Internet Programming to Reduce Loneliness and Social Isolation in Aging.

Unlabelled: Loneliness and social isolation in older adults carry mortality risks similar to cigarette smoking. The study aim was to use a Culturally Informed Healthy Aging (CIHA) assessment process in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) communities of older adults (N = 262). Through the CIHA assessment process, older adults identified pertinent health problems and the study team developed a health intervention, an Internet Information Station (IIS).

Email teleconsultations: well formulated clinical referrals reduce the need for clinic consultation.

We examined how well primary-care physicians formulated their clinical referrals when asking for help with patient-related clinical problems using an email-based teleconsultation service. Over 100 family physicians made use of the service. The specialists were medical school faculty members.

Family medicine residents do not ask better-formulated clinical questions as they advance in their training.

Objective: We investigated whether family medicine residents demonstrated increased skill in formulating clinical questions over their 3 years of training.

Methods: We conducted an analysis of 454 questions asked by 49 family physician residents engaged in informal consultation with subspecialists using an e-mail-based system. Clinical question formulation was measured on a scale of 0 to 2 by awarding 1 point each for the presence of a proposed intervention and a desired outcome.