Clinical Issues in the Assessment of Competency.

The evaluation of a patient's competency to consent to treatment, regardless of the test of competency used, can be substantially affected by a number of clinical factors. The authors point out that, in assessing competency, the clinician must consider 1) psychodynamic elements of the patient's personality, 2) the accuracy of the historical information conveyed by the patient, 3) the accuracy and completeness of the information disclosed to the patient, 4) the stability of the patient's mental status over time, and 5) the effect of the setting in which consent is obtained. Inattention to these factors can lead to errors in assessment of competency that can have important implications for patient care.

The Classification of Violence Risk.

(Reprinted with permission from 24: 721-730, 2006).

PrepLink: a novel web-based tool for healthcare emergency planning and response.

Effective planning and response to bioterrorism or other disasters, natural or manmade, requires timely and effective communication as well as situational awareness. During a catastrophic event, decision makers--including first responders, hospital workers, and command center emergency workers--will have a short time to make crucial decisions. Preparing to receive and treat patients, especially when there are mass casualties, requires immediate access to large amounts of integrated health data from disparate sources.

The relationship between the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center--a profile in synergy.

In the synergistic evolution of their research, educational, and clinical programs, the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) School of Medicine (SOM) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) have followed one core principle: What is good for one is good for both. The collaboration is underpinned by UPMC's commitment to its community mission, including support for the academic and research objectives of the SOM. UPMC's conceptual origin was fostered by its experience with Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in the 1970s.

The classification of violence risk.

The Classification of Violence Risk (COVR) is an interactive software program designed to estimate the risk that a person hospitalized for mental disorder will be violent to others. The software leads the evaluator through a chart review and a brief interview with the patient. At the end of this interview, the software generates a report that contains a statistically valid estimate of the patient's violence risk-ranging from a 1% to a 76% likelihood of violence-including the confidence interval for that estimate, and a list of the risk factors that the program took into account to produce the estimate.