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Biomedical subjects

T Detre

Publications and source records attributed to T Detre.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Managed care and the future of psychiatry.

In 1987, one of us (T.D.) issued 3 predictions about the future of psychiatry, all of which have come true: (1) The promiscuous use of psychiatry to address a world of problems that are not biomedical and are unrelated to individual patients or their families has diluted the specialty's focus and made it what it should not be-a proposed solution to social ills. (2) The routinization of complex clinical tasks has inevitably resulted in downward decentralization, enabling lower-level professionals to take over responsibilities that were once the purview of physicians. (3) New knowledge about the brain and the mind have made it mandatory for psychiatry and neurology to mate for life to assure the future of both.

Career Choice↗

Transforming the present--discovering the future: the University of Pittsburgh's NLM grant on education and training of health sciences librarians.

BACKGROUND: The University of Pittsburgh was awarded a grant by the National Library of Medicine to study the education and training needs of present and future medical librarians and health information specialists through a collaboration of the university's School of Information Sciences and Health Sciences Library System. Goals and objectives for the year-long project included (1) assessment of education and training needs of medical librarians, (2) development of a master of library science curriculum and an internship program that would prepare graduates to take leadership roles in medical librarianship or information management, (3) development of continuing education programs for medical librarians in different formats, and (4) development of targeted recruitment efforts to attract minority group members and individuals with undergraduate science majors. The importance of this project, present practice, and success factors for programs seeking excellence in the preparation of health sciences information professionals are reviewed. A needs assessment involving a national advisory panel and a follow-up study of individuals who have participated in previous specialized training programs in health sciences information, compared with a peer group of medical librarians who did not participate in such programs, is described. This paper presents the goals and objectives of the project, describes the methods used, and outlines a curriculum, continuing education initiatives, and recruitment activities.

Career Choice↗

The current status and future of VA research.

The VA Advisory Committee for Health Research Policy concluded that the health research aspect of departmental operations is vital to the VA's continued ability to provide high-quality health and medical care. The quality of VA-sponsored research in all areas remains high and on a par with that supported by the NIH and other governmental agencies sponsoring health research. Recent decreases in the financial support of VA research, however, have led to the unwise curtailment of VACO research staff support for this program, have reduced the number of approved projects that can be funded (though there has been a fourfold increase in the number of approved but unfunded projects), and are likely to reduce the attractiveness of VA employment for highly qualified physicians. In view of these findings, the committee recommended several steps that, if found feasible and taken soon, would both restore the long-standing stature of VA research and assure the attractiveness of VA careers for the many clinician-investigators upon whom the VA's quality of patient care necessarily depends.

Forecasting↗

A cost-containment agenda for academic health centers.

Many people, particularly the business leaders and legislators who must find ways to pay most of the nation's health care bill, consider current and projected rates of health expenditure growth a serious problem. Effective solutions to this intractable problem have thus far eluded policymakers. The problem has complex and intertwined roots; its amelioration will require action by many players in the health sector. Academic health centers (AHCs), as the breeding ground for so much of the technological and organizational base of medical care and as the training ground for so many of the professionals in the health sector, bear some of the responsibility for the rate of health expenditure growth. Thus, they have a clear responsibility to help develop an effective response to this vexatious challenge. Three specific recommendations for steps the leaders of AHCs can take to assist in slowing the rate of growth in health care expenditures form the basis for this article.

Academic Medical Centers↗

The future of psychiatry.

The author reviews the vicissitudes of psychiatry's history over the past 50 years and urges the profession to abandon false boundaries between mind and brain and to make a commitment to the scientific validation of prevailing theories of the etiology of psychiatric disorders. He argues that the separation of psychiatry and neurology is no longer justified. He calls instead for a carefully conceived new career path leading to specialization in clinical neuroscience and further urges that psychiatric training programs be restructured to focus on the critical examination of problem solving and validation methods.

Forecasting↗

Management of the Menopause.

Menopause is merely a clinically discernible clue symbolic of the multitude of changes preceding or following the cessation of menses by many years. Because of the time span involved, separating changes observed in the menopausal transition from other age-related maturational events presents serious methodologic problems. Of the host of psychologic and psychosomatic symptoms, only hot flushes and associated sweats occur more frequently in this epoch, while an interplay between hormonal and age-related maturational events presents serious methodologic problems. Of the host of psychologic and psychosomatic symptoms, only hot flushes and associated sweats occur more frequently in this epoch, while an interplay between hormonal and age-related effects is assumed in atrophic changes involving the genitourinary organs. The relation between menopause and osteoporosis is suggestive but by no means proven, as is the risk for cardiovascular disease. Empiric evidence points to the usefullness of estrogen for the management of vasomotor instability, the symptoms associated with atrophy of the genitourinary tract, and in the prophylaxis of osteoporosis, but not in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders.

Adult↗

Psychotic reactions associated with childbirth.

The literature on postpartum psychoses is reviewed. Clinical similarities and differences between patients with postpartum psychoses and those with nonpuerperal psychoses are described. The psychological and physiological precipitants of postpartum psychoses are discussed and a stress summation theory is proposed to explain the etiology of these reactions. Treatment considerations and factors pointing to favorable short-term and long-term prognoses are reviewed.

Age Factors↗