Annals of internal medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
The effectiveness of intensive training for residents in interviewing. A randomized, controlled study.
Interviewing and the physician-patient relationship are crucial elements of medical care, but residencies provide little formal instruction in these areas. ⋯ An intensive 1-month training rotation in interviewing improved residents' knowledge about, attitudes toward, and skills in interviewing.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effectiveness of computer-generated reminders for increasing discussions about advance directives and completion of advance directive forms. A randomized, controlled trial.
Physicians can increase the rate of completion of advance directive forms by discussing directives with their patients, but the means by which physicians can be induced to initiate these discussions are unclear. Computer-generated reminders have been shown to increase physician compliance with practice guidelines. ⋯ Simple computer-generated reminders aimed at primary caregivers can increase the rates of discussion of advance directives and completion of advance directive forms among elderly outpatients with serious illnesses.
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Editorial Comment
Warning signs along the road to functional dependency.
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Although most epidemiologic studies have defined disability in basic activities of daily living (BADLs) as dependence, some investigators have argued that BADL disability should be defined as degree of difficulty. ⋯ In the assessment of BADL function in older persons, questions about difficulty and dependence provide complementary information that together can depict the continuum of disability more fully than either question alone.