CONTEXT In the past 50 years, individual patient involvement at the clinical consultation level has received considerable attention. More recently, patients and the public have increasingly been involved in collective decisions concerning the improvement of health care and policymaking. However, rigorous evaluation guiding the development and implementation of effective public involvement inter...

OBJECTIVES Failure to recruit sufficient applicants to general practice (GP) training has been a problem both nationally and internationally for many years and undermining of GP is one possible contributing factor. The aim of our study was to ascertain what comments, both negative and positive, are being made in UK clinical settings to GP trainees about GP and to further explore these comments ...

Fusarium oxysporum formae specialis cubense (Foc) is a soil-borne fungus that causes Fusarium wilt, which is considered to be the most destructive disease of bananas. The fungus is believed to have evolved with its host in the Indo-Malayan region, and from there it was spread to other banana-growing areas with infected planting material. The diversity and distribution of Foc in Asia was investi...

This paper provides a concept analysis of respite care for frail older people and their family carers. The authors re-examine the broader conceptualization of respite care delineated by Nolan & Grant, namely, users' needs for information, education and support about respite care, based on a review of recent literature and on a user focus group study. This work was undertaken by the Sheffield ar...

Although the physician assistant (PA) profession was created to bolster the primary care workforce, PAs have assumed increasing roles in subspecialties. This paper compares specialty prevalence between physicians and physician assistants, analyzes trends in PAs' specialty choices from 1997 to 2006, and suggests options for influencing these specialty choices in the future. The number of PAs is ...

This 2008 Symposium of the Canadian Association of University Surgeons (CAUS) brought together surgeons from a number of jurisdictions to discuss generalism in general surgery and its future. Dr. John Birkmeyer, the 2008 Charles Tator lecturer, started the symposium by framing the problem: the need to improve surgical outcomes, selective referral, centres of excellence, process compliance and p...

Disclosure of HIV status occurs for a variety of reasons and in various contexts, such as to sexual partners to enable safer sexual choices, to health-care workers to access treatment and care services and to family and community members to gain various forms of support. The reasons for disclosure or non-disclosure are shaped by the relationships, needs and circumstances of people living with H...

This article presents recent studies on factors affecting choice of self-care dialysis from around the world, denoting the relationship between early pre-end stage renal disease (ESRD) education and increased selection of self-care dialysis modalities. Style and content of various pre-ESRD education programs, barriers to early pre-ESRD education, and programs designed to decrease late referral ...

Patient education is a significant factor in the provision of health care services, contributing to improved disease management and health care outcomes. Personalization has been suggested as a means for increasing patient education effectiveness and computer-based approaches have been explored as a possible means of achieving this goal. The success and capabilities of the resulting application...

BACKGROUND Today, in several north-western European countries, patients are encouraged to choose, actively, a healthcare provider. However, patients often visit the provider that is recommended by their general practitioner (GP). The introduction of patient choice requires GPs to support patients to be involved, actively, in the choice of a healthcare provider. We aim to investigate whether pol...