The low level of literacy and lack of language proficiency possessed by some immigrants from low socioeconomic status backgrounds create communication barriers in the healthcare setting, thus interfering with their ability to access appropriate medical care and their subsequent participation in medical research. Adding pictorial descriptions to…

The goal of this research was to understand better the perspectives held by physicians and patients regarding what factors determine the appropriateness of medical visits. We also wished to create a convenient measure of those perspectives. In our first study, we conducted focus groups separately composed of 22 physicians and 16 patients to…

According to the 2008 recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza vaccine should be administered on an annual basis to all children aged 6 months through 18 years. School-age children are more likely than any other age group to be infected with influenza, and…

For most people, a long-term illness is something they will never have to deal with, but for those who do, the ability to understand and cope with their condition is an essential part of their recuperation. One of the main contributing factors to recovery is having the confidence to deal with an ailment without needing to ask for medical…

The objectives of this study were to find out how motivated depressed patients are to exercise regularly, to measure the physical activity of depressed patients and to find out how regular Nordic Walking affects the mood and physical fitness of depressed patients. A cross-sectional study was carried out. Three years after the Prediction of Primary…

Individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities have a high probability of visual impairment. This study revealed the effects of deficits in the appropriate diagnosis of vision and medical treatment, as well as the lack of necessary refraction correction and support, specifically for adults with intellectual and developmental…

This study addresses the factors influencing decisions to send medicine-surgical (med-surg) patients home or to nursing facilities (NFs). The sample (n = 7,852) was taken from a large, urban, teaching, med-surg unit where discharges were documented and data collected over a two-and-a-half-year period. Using logistical regression, the factors found…

Introduction: It was hypothesized that after a continuing medical education (CME) event, practice enablers and reinforcers addressing main clinical barriers to preventive care would be more effective in improving general practitioners' (GPs) adherence to cardiovascular guidelines than a CME event only. Methods: A cluster-randomized trial was…

We report here a longitudinal study of a 3.8 year old female child diagnosed as having Landau Kleffner Syndrome (LKS). Speech-language analysis was carried out over a two-year period while the child was on medical treatment regime. The result of the language evaluation suggests that this child demonstrated exacerbation and remission in accordance…

Introduction: Surgical site infection accounts for 20% of all health care-associated infections (HCAIs); however, a program incorporating the education of surgeons has yet to be established across the specialty. Methods: An audit of surgical practice in infection prevention was carried out in Beaumont Hospital from July to November 2009. An…

Background: There is evidence that persons with an intellectual disability (ID) face barriers to primary care; however, this has not been extensively studied at the population level. Rates of hospitalisation for ambulatory care sensitive conditions are used as an indicator of access to, and quality of, primary care. The objective of the study was…

Personalized medicine refers to medical care that involves genetically screening patients for their likelihood to develop various disorders. Commercial genome screening only involves identifying a consumer's genotype for a few single nucleotide polymorphisms. A phenotype (such as an illness) is greatly influenced by three factors: genes, gene…

Context: Rural women in the United States experience disparity in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment when compared to their urban counterparts. Given the 11% chance of lifetime occurrence of breast cancer for women overall, the continuum of breast cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery are of legitimate concern to rural women and…

This article discusses the Urban Health Program, a University of Illinois at Chicago program that seeks to improve the quality of medical care in communities of color. The UIC program began in 1968 to attract and train minority medical students. In 1978, the Illinois Legislature expanded the program, renaming it the Urban Health Program (UHP), in…

This study examined the influence of surrogate gender on the accuracy of substituted judgments about the use of life-sustaining treatment in a sample of 249 older adults and their self-selected surrogate decision-makers. Overall, wives were more accurate than husbands at predicting their spouses' treatment wishes. Surrogates' perceptions of their…