The changing geography of Americans graduating from foreign medical schools.

Purpose: To study U.S.-born international medical graduates in order to analyze changes in their numbers and countries of training from the 1960s and before until the early 2000s.

Comparison of indicators assessing the quality of drug prescribing for asthma.

Objective: To compare different indicators for assessing the quality of drug prescribing and establish their agreement in identifying doctors who may not adhere to treatment guidelines.

Data Sources/study Setting: Data from 181 general practitioners (GPs) from The Netherlands. The case of asthma is used as an example because, in this area, different quality indicators exist whose validity is questioned.

Improving drug treatment in general practice.

In the international Drug Education Project, an educational program involving auditing and feedback in peer groups to improve the treatment of asthma and urinary tract infections (UTI) was developed and tested in primary care. Individualized feedback was provided and discussed in 24 Dutch peer groups showing doctors their prescribing practices and underlying reasons for treatment. A parallel, randomized controlled design was used to test the effect on competence and actual prescribing; in one study arm doctors received feedback on asthma treatment and in the other on UTI treatment.

Asthma management in five European countries: doctors' knowledge, attitudes and prescribing behaviour. Drug Education Project (DEP) group.

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between guideline recommendations on asthma management, and the performance of doctors in five different European health care contexts. Knowledge, attitudes and prescribing behaviour of doctors recruited to an educational project was investigated. A total of 698 general practitioners from Germany, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and 94 specialists from the Slovak Republic participated.

Treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections: exploring differences in adherence to guidelines between three European countries. Drug Education Project Group.

Objective: To evaluate adherence of general practitioners to treatment guidelines regarding urinary tract infections in three European countries and to investigate whether differences in adherence at the prescribing level within and between countries could be explained by general practitioners' knowledge and attitudes, characteristics, or national setting.

Design: Prescribing data collected in 1994-1995 were analyzed regarding use of first-choice drugs and duration of treatment, knowledge and attitudes were assessed with a questionnaire, and multiple regression analysis was used to explain differences in prescribing behavior within and between countries.

Results: Our study is based on data from 85.