The New Zealand medical journal
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To compare the care and health status of different ethnic groups attending general practices with diabetes. ⋯ The Get Checked program aims to increase the health of all patients with diabetes but whether it accentuates or diminishes ethnic disparities is not yet known.
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Comparative Study
Current and former smoking increases mortality in patients on peritoneal dialysis.
There is limited information on the effects of smoking behaviour on mortality in patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF). This study aimed to assess the interaction of smoking on death rate in patients with renal failure on dialysis. ⋯ Patients with a current or former history of smoking on peritoneal dialysis are at greatly increased risk of death. A strategy of aggressive smoking cessation efforts should be adopted for these patients at the earliest opportunity.
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Pressure to fund Herceptin (trastuzumab) for use in early-stage breast cancer is a welcome development for those patients who may benefit. However such a decision would have major implications since the health gains made by trastuzumab come at a very high cost (when compared to health gains achieved by other drugs currently funded on PHARMAC's schedule). The budget for trastuzumab (estimated to be NZ30m dollars/annum but this is currently being negotiated) will be funded from district health board (DHB) budgets, which will impact other patients unless DHB budgets are appropriately increased. In comparative terms, this proposed expenditure is almost the same as what is currently being spent on all other oncology agents together, and is similar to the total cost of hospital services in New Zealand regions such as Wairarapa and Marlborough.
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To identify the appropriateness of calls to on-call house officers in a major tertiary teaching hospital. ⋯ The most important function an on-call house officer performs is responding to urgent medical situations. Frequent interruptions mean that house officers may become less efficient and more prone to making mistakes. The majority of calls received by on-call house officers did not need immediate responses and would have been better communicated via a less intrusive system such as text-messaging or the keeping of a non-urgent jobs list. If house officers were paged more appropriately then they would be interrupted less frequently and would be able to provide safer, more efficient, and timelier patient care.