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Biomedical subjects

D Tannenbaum

Publications and source records attributed to D Tannenbaum.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Structured assessment of minor surgical skills (SAMSS) for family medicine residents.

PURPOSE: To develop a valid and reliable examination to assess the technical proficiency of family medicine residents' performance of minor surgical office procedures. METHOD: A multi-station OSCE-style examination using bench-model simulations of minor surgical procedures was developed. Participants were a randomly selected group of 33 family medicine residents (PGY-1 = 16, PGY-2 = 17) and 14 senior surgical residents who functioned as a validation group. Examiners were qualified surgeons and family physicians who used both checklists and global rating scales to score the participants' performances. RESULTS: When family medicine residents were evaluated by family physicians, interstation reliabilities were .29 for checklists and .42 for global ratings. When family medicine residents were evaluated by surgeons, the reliabilities were .53 for checklists and .75 for global ratings. Interrater reliability, measured as a correlation for total examination scores, was .97. Mean scores on the examination were 60%, 64%, and 87% for PGY-1 family medicine, PGY-2 family medicine, and surgery residents, respectively. The difference in scores between family medicine and surgery residents was significant (p < .001), providing evidence of construct validity. CONCLUSION: A new examination developed for assessing family medicine residents' skills with minor surgical office procedures is reliable and has evidence for construct validity. The examination has low reliability when family physicians serve as examiners, but moderate reliability when surgeons are the evaluators.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures↗

A clinical score to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in patients with sore throat.

OBJECTIVE: To validate a score based on clinical symptoms and signs for the identification of group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection in general practice patients with score throat. DESIGN: A single throat swab was used as the gold standard for diagnosing GAS infection. Clinical information was recorded by experienced family physicians on standardized encounter forms. Score criteria were identified by means of logistic regression modelling of data from patients enrolled in the first half of the study. The score was then validated among the remaining patients. SETTING: University-affiliated family medicine centre in Toronto. PATIENTS: A total of 521 patients aged 3 to 76 years presenting with a new upper respiratory tract infection from December 1995 to February 1997. OUTCOME MEASURES: Sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios for identification of GAS infection with the score approach compared with throat culture. Proportion of patients prescribed antibiotics, throat culture use, and sensitivity and specificity with usual physician care and with score-based recommendations were compared. RESULTS: A score was developed ranging in value from 0 to 4. The sensitivity of the score for identifying GAS infection was 83.1%, compared with 69.4% for usual physician care (p = 0.06); the specificity values of the 2 approaches were similar. Among patients aged 3 to 14 years, the sensitivity of the score approach was higher than that of usual physician care (96.9% v. 70.6%) (p < 0.05). The proportion of patients receiving initial antibiotic prescriptions would have been reduced 48% by following score-based recommendations compared with observed physician prescribing (p < 0.001), without any increase in throat culture use. CONCLUSIONS: An age-appropriate sore throat score identified GAS infection in children and adults with sore throat better than usual care by family physicians, with significant reductions in unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics. A randomized trial comparing the 2 approaches is recommended to determine the ability of the score approach to reduce unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics during routine clinical encounters.

Adolescent↗

Model for assessing psychosocial problems.

The Model for the Assessment of Psychosocial Problems (MAPP) can help family medicine residents effectively assess patients with psychosocial problems. Following a patient-centred clinical method, MAPP provides a guide to exploring problems and an approach that allows residents and patients jointly to define problems and decide upon management. Emphasis is placed on clarifying patients' expectations of physicians.

Family Practice↗

Intraoperative hand retractor.

A technique is described that greatly reduces the problems inherent in obtaining clear radiographs of the fingers. The method is simple, inexpensive, and readily available for use in the operating room. Additionally, it allows the surgeon to leave the operative field and stand behind a lead shield while radiographs are taken.

Fingers↗

Structural relationships of the major glycoproteins from human alveolar proteinosis surfactant.

Alveolar proteinosis is a disease characterized by accumulation of proteinaceous material in the alveolar space of the lung. Two major collagenase-sensitive polypeptides, alveolar proteinosis peptides of 34 kDa kilodaltons (APP-34) and of 62 kDa (APP-62), were isolated from bronchioalveolar lavage of patients with alveolar proteinosis. These proteins co-purified during fast-performance liquid chromatography (FPLC) chromatofocusing and were separated from each other by electroelution following SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Immunoblot analysis of these proteins demonstrated that both shared antigenic sites with the normal human surfactant-associated protein of Mr 34,000 (SAP-34) using both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies generated against SAP-34. Removal of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides from the 34 kDa and 62 kDa alveolar proteinosis proteins with endoglycosidase F resulted in polypeptides of 28 kDa from APP-34 and 56 kDa from APP-62. Amino acid analysis and tryptic peptide maps of the electroeluted APP-34 and APP-62 proteins were essentially identical and similar to that previously reported for human SAP-34, supporting the likely relationship of APP-34 and APP-62 as monomer and dimer of the normal SAP-34. APP-34 and APP-62 were both sensitive to bacterial collagenase, yielding collagenase-resistant fragments of 21 kDa, similar in migration and amino acid composition to the fragment generated by collagenase digestion of normal human SAP-34. High molecular weight aggregates of APP-34 and APP-62 were the result of sulfhydryl-dependent and non-sulfhydryl-dependent cross-linking. A domain in the C-terminal non-collagenous portion of the molecules which forms sulfhydryl-dependent oligomers was identified. The two major polypeptides accumulating in the airway of patients with alveolar proteinosis are monomeric (34 kDa) and dimeric (62 kDa) forms of the major surfactant-associated glycoprotein, SAP-34.

Amino Acid Sequence↗