Are doctors assessing patients with hypertension appropriately at their initial presentation?

Are doctors assessing patients with hypertension appropriately at their initial presentation?

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which primary care doctors assessed patients newly diagnosed with hypertension for the risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) during the patients' first clinic visit for hypertension. The study also aimed to examine the trend of assessment for CVD risk factors over a 15-year period. METHODS This retrospective study was co...

Assessing patient satisfaction with Sudanese doctors

Dear editor Patients’ satisfaction has long been consideredas an important factor when gauging healthoutcome and quality of care in both developedand developing countries (1) and constitutes asubstantial indicator of the health care quality(2). Researches have shown that satisfiedpatients are more likely to develop a goodrelationship with the health system, leading toimproving compliance, conti...

Acute stroke patients with high BMI are less likely to have severe disability at initial presentation.

This is a prospective study to determine the severity of disability and prognosis of acute stroke patients related to their Body Mass index (BMI). A total of 79 consecutive CT-scan-proven acute stroke patients who were admitted to Hospital Tuanku Ja'afar, Seremban between November 2006 and April 2007 were recruited (male:female 49:30; mean age 62.7 years; ischemic stroke 70, intracerebral bleed...

Patients and Their Doctors

Assessing doctors at work--progress and challenges.

A fair amount of scrutiny has been given recently to the assessment of medical students’ competence before they enter practice. In this issue of the Journal, Epstein provides a timely summary of advances in this arena.1 In contrast, little attention has been paid to the assessment of doctors who are already in practice. As Epstein points out, far from being a fixed attribute or trait, competenc...