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E L Miles

Publications and source records attributed to E L Miles.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

An approach to designing a national climate service.

Climate variability and change are considerably important for a wide range of human activities and natural ecosystems. Climate science has made major advances during the last two decades, yet climate information is neither routinely useful for nor used in planning. What is needed is a mechanism, a national climate service (NCS), to connect climate science to decision-relevant questions and support building capacity to anticipate, plan for, and adapt to climate fluctuations. This article contributes to the national debate for an NCS by describing the rationale for building an NCS, the functions and services it would provide, and how it should be designed and evaluated. The NCS is most effectively achieved as a federal interagency partnership with critically important participation by regional climate centers, state climatologists, the emerging National Integrated Drought Information System, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Regional Integrated Sciences Assessment (RISA) teams in a sustained relationship with a wide variety of stakeholders. Because the NCS is a service, and because evidence indicates that the regional spatial scale is most important for delivering climate services, given subnational geographical/geophysical complexity, attention is focused on lessons learned from the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group's 10 years of experience, the first of the NOAA RISA teams.

Animals↗

Physician service to the underserved: implications for affirmative action in medical education.

Affirmative action is under increasing scrutiny. In medicine, the observation that minority physicians disproportionately serve minority patients has been one rationale for affirmative action. Using two large physician surveys, we find that minority and women physicians are much more likely to serve minority, poor, and Medicaid populations. Weaker, but significant association exists between physician and patient socioeconomic background. Service patterns are sustained over time and are generally consistent with physician career preferences. Ending affirmative action in medicine may imperil access to care. Results do not support affirmative action based on economic disadvantage instead of race, ethnicity, and sex.

Adult↗

What makes young HMO physicians satisfied?

While much attention has been paid to the effect of managed care on patient outcomes and health care costs, little attention has been focused on the ways in which managed care affects the satisfaction of physicians. Examination of the practice and career satisfaction of 189 young physicians practicing in group and staff model HMOs finds high levels of satisfaction. More than 82% are satisfied with their current practice. The most important factor influencing physician satisfaction appears to be the extent of perceived autonomy. Neither the number of hours worked per week nor yearly income were strongly associated with decreases in satisfaction. The fact that minority and female physicians report less satisfaction with some dimensions of practice raises important issues for HMO physicians and managers.

Adult↗