Publications by authors named "Gail Bellamy"

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. As the first new medical school chartered in the 21 century, FSUCOM adopted a unique approach to medical education.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare medical residents and practicing physicians in primary care specialties regarding their knowledge and beliefs about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). We wanted to ascertain whether years removed from medical school had an effect on screening practices, recommendations given to patients, and the types of informational sources utilized.

Methods: A statewide sample of Florida primary care medical residents (n = 61) and practicing physicians (n = 53) completed either an online or paper survey, measuring patient screening and physician recommendations, beliefs, and knowledge related to e-cigarettes.

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Purpose: The health of rural America is more important than ever to the health of the United States and the world. Rural Healthy People 2020's goal is to serve as a counterpart to Healthy People 2020, providing evidence of rural stakeholders' assessment of rural health priorities and allowing national and state rural stakeholders to reflect on and measure progress in meeting those goals. The specific aim of the Rural Healthy People 2020 national survey was to identify rural health priorities from among the Healthy People 2020's (HP2020) national priorities.

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Background: There has been little research to examine post-discharge adverse events (AEs) in rural patients discharged from community hospitals.

Objective: We aimed to determine the rate of post-discharge AEs, classify the types of post-discharge AEs, and identify risk factors for post-discharge AEs in urban and rural patients.

Design: This was a prospective cohort study of patients at risk for post-discharge adverse events from December 2011 through October 2012.

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Rural Healthy People 2010 represented the first effort to specifically include small and rural communities in the Healthy People movement to improve the health of Americans. Rural Healthy People 2010 set rural-specific health priority areas, documented what is known about health in rural areas, identified rural best practice programs/interventions, and promoted rural health services research and researchers. Over the last decade Rural Healthy People 2010 has provided policy makers, rural providers, and rural communities with a valuable resource for planning and policy making.

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Purpose: To assess the amount of local rural hospital outpatient department (HOPD) bypass for outpatient procedures.

Methods: We analyzed data on colonoscopies and upper gastrointestinal endoscopies performed in the state of Florida over the period 1997-2004.

Findings: Approximately, 53% of colonoscopy and 45% of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy patients bypassed their local rural hospital for treatment at either a free-standing ambulatory surgical center (ASC) or a nonlocal hospital outpatient department.

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Purpose: This national study sought information from rural patients (1) to assess the prevalence of bypass, a pattern of seeking health care outside the local community; (2) to examine the impact of locally available primary care physicians (PCPs) and hospital size on the odds of bypass; and (3) to identify patient demographic and geographic factors associated with bypass. This study also ascertained the reasons patients give for bypass and their suggestions for how hospitals can retain patients locally.

Methods: We analyzed data from a 2005 telephone survey of 1,264 adults, aged 18 years or older, who lived within 20 miles of 25 randomly selected Critical Access Hospitals and were linked with a Health Professional Shortage Area and 2004 census data.

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Background: Kinship theory (or the genomic conflict hypothesis) proposes that the phenotypic effects of genomic imprinting arise from conflict between paternally and maternally inherited alleles. A prediction arising for social behaviour from this theory is that imbalance in this conflict resulting from a deletion of a maternally imprinted gene, as in Angelman syndrome (AS), will result in a behavioural phenotype that should evidence behaviours that increase access to maternally provided social resources (adult contact).

Method: Observation of the social behaviour of children with AS (n = 13), caused by a deletion at 15q11-q13, and a matched comparison group (n = 10) was undertaken for four hours in a socially competitive setting and the effect of adult attention on child behaviours and the effect of child smiling on adult behaviours evaluated using group comparisons and observational lag sequential analyses.

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Purpose: To assess the extent of bypass for inpatient care among patients living in Critical Access Hospital (CAH) service areas, and to determine factors associated with bypass, the reasons for bypass, and what CAHs can do to retain patients locally.

Methods: Six hundred and forty-seven subjects, aged 18 years and older, who had been admitted to a hospital for inpatient care in the past 12 months and lived within 15-20 miles of 25 randomly selected CAHs were surveyed by phone during the period from early February through late July 2005. Survey questions included demographic characteristics, general health status, travel time/distance to health care, questions on satisfaction with local health services, bypass behavior, and solicited suggestions on how local hospitals could retain patients locally.

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With funding from the 21st Century Challenge Fund, the West Virginia Rural Health Access Program created Transportation for Health, a demonstration project for rural nonemergency medical transportation. The project was implemented in 3 sites around the state, building on existing transportation systems--specifically, a multicounty transit authority, a joint senior center/transit system, and a senior services center. An evaluation of the project was undertaken to answer 3 major questions: (1) Did the project reach the population of people who need transportation assistance? (2) Are users of the transportation project satisfied with the service? (3) Is the program sustainable? Preliminary results from survey data indicate that the answers to questions 1 and 2 are affirmative.

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