Harefuah
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The National Health Survey is a cross-sectional study initiated by the Ministry of Health as part of the World Mental Health 2000 Survey of the World Health Organization. The survey is being conducted in collaboration with the Central Bureau of Statistics, which is responsible for the field work and is supported by the National Insurance Institute of Israel and the Israel National Institute for Health Policy and Health Services Research. ⋯ The survey will provide the much-needed database for the proposed national reform of mental health services. This article describes the main innovations in the national health survey.
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Management of body temperature is considered crucial in the management of acute stroke patients. Hyperthermia exacerbates ischaemic neuronal injury and physiological dysfunction. Hypothermia has been suggested as the "gold standard" for neuroprotection to which new pharmacological therapies should be compared. ⋯ We also examined the derived effect of using hypothermic procedures and antipyretic agents as a treatment measure in acute stroke patients for improving outcomes. Immediate effective treatment of the fever, while simultaneously evaluating its origin, is found to be crucial in the acute stroke for improving outcomes. The hypothermic effect of acetaminophen as a preventive measure for all patients requires further evaluation.
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Osteoarthrosis of the zygapophyseal joint (Z-joint) is a potential cause of chronic cervical pain. The diagnosis of thirty patients, with pain of more than 12 months duration and with no history of trauma, was confirmed with intra-articular fluoroscopy-guided infiltration of anesthetic. ⋯ The mean time for relapse of 50 percent of the pre-injection level of pain was 12.47 +/- 1.89 weeks, significantly longer than 3 days as reported in patients similarly treated following whiplash neck injury. At this point selective blockade of Z-joints may be offered as an adjunct for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes for patients with chronic neck pain due to facet osteoarthrosis in the ambulatory setup.
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The duty to maintain medical confidentiality is one of the fundamental and well-known obligations imposed on physicians, and is incorporated in the Law of Patient's Rights 1996 (the Law). Medical confidentiality applies to information conveyed to a physician for medical purposes trusting that the physician will not disclose it. The patient's identity and financial arrangements are not confidential. ⋯ The duty to maintain medical confidentiality is relevant to the patient's relatives. Obtaining written consent to convey the information to family members is not practical. However, it is recommended that a physician should provide the information only to relatives he knows, and only when he can reasonably assume that the patient will agree.
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We aimed to examine the impact and quality of the research presented in the Israel Society of Rheumatology (ISR) annual scientific meetings by measuring publication rates of the abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and investigating the factors that influenced publication. ⋯ The ISR annual meetings have an important clinical scientific impact as measured by the high rate of abstracts published as full length articles in leading peer-reviewed journals.