Social science & medicine
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We report community-based development of reproductive health indicators for China's rural areas. To generate these indicators, we sequenced two participatory techniques known as nominal group process and Delphi survey methodology. ⋯ Major criteria for the indicators were practicality, feasibility, and measurability within China's rural areas. We explain the importance of establishing these indicators for application in rural China and other developing countries as a complement to the World Health Organization's reproductive health indicators for global monitoring; present the identified indicators; and describe lessons learned from field testing in low-, middle-, and high-income counties of China's countryside.
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Social science & medicine · Jul 2003
Layperson and physician perceptions of the malpractice system: implications for patient safety.
The malpractice tort system functions upon the assumption that the medical profession defines its own standard of care. Hence, clinical assessments should theoretically mirror legal ones. However, if there is a conflict between the two, this conflict may reflect a perceived bias of the system either for or against a party. ⋯ These results were consistent overall and when parsing assessments by case verdicts. Thus, laypersons and physicians may perceive a similar bias toward plaintiffs in the malpractice system. If these results can be generalized, the malpractice system may be inducing behavior that has a negative impact on patient safety.