Japanese physicians' preferences for decision making in rheumatoid arthritis treatment.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complex chronic illness requiring continued medical care. During the past decade, the therapeutic options for RA have increased significantly; these often have a higher risk of adverse effects and are more expensive than traditional drugs. Rheumatologists may hence face difficulties when deciding on the optimal modality in initiating or changing treatment.

[What is professionalism?].

What is a profession? According to Cruess, it is an occupation whose core element is work that is based on the mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which knowledge of some department of science or learning, or the practice of an art founded on it, is used in the service of others. Its members profess a commitment to competence, integrity, morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain.

Preferences of Japanese rheumatoid arthritis patients in treatment decision-making.

Objectives: We investigated the decision-making preferences of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients using two different scales: the Decision Making Preference Scale (DMPS) and the modified Control Preference Scale (CPS). In addition, we evaluated the factors associated with patients' preferences for decision-making.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using a self-administered anonymous questionnaire between October and December 2010 on 406 RA outpatients who consecutively visited 3 hospitals in Japan.

Introducing the Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) in Japan: results from a multicenter, cross-sectional study.

Purpose: Despite the growing importance of and interest in medical professionalism, there is no standardized tool for its measurement. The authors sought to verify the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX), a previously developed and tested tool, in the context of Japanese hospitals.

Method: A multicenter, cross-sectional evaluation study was performed to investigate the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the P-MEX in seven Japanese hospitals.

Assessment of professionalism: recommendations from the Ottawa 2010 Conference.

Over the past 25 years, professionalism has emerged as a substantive and sustained theme, the operationalization and measurement of which has become a major concern for those involved in medical education. However, how to go about establishing the elements that constitute appropriate professionalism in order to assess them is difficult. Using a discourse analysis approach, the International Ottawa Conference Working Group on Professionalism studied some of the dominant notions of professionalism, and in particular the implications for its assessment.

Impact and characteristics of quality of life in Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and investigate associations between the results of these QOL assessments and disease severity.

Methods: One-hundred sixty-three Japanese MS patients completed a questionnaire battery comprising the Functional Assessment of MS (FAMS), the Nottingham Adjustment Scale-Japanese version (NAS-J), and the European QOL scale (EQ-5D). Additional five factors affecting QOL as identified by MS patients in a focus group interview were also investigated: employment status, change of income, availability of disease information, communication with medical staff, and care received.

Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise for medical residents in Japan: a pilot study.

Context: Assessing medical professionalism among medical residents is of great importance. The Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) is a tool for assessing professionalism that was developed, tested for reliability and validated in Canada. Prior to the present study, no Japanese version of the P-MEX had been tested.

[A survey on constitutive elements of quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis].

Background And Methods: We conducted a survey on the constitutive elements of quality of life (QOL) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We recruited 20 MS patients to complete several questionnaires including Functional Assessment of MS (FAMS), Short Form 36 (SF-36), Nottingham Adjustment Scale-Japanese version (NAS-J), Sense of Coherence (SOC), and EuroQoL (EQ-5D). We also determined their Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores, and 10 of the 20 patients answered The Schedule of Individual Quality of Life-Direct Weighting (SEIQoL-DW) by semi-structured interviews.

[Clinico-pathological investigation of two patients with dementia with motor neuron disease].

Dementia with motor neuron disease (D-MND) is characterized clinically by frontal and neurological signs, and pathologically by localized atrophy of the fronto-temporal lobes and neuronal ubiquitin(Ub)-positive inclusions. In this study, we compared the clinico-pathological findings of two patients with D-MND. Case 1 (55-year-old male): At the age of 51, he developed personality change and disinhibition, lacking neurological signs.

Psychological adjustment has a greater effect on health-related quality of life than on severity of disease in Parkinson's disease.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of psychological adjustment to Parkinson's disease (PD) on the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with this condition. One hundred eighty-three patients (77 male, 106 female; mean age, 65.8 years) were evaluated using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) and the Japanese version of the Nottingham Adjustment Scale (NAS-J).

Development and testing of the Japanese version of the migraine-specific quality of life instrument.

We developed and tested a version of the migraine-specific quality of life (MSQOL) instrument for use in Japan. The MSQOL was translated into Japanese, evaluated by physicians and nurses who has experienced migraine headaches, 'backtranslated', approved by the author of the original version, and tested in 70 out-patients with migraine. There were no ceiling or floor effects.

[Quality of life in Parkinson's disease].

Assessing quality of life (QOL) is now essential for making clinical, economic, social, and political decisions. QOL is multi-dimensional, subjective, and context-dependent. It can encompass physical aspects of living, activities in daily life, communication with other people, spiritual existence, and more.

[Validity and clinical applicability of the Japanese version of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--assessment questionnaire 40 (ALSAQ-40)].

We studied validity and clinical applicability of the Japanese version of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) assessment questionnaire 40 (ALSAQ-40). The original version contains forty questions measuring five areas (domains) of health status: Physical Mobility, ADL/Independence, Eating and Drinking, Communication and Emotional Functioning. Data were obtained from 39 ALS patients and from their physicians at 15 centers in Japan.

[Validation of the Japanese version of the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire].

Unlabelled: The PDQ-39 (Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39) is a specific quality-of-life (QOL) scale for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). It evaluates the dysfunction of daily living and quality of life. We developed the Japanese-translated version of PDQ-39 and examined the validity of the PDQ-39 in Japanese PD patients.