Families of children with chronic health conditions are often treated in primary care settings. A guidance report has highlighted the importance of coordinated care and training primary care teams, including nurse practitioners, to deliver psychological interventions (Royal College of Psychiatrists and Royal College of General Practitioners, London, 2008). Although psychological therapies are b...

This article explores the impact of intensive competition within the pharmaceutical industry and among private providers on health care in an Indian city. In-depth interviewing and clinical observation were used over a period of 18 months. Private practitioners and chemists who provided regular services to inhabitants of a poor neighborhood in central Bhubaneswar were included. Fierce competiti...

BACKGROUND Most patients using alternative practitioners also receive care from physicians. It is unclear, however, how well alternative practitioners and physicians communicate and coordinate the care of shared patients. OBJECTIVE To describe the communication and coordination of care for shared patients between chiropractors and family physicians as well as potential barriers to effectively...

BACKGROUND Although the importance of collaboration is well established as a principle in research and in theory, what it actually means for practitioners to collaborate in practice, to be partners in a collaborative relationship, has thus far been given less attention. The aim of this study was to identify key characteristics of the ways in which mental health practitioners collaborate with se...

BACKGROUND Specialist palliative care is being increasingly recognised and developed to improve end-of-life care in many developed countries. However, only a small proportion of the total number of patients with incurable, progressive diseases actually has direct contact with specialist palliative care practitioners. Using the German situation as an example, the main purpose of this paper is to...

BACKGROUND People's trust in health care and health care professionals is essential for the effectiveness of health care, especially for chronically ill people, since chronic diseases are by definition (partly) incurable. Therefore, it may be understandable that chronically ill people turn to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), often in addition to regular care. Chronically ill people...

This proposed rule would establish a new 45 CFR part 61 to implement the statutory requirements of section 1128E of the Social Security Act, as added by section 221(a) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Section 221(a) of HIPAA specifically directed the Secretary to establish a national health care fraud and abuse data collection program for the reporting...

Primary care teams, including nurses, midwives, health visitors and general practitioners are involved in identifying and managing depression during antenatal and postpartum care. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued a guidance report for health care professionals on routine postnatal care, which includes depression (NICE, 2006). It is important to identify ef...

BACKGROUND Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become an important competency in many allied and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health care practitioners' professional standards of proficiency. METHODS To compliment an EBP course for allied health care professionals and CAM practitioners, we undertook a questionnaire survey to assess learning needs. We developed a questionnaire to...