Journal of general internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The use of computerized birthday greeting reminders in the management of diabetes.
Although mailed reminders have been used for prevention among general populations, few studies have evaluated their effectiveness among chronically ill populations. ⋯ We found small but significant improvements in the management of patients with diabetes receiving a computerized mailed reminder.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Barriers to initiating depression treatment in primary care practice.
This study used qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the reasons primary care physicians and nurses offered for their inability to initiate guideline-concordant acute-phase care for patients with current major depression. ⋯ Current interventions fail to address barriers to initiating guideline-concordant acute-stage care faced by more than a quarter of depressed primary care patients. Physicians feel that barriers arise most frequently from factors centered with the patients, their psychosocial circumstances, and their attitudes and beliefs about depression and its care. Physicians less frequently make judgments that overrule the guidelines, but do so when patients have complex illness patterns. Further descriptive and experimental studies are needed to confirm and further examine barriers to depression care. Because few untreated patients improve without acute-stage care, additional work is also needed to develop new intervention components that address these barriers.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Does physician education on depression management improve treatment in primary care?
To assess the effect of physician training on management of depression. ⋯ After education on optimal management of depression, intervention physicians did not differ from their usual care colleagues in depression diagnosis or pharmacotherapy.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Effect of computer support on younger women with breast cancer.
Assess impact of a computer-based patient support system on quality of life in younger women with breast cancer, with particular emphasis on assisting the underserved. ⋯ Computer-based patient support systems such as CHESS may benefit patients by providing information and social support, and increasing their participation in health care. These benefits may be largest for currently underserved populations.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Effectiveness of a focused educational intervention on resident evaluations from faculty a randomized controlled trial.
To improve the quality and specificity of written evaluations by faculty attendings of internal medicine residents during inpatient rotations. ⋯ A brief, focused educational intervention delivered to faculty prior to the start of a ward rotation appears to have a modest effect on faculty behavior for written evaluations and promoted higher quality feedback given to house staff.