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Biomedical subjects

J Lomas

Publications and source records attributed to J Lomas.

85 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Health care delivery models: emerging trends in the delivery of health services.

Rising costs, a higher proportion of elderly in the population, proliferation of high technology and increased knowledge about efficient and effective service provision have all led to increased cost-consciousness in the health system. Historically, regulatory approaches have provided equity of access and funding, but for controlling costs they have now become inappropriate because they leave the mix of services untouched. In the future, regulatory approaches may make more use of guidelines and algorithms for care (the "soft" regulatory route), or they may directly control the supply of providers and other resources in the health system (the "hard" regulatory route). An alternative is the competition approach which allows choices by consumers on where to obtain health care based on the efficiency with which those services are provided. The danger in this approach is the potential for equity to be compromised; this may be addressed by combining the regulatory and competitive approaches.

Canada↗
PubMed1985

Explaining variations in cesarean section rates: patients, facilities or policies?

Using overall rates of cesarean section and either rates of diagnosis or rates of cesarean section for the four main indications for this procedure, we analysed the variations among teaching and community hospitals in four of Ontario's six regions. The rates varied substantially in both 1979 and 1982, with the overall rate for cesarean section in 1982 being 17.1 to 21.0 per 100 deliveries in the teaching hospitals and 16.5 to 19.7 in the community hospitals. The rate of diagnosis of dystocia varied up to threefold in the teaching hospitals and up to twofold in the community hospitals. Fetal distress was diagnosed at even more variables rates. The rate of repeat cesarean section varied most in the teaching hospitals, whereas the rate of cesarean section for breech presentation varied significantly in the community and the teaching hospitals in 1982 but only in the community hospitals in 1979. Nearly all the rates increased between 1979 and 1982. Differences in patient characteristics and in availability of resources appeared less important in explaining these rate variations than differences in clinical policy.

Birth Rate↗
PubMed1985

Supply projections as planning: a critical review of forecasting net physician requirements in Canada.

This study involves a critical review of the current methods used to establish net future physician manpower requirements in Canada. The paper explores specific examples of physician manpower forecasting in Canada, and contrasts them with an extensive U.S. exercise completed recently. The conceptual and measurement difficulties inherent in the Canadian methodology are outlined. Particular attention is paid to the various factors that can potentially influence physician requirements but which are omitted from consideration in traditional forecasting. The paper concludes with a discussion of the definition of 'need' in the context of physician requirements.

Canada↗
PubMed1984

Determinants of the increasing cesarean birth rate. Ontario data 1979 to 1982.

We analyzed the records of 454,668 births in Ontario in the years 1979 to 1982 and found that the cesarean birth rate increased from 16.5 per hundred deliveries in 1979 to 18.7 in 1982. Cesarean births were classified according to four indications: previous cesarean birth, breech presentation, dystocia, and fetal distress. The increase in the cesarean rate for each indication from 1979 to 1982 was calculated and expressed as a percentage of the total rate increase. Previous cesarean births accounted for 68 per cent of the increase, breech presentation for 14 per cent, dystocia for 4 per cent, and fetal distress for 14 per cent. The impact of previous cesarean births was indicated by an increase in the number of women presenting with this indication--from 5.8 to 7.8 per cent of all deliveries. Although the incidence of breech presentation remained stable, the cesarean birth rate increased from 54.8 to 65 per cent for this indication. There were no marked changes in either the incidence of or cesarean rates for dystocia. The incidence of fetal distress doubled (2.4 to 4.7 per cent of deliveries), but the rate of cesarean births in these cases fell from 50.5 to 32.7 per cent. These findings suggest that physicians may have begun to respond to rising professional and public concern over the increasing cesarean birth rate, but major advances in controlling this rate can be achieved only by addressing the question of vaginal deliveries for some patients who have previously had cesarean section.

Breech Presentation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bridges between health care research evidence and clinical practice.

Research is producing increasing amounts of important new evidence for health care, but there is a large gap between what this evidence shows can be done and the care that most patients actually receive. An important reason for this gap is the extensive processing that evidence requires before application. This article discusses a three-step model for bridging research evidence to management of clinical problems: getting the evidence straight, formulating evidence-based clinical policies, and applying evidence-based clinical policies at the right place and time. This model is purposely broad in scope and provides a framework for coordinating efforts to support evidence-based medical care. The authors' purpose is to represent the roles of health informatics in the context of the roles of all the key players, including health care researchers and practitioners, health care organizations, and the public. Health informatics has already made important contributions to bridging evidence to practice, including improving evidence retrieval, evaluation, and synthesis; new evidence-based information products; and computerized aids for facilitating the use of these products during clinical decision making. However, much more innovation and coordination are needed. The authors call for health informaticians to pay balanced attention to 1) the quality of evidence embodied in information innovations, 2) the performance of technologies and systems that retrieve, prepare, disseminate, and apply evidence, and 3) the fit of information tools to the specific clinical circumstances in which evidence is to be applied. Effective interdisciplinary teams that include health services researchers and other evidence experts, clinical practitioners, informaticians, and health care managers are needed to achieve success. Informaticians can make increasingly important contributions to the transfer of health care research by joining such teams.

Decision Making, Organizational↗