Focus groups are increasingly being used to provide insights to researchers and policy makers. These data complement quantitative approaches to understanding the world. Unfortunately, quantitative and qualitative methodologies have often been viewed as antithetical, rather than complementary,...

We investigated the relationship among social support, stress and functional status in 439 patients with osteoarthritis (OA). OA is among the most prevalent diseases affecting American adults and is a major contributor to functional impairment, morbidity, and utilization of health care...

We examined the relationship among stress, social support and health status in patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis. Further, we compared three approaches to measuring social support (i.e. objective measures, subjective indicators, and satisfaction). Generally, subjective, rather than...

We present data from a longitudinal study of patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee and/or hip. One component of this study involved interviewers telephoning patients bi-weekly for 6 months to inquire about stressors which they have experienced and to obtain self-assessment of...

In order to increase physicians' adherence to recommended standards of medical care and to examine factors presumed to contribute to such changes, we conducted a randomized, controlled trial using reading materials targeted to specific practice recommendations. Seventy-nine internal medicine...

In 1993 I wrote "Communication and information management consume as much as 40 percent of all inpatient costs, yet errors still occur at an unacceptable rate. The Institute of medicine has suggested that electronic medical records (EMRs) will help lower health care costs, maintain quality of...

Barriers to effective health care are potential contributors to the increased prevalence of hypertension and hypertension-related renal disease observed in black patients. We have enrolled 333 primarily elderly (mean age 69 years) black (87%) patients with hypertension and chronic renal...