Applying the planned care model to intimate partner violence.

Purpose: This article presents the steps for organizing a health organization's response to intimate partner violence (IPV) according to the Planned Care Model (PCM). IPV is common and costly and results in poor physical and mental health outcomes for victims and their families. Because most care is not acute, a planned approach that crosses systems may result in more comprehensive and higher quality care.

Improving diabetes care in a large health care system: an enhanced primary care approach.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted improvement strategy on diabetes quality of care in a defined population of patients.

Study Design: A multifaceted improvement strategy to enhance diabetes care was deployed to 18 primary care clinics serving 170,000 adults. Interventions empowered patient self-management, supported care team decision making, redesigned office systems, and maximized use of available information technology.

Cost effectiveness of HemoQuant versus Hemoccult for colorectal cancer screening.

Initial reports on HemoQuant, a new quantitative test for occult gastrointestinal bleeding, suggest it is more sensitive than Hemoccult. Increased detection of upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding and dietary hemoglobin may reduce HemoQuant's specificity in the screening setting. The authors performed a cost effectiveness analysis comparing Hemoccult and HemoQuant for colorectal cancer screening using assumptions based on probabilities and costs in the current literature, varying the specificity of HemoQuant.

The diagnostic value of the medical history. Perceptions of internal medicine physicians.

We investigated the perceptions of 71 internal medicine faculty and residents regarding the diagnostic value of the medical history and other attitudes toward the medical interview. Physicians perceive the medical history as having much higher value in diagnosis than either the physical examination or laboratory/radiography information (mean scores, 5.76, 2.