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Biomedical subjects

G W Halaas

Publications and source records attributed to G W Halaas.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The Rural Physician Associate Program: new directions in education for competency.

The Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) has 34 years experience in training 1097 medical students as independent distance learners in a 36 week, community-based continuity primary care experience. This program has been successful in preparing competitive students who select primary care residencies and return to rural practice. The RPAP program has been based on traditional apprentice-style clinical teaching with the support of computer-based resources to enhance distance learning. However while the clinical exposure and development of medical skills was strong, there were weaknesses in evidence-based medicine and managing healthcare, and inconsistencies in community or population health learning. New directions in the educational program for RPAP are described that have been or are being developed to address the competencies as outlined by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. They include online and other resources, preceptor education and support, interactive journaling and cases, electronic portfolios, community projects, observed structured clinical exams and examinations. Ongoing challenges to competency-based education include developing meaningful measures and tools to assess competence for areas such as professionalism or systems-based practice; providing faculty development toward being able to practice, teach and evaluate students with an understanding of the competencies; and to build in ways of practicing, learning and improving care that involve effective teams of health-care professionals.

Accreditation↗
PubMed2000

A practical approach to evidence grading.

BACKGROUND: The Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) is a collaboration of 17 Minnesota medical groups. Among other activities, ICSI develops health care guidelines and technology assessment reports. To maintain focus on the underlying evidence, ICSI has developed an evidence and conclusion grading system for use by the practicing clinicians who write the documents and use them in making decisions about patient care. THE EVIDENCE GRADING SYSTEM IN DETAIL: The centerpiece of the evidence grading system is the conclusion grading worksheet, which calls for statement of a conclusion, summarization of research reports that support or dispute the conclusion, assignment of classes and quality markers to the research reports, and assignment of a grade to the conclusion. EXPERIENCE AND RESULTS: The system has been used in the writing of more than 40 guidelines and numerous technology assessment reports. An example of a worksheet from the congestive heart failure guideline is presented. The system has helped the drafting groups to attend to the evidence. The methods have proven to be well accepted by practicing physicians and to be practical, although staff expertise in epidemiology is needed to support the system. Grading of conclusions appears to be reliable, although this characteristic of the system has not been rigorously tested. The outputs are valued by users of the documents. DISCUSSION: Although some residual problems remain to be solved, the system appears to be successful in overcoming the complexity of some published systems for grading evidence while still yielding a defensible classification of conclusions based on the strength of the underlying evidence.

Academies and Institutes↗
PubMed1978

Therapeutic trial of tilorone in ALS: lack of benefit in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Sixteen patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study using tilorone hydrochloride, a drug active against a variety of DNA and RNA viruses in animals. On the basis of neurologic examination, pulmonary function studies, quantitative muscle examination, speech recording, and periodic filming of functional muscle strength, it was concluded that at a dose of 1 gm per week, tilorone did not alter the course of ALS.

Adult↗