The American journal of medicine
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Adverse drug events, especially those that may have been preventable, are among the most serious concerns about medication use in nursing homes. We studied the incidence and preventability of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events in nursing homes. ⋯ Adverse drug events are common and often preventable in nursing homes. More serious adverse drug events are more likely to be preventable. Prevention strategies should target the ordering and monitoring stages of pharmaceutical care.
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Comparative Study
The fate of manuscripts rejected by a general medical journal.
The fate of research manuscripts that have been rejected by medical journals is of interest to authors, editors, and peer reviewers, but previous studies were conducted before the widespread availability of computerized literature searches. We update the previous investigations of the fate of rejected research manuscripts by using an electronic literature search and a larger sample, a longer follow-up, and more descriptive journal indexes. ⋯ The majority of the manuscripts that were rejected from a large general medical journal were eventually published after an average of 18 months. Most were published in specialty journals with lower impact factor and immediacy index ratings.
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The numbers of deaths attributed to adverse drug reactions by death certificates and by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) spontaneous postmarketing surveillance system (MedWatch) were compared in order to characterize national mortality statistics. ⋯ The numbers of deaths reported in these data sets varied 34-fold and were up to several 100-fold less than values based on extrapolations of surveillance programs. These differences indicate that better and more comprehensive data are needed to develop appropriate health care policies to improve drug safety.
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Editorial Comment
Pericardial effusion: a continuing drain on our diagnostic acumen.