Unpopular medical specialties: exploring the concept that "the customer knows best".

Background: Healthcare systems often face shortages of certain medical specialists due to lack of interest among medical students. We questioned a common "one solution fits all" approach to this problem which involves monetary incentives to lure students to these specialties. Instead, we used the marketing principle the "consumer knows best" to explore ways of elucidating the reasons and proposing solutions for such shortages.

Adverse pregnancy outcomes including gestational diabetes and preeclampsia: Do primary care physicians refer to them in their medical files?

Pregnancies complicated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or preeclampsia should be considered risk factors for subsequent morbidity later in a women's life. Appropriate screening tests have been recommended for these women. We sought to evaluate whether primary care physicians document diagnoses of GDM or preeclampsia in the medical files during the post-partum period and to elicit whether appropriate screening tests were performed.

[FALSE POSITIVE AMBULATORY BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING: CHALLENGES IN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS OF MASKED UNCONTROLLED HYPERTENSION.].

Masked uncontrolled hypertension (MUCH), describes a mismatch between normal office measurements and out of range home blood pressure. Although it is often underdiagnosed, it is associated with high risk of hypertensive complications and morbidity. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is defined as the "reference standard" for diagnosing hypertension and is especially effective in cases of MUCH.

Challenges to the Israeli healthcare system: attracting medical students to primary care and to the periphery.

Background: The greatest challenges facing healthcare systems include ensuring a sufficient supply of primary care physicians and physicians willing to work in rural or peripheral areas. Especially challenging is enticing young physicians to practice primary care in rural/peripheral areas. Identifying medical students interested in primary care and in residencies in Israel's periphery should aid the healthcare leadership.

Medical specialty selection criteria of Israeli medical students early in their clinical experience: subgroups.

Background: Israeli medical school classes include a number of student subgroups. Therefore, interventions aimed at recruiting medical students to the various specialties should to be tailored to each subgroup.

Methods: Questionnaires, distributed to 6 consecutive 5th-year classes of the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine, elicited information on criteria for choosing a career specialty, criteria for choosing a residency program and the importance of finding a specialty interesting and challenging when choosing a residency.

Strengthening general practice/family medicine in Europe-advice from professionals from 30 European countries.

Background: Substantial variations are still to be found in the strength of general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) across Europe regarding governance, workforce competence and performance, as well as academic development and position. Governments are encouraged by the WHO to secure high quality primary health care to their population, a necessity for reaching the goal "Health for all". The present study aimed at investigating the opinions of council members of the European Academy of Teachers in General Practice (EURACT) on necessary actions to strengthen the position of GP/FM in their country.

Using medical specialty and selection criteria clusters to study specialty selection by Israeli medical students.

Background: During their final year of medical school, Israeli students must consider which specialty to choose for residency. Based on the vocational counseling literature we presumed that choices are made by selecting from a cluster of related specialties while considering professional and socio-economic issues.

Methods: Questionnaires distributed to final-year medical students at two Israeli medical schools ascertained inclinations toward various medical specialties and the importance of various selection criteria.

Neutropenia and eosinophilia among Ethiopian immigrants to Israel: Familial or environmental?

Background: Due to trends of population movements, Israeli family physicians are treating increasing numbers of African immigrants from Ethiopia. These immigrants were found to have complete blood counts (CBC) that are different from other ethnic groups, with a higher prevalence of eosinophilia and neutropenia.

Objectives: To evaluate haematological findings in an attempt to define whether they behave as familial (genetic) or environmental.

Hypothesis: A single dose of an anxiolitic may prevent unnecessary visits to the emergency room during blood pressure elevations.

Blood pressure (BP) monitoring devices are very commonly used by the general public for self-measurement. Approximately 19% of people using these devises check their BP every day or almost every day and only one third use them because their doctor recommended it. Measurement often causes anxiety and anxiety increases blood pressure in the short term.

Challenging the present definition of "normal" vitamin D levels obtained by a single blood test. Can we develop a formula to predict vitamin D levels in the 4 seasons from a single season's measure?

Publications on the health effects of vitamin D (25(OH) D) had almost triplicate in the last 10years, not only for its known "calcemic effects" (calcium, phosphor, PTH), but for the more recent findings on its "non-calcemic effects" (all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, and relation with certain types of cancer). Part of these publications deal with the definition of what is a "normal" circulating level of 25(OH) D that may distinguish between health and disease. The literature also deals with seasonal variations of vitamin D, showing levels that rise in summer and fall in winter and with DBP phenotypes and geographical location that affect seasonality of 25(OH) D measurements.

Medical students' and interns' interest in orthopedic surgery: the gender factor.

Objective: There is an extremely small proportion of female medical students choosing to specialize in orthopedic surgery. The aim of the study was to assess medical students' and interns' interests and perceptions of orthopedic surgery and explore why women are not interested in orthopedic surgery.

Setting: Questionnaires were distributed to final-year medical students and interns assessing their interests and perception of orthopedic surgery.

Undergraduate medical education in general practice/family medicine throughout Europe - a descriptive study.

Background: It is increasingly becoming evident that a strong primary health care system is more likely to provide better population health, more equity in health throughout the population, and better use of economic resources, compared to systems that are oriented towards specialty care. Developing and maintaining a strong and sustainable primary health care requires that a substantial part of graduating doctors go into primary care. This in turn requires that general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) strongly influences the curricula in medical schools.

Israeli medical students' perceptions of six key medical specialties.

Background: Choosing a medical specialty requires medical students to match their interests and social-cultural situations with their perceptions of the various specialties.

Objectives: Examine Israeli 6th-year medical students' perceptions of six key specialties: pediatrics, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, obstetrics/gynecology, general surgery and family medicine.

Methods: Questionnaires distributed to 355 6th-year students from three successive classes (2008-2010) of 6th-year students at the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel and the 2010 class of the Ben Gurion University School of Medicine, Be'er Sheva, Israel.

Using marketing research concepts to investigate specialty selection by medical students.

Objectives: This study was intended to examine whether a marketing research approach improves understanding of medical specialty selection by medical students. This approach likens students to consumers who are deciding whether or not to purchase a product (specialty). This approach proposes that when consumers' criteria match their perceptions of a product's features, the likelihood that they will purchase it (select the specialty) increases.

Medical specialty considerations by medical students early in their clinical experience.

Background: Specialty selection by medical students determines the future composition of the physician workforce. Selection of career specialties begins in earnest during the clinical rotations with exposure to the clinical and intellectual environments of various specialties. Career specialty selection is followed by choosing a residency program.

A retrospective analysis of the sentence writing component of the Mini Mental State Examination: cognitive and affective aspects.

Background: One of the components of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is the request to write a sentence. We investigated the relationship between the characteristics of the written sentence of the MMSE and the cognitive and affective status of elderly patients.

Methods: The characteristics of the sentence were compared to the total MMSE score, sociodemographic characteristics, tests evaluating cognition and affective status, and diagnoses.

Benefits of active participation of family physicians in geriatric consultations.

Background: Geriatric consultation services are generally beneficial in improving the health and well-being of the elderly. We prospectively studied whether the active participation of family physicians (FPs) in the process of geriatric consultation would improve implementation rates and benefit the health care of the elderly.

Methods: We carried out a comparative prospective intervention study in three urban academic family medicine clinics.

A 'minimal core curriculum' for Family Medicine in undergraduate medical education: a European Delphi survey among EURACT representatives.

Background: Family Medicine/General Practice (FM/GP) has not developed in a similar way worldwide. In countries that are not primary care oriented, the discipline of FM/GP may be less developed because this is not a career option for medical graduates. In such a situation, FM/GP will not be regarded as a required clinical experience during medical school.

Nocturic episodes in patients with benign prostatic enlargement may suggest the presence of obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Nocturia is a common symptom of benign prostatic enlargement (BPE) that is generally attributed to a urologic pathology. This study assessed whether nocturia severity in BPE patients may be related to an underlying sleep disorder.

Methods: Cross-sectional study based in urban community primary care clinics.

Depressive symptomatology as a risk factor for increased health service utilization among elderly patients in primary care.

Depression may play an important role in determining frequent physician visits in the older population. Our aim is to examine the relationships between socio-demographic variables, co-morbidity, memory complaints, functional status, depressive symptomatology, and health care utilization among community dwelling older patients. The study was conducted in urban primary health care clinics in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Improving combined diabetes outcomes by adding a simple patient intervention to physician feedback: a cluster randomized trial.

Background: Research on synergistic effects of patient targeted interventions combined with physician-targeted interventions has been limited.

Objectives: To compare a combined physician-patient intervention to physician feedback alone on a composite outcome of glycemic, lipid and blood pressure control.

Methods: In this cluster study 417 patients with adult-type 2 diabetes from four primary care clinics were randomized to receive either a physician-only intervention or a combined physician-plus-patient intervention.

Serum 25-OH vitamin D levels in patients with fibromyalgia.

Background: The association between low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and non-specific musculoskeletal pain, including fibromyalgia syndrome, is controversial. Several studies have reported a "positive association" and two others found "no association."

Objectives: To test levels of 25OHD in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and in matched controls.