Hearing the Community: Evolution of a Nutrition and Physical Activity Program for African American Women to Improve Weight.

Listening to the needs of the community is an important step toward reducing health disparities. Researchers may need to adjust their methods to maximize participation and benefit to the community. This report describes how the project team adjusted its approach to a weight loss intervention to support a community of African American women seeking to improve their health.

Working conditions in primary care: physician reactions and care quality.

Background: Adverse primary care work conditions could lead to a reduction in the primary care workforce and lower-quality patient care.

Objective: To assess the relationship among adverse primary care work conditions, adverse physician reactions (stress, burnout, and intent to leave), and patient care.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Separate and unequal: clinics where minority and nonminority patients receive primary care.

Background: Few studies have examined the influence of physician workplace conditions on health care disparities. We compared 96 primary care clinics in New York, New York, and in the upper Midwest serving various proportions of minority patients to determine differences in workplace organizational characteristics.

Methods: Cross-sectional data are from surveys of 96 clinic managers, 388 primary care physicians, and 1701 of their adult patients with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or congestive heart failure participating in the Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome (MEMO) study.

Part-time physicians...prevalent, connected, and satisfied.

Objective: The health care workforce is evolving and part-time practice is increasing. The objective of this work is to determine the relationship between part-time status, workplace conditions, and physician outcomes.

Design: Minimizing error, maximizing outcome (MEMO) study surveyed generalist physicians and their patients in the upper Midwest and New York City.