A Stepped Health Services Intervention to Improve Care for Mental and Neurological Diseases: Protocol for a Prospective Cohort Trial.

Background: Mental and neurological disorders cause a large proportion of morbidity burden and require adequate health care structures. However, deficits in the German health care system like long waiting times for access to specialized care and a lack of coordination between health care providers lead to suboptimal quality of care and elevated health care costs.

Objective: To overcome these deficits, we implement and evaluate a unique stepped and coordinated model of care (the Neurologisch-psychiatrische und psychotherapeutische Versorgung [NPPV] program) for patients with mental and neurological diseases.

[Basic tenets for quality circles in North Rhine Medical Service of Public Health Insurance].

The Medical Advisory Service of the Health Insurance in the area of the Northern Rhine (MDK Nordrhein) has set up an internal concept for quality management since 1998. This concept includes the installation and performance of quality circles. Staff members were internally qualified as "presenters".

[Fatal pleural mesothelioma diseases caused by familial household contacts with asbestos fiber dust].

The case histories of a family are described where 3 out of 4 developed asbestos-related diseases. Only the husband had direct occupational exposure handling blue-asbestos materials while working in a producing insulating factory in 1950-59. He died of pulmonary asbestosis as an occupational disease.

Retrospective assessment of asbestos exposure--II. At the job level: complementarity of job-specific questionnaire and job exposure matrices.

Retrospective assessment of asbestos exposure--II. At the job level: Complementarity of job-specific questionnaire and job exposure matrices. International Journal of Epidemiology 1993; 22 (Suppl.

Retrospective assessment of asbestos exposure--I. Case-control analysis in a study of lung cancer: efficiency of job-specific questionnaires and job exposure matrices.

Retrospective assessment of asbestos exposure--I. Case-control analysis in a study of lung cancer: efficiency of job-specific questionnaires and job exposure matrices. International Journal of Epidemiology 1993; 22 (Suppl.