Blood Pressure States Transition Inference Based on Multi-State Markov Model.

The investigation of risk factors associated with hypertension patients has been extensively studied in the past decades. However, the pattern of natural progressive trajectories to hypertension from nonhypertensive states was rarely explored. In this study, we are interested in discovering the underlying transition patterns between different blood pressure states, namely normal state, elevated state, and hypertensive state among the working population in the United States.

Improving the Documentation Process for Referrals into Diabetes Education: A Quality Improvement Project.

The purpose of this project was to standardize the referral and documentation process for diabetes education in patients with type 2 diabetes. The goal was to refer all eligible patients with type 2 diabetes into diabetes education. A standardized template within the clinical note was created to capture if the patients had ever received diabetes education.

Direct-to-consumer advertising: its effects on stakeholders.

The escalating growth in the development of pharmaceutical drugs has caused the pharmaceutical industry to market drugs directly to consumers. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has increased immensely in the past 15 years and continues to grow each year. The advantages of DTC advertising include an increase in consumer knowledge, patient autonomy, and possibly providing physicians and pharmacists with up-to-date information about the recent trends in the marketplace.

Infantile autism.

Infantile autism is a developmental disability characterized by onset of disturbances in social and language development before the age of 30 months. It must be distinguished from several disorders, including mental retardation and schizophrenia. Most evidence supports an organic basis for the syndrome.