Sorting the File Drawer: A Typology for Describing Unpublished Studies.

A typology of unpublished studies is presented to describe various types of unpublished studies and the reasons for their nonpublication. Reasons for nonpublication are classified by whether they stem from an awareness of the study results (result-dependent reasons) or not (result-independent reasons) and whether the reasons affect the publication decisions of individual researchers or reviewers/editors. I argue that result-independent reasons for nonpublication are less likely to introduce motivated reasoning into the publication decision process than are result-dependent reasons.

Physician Nonprofessional Cancer Experience and Ovarian Cancer Screening Practices: Results from a National Survey of Primary Care Physicians.

Objective: Routine ovarian cancer screening is ineffective; therefore, no professional organization recommends this screening in asymptomatic patients. However, many physicians have recommended screening, exposing patients to unnecessary risk. Little research exists on how nonprofessional experience with cancer influences physicians' screening practices.

Physicians' beliefs about effectiveness of cancer screening tests: a national survey of family physicians, general internists, and obstetrician-gynecologists.

Objective: To study physicians' beliefs about the effectiveness of different tests for cancer screening.

Methods: Data were examined from the Women's Health Survey of 1574 Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Obstetrics-Gynecology physicians to questions about their level of agreement about the clinical effectiveness of different tests for breast, cervical, ovarian, and colorectal cancer screening among average risk women. Data were weighted to the U.

Accuracy of ovarian and colon cancer risk assessments by U.S. physicians.

Background: Studies have shown a mismatch between published cancer screening and genetic counseling referral recommendations and physician-reported screening and referral practices. Inaccurate cancer risk assessment is one potential cause of this mismatch.

Objective: To assess U.

Vignette-based study of ovarian cancer screening: do U.S. physicians report adhering to evidence-based recommendations?

Background: No professional society or group recommends routine ovarian cancer screening, yet physicians' enthusiasm for several cancer screening tests before benefit has been proven suggests that some women may be exposed to potential harms.

Objective: To provide nationally representative estimates of physicians' reported nonadherence to recommendations against ovarian cancer screening.

Design: Cross-sectional survey of physicians offering women's primary care.

Evaluating the relation between psychopathy and affective empathy: two preliminary studies.

It is widely believed that impairment in an ability to experience affective empathy for others is a central feature of psychopathy. The authors tested this assumption by covertly manipulating and measuring state experiences of emotional contagion and empathic concern in college undergraduates and male forensic inpatients. Surprisingly, they found little evidence of a negative association between psychopathy and affective empathy in either sample.

Involvement of gynecologic oncologists in the treatment of patients with a suspicious ovarian mass.

Objective: To identify the factors associated with inclusion of a gynecologic oncologist in managing the care of a woman with suspected ovarian cancer.

Methods: A vignette-based survey was mailed to 3,200 physicians aged 64 and younger who were randomly sampled from family physician, general internist, and obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn) lists from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile. The vignette described a 57-year-old woman with pain, bloating, and a suspicious right adnexal mass with ascites.

Reported referral for genetic counseling or BRCA 1/2 testing among United States physicians: a vignette-based study.

Background: Genetic counseling and testing is recommended for women at high but not average risk of ovarian cancer. National estimates of physician adherence to genetic counseling and testing recommendations are lacking.

Methods: Using a vignette-based study, we surveyed 3200 United States family physicians, general internists, and obstetrician/gynecologists and received 1878 (62%) responses.

Tenderness and sympathy: distinct empathic emotions elicited by different forms of need.

Current need and vulnerability are two different forms of need. Integrating (a) cognitive-appraisal theories of emotion with (b) a view of human parental nurturance as emotionally based and cognitively generalizable, this article proposes that these two forms of need elicit distinct empathic emotions: Vulnerability evokes feelings of tenderness, whereas current need evokes feelings of sympathy. Results of two experiments support this proposal.

How are symptoms of ovarian cancer managed? A study of primary care physicians.

Background: A study was undertaken to identify the diagnostic approaches that primary care physicians and gynecologists undertake in women with symptoms associated with ovarian cancer.

Methods: A vignette-based survey was mailed to 3200 primary care physicians from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile. The vignette described a 55-year-old woman with symptoms associated with ovarian cancer, although ovarian cancer was never mentioned.

Predictors of comprehensive surgical treatment in patients with ovarian cancer.

Background: Providing appropriate surgical treatment for women with ovarian cancer is one of the most effective ways to improve ovarian cancer outcomes. In this study, the authors identified factors that were associated with a measure of comprehensive surgery, so that interventions may be targeted appropriately to improve surgical care.

Methods: Using Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project hospital discharge data from 1999 to 2002 for 9 states, the authors identified 10,432 admissions of women who had an International Classification of Disease, 9th Revision (ICD-9) primary diagnosis of ovarian cancer and who had undergone oophorectomy.

Modeling the mental health workforce in Washington State: using state licensing data to examine provider supply in rural and urban areas.

Context: Ensuring an adequate mental health provider supply in rural and urban areas requires accessible methods of identifying provider types, practice locations, and practice productivity.

Purpose: To identify mental health shortage areas using existing licensing and survey data.

Methods: The 1998-1999 Washington State Department of Health files on credentialed health professionals linked with results of a licensure renewal survey, 1990 US Census data, and the results of the 1990-1992 National Comorbidity Survey were used to calculate supply and requirements for mental health services in 2 types of geographic units in Washington state-61 rural and urban core health service areas and 13 larger mental health regions.

Rural definitions for health policy and research.

The term "rural" suggests many things to many people, such as agricultural landscapes, isolation, small towns, and low population density.However, defining "rural" for health policy and research purposes requires researchers and policy analysts to specify which aspects of rurality are most relevant to the topic at hand and then select an appropriate definition. Rural and urban taxonomies often do not discuss important demographic, cultural, and economic differences across rural places-differences that have major implications for policy and research.

"... As you would have them do unto you": Does imagining yourself in the other's place stimulate moral action?

Philosophers, psychologists, and religious teachers have suggested that imagining yourself in another's place will stimulate moral action. The authors tested this idea in two different situations. In Experiment 1, participants had the opportunity to assign themselves and another research participant to tasks, with one task clearly more desirable than the other.

Rural health care providers in the United States.

One of the most recalcitrant problems of the rural health landscape is the uneven distribution and relative shortage of medical care providers. Despite considerable efforts by federal and state governments over the past three decades to address these problems, rural provider distribution and shortage issues have persisted. The purpose of this article is to identify the challenges for rural health research and policy regarding health provider supply in the first decade of the 21st century.

Educating generalist physicians for rural practice: how are we doing?

Although about 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, only 9 percent of physicians practice there. Physicians consistently and preferentially settle in metropolitan, suburban and other nonrural areas. The last 20 years have seen a variety of strategies by medical education programs and by federal and state governments to promote the choice of rural practice among physicians.

Emergency department use by the rural elderly.

This study uses Medicare data to compare emergency department (ED) use by rural and urban elderly beneficiaries. The U.S.

Rural and urban physicians: does the content of their Medicare practices differ?

Rural and urban areas have significant differences in the availability of medical technology, medical practice structures and patient populations. This study uses 1994 Medicare claims data to examine whether these differences are associated with variation in the content of practice between physicians practicing in rural and urban areas. This study compared the number of patients, outpatient visits, and inpatient visits per physician in the different specialties, diagnosis clusters, patient age and sex, and procedure frequency and type for board-certified rural and urban physicians in 12 ambulatory medical specialties.

Access to primary health care among persons with disabilities in rural areas: a summary of the literature.

Despite the prevalence of disabilities among persons living in rural areas, scarce data exist on their health care needs. While rural residents generally experience barriers to access to primary health care, these problems are further exacerbated for people with disabilities. This article summarizes findings from the published literature on access to primary health care among people with disabilities living in rural locations.

Educational and geographic career pathways of rural vs. urban hospital administrators.

Information on academic and geographic career patterns was obtained through a survey of 93 urban and rural hospital administrators in the State of Washington in 1990 (90 percent response rate). A greater proportion of urban than rural administrators had advanced degrees (93 versus 74 percent). While the most common career pathways were "always urban" (39 percent) and "always rural" (20 percent), there was little support for the presumption that hospital administrators use rural positions as stepping stones into urban careers.

CEO turnover in rural northwest hospitals.

This study examines rates of and reasons for turnover among administrators from 148 rural hospitals in four northwestern states. Data were obtained from a survey of CEOs who left their positions between 1987 and 1990 and from a survey of board members from those same hospitals. During the study period, 85 CEO turnovers occurred at 78 hospitals.

The effect of federal grants on medical schools' production of primary care physicians.

Objectives: Title VII of the Health Professions Educational Assistance Act of 1976 was created to encourage the production of primary care physicians. This study explored recent trends in the proportion of US medical school graduates entering primary care in relationship to Title VII funding.

Methods: The American Medical Association Physician Masterfile was used to determine the specialty choice of all students graduating from American medical schools between 1960 and 1985.