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Biomedical subjects

D Hamerman

Publications and source records attributed to D Hamerman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Ombudsmen (medical-psychiatric) rounds. An approach to meeting patient-staff needs.

Ombudsmen rounds conducted jointly by a medical attending physician (ombudsman) and a psychiatrist bring the entire staff on each of the medical wards of Montefiore Hospital together weekly. An attempt is made to address both staff and patient needs on an inpatient medical service. Through group discussions and patient interviews, in which the patient has an opportunity to express his own feelings about his illness and his care, the staff becomes aware of the psychosocial issues that are universally evoked by illness and hospitalization. All staff members are also encouraged to relate their reactions to the patient and their interactions with each other. The ombudsmen-rounds concept maximizes the use of the internist and liaison psychiatrist, and makes psychosocial-medical teaching routine on the medical service in a contemporary teaching hospital where the practice of holistic medicine has been so difficult to implement.

Adult

Reorganization of ambulatory health care in an urban municipal hospital. Primary care and its impact on hospitalization.

Ambulatory care services have been reorganized in a New York City hospital. A newly developed Neighborhood Family Care Center (NFCC) replaced the outpatient clinics. The NFCC and both inpatient and emergency services are totally integrated so as to overcome many of the deficiencies that previously existed in ambulatory care, such as inferior quality of care, minimal academic involvement, fragmentation of services, overspecialization, and unresponsiveness to patients' needs. A review of all patients admitted to the Adult Medical Service has shown a statistically significant decrease in admission rates for diabetic coma-acidosis, severe hypertension, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular accidents, and severe asthma during the 18 months following the reorganization of ambulatory care. Analysis of cost effectiveness of these changes on the utilization of hospital beds indicates the potential for reduced expenditures of limited health care dollars.

Ambulatory Care

Isolation of human synovial-fluid hyaluronate by density-gradient ultracentrifugation and evaluation of its protein content.

1. A compound of hyaluronate and protein, called hyaluronate-protein was isolated from pooled human synovial fluids by caesium chloride density-gradient ultracentrifugation. 2. The isolated hyaluronate-protein was labelled with [(125)I]iodide and the following studies were done. (a) Ultracentrifugation in caesium chloride showed that the protein moiety ((125)I counts) and hyaluronate (hexuronate) sedimented together in the middle of the gradient. (b) The labelled hyaluronate-protein was treated with trypsin, and ultracentrifugation showed that peptide fragments ((125)I counts) were dispersed throughout the gradient, indicating proteolytic digestion. Hyaluronate sedimented in the middle of the gradient. (c) The labelled hyaluronate-protein was digested with streptococcal hyaluronidase, and ultracentrifugation showed that hyaluronate fragments were dispersed throughout the gradient, indicating digestion of the polysaccharide. The protein moiety, without attached hyaluronate, now sedimented at the top of the gradient. (d) Ultracentrifugation of labelled hyaluronate-protein in 4m-guanidinium chloride showed that protein and hyaluronate sedimented together. 3. These studies confirm that hyaluronate is combined with a small quantity of protein in normal human synovial fluid. A mild method for the rapid isolation of hyaluronate-protein in good yield is described.

Centrifugation, Density Gradient

Localization of hyaluronic acid in synovial cells by radioautography.

Cultured human synovial cells secrete hyaluronic acid (HA) into the culture medium. Glucosamine-6-(3)H was shown to be a direct and relatively specific precursor of HA-(3)H by the following observations: the susceptibility of nondialyzable radioactivity in the medium to hyaluronidase, its migration with hexuronic acid on zone electrophoresis in polyvinyl chloride, its exclusion from Sephadex G-200, and the localization of radioactivity to glucosamine after hydrolysis of the labeled polysaccharide. The presence of intracellular HA-(3)H was established by sequential extraction of labeled cells and by radioautography of synovial cell cultures digested with hyaluronidase in situ. When cells were exposed to medium lacking glucose, glucosamine-(3)H-uptake was enhanced; and this made possible electron microscopic radioautographic studies. These studies demonstrate the early and continued presence of HA-(3)H within the Golgi apparatus.

Autoradiography