"Charon, R"

This paper reviews the conceptual frameworks of several research approaches to the study of medical interactions. Two methods are discussed: process analysis and microanalysis. Adapted from Robert Bales's study of the behavior of small groups, process analysis sorts and tallies such interviewing processes as questioning and informing, achieving analysis of large numbers of interviews at the expense of attention to the content or context of the interview. When used in medical interaction research, process analysis seeks correlation between processes documented in the interview and outcomes of the interview...

Introduced to U.S. medical schools in 1972, the field of literature and medicine contributes methods and texts that help physicians develop skills in the human dimensions of medical practice. Five broad goals are met by including the study of literature in medical education: 1) Literary accounts of illness can teach physicians concrete and powerful lessons about the lives of sick people; 2) great works of fiction about medicine enable physicians to recognize the power and implications of what they do; 3) through the study of narrative, the physician can better understand patients' stories of sickness and his or her own personal stake in medical practice; 4) literary study contributes to physicians' expertise in narrative ethics; and 5) literary theory offers new perspectives on the work and the genres of medicine...

The study of literature encourages the development of otherwise hard-to-teach clinical competencies. It provides access to the values and experiences of physicians, patients, and families; it calls for the exercise of skill in observation and interpretation, develops clinical imagination, and, especially through writing, preserves fluency in ordinary language and promotes clarity of observation, expression, and self-knowledge. Faculty in one-third of U.S. medical schools teach literature in courses that, although concentrated in the preclinical years, range from the first day of school, through residency programs...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Spirochaeta aurantia DNA that coded for an antigenic determinant of the flagellin associated with the filament surface of the periplasmic flagella was isolated. When expressed in Escherichia coli, the antigenic polypeptide had an apparent molecular weight of 37,000. Sequence analysis of the antigen-encoding DNA revealed the presence of an open reading frame that determined a polypeptide with a predicted molecular weight of 31,241. This polypeptide showed a region of identity with the N-amino-terminal region of the 39,000- and 37,000-dalton flagellins of the distantly related spirochetes Treponema phagedenis and Treponema pallidum, respectively (S...

To test the hypothesis that less concordance exists between older patients and their physicians than between younger patients and their physicians, we examined agreements between physicians and patients on the major goals and topics discussed during an outpatient medical encounter. Using coded audiotapes of the medical visit, patient postvisit interviews, and physician questionnaires, concordance was found to be significantly greater for younger patients and their physicians than for older patients and their physician on the major goals and major medical topics discussed during the primary care interview...

James confers on his characters his deepest fears and truths. He incorporates within his writing both his stunning and at times crippling intellectual powers and his dark inchoate mournful passion and remorse. The very events that made him a casualty are the experiences he grants to his characters to endure, to grapple with, and to master. In Wings James settles with his characters and with his readers the effects of these two deaths in his life. He was flattened by Minny's and Fenimore's deaths. He, like Marcher, cannot grasp the extent of his paralysis...

PURPOSE: To determine whether there is sufficient information in the medical literature to guide appropriate treatment of hypertensive women. DATA IDENTIFICATION: Epidemiologic surveys of hypertension, clinical trials of antihypertensive therapy, and studies of selected adverse effects of antihypertensive agents were identified through a computerized search using MEDLINE and by identifying all studies cited in current medical textbooks as supporting evidence for the guidelines for the treatment of hypertensive individuals...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.