Objectives: Naturopathic medicine emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process through natural therapies. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) use clinical laboratories as frequently as traditionally trained physicians. Here we evaluated the test-ordering patterns of NDs and general practitioners (GPs).
Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed from a tertiary pediatric hospital. We analyzed tests ordered by NDs who used laboratory services and compared the test ordering patterns with GPs from adolescent medicine, family medicine, or pediatric clinics. Requests were categorized into 10 groups. We determined the tests with the highest ordering frequencies, as well as the percentage of tests that had an abnormal result.
Results: NDs ordered more tests per patient per date of specimen collection compared with GPs. The most frequently ordered tests by NDs were trace elements and toxic metals (23.2% of total), allergens (21.8%), and general chemistry (15.3%). For the same test, the percentage of tests with an abnormal result was significantly lower for NDs than GPs.
Conclusions: We observed different ordering patterns between NDs and GPs. NDs ordered more esoteric tests and had lower rates of abnormal test results compared with GPs. Understanding the patterns of testing from different providers' specialties is useful to choose effective laboratory stewardship interventions.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/aqab020 | DOI Listing |
Curr Opin Psychol
January 2025
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Psychological chronic pain treatments have variable efficacy across individual patients, and on average tend to produce modest effects. In order to improve treatment outcomes, the past decade has seen a rapid increase in research focused on determining the mechanisms underlying treatment-related gains. The near exclusive focus of this research has been on uncovering patient-related mediators and moderators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Health Serv Res
January 2025
Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, P.O. Box 1, Bilthoven, 3720 BA, The Netherlands.
HIV self-sampling and -testing (HIVSS/ST) reduces testing barriers and potentially reaches populations who may not test otherwise. In the Netherlands, at-home HIV tests became commercially available around 2016, but data on user experiences are limited. This study aimed to explore characteristics of users and their experiences with HIVSS/ST.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
January 2025
Research Institute for Healthcare Policy, Korean Medical Association, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
Background: In 2024, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare enforced a policy to increase the number of medical school students by 2,000 over the next 5 years, despite opposition from doctors. This study aims to predict the trend of excess or shortage of medical personnel in Korea due to the policy of increasing the number of medical school students by 2035.
Methods: Data from multiple sources, including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Health Insurance Corporation, and the Korean Medical Association, were used to estimate supply and demand.
Sci Rep
January 2025
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Changsha Institute of Technology, Changsha, 410200, China.
In order to solve the limitations of flipped classroom in personalized teaching and interactive effect improvement, this paper designs a new model of flipped classroom in colleges and universities based on Virtual Reality (VR) by combining the algorithm of Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training (CLIP). Through cross-modal data fusion, the model deeply combines students' operation behavior with teaching content, and improves teaching effect through intelligent feedback mechanism. The test data shows that the similarity between video and image modes reaches 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, Jilin, China.
In order to address the issue of tracking errors of collision Caenorhabditis elegans, this research proposes an improved particle filter tracking method integrated with cultural algorithm. The particle filter algorithm is enhanced through the integration of the sine cosine algorithm, thereby facilitating uninterrupted tracking of the target C. elegans.
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