Dtsch Arztebl Int
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In recent years, a number of studies have shown that clinical drug trials financed by pharmaceutical companies yield favorable results for company products more often than independent trials do. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies have been found to influence drug trials in various ways. This paper provides an overview of the findings of current, systematic studies on this topic. ⋯ Published drug trials that are financed by pharmaceutical companies may present a distorted picture. This cannot be explained by any difference in methodological quality between such trials and trials financed in other ways.
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Despite calls for improved quality and efficiency in medical emergency departments, there exist hardly any quality indicators, and no methods of calculating efficiency have been published to date. The present study illustrates a means of presenting numerical parameters of a medical emergency department and of identifying potential quality indicators. ⋯ Numerical parameters and quality indicators for a hospital emergency department can be presented in transparent fashion. DA and DE can be used as parameters for diagnosis-related and intradepartmental quality assessment.