Can shared care deliver better outcomes for patients undergoing total hip replacement? A prospective assessment of patient outcomes and associated service use.

Objectives: To assess whether shared care for patients undergoing total hip replacement delivers better outcomes compared to care as usual.

Design: Prospective, observational cohort study.

Setting: Two regions in The Netherlands where different organisational health care models have been implemented: a shared care setting (experimental group) and a care as usual setting (control group).

The chronotropic response of the sinus node to exercise: a new method of analysis and a study of pacemaker patients.

In this study, the intercepts and slopes of the regression lines of sinus heart rate response to exercise were examined as a possible means of assessing normal and abnormal chronotropic responses. The regressions were plotted for 223 normal subjects and 93 pacemaker patients during progressive bicycle exercise. The 93 pacemaker patients consisted of two groups, (a) 46 with symptomatic sick sinus syndrome (daytime sinus or nodal bradycardia of < 45.