Summaries – INTERNAL MEDICINE

Quality of discharge summaries prepared by first year internal medicine residents

BACKGROUND Patients are particularly susceptible to medical error during transitions from inpatient to outpatient care. We evaluated discharge summaries produced by incoming postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) internal medicine residents for their completeness, accuracy, and relevance to family physicians. METHODS Consecutive discharge summaries prepared by PGY-1 residents for patients discharged fro...

Summaries for patients. Adding acupuncture to physical therapy and anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Summaries for Patients are presented for informational purposes only. These summaries are not a substitute for advice from your own medical provider. If you have questions about this material, or need medical advice about your own health or situation, please contact your physician. The summaries may be reproduced for notfor-profit educational purposes only. Any other uses must be approved by th...

Summaries for patients. Comparative effectiveness of generic and brand-name statins on patient outcomes.

Reviewing the reviewers: the quality of reporting in three secondary journals.

BACKGROUND Secondary journals such as ACP Journal Club (ACP), Journal Watch (JW) and Internal Medicine Alert (IMA) have enormous potential to help clinicians remain up to date with medical knowledge. However, for clinicians to evaluate the validity and applicability of new findings, they need information on the study design, methodology and results. METHODS Beginning with the first issue in M...

Dictated versus database-generated discharge summaries: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Hospital discharge summaries communicate information necessary for continuing patient care. They are most commonly generated by voice dictation and are often of poor quality. The objective of this study was to compare discharge summaries created by voice dictation with those generated from a clinical database. METHODS A randomized clinical trial was performed in which discharge sum...