Journal of general internal medicine
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Compassion is central to healthcare. It is valued by both patients and physicians and predicts better outcomes for patients, physicians, and healthcare organisations. Whilst most studies to date have focused on providers' expression of compassion, the current report was designed to focus on the patient, specifically identifying patient and physician variables predicting the patient experience of compassion from physicians. ⋯ Our data highlight how little is known about the patient experience of compassion and imply that the patient experience of compassion may or may not be related to physician compassion. Consequently, we need to supplement our ongoing study of the origins and determinants of compassion in healthcare providers with an equally systematic, rigorous, and empirically based study of the patient experience of compassion from providers.
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Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in the United States play a crucial role in ensuring the ethical conduct of clinical trials, including assessing the scientific merit of studies to justify the risks to participants. However, prior research suggests that many IRBs do not systematically evaluate scientific merit, raising concerns about the approval of low-quality trials. ⋯ IRB guidance materials vary in their coverage of scientific merit dimensions, with significant gaps in areas critical for assessing study quality. Strengthening guidance materials by including comprehensive instructions for all 15 dimensions could improve IRB assessments of scientific merit, thereby enhancing the ethical oversight of clinical trials.
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There is a perception that income-based disparities are present in most countries but may differ in magnitude. However, there are few international comparisons that describe income-based disparities across countries and none that focus on hip fractures. ⋯ Income-based disparities in treatments and outcomes for older adults hospitalized for hip fractures differed in magnitude, but were present in all six high-income countries. Defying our expectations, the USA did not have consistently larger disparities than other countries suggesting that the impacts of poverty exist in vastly different healthcare systems and transcend geopolitical borders.