Developments in the biomedical sciences affect how people think about health and fitness, as do social and cultural factors. This paper examines two topics of interest to educators, physicians, and researchers in the physiological sciences from 1867-1950 (the phenomenon referred to as the athlete's heart and anthropometrical/growth and development…

Notes how the Childhood Immunization Initiative is building a system to sustain increases in immunization rates into the future. Discusses five elements of the Immunization Initiative: improvement in delivery services, monitoring, vaccine quality, cost, and federal commitment to supporting public health efforts and building a coordinated national…

Clinical experience and recent research challenge the current standards of exercise duration and intensity for pregnant women. By carefully assessing patients' self-monitoring techniques, physicians can work with active women to create safe exercise programs during pregnancy. Safety guidelines for developing home exercise programs are included.…

Research articles from the oldest continuing medical journal in English were studied in terms of rhetorical analysis of broad genre characteristics and linguistic analysis of registral features using Biber's system of text analysis. Results suggest evolution influenced can be accounted for by changing epistemological norms of medical knowledge,…

Describes cancer control activities by the Indian Health Service in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, including risk factor assessment and cancer screening using a modified Health Risk Appraisal; interventions to reduce smoking; community empowerment; development of health education materials; and clinical preventive services. (SV)

Describes SHRIF, a System for Heuristic Retrieval of Information and Facts, and the medical knowledge base that was used in its development. Highlights include design decisions; the user-machine interface, including the language processor; and the organization of the knowledge base in an artificial intelligence (AI) project like this one. (57…

Analysis of data from an annual graduating medical students' survey revealed that a required third-year family medicine clerkship of at least four weeks is associated with a higher percentage of students choosing training and specialty certification in family practice. Whether clerkship inspires or reinforces preexisting choices is not indicated.…

Tuberculosis is on the rise in the United States. The article discusses its background, factors contributing to its increase, the likelihood of children and teens developing tuberculosis, how to prevent the disease from spreading, and what schools and states can do. (SM)

A step-by-step guide to auscultating young athletes helps physicians identify normal heart murmurs as well as sounds that might signify underlying cardiac pathology. Rapid, thorough preparticipation screening can help differentiate athletes who may require treatment or activity restriction from those with normal murmurs who can remain active. (SM)

A graphic procedure is presented for studying differential item functioning (DIF) that is designed to provide diagnostic information for psychometricians and educators. The procedure provides a signature of each test item that can be used with a summary statistic to flag items with DIF. Advantages and limitations are noted. (SLD)

Comparison of opinions of residents in two programs providing different amounts of geriatric training concerning management of four geriatric and two traditional internal medicine problems found all had less confidence about geriatric than traditional problems. Students with more training offered more support for nondiscriminatory care of elderly…

Describes the economic and demographic changes experienced by rural communities over the past few years and how they have increased rural health professionals' responsibilities. Presents the Community Wellness program and four case histories illustrating how it has strengthened community infrastructure, developed human capital, and created rural…

Describes a classification system devised for exercise-associated collapse in endurance events based on casualties observed at six Twin Cities Marathons. Major diagnostic criteria are body temperature and mental status. Management protocol includes fluid and fuel replacement, temperature correction, and leg cramp treatment. (Author/SM)

A team-developed sociomatrix coding sheet was used to classify behaviors seen on videotaped small-group teaching sessions held at the end of patient-care activities. Although the sociomatrix appears to have potential to relate specific leader behavior to residents' feedback on subjective learning outcomes, the number of observations was too small…

Suggests ways for researchers in recent technical communication studies of historical medical texts to overcome specific problems. Discusses five steps for conducting sound historical research within the context of related fields of inquiry. (NH)