Screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a comparative effectiveness review.

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of health care-associated infections. Although the evidence in support of MRSA screening has been promising, a number of questions remain about the effectiveness of active surveillance.

Methods: We searched the literature for studies that examined MRSA acquisition, MRSA infection, morbidity, mortality, harms of screening, and resource utilization when screening for MRSA carriage was compared with no screening or with targeted screening.

Cervical cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment interventions for racial and ethnic minorities: a systematic review.

Objectives: To systematically review the literature to determine which interventions improve the screening, diagnosis or treatment of cervical cancer for racial and/or ethnic minorities.

Data Sources: Medline on OVID, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Cochrane Systematic Reviews.

Study Eligibility Criteria, Participants And Interventions: We searched the above databases for original articles published in English with at least one intervention designed to improve cervical cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis or treatment that linked participants to the healthcare system; that focused on US racial and/or ethnic minority populations; and that measured health outcomes.

A strategy for improving health disparities education in medicine.

Introduction: A health disparities curriculum that uses evidence-based knowledge rooted in pedagogic theory is needed to educate health care providers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse U.S. population.

Teaching about health care disparities in the clinical setting.

Clinical teachers often observe interactions that may contribute to health care disparities, yet may hesitate to teach about them. A pedagogical model could help faculty structure teaching about health care disparities in the clinical setting, but to our knowledge, none have been adapted for this purpose. In this paper, we adapt an established model, Time-Effective Strategies for Teaching (TEST), to the teaching of health care disparities.

Changing attitudes toward homeless people.

We assessed the impact of a 2-week required rotation in homeless health care on primary care residents' attitudes toward homeless people. Attitudes were assessed before and after the course using the Attitudes Toward Homelessness Inventory (ATHI), an instrument previously validated among undergraduate students. Attitude scores on the ATHI improved from 46 to 52 (range of possible scores 11 to 66; P =.