Track II is a self-elective, five-term interdisciplinary program whose preclinical curriculum involves using patient problems as themes to allow students to integrate basic concepts and skills of biomedical and behavioral-social sciences. Its aim is to direct medical students toward a lifelong commitment to comprehensive patient care, continuing…

Three specific skills are described that the novice psychiatric resident must begin to learn: interviewing techniques, self-observation, and empathy. Curriculum effective in accelerating the learning process, i.e., interpersonal process recall, is also discussed. (Author/LBH)

Investigated the role of metatheoretical assumptions regarding clinicians' attributions of patient responsibility for problem cause and therapeutic change in contributing to similarities and dissimilarities in theoretical orientation and investigated the implications of these assumptions for clinical practice. Observed relations with estimated…

Discusses adolescent marijuana use as an issue of concern to the community at large, noting that physicians now have the technology to identify marijuana use and thus are in a unique position to deal with the issue. Addresses the moral issues related to screening and surveillance of adolescent marijuana use and postulates the justification for…

A technique to teach first-year medical students to conduct brief interviews that focus on how medical illness affects the daily life of patients is described. The technique includes a conceptual model of the interview and an explicit teaching method for instructors and students. (Author/MLW)

Issues to be considered in implementing a required postdoctoral dental education requirement are discussed, including the impact on predoctoral program patient pools, costs, faculty, student career choices, specialty training and practice, national enforcement, and financing. (MSE)

Patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in one treatment unit were surveyed concerning their physicians' medical information of the disease and its treatment, interpersonal skills, communication skills, attitudes, and the advice given them about their partners and other household members. (MSE)

A study of recent dental school graduates' attitudes toward the elderly suggests that those attitudes may have little to do with formal dental curriculum elements in geriatric dentistry, and that newly trained professionals' attitudes do not differ greatly from those of professionals trained before geriatric dental curriculum was widespread. (MSE)

Responds to the critical evaluation of Coyne and Anderson in the previous article, of "Psychosomatic Families: Anorexia Nervosa in Context" (Minuchin, Rosman, and Baker). Asserts that indeed certain very specifically defined diabetic patients' physiological disturbance serves a function in their families, an assertion strongly supported by…

Considers the tension between non-American physicians' ability to control topics in interaction with patients and American expectations of equality and shared topic control. Focuses on the difficulties that foreign medical graduates have in adapting their interactive style to American expectations. Suggests that role distancing, role change, and…

Discusses characteristic processes observed and therapeutic strategies used in an open-ended group of depressed outpatients. Used as criteria of success patient-therapist agreement to discontinue medication, finding a job, and establishing a friendship. Describes characteristics of members who stayed, and helpful therapist actions and attitudes,…

The public recognition that health care can be preventive as well as treatment oriented provides new opportunities for allied health professionals to expand their traditional patient education roles. This article describes health education, the competencies it requires, and the conditions that facilitate successful learning outcomes. (Author/CT)

An elective workshop offered to Wright State University medical students focuses on intrapersonal, interpersonal, social, collegial, educational, organizational, community, and existential aspects of communication and combines cognitive skills and training approaches to developing effective communication skills. (MSE)

A discussion of legal issues in the academic medical center focuses on standards of care applicable to practitioners, special problems of patient care delivery, and the special status of public academic medical centers. Informed consent to care, relations with affiliated institutions, and private/non-private patient status are also considered.…

To identify factors that predict institutional placement at discharge from a general hospital, 367 patients were evaluated prospectively upon admission. Prior nursing residence forecasted continued institutionalization; ability to perform instrumental activities of daily life and the presence of strong community support predicted a return home…