Journal of general internal medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
The validity of using analogue patients in practitioner-patient communication research: systematic review and meta-analysis.
When studying the patient perspective on communication, some studies rely on analogue patients (patients and healthy subjects) who rate videotaped medical consultations while putting themselves in the shoes of the video-patient. To describe the rationales, methodology, and outcomes of studies using video-vignette designs in which videotaped medical consultations are watched and judged by analogue patients. Pubmed, Embase, Psychinfo and CINAHL databases were systematically searched up to February 2012. ⋯ Analogue patients' evaluations of communication equaled clinical patients' perceptions, while overcoming ceiling effects. This implies that analogue patients can be included as proxies for clinical patients in studies on communication, taken some described precautions into account. Insights from this review may ease decisions about including analogue patients in video-vignette studies, improve the quality of these studies and increase knowledge on communication from the patient perspective.
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Ward attending rounds are an integral part of internal medicine education. Being a good teacher is necessary, but not sufficient for successful rounds. Understanding perceptions of successful attending rounds (AR) may help define key areas of focus for enhancing learning, teaching and patient care. ⋯ We identified five domains of related attributes essential to the success of ward attending rounds.
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Coordinated transitions from hospital to shelter for homeless patients may improve outcomes, yet patient-centered data to guide interventions are lacking. ⋯ Homeless patients in our community perceived suboptimal coordination in transitions of care from the hospital to the shelter. These patients recommended improved assessment of housing status, communication between hospital and shelter providers, and arrangement of safe transportation to improve discharge safety and avoid discharge to the streets without shelter.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of exercise on blood pressure in type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial.
Increased blood pressure (BP) in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) markedly increases cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality risk compared to having increased BP alone. ⋯ Though exercisers improve fitness and body composition, there were no reductions in BP. The lack of change in arterial stiffness suggests a resistance to exercise-induced BP reduction in persons with T2DM.
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Burnout is a common problem among physicians and physicians-in-training. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the gold standard for burnout assessment, but the length of this well-validated 22-item instrument can limit its feasibility for survey research. ⋯ Relative to the full MBI, single-item measures of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization exhibit strong and consistent associations with key outcomes in medical students, internal medicine residents, and practicing surgeons.