At a conference of practitioners and scholars of Chinese Medicine held in Australia recently, it was reported that China has, in recent decades, spent an inordinate amount of resources on experiments to determine the existence and nature of Qi. The nub of the report was that China is easing up on this research. The veracity of the claim that these experiments are slowing down for lack of concre...

According to the use of Quercus infectoria (QI) and Rosa damascena L. (RD) for therapeutic purposes and lack of adequate information about their cardiovascular effects, we investigated the cardiovascular indices of rabbits which chronically pretreated with these agents. Animal groups were control group (CTL), RD and QI groups with normal chow plus 1.5 g RD and QI extracts, respectively, in each...

Questions have been raised about whether and how health care quality improvement (QI) initiatives ought to be reviewed to address possible ethical issues associated with them. These questions have focused primarily on whether some QI initiatives meet the regulatory criteria for human subject research and should therefore be regulated and reviewed as such. Based on surveys of health care system ...

The objective of this study was to examine the association between the scope and intensity of Quality improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and organizational performance. A sample of 1,784 community hospitals was used to assess relationships between QI implementation approach and two hospital-level performance indicators: cash flow and cost per case. Two-stage instrumental variables est...

BACKGROUND Significant underuse of evidence-based treatments for depression persists in primary care. We examined the effects of 2 primary care-based quality improvement (QI) programs on medication management for depression. METHODS A total of 1356 patients with depressive symptoms (60% with depressive disorders and 40% with subthreshold depression) from 46 primary care practices in 6 nonacad...

Background. De qi comprises varied senses depending on the individual. No single method can yet fully measure the multiple dimensions of de qi adequately. Objective. We examined the advantages of implementing multiple questionnaires for de qi measurement. Methods. Fourteen participants completed a preacupuncture questionnaire regarding their perception toward acupuncture treatment. After acupun...

Quality improvement (QI) is an essential component of medical practice. Medical students and residents must learn the skills to conduct clinical QI during their educational programs. Medical educators must create and implement a curriculum in QI to empower their students to develop this skill and knowledge. However, developing and implementing a QI curriculum may be challenging for some residen...

Background. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used to treat chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the TCM syndrome characteristics of CAG and its core pathogenesis so as to promote optimization of treatment strategies. Methods. This study was based on a participant survey conducted in 4 hospitals in China. Patients diagnosed with CAG were ...

This work successfully used model rats with Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) liver-qi invasion in the early development days to detect the Metabolic and Behavioral Patterns and their reversal by a Chinese traditional formula. Our aim is to verify the reliability of PMS liver-qi invasion rat model and explore some micromechanism of the syndrome of the liver failing to maintain the normal flow of qi....