Host specificity of a parasitic fluke: is Posthodiplostomum minimum a centrarchid-infecting generalist or specialist?

Parasite host specificity has important implications for species diversity estimates, food web dynamics, and host shifts. "White grub" is the metacercaria stage of a fluke ( Posthodiplostomum minimum ) that occurs in many fish species, but no attempt has been made to quantify variation in host use by this worm. Here we used 2 approaches to evaluate host specificity within the strain that infects centrarchids ( P.

Adverse effect monitoring: opportunity for patient care and pharmacy practice.

Objectives: To present an adverse effect monitoring tool with theoretical, practical, and data-supported explanation and justification for use in pharmacy practice for the purpose of building patient-pharmacist partnerships and improving medication-management outcomes.

Design: Randomized pretest-posttest experimental design.

Setting: Ambulatory patients in three multidisciplinary cancer clinics.

Concordance in cancer medication management.

This article explores how the concept of concordance can help to identify gaps and opportunities for research on consumer-provider communication related to cancer medication management. The relationship of concordance, patient-centered care and shared decision making is examined. Research on unmet patient agendas, quality of life issues related to symptom management and tools to assist communication about patient somatic experience are discussed.

Pharmacist-patient relationship development in an ambulatory clinic setting.

We investigated the pharmacist-patient relationship, conceptualizing its interpersonal constructs and dynamics using social exchange principles. The constructs of felt indebtedness (FI), collaborative willingness (CW), interpersonal relationship quality (IRQ), medication use beliefs (MUBs), and critical interpersonal incidents (CII) between pharmacist and patient were proposed, measured, and modeled. Patient responses were collected using interviews and mail surveys in 2 pharmacist-managed anticoagulation clinics.

Measuring patients' medical care preferences: care seeking versus self-treating.

The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a scale to measure patient preferences for using medical care, (2) to assess the reliability and validity of the scale, and (3) to examine factors predicting preferences. Preferences were defined along a continuum, anchored by self-treating preferences and care-seeking preferences. A 9-item scale was developed and mailed to a random sample of 3500 Wisconsin consumers age 50 and older.

A description of the comprehensive test of nonverbal intelligence.

The Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, or CTONI, has become an essential compliment to the traditional tests of intelligence, such as the WISC-III, DTLA-3, and the Binet. The CTONI provides examiners with a measure of nonverbal reasoning that requires no spoken language or complex motor skills. The CTONI has been proven to be unbiased with regard to gender, minority, or disabling condition.

Cooperation in pharmacy-drug wholesaler relations.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between characteristics of pharmacy-wholesaler relations and cooperation in those relations.

Design/sample: Data were obtained from 326 pharmacies about 214 pharmacy-primary wholesaler relations and 112 pharmacy-secondary wholesaler relations.

Measures: Separate multiple regressions were performed to test the hypotheses for both types of pharmacy-wholesaler relationship.

The association of prescription status, patient age, patient gender, and patient question asking behavior with the content of pharmacist-patient communication.

Purpose And Methods: Data from 358 pharmacist-patient encounters in 12 community pharmacies were used to investigate the association of prescription status, patient age, patient gender, and patient question asking with the content of pharmacist-patient communication.

Results: There was an association between prescription status and the provision of five types of information, patient age and gender were associated with the provision of the same two types of information, and patient question asking was associated with the provision of eight types of information.

Conclusions: An important cue for improvement of pharmacist-patient communication was patient question asking.

A field investigation of participant and environment effects on pharmacist-patient communication in community pharmacies.

The objective of this study was to identify participant and environment variables that affect pharmacist-patient communication, and test their effects in a range of community pharmacy practices. Data were collected through unobtrusive observation, patient interviews, and pharmacist interviews in 12 community pharmacies. Random samples of 30 patients who received a prescription from a participating pharmacist were selected at each of the 12 pharmacies, yielding a total sample size of 360 patients.

Comparison of methods used for estimating pharmacist counseling behaviors.

Objective: To compare the rates reported for provision of types of information conveyed by pharmacists among studies for which different methods of estimation were used and different dispensing situations were studied.

Data Sources: Empiric studies conducted in the US, reported from 1982 through 1992, were selected from International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, MEDLINE, and noncomputerized sources.

Study Selection: Empiric studies were selected for review if they reported the provision of at least three types of counseling information.

Pharmacists' views of patient counseling.

The goal of this study was to assess whether pharmacists rate eight elements of counseling of equal importance in different dispensing situations. A sample of 708 pharmacists was asked to complete a pretested questionnaire about patient counseling; 697 provided usable responses, for a response rate of 98%. Using multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance, we found significant differences (p < 0.

Pharmacists' perceptions of patients' needs for counseling.

Pharmacists in Wisconsin were surveyed about their assessment of patients' needs for medication counseling and factors that hinder or facilitate counseling. Pharmacists attending regional meetings for a state board of pharmacy project completed the survey. The questionnaire was pretested on pharmacists from one area and refined; the study population then included pharmacists from all areas except this one.

The political economy of pharmaceutical marketing channels: a conceptual framework.

The political economy framework is presented as a guide to investigate pharmaceutical marketing channels. Based on the framework, pharmaceutical marketing channels are conceptualized as four interacting areas: the environment, the economy, the policy, and the performance of the channel. Examples of this approach are illustrated.

Measuring product meaning for prescribed medication using a means-end chain model.

On the basis of a means-end chain model, the product attribute and consequence levels of consumers' product meaning for prescribed medication were measured for a sample of 550 consumers. Using exploratory factor analysis on a 30-item scale, the authors identified five product attribute dimensions and three consequence dimensions. The means-end chain model can help marketers of health care learn more about how consumers categorize product meanings, which in turn can be used in the development of marketing strategies.

Verbal consultation regarding prescription drugs: findings from a statewide study.

In 1984 the Wisconsin Division of Health showed interest in patients' receipt of verbal consultation for prescription drugs and included relevant questions in the Wisconsin Health Status survey to: 1) investigate the receipt of verbal consultation for new and refill prescriptions, 2) allow a comparison of state results with those of a national study that used similar sampling and data collection procedures, and 3) more closely examine the relationships between receipt of verbal consultation and such variables as prescription status (new or refill), age, sex, race, and education. Data were collected from 2,135 randomly selected respondents using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing with random digit dialing. After controlling for elapsed time since last prescription, log-linear analyses showed the importance of prescription status (new and refill) and respondent's age as correlates of consultation by pharmacy personnel, while prescription status, age, and sex were significant for prescribers.

Selecting health insurance: the importance of prescription drug coverage and pharmacy factors in consumer decision making.

This study determined how important prescription drug coverage was to consumers in selecting their health insurance plans, the specific pharmacy factors they considered, and the importance of factors considered. A mail survey questionnaire was sent to 800 state government and university employees residing in the Madison, Wisconsin area; 453 questionnaires were returned. The majority (59.

Qualifications for future hospital pharmacy directors as perceived by pharmacy directors and hospital administrators in Wisconsin.

Hospital pharmacy directors and administrators in Wisconsin were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the responsibilities, skills, postgraduate education, training, and experience necessary for hospital pharmacy directors during the next 10 years. Packages containing two identical questionnaires were mailed in April 1985 to the pharmacy directors at all 159 hospitals in Wisconsin. The pharmacy director and his or her immediate supervisor were asked to use a 5-point Likert-type scale to rate the importance of various responsibilities and skills and also to rank the most important responsibilities, skills, and issues.

Application of drug-use review principles to intravenous administration set use: a preliminary study.

A quantitative study of the use of intravenous administration sets in a 556-bed hospital was conducted as a first step in establishing a use-review program for administration sets. Central supply and pharmacy distribution points for i.v.

Use of a Medicaid database to analyze pharmaceutical services in long-term-care facilities.

A profile of Wisconsin pharmacies that provide services to Medicaid recipients in long-term-care facilities (LTCFs) was developed, and the relationships among pharmacy characteristics and drug use and reimbursement for pharmaceutical services in these pharmacies were studied. Computer-generated reports of Medicaid claims of all pharmacies that had received $1000 or more for services provided to LTCFs from July through September 1984 were included in the study; these claims were submitted by 255 pharmacies on behalf of 32,410 recipients. The reports contained the following individual pharmacy data: geographic location, total dollar payments, total number of Medicaid recipients served, percentage of recipients residing in LTCFs, total number of payments from Medicaid for prescriptions, amount paid to the pharmacy for LTCF recipients as a percentage of total payments, percentage of prescriptions paid at the unit dose rate, and average number of prescriptions and cost per LTCF recipient.

Use of serum drug concentrations in outpatient clinics.

A four-month retrospective study was conducted to analyze the use of serum drug concentrations (SDCs) in the outpatient clinics of a teaching hospital. The general internal medicine, asthma and allergy, cardiology, and neurology clinics were selected as frequent users of SDCs. Serum theophylline, digoxin, quinidine, procainamide, carbamazepine, phenytoin, and phenobarbital concentrations obtained during patient clinic visits were audited by trained pharmacy students using medical records and computer-generated laboratory data.

Time and cost analysis of a computerized outpatient pharmacy.

The time and cost of implementing and operating a computerized outpatient pharmacy was compared with similar components of a traditional system. Time and motion observations were used to analyze the time required to complete each component of the dispensing process for outpatient prescriptions and clinic-administered medications. Capital equipment expenditures and operating costs were compared for both systems.

The effectiveness of auxiliary prescription labels: a pilot study.

Affixed auxiliary prescription labels are widely used in the practice of pharmacy because they supposedly provide the patient with pertinent information that is not contained within the prescription signature. Yet, whether the labels are effective is not known, nor is it known whether the label's elements, such as color, form, and logo, affect perception of the written text. Sound scientific analyses of these questions are limited.

Depression and figure size on the Draw-A-Person test.

The relationship between figure size on the Draw-A-Person and depression was studied for depressed patients, non-depressed patients, and non-depressed hospital employees (30 males and 30 females in each group). All participants completed a figure drawing and a measure of depression, Beck's Inventory or the MMPI. No differences were found between any of the groups, that is, all groups drew figures of close to the same size.

Dissolution of retained duct stones by perfusion with monooctanoin via a Teflon catheter introduced endoscopically.

Retained bile duct stones in patients who have undergone prior cholecystectomy are removed by operation or endoscopic sphincterotomy. We achieved dissolution of cholesterol duct stones by perfusion with monooctanoin, a commercially available mixture of medium chain glycerides. Sixteen patients were treated in whom endoscopic sphincterotomy was impossible or unsuccessful.