Improving developmental screening among pediatricians in New Mexico: findings from the developmental screening initiative.

Background: Seven pediatric primary care practices participated in New Mexico's Developmental Screening Initiative in a year-long quality improvement project with the goal of implementing standardized developmental screening tools.

Methods: The initiative utilized a learning collaborative approach and the Model for Improvement to promote best practice about developmental screening outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Also, the project emphasized interagency collaboration to improve communication between medical providers and state and community agencies that provide services to children with developmental delays.

Clinical quality improvement for identification and management of overweight in pediatric primary care practices.

The purpose of the Pediatric Overweight Quality Improvement Initiative (POWQII) was to demonstrate the feasibility and value of simple interventions for improving pediatric care and to address the additional needs of overweight and obese children. Practices were recruited from around New Mexico, with 16 pediatricians completing the POWQII within 9 to 12 months. Initially, documentation of BMI percentile across all practices was only 49%, increasing to more than 90% on average following the first intervention and eventually reaching an average of 99%.

Quality improvement initiative in school-based health centers across new Mexico.

Background: Quality improvement principles have been applied extensively to health care organizations, but implementation of quality improvement methods in school-based health centers (SBHCs) remains in a developmental stage with demonstration projects under way in individual states and nationally. Rural areas, such as New Mexico, benefit from the use of distance education techniques to reach providers throughout the state.

Methods: The Envision New Mexico (ENM) Quality Improvement Initiative involves training in quality improvement concepts and methods, identification of best practices for selected clinical services, and repeated use of data to measure changes leading to improvement.

Immigration status, acculturation, and dating violence risk for Hispanic adolescent girls in New Mexico.

Little data exist on dating violence experienced by immigrant Hispanic adolescents. The present study examined the relationships between immigration status, language spoken at home, and dating violence experienced by Hispanic adolescent girls in New Mexico. Data from the 2007 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Surveys were analyzed.

Crustal rheology of the Himalaya and Southern Tibet inferred from magnetotelluric data.

The Cenozoic collision between the Indian and Asian continents formed the Tibetan plateau, beginning about 70 million years ago. Since this time, at least 1,400 km of convergence has been accommodated by a combination of underthrusting of Indian and Asian lithosphere, crustal shortening, horizontal extrusion and lithospheric delamination. Rocks exposed in the Himalaya show evidence of crustal melting and are thought to have been exhumed by rapid erosion and climatically forced crustal flow.

Appropriate utilization of semi-quantitative analysis in salivary scintigraphy.

Aim: The purpose of this case-control study was to determine whether semi-quantitative indices derived from salivary time-activity curves (TACs) are useful in the diagnosis and management of xerostomia.

Methods: Twenty-six healthy volunteers and 83 consecutive patients with xerostomia, including a subset of 40 patients with Sjogren's syndrome, underwent sequential salivary scintigraphy (SSS). Semi-quantitative analysis of the TACs was performed, deriving six different indices, previously cited in the literature, for each patient.

Low electrical resistivity associated with plunging of the Nazca flat slab beneath Argentina.

Beneath much of the Andes, oceanic lithosphere descends eastward into the mantle at an angle of about 30 degrees (ref. 1). A partially molten region is thought to form in a wedge between this descending slab and the overlying continental lithosphere as volatiles given off by the slab lower the melting temperature of mantle material.

Esophageal dysfunction in patients with atypical chest pain investigated with esophageal scintigraphy and myocardial perfusion imaging: an outcome study.

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine the role of esophageal scintigraphy (ES) and myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) in patients with atypical chest pain investigated for ischemic heart disease (IHD).

Methods And Results: One hundred five consecutive patients with atypical chest pain were investigated by dual-isotope MPI (1-day rest-stress protocol). Within a 10-day period, each patient also had liquid and semisolid ES performed with dynamic imaging over a 2-minute period for each phase.