THE INNOVATION Patients are engaged with their digital devices at nearly every office visit, texting, checking email, catching up on news, or gaming. I wanted to take advantage of the attention patients pay to their smartphones and turn it into an engagement opportunity. I developed QR (Quick Response) codes for online information about common health issues both to entertain and to educate. Thi...

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...

Multiple studies have revealed the impact of walkable environments on physical activity. Scholars attach considerable importance to leisure and health-related walking. Recent studies have used Google Street View as an instrument to assess city streets and walkable environments; however, no study has compared the validity of Google Street View assessments of walkable environment attributes to as...

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...