OBJECTIVE To determine the nature of inaccuracies likely to occur when standardized patients (SPs) are used to measure physician behaviour and to evaluate the potential impact of these inaccuracies on estimates of physician performance. DESIGN Secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial. SETTING Family physicians' offices. STUDY PARTICIPANTS Eighteen individuals, each portraying...

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether shoe style has any effect on perceptions of a female physician’s personal characteristics when viewed alongside a transcript of a short outpatient consultation. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty postgraduate students of management or computer science. Twenty-five questionnaires were actually completed. DESIGN: Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three groups, balance...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of predisposing, enabling, and need factors on physician and hospital use among older Mexican Americans. DESIGN A two-year prospective cohort study. SETTING Five Southwestern states: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California. PARTICIPANTS A population-based sample of 1987 non-institutionalized Mexican American men and women age > or =65 years. ...

OBJECTIVES  To estimate differences in annual income of physicians in the United States by race and sex adjusted for characteristics of physicians and practices. DESIGN  Cross sectional survey study. SETTING  Nationally representative samples of US physicians. PARTICIPANTS  The 2000-13 American Community Survey (ACS) included 43 213 white male, 1698 black male, 15 164 white female, and 12...

Results of past research on physician-patient interruption present an inconclusive picture. This study reconceptualizes interruption into cooperative and intrusive categories. Thirty physician-patient interviews, 13 male/male and 17 male/female, were audiotaped and microanalyzed. It was found that physicians did not interrupt patients more or vice versa. Rather, physicians and patients interrup...