncology nursing certification in 1986, over 7,200 nurses have become certified. This article describes the certification process for oncology nurses and discusses ways in which physicians can assist in this process.

Certification↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The facility between certification and accreditation.

The market, and therefore the inevitable need to produce and sell products and services, encourages companies to try to ensure that they themselves and their products can be recognized and characterized. It thus follows that the producer's activities must be qualified with special certificates. Over the last few years the number of companies wishing to qualify their organization and their products has increased considerably. This phenomenon also affects organizations that conduct research, i.e., those defined as contract research organizations, which provide a research service to a limited, demanding clientele, and that have long seen in these certifications not only simple compliance with their legal obligations, but also a tool for persuading the market of the validity of their "products." For management it may, at times, be difficult to find the way through the jungle of certifications because the purpose, aims and actions related to the different types of attestation (accreditation, certification, registration, etc.) are often little known or misunderstood. An investigation has been carried out to clarify the whole scenario of necessary, possible, and useful certificates and qualifications for research organizations today, as well as the terminology used. In addition, an attempt was made to find possible similarities between the various recognitions analyzed.

Accreditation↗

PubMed2001

Mortality in neurofibromatosis 1: an analysis using U.S. death certificates.

Although neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is a relatively common autosomal dominant condition, information about its effect on mortality is limited. We used Multiple-Cause Mortality Files, compiled from U.S. death certificates by the National Center for Health Statistics, for 1983 through 1997. We identified 3,770 cases of presumed NF1 among 32,722,122 deaths in the United States, a frequency of 1/8,700, which is one-third to one-half the estimated prevalence. Mean and median ages at death for persons with NF1 were 54.4 and 59 years, respectively, compared with 70.1 and 74 years in the general population. Results of proportionate mortality ratio (PMR) analyses showed that persons with NF1 were 34 times more likely (PMR=34.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 30.8-38.0) to have a malignant connective or other soft-tissue neoplasm listed on their death certificates than were persons without NF1. Overall, persons with NF1 were 1.2 times more likely than expected (PMR=1.21, 95% CI 1.14-1.28) to have a malignant neoplasm listed on their death certificates, but the PMR was 6.07 (95% CI 4.88-7.45) for persons who died at 10-19 years of age and was 4.93 (95% CI 4.14-5.82) for those who died at 20-29 years of age. Similarly, vascular disease was recorded more often than expected on death certificates of persons with NF1 who died at <30 years of age (PMR=3.26, 95% CI 1.31-6.71 at age <10 years; PMR=2.68, 95% CI 1.38-4.68 at age 10-19 years; and PMR=2.25, 95% CI 1.46-3.32 at 20-29 years) but not in older persons. This study supports previous findings of decreased life expectancy for persons with NF1 and, within the limitations of death certificates, provides population-based data about NF1 morbidity and mortality that are useful to clinicians caring for patients with NF1.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Unspecified injuries on death certificates: a source of bias in injury research.

Protective gear (for example, helmets and bulletproof vests) shields certain body regions from damaging energy. Failure to specify on death certificates the body region and nature of fatal injuries compromises the utility of mortality data for epidemiologic or prevention research. Of fatally injured California motorcyclists, 41% had no specific injuries listed on their death certificates in 1988. To examine the implications of this problem, the authors abstracted 186 coroner's or medical examiner's reports from four California counties with over 60% nonspecific injuries and one county with few such injuries. These data were merged with computerized death certificate files and with the Fatal Accident Reporting System. Among the 99 cases with nonspecific injury codes, 68% had head injuries, 63% had chest injuries, 58% had abdominal injuries, and 58% had extremity injuries. Reporting sensitivity in the four problem counties varied from 36% for head injury to less than 5% for abdominal, spinal, and extremity injury. The association between head injury and failure to wear a helmet was statistically significant using the coroner's diagnoses (p = 0.02), but not using death certificate diagnoses (p = 0.17). The value of mortality data to injury researchers would be enhanced by better reporting of the nature of injury on death certificates.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2001

Validity of birth certificate data for the outcome of the previous pregnancy, Georgia, 1980-1995.

The author evaluated the validity of four historically based variables collected on Georgia birth certificates: outcome of preceding pregnancy, history of delivery of a low- (<2,500 g) or high- (>4,000 g) birth-weight infant, and death of the baby resulting from the preceding pregnancy. Data were derived from birth and fetal death certificates that were linked for the first and second deliveries of 231,075 women in Georgia from 1980 through 1995. Deaths that occurred during the infant's first year of life were also linked to the birth certificate. For all but the survival variable, the outcome of the first birth as reported on the certificate for the second birth was compared with the outcome recorded on the certificate for the first birth, which was assumed to be correct. Except for ascertainment of death of the firstborn infant, sensitivities for the history of poor outcomes were low. Furthermore, sensitivities were higher when an extremely adverse outcome occurred in the first pregnancy or an adverse outcome recurred. The only high sensitivity was for past infant death (85.4%). These results suggest caution when using these variables to identify high-risk subsets for further research or control for confounding.

Birth Certificates↗

PubMed1992

Death certificate coding practices related to diabetes in European countries--the 'EURODIAB Subarea C' Study.

The objective of this study was to compare and analyse coding practices for diabetes mortality data in nine European countries (Belgium, Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Malta, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland). In each country, a sample of 200 coded death certificates, which mentioned diabetes, was randomly sampled. All death certificates were recoded at the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Classification of Diseases in the French language. The results show wide differences between national coding and central coding. Discrepancies in the underlying cause of death existed at the 3-digit coding level for 26% of all death certificates and for 44% at the 4-digit level. Coding in Northern Ireland and Malta was characterized by a marked tendency to choose diabetes less frequently. In contrast, in The Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, in the Republic of Ireland and France, diabetes was more frequently selected as the underlying cause of death. Most of the differences concerned the coding of an association involving diabetes and circulatory system diseases. In some countries, these coding differences influence the reported level of diabetes mortality. For Northern Ireland and Malta, the number of certificates with diabetes as the underlying cause of death was more than doubled after central recoding and for The Netherlands, in contrast, it was almost halved. To explain the differences a number of factors are considered: a lack of information from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), on the application of the coding rules, between-country differences in cause of death certification practices, a divergence of opinion about the causal role of diabetes when it is associated with other conditions, a lack of homogeneity between countries in data collection procedures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cause of Death↗

PubMed1987

Out-of-hospital coronary death in an urban population--validation of death certificate diagnosis. The Minnesota Heart Survey.

To assess the validity of death certificate diagnoses of out-of-hospital coronary heart disease deaths, the authors studied a one-third random sample of out-of-hospital deaths occurring in 1979 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, residents. Death certificates with diagnoses possibly containing coronary heart disease deaths were enumerated, and cause of death was recorded from the certificate in two ways: as the first listed ("immediate") cause and as the "underlying cause" assigned by a trained nosologist. Validation was performed by standardized physician review of information obtained about the death, which included one or more of the following: an interview with a relative or friend, physician report, autopsy report, medical record, and/or nursing home record. Missing information was frequent, but cases with at least an informant interview and/or autopsy report (82%) were representative and could be used for validation. The sensitivity and specificity of the underlying cause of coronary heart disease (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes 410-414, 427) on the death certificate were 90.3% and 82.7%, respectively, compared with the physician-assigned diagnosis. For the immediate cause, sensitivity and specificity were 90.3% and 67.9%, respectively. These findings suggest that the validity of death certificates for out-of-hospital coronary heart disease death is high, as assessed by this method of retrospective physician review.

Coronary Disease↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Maternal smoking and birth defects: validity of birth certificate data for effect estimation.

OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to assess the validity of birth certificate data for estimating the association between maternal smoking and birth defects. The US standard birth certificate includes check boxes for maternal smoking and for 21 congenital anomalies. The sensitivity and specificity of birth certificate data have been studied, but previous studies have not addressed the validity of these data for estimating the association between birth defects and maternal smoking or other risk factors. METHODS: US public-use natality data (1997-1998) were used to calculate the prevalence ratio (adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, and education) for the association between maternal smoking and 13 defects/defect categories. All analyses were restricted to 45 states, New York City, and the District of Columbia because they collect both maternal smoking and birth defect data. RESULTS: Maternal smoking was associated with an increased prevalence of hydrocephaly (adjusted prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.24; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08, 1.43), microcephaly (PR 1.47; 95% CI 1.15, 1.88), omphalocele/gastroschisis (PR 1.37; 95% CI 1.22, 1.53), cleft lip/palate (PR 1.35; 95% CI 1.25, 1.45), clubfoot (PR 1.62; 95% CI 1.49, 1.75), and polydactyly/syndactyly/adactyly (PR 1.33; 95% CI 1.23, 1.43 ). Previous studies have indicated an association between maternal smoking and gastroschisis, oral clefts, and clubfoot with effect estimates of similar magnitude to this study. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that birth certificate data may be useful for exploratory or corroborative studies estimating the association between birth defects and some risk factors recorded on birth certificates.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

The use of mental status in death certification of suicide.

A 5-year study (1982-1986) illustrates the use of mental status in death certification of suicide in 182 consecutive cases from Marion County, Oregon, U.S.A. The presence of specific mental illness was documented in Part II of the filed death certificate whenever sufficient data supported such a diagnosis. This study represents, so far as we are aware, the first use of mental illness in the routine death certification of suicide. The study subjects were described in terms of sex; age group; the presence or absence of a suicide note; the anatomical cause of death (Part I of the death certificate); and the presence of mental illness, severe physical illness, or alcohol abuse (Part II of the death certificate) as contributive to the death. About half (97 of 182 = 53.30%) of the study group was diagnosed as suffering from a major affective disorder. Another portion (18 of 182 = 9.89%) was classified as schizophrenic. A subgroup of 18 men, all of whom were residents of state mental or correctional institutions at the time of death, was also briefly described.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Mind your manners. Part I: History of death certification and manner of death classification.

Every death is unique, but deaths also share similar features that allow them to be grouped into categories. Since its initial description over 800 years ago, the position of coroner has been charged with the determination of manner of death. This determination has been made by examination into the circumstances surrounding death and of wounds on the surface of the body. Over the years, physicians have gained sufficient understanding of the body such that the autopsy became an important part of a death investigation. With additional time, laws were changed so that individuals charged with the determination of manner of death were required to have appropriate training. Death certification is the means by which deaths are grouped together according to similar characteristics. The practice of death certification has led to effective public health programs and the advancement of medical science. The addition of manner of death to the death certificate is an American contribution to vital statistics registration. The purpose of the autopsy report differs from that of the death certificate; the report fully addresses the unique aspects of a death, while the certificate captures the essence of the circumstances surrounding death in a few words.

Autopsy↗

PubMed2005

Specialty board certification among U.S. citizen and non-U.S. citizen graduates of international medical schools.

BACKGROUND: Graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) make up approximately one-quarter of the physician population and play a key role in the provision of health care in the United States. This study investigated whether they differ from U.S. medical graduates (USMGs) in specialty board certification. METHOD: The study compared USMGs, U.S. citizen IMGs (USIMGs), and non-U.S. citizen IMGs (non-USIMGs) who graduated from medical school between 1958 and 1994 and were involved in direct patient care in 2003. RESULTS: There is variability among the specialties, but overall USMGs have the highest specialty certification rates followed by non-USIMGs, and USIMGs. Among recent medical school graduates, non-USIMGs have certification rates that are comparable to USMGs. CONCLUSIONS: IMGs have lower board-certification rates than USMGs, although a sizeable majority has achieved board certification in the specialty they practice. There are differences between non-USIMGs and USIMGs, with the former more likely to become board certified.

Certification↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The road to JCAHO disease-specific care certification: a step-by-step process log.

In 2002, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) implemented Disease-Specific Care (DSC) certification. This is a voluntary program in which organizations have their disease management program evaluated by this regulatory agency. Some of the DSC categories are stroke, heart failure, acute MI, diabetes, and pneumonia. The criteria for any disease management program certification are: compliance with consensus-based national standards, effective use of established clinical practice guidelines to manage and optimize care, and an organized approach to performance measurement and improvement activities. Successful accomplishment of DSC certification defines organizations as Centers of Excellence in management of that particular disease. This article will review general guidelines for DSC certification with an emphasis on Primary Stroke Center certification.

Benchmarking↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Certification of clinical engineers.

This paper constitutes a review of the certification process for Clinical Engineers, and specifically the nature and activities of the National Certification Commission. It describes written and oral certification examinations, and the working relationship between the Board of Examiners and the National Board of the Commission. This paper discusses BMET Certification and its relationship to the central role of Clinical Engineers. The need for Certification is stressed and its effect on the quality of health care is discussed.

Biomedical Engineering↗

PubMed1992

Quality of death certificate occupation data for a cohort of aluminum industry workers.

Occupational data from death certificates have been used extensively in health studies but their quality has been questioned. In this study, data from the death certificates of aluminum plant workers were analyzed. Aluminum industry employment was indicated in the certificate occupation/industry statement of 321 (80%) of the 403 total workers, 263 (94%) of the 280 workers who had been employed for 10 years or more, 156 (94%) of the 166 workers who died while employed, and 131 (95%) of the 138 workers who died after retirement. Of 82 certificates that did not indicate aluminum industry employment, 57 (70%) were from workers who were employed for fewer than 10 years and terminated employment for reasons other than death or retirement. This study supports the usefulness of death certificate occupational information.

Aluminum↗

PubMed2006

Subspecialty certification in hand surgery.

Subspecialty certification in hand surgery was instituted in 1989 by the collaborative efforts of the American Boards of General Surgery, Plastic Surgery, and Orthopaedic Surgery. Candidates must be certified by their parent board and have demonstrated qualifications in hand surgery beyond those expected of other Board-certified surgeons. Qualifications include 1 year of additional training in an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accredited hand surgery fellowship, successful passage of a secure examination in hand surgery, and a practice characterized by a majority of cases in hand surgery. The certificates are time limited, and every 10 years one must successfully pass a recertification examination to maintain subspecialty certification. Since its inception, 1431 orthopaedic surgeons have passed the examination and the failure rate has been 3.1%. Six hundred and twenty-three have recertified with a failure rate of 2%. Possession of a certificate of subspecialty qualifications in hand surgery was never intended to bestow special privileges to those who practice hand surgery; rather, it was intended to demonstrate to the public and our profession that certificate holders have met Board Standards and are qualified to treat problems related to the hand and wrist.

Certification↗