OBJECTIVE The Cutaneous Assessment Tool (CAT) is a comprehensive, semiquantitative tool for the assessment of skin disease in juvenile dermatomyositis (DM). The goal of this study was to determine whether alternative scoring methods would shorten the CAT without compromising its measurement characteristics. METHODS A total of 113 children with juvenile DM were assessed at baseline; 94 were as...

BACKGROUND Assessing fracture healing in clinical trials is subjective. The new Function IndeX for Trauma (FIX-IT) score provides a simple, standardized approach to assess weight-bearing and pain in patients with lower extremity fractures. We conducted an initial validation of the FIX-IT score. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 50 patients with lower extremity fractures a...

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to evaluate the interrater reliability, construct validity, and sensitivity of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-Hand Function Test (TRI-HFT), within an interventional randomized control trial. METHOD Twenty-one participants with subacute C4 to C7 spinal cord injury (SCI) were recruited. Based on randomization, participants were allocated to either the f...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability and discriminant validity of Toglia's Deductive Reasoning test for individuals with brain injuries. METHOD Forty-two individuals with brain injuries and 51 participants without disabilities ranging in age from 18 to 84 years were given the Deductive Reasoning test three consecutive times. A between groups repeated...

OBJECTIVE To develop a taxonomy of doctors' questions about patient care that could be used to help answer such questions. DESIGN Use of 295 questions asked by Oregon primary care doctors to modify previously developed taxonomy of 1101 clinical questions asked by Iowa family doctors. SETTING Primary care practices in Iowa and Oregon. PARTICIPANTS Random samples of 103 Iowa family doctors ...

Coding productivity is expected to drop significantly during the lead-up to and in the initial stages of ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation, now expected to be delayed until October 1, 2015. This study examined the differences in coding productivity between ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS for hospital inpatient cases matched for complexity and severity. Additionally, interrater reliability was calculated ...