Medical Research conducted in the patient care setting is facing a new financial barrier, the prospective payment system. Both university and hospitals must rethink clinical research resource use. This may result in better accountability for research costs and affect the hospitals' willingness to conduct experimental or innovative treatments. (MSE)

Assessment procedures to evaluate inpatient treatment effectiveness can provide information to inform clinical practice. The Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) represents a standardized approach to assess patients' target problems that combines elements of individualized and nomothetic approaches.…

This review examines the evidence for screening for autism spectrum disorders in the general population and the information needed to inform screening policy. The UK National Screening Committee criteria are taken as the framework. These criteria cover the condition, the screening test, the treatment and the screening programme as a whole. With…

The analysis of costs of National Institutes of Health (NIH) bio-medical research demonstrates that the increased expenditures for research project grants are due to such factors as real growth in the program, artifacts of the calculation method, and the extent to which project periods of awards have lengthened. (Author/DB)

This issue presents six papers that provide both a historical perspective on and state-of-the-art knowledge about the study of clinical reasoning in medicine. A retrospective is followed by reviews of four approaches to clinical reasoning and an empirical study of current work in the field. (SLD)

Elaborates on a theoretical framework for analyzing the operation of the official classification system within the mental health professions. Uses the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) to explicate agency in structuration theory and structuration theory to illuminate the structure/use of the DSM. (Author/AEF)

This audit examined a case of potential conflict of interest in the School of Pharmacy at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. In 1992 a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, which conducts grant-funded drug research, created Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research, Incorporated (PhOR), a private, for-profit corporation that…

Issues related to the doctrine of informed consent for research on human subjects are discussed as they concern the conduct of nursing research. They include the subject's capacity to consent, disclosure of information, and freedom to decide. (MSE)

This report responds to a Minnesota legislative requirement that required the Commissioner, with the advice of the Medical Education and Research Costs (MERC) Advisory Committee, to "develop a system to recognize those teaching programs which serve higher numbers or high proportions of public program recipients and...report to the legislative…

Describes the EurekaSeek bibliometric technique for automated linked-literature analysis. EurekaSeek uses medical subject headings instead of text analysis in a fully automated search process, thereby eliminating the reliance on expert input during the process of linking literatures. In this paper, EurekaSeek is tested by retroactively examining…

Examines some medical classification systems with a long history--notably the "International Classification of Diseases (ICD)." States that this classification scheme retains many traces of its own administrative and organizational past in its current form. Suggests that ICD, like other large-scale classification systems, performs so…

This is the final report of National Black Health Providers Task Force (NBHPTF) on High Blood Pressure Education and Control. The first chapter of the report recounts the history of the NBHPTF and its objectives. In the second chapter epidemiological evidence is presented to demonstrate the need for a suggested 20 year plan aimed at controlling…

Reviews the literature on the topic of information use by physicians. The five areas presented include the concept of information use, relevant bibliographies and reviews, the use of library related sources of information, the use of nonlibrary related sources of information, and factors affecting information use by physicians. (93 references)…

Lessons learned from experience about shaping science policy include (1) the partnership between health and science interests is fundamental; (2) research fund allocation should be based on scientific merit; (3) better data and careful analysis are vital to decision making; and (4) policy principles should be clear and concise. (Author/MSE)

Six articles are presented on the use of human subjects in research on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Topics include the ethics of human experimentation, female and pediatric AIDS patients, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and AIDS among correctional inmates, community-based AIDS research, and clinical trials of HIV…