BACKGROUND Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, particularly among minorities, and if improperly managed can lead to medical complications and death. Healthcare providers play vital roles in communicating standards of care, which include guidance on diabetes self-management. The background of the client may play a role in the patient-provider communication process. Th...

BACKGROUND Hospital discharge against medical advice, especially among substance-abusing populations, is a frustrating problem for health care providers. Because of the high prevalence of injection drug use among HIV-positive patients admitted to hospital in Vancouver, we explored the factors associated with leaving hospital against medical advice in this population. METHODS We reviewed recor...

BACKGROUND Leaving hospital against medical advice may have adverse consequences. Previous studies have been limited by evaluating specific types of patients, small sample sizes and incomplete determination of outcomes. We hypothesized that leaving hospital against medical advice would be associated with increases in subsequent readmission and death. METHODS In a population-based analysis inv...

held on December 6, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois and supported by a grant from Medline Industries, Inc. The information contained herein does not necessarily represent the opinions of all panel members. Disclaimer: This article is not a substitute for medical or legal advice. All content is for general informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional med...

Starting from McCarthy’s seminal proposal for the construction of an advice-taking machine, we show how tools from abstract argumentation and computational learning can help disambiguate and formalize that goal. Our focus is on establishing provable guarantees on the realizability of the advice taker, and on implementing an actual prototype system.

Background Approximately 1% to 2% of hospitalized patients get discharged or leave from the hospital against medical advice and up to 26% in some centers. They have higher readmission rate and risk of complications than patients who receive complete care. In this study we aimed to determine the rate of leave against medical advice (...

BACKGROUND Medical abortion (mifepristone and misoprostol) has the potential to contribute to reduced maternal mortality but little is known about the provision or quality of advice for medical abortion through the private retail sector. We examined the availability of medical abortion and the practices of pharmacists in India, where abortion has been legal since 1972. METHODS We interviewed ...