Survey responses of 311 Howard University College of Medicine graduates (classes of 1955-1975) confirm that the school has trained a substantial number of physicians providing care to blacks, the economically disadvantaged, and inner city residents. Implications for training minority physicians, assessing its impact on health care delivery, and…

A discussion is presented of five categories of patient variables that seem to have useful relationships with both successful rehabilitation outcome and ease of management from the standpoints of medical and vocational rehabilitation. These classes of variables have been identified through clinical experience and validated empirically.…

Geriatric ward patients (N=84) were randomly assigned to groups targeted for outplacement planning or inpatient care. During the following year, the mean Morale Inventory score of the outplacement sample improved while that of the inpatient group remained statis. Results argue for an increased emphasis on outplacement programs among geriatric…

This empirical study tested the effects of a systematically-designed training program to help medical students develop empathetic responses to patients and to attend not just to disease symptoms. Results indicate the success of the program. (Editor/LBH)

Results are presented of a study focusing on the primary employment responsibilities of doctoral- and master's-level social work faculty employed by medical schools. Data from a Faculty Roster System survey show that these faculty members spend 23.5 percent more of their working time in patient service responsibilities than other faculty. (LBH)

For the past eight years at Harvard Medical School, students have viewed the behavioral science course as an introduction to psychiatry and to the doctor-patient relationship in much the same way as pathophysiology has served to introduce medicine. Course organization and effectiveness are reviewed briefly. (LBH)

Nonphysician women instructors from a women's health center taught the pelvic examination to second-year Harvard Medical School students. Demonstrating the procedure and acting as subjects, they also showed how patients can be offered explanations of the procedure and their own health during the examination. (Author/LBH)

Explored burdens experienced by 42 adults living with a depressed patient and related these burdens to their degree of psychological distress. Respondents were distressed themselves, over 40 percent meeting a standardized criterion for referral for therapeutic intervention. Patients' lack of interest in social life, fatigue, feelings of…

Using a newly developed coding method, the Geriatric Interaction Analysis system, the interactions of doctors with a matched sample of older and younger patients were audiotaped and scored. Patients and doctors raised fewer psychosocial issues in interviews with older patients than with younger patients. Doctors also responded less well to these…

Reviews the historical background, standards, the issue of day treatment versus day care, functional issues, specialization, efficacy and cost effectiveness, utilization issues, and alternative models of care of partial hospitalization programs in North America. Emphasizes issues of relevance when planning alternative programs to inpatient…

After identifying four medical specialty services in a hospital where patient lengths of stay were excessive, two educational interventions to decrease the time were developed. In meetings with each physician data on lengths of stay were discussed, and then a continuing education meeting was held. Improved efficiency resulted. (Author/MLW)

Followed up on tension and vascular headache patients, intially treated with biofeedback and/or relaxation training in either a minimal therapist contact or an intensive individual protocol, where one-half of patients continued keeping headache diaries and were seen monthly; others had minimal contact. Demonstrated equally good maintenance from…

Introduction of a course on the doctor-patient relationship in the clinically demanding first postgraduate year encountered two problems: student perceptions that the content was not necessary or was too burdensome, and the tendency of residents to feel guilty or inadequate in patient relationships at that stage of training. (MSE)

Evaluated construct and discriminant validity of Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) for large child and adolescent sample of clinical inpatients and demographically comparable nonreferred subjects. Three factors entered a significant discrimination function. Depressive Affect and Oppositional Behavior distinguished depressive and…