Discusses the rising trend supporting for-profit hospitals. Compares for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals in regards to hospital costs, quality of care, care for the poor, education and research, and the role of the physician. (TW)

An interpretation of the dollar dimension of medical progress, the role of nonmonetary factors in the equation, and suggestions for public policy are presented. Medical leadership must help formulate recommendations aimed at reductions in medical school enrollments, fee schedules for physicians, costly technology, etc. (MLW)

The role of the Association of American Medical Colleges is reviewed from its early attempts to raise educational standards in medical schools to its current involvement with interinstitutional cooperation, continuing medical education, research support, and public health care. (LBH)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, begun in 1969, was developed to allow selected physician clinicians to acquire skills not part of the usual physician's repertoire. The emphasis has included demographic, epidemiologic, economic, social, organizational, humanistic, anthropological, cultural, and ethical problems. (MLW)

To evaluate the use of expanded role skills by nurse practitioners in a school setting, the activities on which they spend their time must be examined. A study was conducted to examine questions concerning the nurse's amount of time spent in problem oriented assessment, in expanded-role activities, and on delegated activities. (JN)

Some problems in the changing pattern of relationships between bedside teaching, clinical research, and provision of medical services in academic hospitals are examined, including patient types, sophistication of medical intervention, and specialization. Four elements of government policy that might favor desirable development in these areas are…

To increase awareness of ideas that have potential for solving nursing problems, the papers in these proceedings review research findings, describe the application of problem-solving techniques, and underscore the joint responsibility of service and education for testing innovations in better patient care. The proceedings contain: (1) "Don't Just…

This report presents the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) review of and response to the final report of the National Black Health Providers Task Force on High Blood Pressure Education and Control. The response includes a statement of NHLBI's involvement in health research, and descriptions of what steps can be taken to solve the…

The author replies to the article titled "Controversial Medical Treatments of Learning Disabilities" (R. Sieben), and points out the problems faced by parents and their learning disabled children in the midst of treatment controversy. (IM)

The debate about cost as it pertains to medical technology misses the mark by not pressing on the central problem of increased prevalence of chronic illness. Far from cost containment, what are needed are additional services which may in the end reduce total costs. (Author/MJL)

If the family physician is to focus on the family as a unit of diagnosis and treatment, new knowledge with practical applications for the health care provided is required. Producing this knowledge is the responsibility of the family medicine researcher who will need to use new tools, strategies, and innovative research design. (JMD)

This study compared the clinical efficacy of a dopaminergic antagonist (amisulpride) and a dopaminergic agonist (bromocriptine) with 9 children (ages 4-13) with autism and probable severe mental retardation. The amisulpride acted preferentially on specific autism symptoms and the bromocriptine on motor hyperactivity and attention symptoms.…

The booklet describes approaches used in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to prevent blindness. It contrasts conditions prior to 1917 (300 eye doctors mainly located in large cities and 2,000 hospital beds for the 300,000 totally blind and 7,000,000 people with trachoma) with conditions in 1971 when in the Ukraine alone there were 3,000 eye…

This paper proposes that physicians' use of computerized medical information systems in the practice of medicine can assist delivery of cost-effective, high-quality patient care and help expand clinical research. However, benefits can be realized only if clinicians participate in system development and implementation and if senior institutional…