Journal of general internal medicine
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Despite wide-spread endorsement of patient-centered communication (PCC) in health care, there has been little evidence that it leads to positive change in health outcomes. The lack of correlation may be due either to an overestimation of the value of PCC or to a measurement problem. If PCC measures do not capture elements of the interaction that determine whether the resulting care plan is patient-centered, they will confound efforts to link PCC to outcomes. ⋯ RIAS, which codes each utterance during a visit into mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories, does not differentiate between conversations leading to and not leading to care plans that accommodate patients' circumstances and needs.
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Increasing the use of electronic medical records (EMR) has been suggested as an important strategy for improving healthcare safety. ⋯ Implementation of an EMR in a large primary care practice required redesign of many organizational processes, and was associated with improvements in safety culture. Most primary care providers agreed that the EMR allowed them to provide care more safely.
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Clinician Educators (CEs) play an essential role in the education and patient care missions of academic medical centers. Despite their crucial role, academic advancement is slower for CEs than for other faculty. Increased clinical productivity demands and financial stressors at academic medical centers add to the existing challenges faced by CEs. ⋯ Network; 5. Transform educational activities into scholarship; and 6. Seek funding and other resources.