The physical examination of patients with abdominal pain: the long-term effect of adding standardized patients and small-group feedback to a lecture presentation.

Background: One of the most effective methods for teaching physical diagnosis may be standardized patient instructors.

Purpose: To determine if a lecture plus standardized patient instructors with small-group sessions is more effective than a lecture alone for teaching the evaluation of patients with abdominal pain.

Methods: Control (class of 2001) and intervention (class of 2002) groups both attended a lecture on the abdominal examination.

Personalized follow-up increases return rate at urban eye disease screening clinics for African Americans with diabetes: results of a randomized trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of using personalized follow-up, as compared to reminder letters, in increasing return rates at urban eye disease screening clinics for African Americans with diabetes, and to identify factors predictive of the patient's likelihood of returning for annual follow-up exams.

Research Design And Methods: All patients attending free community-based retinopathy screening clinics who were advised to return in one year for another diabetes eye evaluation (DEE) were randomized to standard or personalized follow-up interventions. Patients in the standard follow-up group received reminder letters a month before it was time to return for their next annual DEE.

Decreasing rate of fatty involution at screening mammography.

Rationale And Objectives: This study was performed to document the perceived decrease in fatty involution at screening mammography during the past decade and evaluate the influence of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Materials And Methods: In December 1996, the mammograms of 261 consecutive screening patients with a comparison study obtained 5 years earlier were evaluated, and their breasts were categorized according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System categories for breast density. The women, aged 50-59 years, included 119 who had been receiving HRT for 0.

Conducting community-based, culturally specific, eye disease screening clinics for urban African Americans with diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for, and efficacy of, community-based culturally specific eye disease screening clinics for urban African Americans with diabetes. The study employed a variety of culturally specific methods in the design and performance of 43 community-based eye disease screening clinics in southeastern Michigan. One thousand, thirty-seven subjects were recruited for the study.

Does medical school performance predict radiology resident performance?

Rationale And Objectives: The authors performed this study to examine the relationship, if any, of a large number of measures of medical school performance with radiology residency performance.

Materials And Methods: Applications of 77 radiology residents enrolled from 1991 to 2000 were reviewed. Medical school grades, dean's letter summary statements, letters of recommendation, selection to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), and National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and U.