Browsing by keyword "*Psychiatry"
Now showing items 1-6 of 6
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APA summit on medical student education task force on informatics and technology: steps to enhance the use of technology in education through faculty development, funding and change managementOBJECTIVE: This article provides an overview of how trainees, faculty, and institutions use technology for acquiring knowledge, skills, and attitudes for practicing modern medicine. METHOD: The authors reviewed the literature on medical education, technology, and change, and identify the key themes and make recommendations for implementing technology in medical education. RESULTS: Administrators and faculty should initially assess their own competencies with technology and then develop a variety of teaching methods that use technology to improve their curricula. Programs should decrease the general knowledge-based content of curricula and increase the use of technology for learning skills. For programs to be successful, they must address faculty development, change management, and funding. CONCLUSIONS: Willingness for change, collaboration, and leadership at all levels are essential factors for successfully implementing technology.
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How the medical comorbidity of depressed patients differs across health care settings: results from the Medical Outcomes StudyOBJECTIVE: Although depression is one of the most common problems of medical and psychiatric outpatients, it has not been clear whether the extent of medical comorbidity among depressed patients varies across major types of clinical settings in which depressed patients receive care--especially by type of treating clinician (general medical versus mental health specialty) or type of payment for services (prepaid versus fee-for-service). METHODS: The authors examined these issues using data on 1,152 adult outpatients with current depressive symptoms and a lifetime history of unipolar depressive disorder who received care in one of three health care delivery systems in three U.S. sites. RESULTS: Depressed patients had a similarly high prevalence (64.9%-71.0%) of any of eight common chronic medical conditions whether they were seen in the general medical or specialty mental health sector; however, those visiting medical clinicians had a significantly higher prevalence of the two most common chronic medical conditions, hypertension and arthritis. Among depressed patients with hypertension, those visiting the general medical sector were more likely to be taking antihypertensive medication than were those visiting the mental health specialty sector. Type of payment (prepaid versus fee-for-service) was unrelated to either prevalence or severity of comorbid medical conditions, suggesting that the typical depressed patient in all types of practices studied had medical comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that clinicians in all health care settings must be prepared to encounter chronic medical conditions and complaints in the depressed patients who visit them.
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Is it unethical to offer predictions of future violenceAn examination of the nature, foundation, and consequences of predictive testimony about future violence does not support the assertion, sometimes heard, that such testimony is necessarily unethical. Certain types of predictive testimony about future violence may have adequate scientific support. Moreover, society does not require certainty about future violence in order to restrict various liberties. Proper performance of an evaluation related to certain types of predictive testimony can provide an adequate foundation for the testimony. Finally, a consideration of the consequences of legal proceedings that restrict liberty does not support the conclusion that predictive testimony is necessarily ethically improper merely because it uses probabilities that create the potential for a significant number of false-positive legal decisions. Therefore, we would not advise psychology, psychiatry, or the courts to conclude that "predictions of dangerousness" as a class are unethical.