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Biomedical subjects

W Read

Publications and source records attributed to W Read.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

The early experience of a voluntary small group insurance program utilizing managed care plans.

HealthCare Group of Arizona (HCGA), a state-sponsored, voluntary health insurance purchasing program offering prepaid health plans to small businesses, became operational in 1988. This article summarizes the results from a wide-ranging evaluation of that program and discusses their implications. In general, enrollees were satisfied with their experience in their plans. HCGA did not appear to attract an adverse mix of health risks, and service utilization rates were consistent with HMO industry averages. However, these findings varied across health plans and the marketing approaches they adopted. Enrollment growth in HCGA has been steady, but premium subsidies may be necessary if HCGA is to substantially increase its enrollment of low-wage, uninsured workers.

Adolescent↗

Role of inhibition in memory retrieval by hippocampal area CA3.

A network model with some general properties of hippocampal area CA3, and the results of its simulation on a massively parallel processor, are described. This network performs the tasks of recent declarative memory including recovery of complete traces from partial cues and recognition of familiarity. Immediate recurrent inhibition is essential for providing sensitivity to small cues while preventing spurious recall. Tonic inhibition seems to set the retrieval speed/accuracy trade-off. Delayed inhibition resets hippocampal activity. The behavior under excessive or deficient inhibition resembles that of amnesics with lesions in brainstem areas known to modulate hippocampal inhibition. The rate of recall and dynamics of inhibition by the model are similar to those inferred to occur in the human hippocampus from unit and evoked potential recordings. The model suggests a mechanism whereby the hippocampus can control its own plasticity. These simulations demonstrate that the retrieval mechanism in several hippocampal models is feasible and that the theta rhythm and the cognitive evoked potentials may be generated by synaptic events modulating network parameters.

Cognition↗

Computer applications in the intensive care unit.

Incorporating computers into all aspects of daily ICU operations is a formidable task both technically and logistically. To coordinate a project as complex as this, it is imperative to achieve close cooperation between physicians, nurses, basic scientists, computer specialists, hospital administrators, and equipment manufacturers. In this article, we have provided a blueprint and have discussed the implementation of a COmputational Model of PATient Health Status (COMPATHS) designed to carry out such integration.

Brain Diseases↗

Dentists' perceptions of their patients relation to quality of care.

This study investigates dentists' perceptions of their patients and the relation of these perceptions to measures of actual quality of restorative treatment. The results indicate that 1) though the dentists see their patients as "cooperative," they perceived a substantial number of "problems," i.e., willingness to pay for optimal care or follow professional recommendations; and 2) there are significant associations between dentists' perceptions of patients and measures of the quality of restorative treatments; higher quality scores were associated with perceptions of a more cooperative patient.

Dental Restoration, Permanent↗

Volunteering in dental peer review: differences between volunteers and practitioners at large.

This report characterizes differences among early and late volunteers, and non-volunteers for personal characteristics and situational determinants of volunteering in an experimental dental peer review study. Differences were found for volunteers/non-volunteers for some items representing subject interest, expectation of a favorable evaluation, sociability, and achievement motivation.

Age Factors↗