Research Activities

March 1997, No. 202

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Good communication is a key factor in avoiding malpractice suits

Departments

Patient Outcomes/Effectiveness Research
   New medication reduces serious problems and repeat operations following coronary angioplasty
   Studies examine recent angioplasty experience by geographical region and patients' sex
   Angiography patients fare better when treated in high-volume hospitals
   Study questions advisability of shifting care of elderly heart attack patients from cardiologists to primary care doctors
   Canadian experience bolsters evidence for regionalization of cardiac procedures in the United States
   Low Birthweight PORT publishes recent findings
   Prostate cancer screening debate is analogous to early lung cancer screening debate

Hospitalization
   Both hospital and market factors affect a rural hospital's likelihood of survival or organizational change
   ICUs vary substantially in their use of do-not-resuscitate orders
   ICU studies focus on triage of low-risk patients and outcomes for patients with organ system failure

Managed Care/Primary Care
   Women receive more health care services if they have an internist as their primary care doctor
   Geographic region and type of health plan influence length of hospital stay for childbirth
   Less than one-fourth of community hospitals participate in systems that facilitate managed care contracting

Elderly/Long-term Care
   Primary care providers should ask seemingly depressed older patients about suicidal thoughts
   Help from family members increases elderly diabetics adherence to treatment and dietary regimens

Special Populations
   Exposure to TB and vision problems affect more than one-third of homeless persons in Los Angeles County

AHCPR News and Notes
   Plans underway to streamline AHCPR's grant review process

Announcements
   AHCPR and private-sector groups form partnerships to develop pilot evidence reports
   AHCPR funds projects to foster collaboration between medicine and public health
   Final reports now available from NTIS

Research Briefs
   Effect of physician profiling on utilization
   Variation among quality-of-life surveys
   A pound of cure
   The Australian health care system: Are the incentives down under right side up?
   The functional independence measure: Tests of scaling assumptions, structure, and reliability across 20 diverse impairment categories

AHCPR Publication No. 97-0024
Current as of March 1997

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. March 1997, No. 202. AHCPR Publication No. 97-0024. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mar97/

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