Data on the characteristics of office visits to general surgeons by ambulato~ patients are presented. Individual profiles are detailed for physicians in solo and group practices, for those in the four major geographic regions, and in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Information on the medical and surgical care provided by different age groups of physicians is provided. The condition of p...

HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS This child’s BP measurements had been normal (i.e., 90/50 to 90/60 mmHg) at previous office visits. At the request of the NP, the child’s school nurse monitored his BP for 2 weeks following this office visit. The BP measurements taken at school also were elevated (121/58, 131/68, and 117/64 mmHg). At the follow-up office visit, the child’s BP remained hypertensive (12...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate remote pacemaker interrogation for the earlier diagnosis of clinically actionable events compared with traditional transtelephonic monitoring and routine in-person evaluation. BACKGROUND Pacemaker patient follow-up procedures have evolved from evaluating devices with little programmability and diagnostic information solely in person to tran...

BACKGROUND Routine preoperative testing is not recommended for patients undergoing cataract surgery, because testing neither decreases adverse events nor improves outcomes. We sought to assess adherence to this guideline, estimate expenditures from potentially unnecessary testing, and identify patient and health care system characteristics associated with potentially unnecessary testing. METH...

On a recent Wednesday, Leonard examined Jesse, a 100-pound pooch who is a mix of Leonberger, St. Bernard, and Labrador retriever. Jesse has arthritis and degenerative joint disease, and had her right hip replaced. Leonard, who charges $56 for an office visit, checked the pulse in Jesse's back leg, looked at the color of her tongue, and gently felt around for painful spots, which became obvious ...

Objective: To evaluate treatment times for traditional and self-ligating orthodontic brackets and determine if the use of SmartClipTM Self-Ligating Brackets improve orthodontic treatment efficiency. Methodology: More than 1,000 orthodontic practitioners were surveyed in the United States, Canada and Europe with responses based on their experience using SmartClip Self-Ligating Brackets from 3M U...

CONTEXT Patients often present clues (direct or indirect comments about personal aspects of their lives or their emotions) during conversations with their physicians. These clues represent opportunities for physicians to demonstrate understanding and empathy and thus, to deepen the therapeutic alliance that is at the heart of clinical care. A paucity of information exists regarding how physicia...

A number of topical agents are effective for the treatment of mild to moderate acne, but patients often do not use their medications as prescribed. Medication use increases around the time of office visits, but frequent office visits may not be a practical way to increase compliance. Because adolescents use the Internet regularly, we tested whether a weekly Internet-based communication could im...

Methodology Selected to Meet the Goals Within a two-day home office visit by the selected participants, we could not run one-at-a-time test sessions of all four software programs. Therefore, we decided to run concurrent sessions for each software program. Combining two of the software programs into one test, we ran a total of three tests, each in 12 concurrent sessions. This approach met the go...

PURPOSE The Ask Me 3 (AM3) health communication program encourages patients to ask specific questions during office visits with the intention of improving understanding of their health conditions and adherence to treatment recommendations. This study evaluated whether implementing AM3 improves patients' question-asking behavior and increases adherence to prescription medications and lifestyle r...