A Developmental History of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

Psychometric instruments are products of their time-Their designs and initial purposes are influenced and shaped by the contemporary treatment regimens, context, and cultural and conceptual biases of their developers. In this review article, the authors explore the history of the most influential schizophrenia research tools that have been created over the past several decades. The authors describe the scientific concepts, cultural influences, and challenges of past and present researchers as they strive to develop better assessment tools for schizophrenia.

Learning from Physicians with Disabilities and Their Patients.

Although progress has been made in diversifying medical school admissions and faculty, this has not extended to physicians with physical disabilities. To improve our understanding of medical students and physicians with physical and sensory disabilities, the authors propose systematically gathering information on the needs and experiences of four groups: physicians who had disabilities before beginning practice, physicians whose disabilities were incurred during their medical careers, physicians drawn from those two groups, and patients of physicians with disabilities. It is hoped these data would be used by counselors, administrators, and admissions committees in advising medical school applicants with disabilities and in revising institutional policies with a view to increasing matriculation and graduation rates of medical students with disabilities.