[Paper recommended for publication by the jury, submitted under the slogan of: Who writes, stays. Form and content of a general medical science weekly].
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Delivery of Health Care↗
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Results for “Medical Writing”
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.
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Validation of the Hopkins Medication Schedule to identify difficulties in taking medications.
BACKGROUND: Medications often represent the first line of defense in preventing or delaying the progression of chronic diseases. The health implications of improper medication compliance, and failure to identify it, are considerable. The authors thus developed and validated the Hopkins Medication Schedule (HMS), a new objective test of one's ability to understand and implement a routine prescription medication. METHODS: The authors gave a hypothetical physician's prescription for two common medications (antibiotics and aspirin) to 360 high-functioning, community-dwelling, older participants in the Women's Health and Aging Study II and asked them to fill in a daily schedule for taking these medications and to fill in the compartments of a daily pillbox. These scored and timed performances were evaluated for their ability to predict concurrent and 3-year participant-reported difficulty in performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and for their associations with memory and attention. RESULTS: Although fewer than 2% of participants reported difficulty in taking medications, nearly 22% were completely unable to complete the schedule, fill the pillbox, or both. The 7% of participants who reported difficulty in any IADL also performed poorly on the HMS. In addition, performance on the schedule and the pillbox predicted concurrent difficulty. In adjusted regression analyses, the schedule was most highly associated with memory and the pillbox with learning and executive function. CONCLUSIONS: The HMS had concurrent validity for participant-reported IADL difficulty. Furthermore, in community-dwelling older women who largely reported no difficulty in taking medications, the HMS identified nearly 22% who could not write or implement a routine medication regimen. This standardized measure may identify those at increased risk for poor medication adherence and, more broadly, IADL difficulty.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Sleep behaviors and attitudes among internal medicine housestaff in a U.S. university-based residency program.
PURPOSE: Physicians-in-training are susceptible to fatigue given their prolonged duty hours. Sleep deprivation has been shown to alter perceptions of sleepiness and performance. This study examined the state of sleepiness and attitudes about sleep and performance of work- and non-work-related tasks among incoming and current housestaff; and how rotation, call cycle, and call status are related to acute and chronic sleep deprivation and perceptions of sleepiness. METHOD: A survey instrument was administered in June 2001 to 53 incoming interns and 79 current housestaff at the University Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a university-based internal medicine residency program. RESULTS: All 132 participants (100%) completed the instrument. Acute sleep deprivation was experienced by 34% of the current housestaff and 64% of current housestaff were chronically sleep deprived. Current housestaff admitted to the possibility of dozing while performing various work-related tasks such as writing notes in charts (69%), reviewing medication lists (61%), interpreting labs (51%), and writing orders (46%). At least half of all respondents felt their patients received good care despite residents' sleepiness and as many believed sleep deprivation was a necessary part of training. Nearly half (48%) of current housestaff rotating on a ward service reported acute sleep deprivation, as did 81% of those who were postcall. Over two-thirds of the housestaff on wards and in the ICU reported chronic sleep deprivation. Subjective sleepiness did not vary much across rotations, call cycle, and call status. CONCLUSION: Chronic and acute sleep deprivation contribute to residents' fatigue. Education could be targeted at attitudes. Further investigation of factors contributing to chronic sleep deprivation in this population is warranted.
Academic Medical Centers↗
Prescription writing to maximize patient safety.
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Drug Prescriptions↗
Unclear dose equals toxic dose.
Medication errors are a significant public health issue. Their frequency and severity are currently under increased scrutiny from many perspectives. In 1996, the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) was established to promote the reporting, understanding, and prevention of medication errors. NCCMERP has published prescription writing recommendations to remedy error-prone aspects of prescription writing. An example of a hazardously written medication order and its possible toxicity is provided.
Child↗
A medical image database system.
Write-once laser-based optical disks are now becoming available at a reasonable cost for routine use. Because it allows the combination of image data and textual data to form a single online computerized record, this technology offers the potential for revolutionary changes in medical information systems.
Computers↗
The role of local knowledge in medical practice: a trans-historical perspective.
This article explores the role of participant-observation and ethnographic writing in the shaping of medical practice since Hippocrates. Drawing on a range of historical sources and genres that include the 17th- and 18th-century medical topographies and medical geographies, 19th-century medical ethnography and folklore, and their marginal persistence into the 20th century in the form of Mexican pasante reports, I argue that these writings should not be approached as part of the history of anthropology, but as specifically medical genres related to medical practice. The abandonment of these ethnographic practices by modern biomedicine is, I conclude, a consequence of two related developments: the hegemony of clinical epistemology and the depersonalization and depoliticization of physicians' commitment to their patients.
Anthropology, Cultural↗
Navigating the course of scholarly productivity: the protégé's role in mentoring.
BACKGROUND: The importance of mentoring for professional success, including mentoring in writing, has become increasingly emphasized in academic nursing during the past decade. Although much has been published on how to write for publication, as well as the roles of mentors themselves, surprisingly little has been written about how protégés (those who are the recipients of mentoring) can take an active role in assisting themselves to obtain mentorship. How newer faculty can obtain adequate mentoring is often less straightforward. PURPOSE: The main goal of this article is to describe some ideas about how faculty can actively help themselves to obtain adequate mentoring, with a particular focus on mentoring in writing. METHOD/DISCUSSION: Five principles are illustrated as follows, with case examples of hypothetical new faculty members: know yourself, develop realistic expectations, reach out and get to know others, negotiate for what is needed, and learn from every experience. CONCLUSION: We hope that this discussion will foster further exchange among mentors, protégés, and administrators about approaches to seeking mentoring and high-level success in writing for publication along career journeys.
Education, Medical↗
Effective writing for publication.
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Medical Record Administrators↗
Short of nurses? Write to your congressman.
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Hospitals↗
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication.
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Authorship↗
Dr Warwick Carter, medical writer.
As well as writing prolifically, the Brisbane doctor consults for 36 hours a week in his own practice and holds more than 20 seats on community, local government and AMA committees. He says the key is never to mix business with home. "Most of my income is generated not from general practice but from my other activities. Australian GPs are poorly paid. The government keeps telling people that GPs are ripping them off if they charge more than the medical rebate. The public's image of GPs is very low. The way it works now is that the more ethical you are and the more care you give to your patients, the less you earn." Warwick Carter does not known where his next challenge will lead him. He has three inflexible goals: to remain a GP, to finish his travels around the world, and not to volunteer for anything he does not enjoy.
Australia↗
Diagnostic report writing.
This article reviews purposes and types of diagnostic reports and provides guidelines for report writing. Report writing varies greatly depending upon the examination itself and the clinician's style of reporting. Such variation is acceptable as long as professional standards are maintained. The basic guidelines of report writing are: (1) the organization should provide for easy retrieval of specific information; (2) the terms and categories should be free of ambiguity; and (3) only terms in common use by professional should be used. Lack of uniformity, bad writing, inappropriate terminology, and overstatements are the basic problems of report writing that may be overcome through practice, study of sample reports, and courses in report writing.
Diagnosis↗
[Title, abstract and keywords: essential issues in medical bibliographic research].
UNLABELLED: Medical information, conveyed either by books, journal articles, conference and congress papers or posters, represents the product, the result of the medical research. Note that the informational cycle can be shown schematically as Bibliographic information --> Medical research --> Research results --> Bibliographic information. The result of the scientific research (articles, posters, etc.) re-enters the informational cycle, as bibliographic information for a new medical research. The bibliographic research is still a time, and effort consuming activity, despite the explosive growth of information technology. It requires specific medical, information technology and bibliographic knowledge. AIM: The present work aims to emphasize the importance of title, keywords and abstract terms selection, to article writing and publication in medical journals, and the proper choice of meta-information in web pages. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The bibliographic research was made using two databases with English language information about articles from international medical journals: MEDLINE (PUBMED) and PROQUEST MEDICAL LIBRARY. The results were compared with GOOGLE and YAHOO search. These searching engines are common now in all types of Internet users (including researchers, librarians, etc.). CONCLUSIONS: It is essential for the researchers to know the article registration mechanism in a database and the modalities of bibliographic investigation of online databases, so that the title, keyword and abstract terms are selected properly. The use of words not related to the subject, in title, keywords or abstract, results in ambiguities. The writing and the translation of scientific words must also be accurate, mainly when article authors are non-native English speakers: e.g., chimiotherapy (sic)--20 articles in Medline, 270 articles in Google; morphopathology (sic)-- 78 articles in Medline, and 294 in Google; morphopatology (sic)--2 articles in Medline, and 12 articles in Google.
Abstracting and Indexing↗
Write a practice annual report.
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Annual Reports as Topic↗
American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Chronic Heart Failure Evaluation and Management guidelines: relevance to the geriatric practice.
BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is the only cardiovascular disease with increasing incidence and prevalence. Most HF patients are older adults. With the aging of the population and effective treatment of hypertension and coronary artery disease, the two major underlying causes of HF, the number of older Americans with HF is expected to rise significantly in the coming decades. HF is the number one hospital discharge diagnosis for older adults. It is one of the causes of frequent hospital readmissions, reflecting acute decompensation and compromised quality of life for patients and increased cost and resource use for the healthcare system. It is also associated with approximately 300,000 deaths annually, most in older adults. Advances in the management of HF in the past several decades have significantly decreased the mortality and morbidity associated with this condition. Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the beneficial effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers, and spironolactone on survival and quality of life of HF patients, but there is evidence of underuse of evidence-based care for HF. Several national guidelines have been published since 1994 that recommended evidence-based evaluation and management of HF. In 1995, the American College of Cardiologists (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) published their first HF guidelines that recommended left ventricular (LV) function evaluation for all patients presenting with HF and use of ACE inhibitors for all patients with LV systolic dysfunction (LVSD) unless contraindicated. The guidelines recommended the use of hydralazine and isosorbide dinitrate in patients who could not use ACE inhibitors. In addition, digoxin was recommended in patients with HF due to LVSD but not adequately responsive to ACE inhibitors and diuretics and in those with atrial fibrillation and rapid ventricular rates. Diuretic use was recommended for symptomatic patients with evidence of fluid overload. Use of anticoagulation was restricted to patients with atrial fibrillation or to those with a history of systemic or pulmonary embolism. Beta-blockers were reserved for HF patients after acute myocardial infarctions. Recent advances in the management of HF called for a revision of the guidelines. PURPOSE: The purpose of revising the 1995 ACC/AHA guidelines was to incorporate recent advances in pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches to HF treatment and to assist physicians in clinical decision-making in the management of HF. METHODS: The ACC/AHA invited representatives from the American College of Chest Physicians, the Heart Failure Society of America, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine to participate in the preparation of the guidelines. The writing committee searched pertinent medical literature in English using computerized databases such as MEDLINE and EMBASE and manually searching the bibliographies of the selected articles. The writing committee classified HF into four stages, including patients who are at high risk for developing HF. According to this new classification, Stage A and B represent asymptomatic patients, the former at high risk for developing HF but no structural disorder, the latter with structural disorders of the heart. Stage C encompasses patients with underlying structural heart disorders who are symptomatic, either currently or in the past. Stage D includes end-stage HF patients. This new classification is intended to complement the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification of HF into Class I (asymptomatic), Class II (symptomatic on less than ordinary exertion), Class III (symptomatic on ordinary exertion), and Class IV (symptomatic at rest). RESULTS: The recommendations are categorized into those for evaluation and management.
Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
Student's plagiarism--a challenge for paramedic educators.
Student's plagiarism is a growing problem not only in the writing of controlling essays, but above all in the writing in BSc./MSc. diploma theses, which sometimes can be simply bought from ghost-writers. This is a major challenge for medical educators, particularly in paramedic professions. The aim of this paper is to overview the frequency of plagiarism among students, the factors influencing plagiarism, the ways of detecting it and potential countermeasures.
Academic Dissertations as Topic↗