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Biomedical subjects

B Gerbert

Publications and source records attributed to B Gerbert.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Planned change and the future of the dental education system.

Dentistry today faces an environment that clearly requires changes in dental education. Future dentists must be prepared to deal with new patterns of dental disease, revised manpower requirements, and new developments in the nature of dental practice. The dental education system can best adapt to this situation by initiating a process of planned change. A well-developed literature in this area provides both a theoretical framework and a practical approach that the dental education system can follow in its planning process. In this paper, the principles of planned change are interpreted in the context of dental schools' characteristic structure, goals, leadership, and communication mechanisms. The traits of successful change and specific strategies for achieving it are offered as a means for the dental education system to build with confidence a productive and healthy future.

Decision Making

Perceived likeability and competence of simulated patients: influence on physicians' management plans.

The goals of this study were to define the psychological and personality characteristics that physicians attribute to their patients and to determine whether these attributions affect treatment decisions. A Physician Attribution Survey was developed to achieve the first goal, and demonstrated that likeability and competence were salient features of the physician-patient relationship. Videotapes were then created demonstrating patients with three different combinations of likeability and competence: likeable-competent (L-C), unlikeable-competent (U-C) and likeable-incompetent (L-I). After being pre-tested with several samples of health professional students, the tapes were shown to 93 primary care physicians. These physicians then completed both a Physician Attribution Survey and a Patient Management Problem describing their proposed treatment. There were significant differences in treatment on five of nine treatment dimensions, depending upon the characteristics of the patient. First, the L-C patient would be encouraged significantly more often to telephone and to return more frequently for follow-up than would the L-I or U-C patient. Second, the staff would educate the likeable patients significantly more often than they would the unlikeable patients. Third, the physician would offer significantly more patient education to incompetent patients than to competent ones. Fourth, the unlikeable patient would receive significantly more interviewing regarding the psychological aspects of care than would the likeable patients. Fifth, the L-C patient would receive augmented medication more frequently than either the U-C patient or the L-I patient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

Measuring adequacy of physician performance. A preliminary comparison of four methods in ambulatory care of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Issues that arise in the development of methods for measuring adequacy of physician performance (MAPP) are discussed. The comparative content validity, scorability, cost, and acceptability of four MAPP strategies are assessed using a sample of clinic-based physicians treating 30 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Criteria for adequate care are contained in a "criteria map." No one of the four methods (physician interview, patient interview, videotaped observation, and chart audit) was best at capturing all aspects of the management of COPD. The relative content validity of a method depended on the aspect of care evaluated. The interviews provided the broadest range of information and the chart audit the most limited. The patient interview yielded the largest proportion of encounters upon which physician performance could be scored, although specific criteria map subscales were differentially scorable depending on the method used. Relative cost and acceptability are also discussed.

Ambulatory Care

Psychological aspects of Crohn's disease.

This is a critical review of 16 studies reporting a relationship between Crohn's disease and psychological variables. The studies reviewed indicate a relationship between the psychological variables of stressful life events, personality characteristics, and psychopathology and the onset and/or exacerbation of Crohn's symptoms. Personality characteristics such as depression, anxiety, and dependency are frequently reported as are the occurrence of stressful life events and the presence of psychopathology. The nature of the relationship is not explained by the research to date; however, the findings summarized in this report indicate that additional investigation into this association is warranted. A plan for such research is suggested.

Adolescent

Training physicians about smoking cessation: a controlled trial in private practice.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To test the hypotheses that physicians in private practice who receive a continuing education program (entitled "Quit for Life") about how to counsel smokers to quit would counsel smokers more effectively and have higher rates of long-term smoking cessation among their patients. DESIGN: Randomized trial with blinded assessment of principal outcomes. SETTING: Private practices of internal medicine and family practice. SUBJECTS: Forty-four physicians randomly assigned to receive training (24) or serve as controls (20) and consecutive samples of smokers visiting each physician (19.6 patients per experimental and 22.3 per control physician). INTERVENTIONS: Physicians received three hours of training about how to help smokers quit. Physicians and their office staffs were also given self-help booklets to distribute to smokers and were urged to use a system of stickers on charts as reminders to counsel smokers about quitting. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Based on telephone interviews with patients, physicians in the experimental group were more likely to discuss smoking with patients who smoked (64% vs. 44%), spent more time counseling smokers about quitting (7.5 vs. 5.2 minutes), helped more smokers set dates to quit smoking (29% vs. 5% of smokers), gave out more self-help booklets (37% vs. 9%), and were more likely to make a follow-up appointment about quitting smoking (19% vs. 11% of those counseled) than physicians in the control group. One year later, the rates of biochemically confirmed, long-term (greater than or equal to 9 months) abstinence from smoking were similar among patients in the experimental (3.2%) and control (2.5%) groups (95% confidence interval for the 0.7% difference: -1.7 to +3.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude that this continuing education program substantially changed the way physicians counseled smokers, but had little or no impact on rates of long-term smoking cessation among their patients. There is a need for more effective strategies to help physicians help their patients to quit smoking.

Clinical Competence

Public acceptance of the Surgeon General's brochure on AIDS.

Public acceptance of the Surgeon General's brochure, "Understanding AIDS," was investigated in a nationwide telephone survey of a representative sample of 2,000 adults generated by random digit dialing. A response rate of 75 percent was achieved. A total of 59 percent of respondents remembered receiving the brochure; of these, 68 percent read most of it and 20 percent read half of it or less. Most respondents reacted positively; 86 percent believed that it was a good use of government money, and only 7 percent would have preferred not getting it. Analysis by demographic characteristics indicated that blacks and young people were less likely to remember receiving the brochure than were whites and retired persons. The public health community can assume that the mailing met with resounding approval and that other public health brochures would be welcomed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome