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Biomedical subjects

O R Frank

Publications and source records attributed to O R Frank.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Registers, recalls and reminders.

General practitioners care for a large number of patients who require a wide range of preventive care procedures. Most patients attend at least once each year, providing an opportunity to offer and/or perform indicated preventive care. If these opportunities are taken, only a few patients will ever need to be recalled for preventive care. Reliable, thorough and consistent opportunistic offering of preventive care depends on having an efficient information system that reminds the doctor of what care is due. Manual systems are too expensive to use for this task because of their high labour costs. Recalling all patients routinely for preventive care is inefficient, expensive and unrewarding. Electronic medical record systems can remind doctors of when preventive interventions are due and generate recall notices at the lowest cost.

Family Practice↗
PubMed1992

Capitation: a service by another name.

Fee for service and capitation systems are usually regarded as different methods of medical remuneration, however, they can be seen to differ mainly in the degree to which they 'bundle' or 'package' medical services. A capitation system for general practice services in Australia could be established by the creation of a Medicare item and benefit for a year's general practice care. This would allow doctors to assess the benefits of capitation without a total and potentially traumatic commitment, and may encourage innovation in the efficient delivery of primary health care.

Australia↗
PubMed1991

Medical reference filing systems.

Low priced shareware packages may be adequate for those whose main need is to index a collection of articles read in journals. Those who search the literature electronically will need a package able to import mass data. Pro-Cite is set up for bibliographic functions only, but Reference File and Notebook II can be used to index any kind of collection, with Reference File having the advantage of being memory-resident. Other reference filing databases being considered for purchase could be measured against those reviewed here.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1989

Screening alcohol & drug use in a general practice unit: comparison of computerised and traditional methods.

Systematic screening of patients for areas of health risk in their lifestyle has much potential for primary health care clinicians as a cost-effective and time saving means to identify 'at risk' individuals. In the area of alcohol and drug problems, such early identification increases the likelihood of successful intervention. The present study, conducted at a general practice unit, compared the use of a computer to screen for alcohol and drug use with the two more traditional assessment methods of face-to-face interview and paper and pencil questionnaire. It was found that levels of reported consumption were similar across assessment methods. Although the interview method was strongly preferred overall, patients' preference for the computer increased significantly after use. The computer was also found to be more acceptable to patients reporting non-medical drug use, a potentially threatening and sensitive issue. There was a low refusal rate and most patients were willing to allow their doctor to see the assessment results. This indicates that screening for alcohol and drug use is acceptable to general practice patients, and that the computer can play a useful role as a prevention aid.

Adult↗