Performance measurement part II: A guide to developing dermatology performance measures.

Throughout the 21st century, national and local governments, private health sectors, health insurance companies, healthcare professionals, labor unions, and consumers have been striving to develop an effective approach to evaluate, report, and improve the quality of healthcare. As medicine improves and health systems grow to meet patient needs, the performance measurement system of care effectiveness must also evolve. Continual efforts should be undertaken to effectively measure quality of care to create a more informed public, improve health outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs.

Performance measurement part I: Foundational knowledge for measure development.

As medicine is moving toward performance and outcome-based payment and is transitioning away from productivity-based systems, value is now being appraised in healthcare through "performance measures." Over the past few decades, assessment of clinical performance in health care has been essential in ensuring safe and cost-effective patient care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is further driving this change with measurable, outcomes-based national payer incentive payment systems.

Improving diabetes outcomes using a web-based registry and interactive education: a multisite collaborative approach.

Introduction: To support the adoption of guideline concordant care by primary care practices, the New York Diabetes Coalition (NYDC) promoted use of an electronic diabetes registry and developed an interactive educational module on using the registry and improving patient communication. The NYDC hypothesized that use of a registry with immediate feedback would achieve measurable and clinically meaningful improvement in the proportion of patients at goal for diabetes health metrics.

Research Design And Methods: In 2006-2007, the NYDC recruited 7 small to midsized primary care practices to implement the registry and to receive education and coaching on registry use, practice work flow, and patient engagement.

Developing ambulatory care physician performance measures.

Major US corporations and consumer groups are demanding more accountability for their health care expenditures. In response, the federal government, specialty boards, and state medical boards are evaluating ways to implement objective measures of quality. Many dermatologists already choose to participate in quality measurement and improvement activities.

The effects of maternal dietary docosahexaenoic acid intake on rat pup myelin and the auditory startle response.

Unlabelled: We investigated the effects of maternal docosahexanoic acid (DHA) supplementation on pups' auditory startle responses and the composition of brain myelin.

Methods: Timed-pregnant rats were fed throughout pregnancy and lactation diets that contained 0, 0.3, 0.

Preliminary experience with the use of oral linezolid in infants for the completion of antibiotic therapy in the outpatient setting after admission to the pediatric intensive care unit.

Advances in medical technology have led to improved survival after catastrophic illnesses. Many of the survivors require ongoing care including tracheostomy, mechanical ventilation, tube feedings, and indwelling venous catheters. Repeated hospitalizations may be necessary to treat infectious complications resulting from resistant organisms requiring intravenous antibiotic therapy.

Presenting signs and symptoms of pheochromocytoma in pediatric-aged patients.

To describe the varied presenting signs and symptoms in pediatric patients with pheochromocytoma, a retrospective chart review of the presenting signs and symptoms and subsequent clinical course of patients who presented to the Pediatric ICU following surgical excision of a pheochromocytoma was undertaken. The cohort of 7 patients (5 boys, 2 girls) ranged in age from 4 to 16 years. Two patients were hypertensive at initial presentation, and the other 5 developed hypertension after their initial presentation.

Murine beta-defensin-3 is an inducible peptide with limited tissue expression and broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity.

Beta-defensins are cationic peptides produced by epithelial cells that have been proposed to be an important component of immune function at mucosal surfaces. Similarities between mammalian beta-defensins may permit the use of murine models to further define the role of these peptides in innate host defense. Murine beta-defensin-3 (mBD-3) is a peptide that exhibits homology at the gene level to human beta-defensin-2 (hBD-2), one of four beta-defensins identified in man.