Of 10,000 New Jersey physicians surveyed in 1988 (2,048 responses) and 1989 (1,069 responses), 26 percent had patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1988 and 50 percent in 1989. Continuing medical education had significant positive impact on physicians' involvement with identification and management of HIV-positive patients.…

The doctrine of informed consent has been enumerated to protect the rights of human subjects involved in biomedical research. The elements of informed consent are summarized along with the changes of emphasis that have evolved. The issue of liability and means for minimizing its impact are discussed. (Author/MLW)

How well internal medical residents understood the four modes of the interpersonal process recall system was investigated after the students had received training in this system. Students were tested before and after the course, that involved extensive use of videotapes of interviews. (Author/MLW)

Examines feasibility of palliative approach for all patients, showing reasonable people may refuse even the most exemplary care for themselves or an incompetent relative. Medical realities and alleviation of pointless suffering necessitate that policymakers consider other options, including "active" euthanasia, consistent with patient…

Describes the development and implementation of a new standardized patient program in a required geriatrics clinical clerkship for fourth-year medical students. A student survey was also conducted. The standardized patient program provided students with direct feedback on their clinical skills--76% of the students favored the program. (RJM)

One dental education program used patient-instructors to give individual feedback from the patient's perspective to students after each of five interview scenarios. Feedback was constructive and behaviorally oriented. Ratings assessed process and content skills. Results indicates student interpersonal skills improved significantly, content skills…

The first three consultations between 18 new patients with poorly controlled non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and their medical specialist were videotaped. Changes in doctors' and patients' verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors were analyzed, and those most strongly related to patient satisfaction were distinguished. Discussion…

When adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) require a psychiatric admission, general adult mental health units are often used. Specialist units have emerged recently as a care option but there is only limited evidence of their effectiveness. Thus this study aims to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of a specialist inpatient unit and…

Using data from the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment for Depression Collaborative Research Program, the authors examined the impact on treatment outcome of the patient's perception of the quality of the therapeutic relationship and contribution to the therapeutic alliance. Shared variance with early clinical improvement was removed…

OBJECTIVE: The topic of money is ubiquitous to psychodynamic therapy work, yet often neglected in residency training programs. Residency allows a unique opportunity to address issues pertaining to money and their impact on therapy. METHOD: Through the experience of the author, the need for a more explicit and systematic consideration within…

Since the early 1960s, most discussions about the improvement of continuing medical education (CME) have begun by seeking a better understanding of how physicians learn. The goal of this movement has been to put physician learners and their learning needs, not new research findings, at the center of the educational process. This has led CME away…

Chronic pain outpatients (N=600) randomly split and their symptom Checklist-90 responses were analyzed via a three-step factor analysis. A 10-factor model was judged most meaningful and statistically appropriate in the first-order analysis. The second-order analyses produced three factors. All factors replicated across the data halves, providing…

Cluster analysis and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory were used together to determine whether heterogeneous diagnostic groups could be identified in an inpatient psychiatric population. Comparison of four clustering techniques showed cluster analysis to be a poor diagnostic discriminator when compared to diagnostic groups. (NRB)

Randomly assigned 57 patients with chronic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain to receive either relaxation or biofeedback therapy. Successful patients in the relaxation condition tended to be younger and had experienced TMJ pain for a shorter period of time than the successful biofeedback patients. (BH)