Need for rehabilitation teamwork training in Europe.

Teamwork is the cornerstone of rehabilitation medicine. Rehabilitation workers in European countries are well educated in their own disciplines and attain appropriate professional knowledge; however, they lack educational opportunities for acquiring skills and attitudes necessary for effective teamwork, mainly communication, cooperation, and leadership. Consequently, teamwork is compromised and rehabilitation effectiveness reduced.

Rehabilitation medicine in countries of Central/Eastern Europe.

Purpose: To describe attributes of rehabilitation medicine common to the five countries of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and their implications for future challenges.

Methods: Critical collection and study of pertinent data on evolvement and present state of rehabilitation medicine in CEE countries by a coordinated team of rehabilitation experts from each of the relevant countries.

Results: CEE countries are similar in their need for rehabilitation medicine, its evolvement, present state and current practice.

The system for medical rehabilitation in Croatia.

Purpose: To describe the framework for medical rehabilitation in Croatia and to discuss its influence on the practice of the specialty.

Methods: Collection, analysis and interpretation of data pertaining to the need for medical rehabilitation in the country and to its elements of structure, process and outcome of care.

Results: The practice of medical rehabilitation in Croatia has evolved without strategic planning on the national level and therefore without a designed system.

Rehabilitation medicine in Croatia -- sources and practice.

Sources of rehabilitation medicine, the need for rehabilitation and its practice in Croatia were studied, based on available data. The study revealed that current practice has advanced since the country's independence, but that there are many shortcomings; adequate care is not provided to all who could benefit from it, and there is wastage of resources.

Tai Chi Chuan practice in community-dwelling persons after stroke.

Eighteen community-dwelling first-stroke survivors, aged 45 to 65, underwent following examinations: Romberg's Test, standing on the unaffected leg, Emory Fractional Ambulation Profile, the Berg Balance Test, the Timed 'Up and Go' Test and the Duke Health Profile. They were then randomly divided into two matched groups of 9 subjects each. The study group (SG) received Tai Chi exercises and the control group (CG) physiotherapy exercises focused on improvement of balance, both groups for 1 h twice weekly for 12 weeks.

Academic medicine and quality of medical care.

Academic medicine comprises education, research, and medical care, respectively provided by medical schools, research institutions, and teaching hospitals. Thus far, academic medicine has been unsuccessful in establishing, protecting, promoting, and improving the quality of care. Its role in that area should therefore be reconsidered.

Allocation and preference of patients for domiciliary or institutional rehabilitation after a stroke.

On discharge from an acute-care hospital after a stroke, 191 patients were told that they needed rehabilitation and were offered the option of receiving care in an institution or in their homes. One hundred and one (52.4%) patients chose an institution and 91 (47.

Effectiveness of home rehabilitation after stroke in Israel.

On discharge from an acute general hospital after a stroke, 191 patients were in need of, and were appropriate for, multidisciplinary rehabilitation. One-hundred-and-one patients (52.4%) received it in a rehabilitation institution as inpatients (the institutional rehabilitation group (IR) group) and 91 patients received it at home (the home rehabilitation (HR) group).

Teaching disability and rehabilitation medicine at the Medical School in Split, Croatia.

We describe the unsatisfactory situation of teaching disability and rehabilitation to medical students, focusing on countries of Central/Eastern Europe (CEE), sourcing a selection of relevant literature and reports of competent colleagues from these countries. Further, we present a model of teaching disability and rehabilitation medicine as it is now taught at the Medical School in Split, after the program for teaching Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to the 5th year medical undergraduates was reformed in the academic year 2001/2002 to make it a satisfying educational experience that focuses on rehabilitation medicine, allowing acquisition of the competence necessary for managing persons with disability in the community. In an anonymous evaluation questionnaire, 96% of students thought that the new program was very good, that it contributed significantly to their general medical education, and was useful for their future work as general practitioners.

Croatian Medical Corps in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to review the establishment and operation of the Croatian Medical Corps in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1992-1995 war.

Methods: We analyzed pertinent documents available to one of the authors (B.I.

Disability in rheumatoid arthritis after monotherapy with DMARDs.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive disease that leads to an increasing loss of functional ability. Its management should be multidisciplinary, focused primarily at the prevention of functional loss. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of monotherapy with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on the prevention of functional loss in RA patients.

The association of rehabilitation and war.

Purpose: To examine the assumed association of war and the development of rehabilitation through a review of the pertinent literature.

Methods: Search in the Medline databases from 1942-2002 for papers that described the impact of war on rehabilitation services and their practice, and the study of the relevant identified reports. The following search terms were used: history of rehabilitation, medicine and war, rehabilitation and war, rehabilitation of war casualties.

Health technology: challenge to public health.

Health technology includes drugs, procedures, techniques, and equipment used by health professionals to provide health care, and the organizational and supporting systems within which the care is delivered. Such new technology may comprehend new drugs, new medical devices and appliances, new medical activities and surgical procedures, health promotion and disease prevention activities, and organizational and supporting systems. To achieve maximal use of available resources and constant selection among alternatives offered, health technology assessment is indispensable as a scientific effort to determine the extent to which and under what conditions a specific technology is efficacious, effective, safe, and cost-effective.

[Involvement of physicians in quality of medical care improvement activities].

Quality of medical care provided at present in most countries, worldwide is not optimal and various cost-containment efforts may further threaten it. Activities to improve and safeguard quality of care are required. Physicians are not sufficiently aware of the importance of these activities and tend not to take active part in them.