The quality of life, research, and care

Article Abstract:

Medicine has come to involve more care of the chronically ill, leading to the recognition that issues beyond mere physiologic response to treatment must be considered in therapeutic research. In evaluating medical therapies, quality of life must be measured in some fashion. Some treatments can improve the duration of life without improving its quality, while others can improve quality of life without increasing its duration. Patients consider their sense of well-being far more important than their laboratory results. However, researchers have been reluctant to include measures of quality of life in their studies because of difficulty in quantifying these measures. Various scales have been developed which have shown consistent accuracy in measuring quality of life issues. Determining the quality of life after a therapeutic intervention should be included in research trials. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Psychological aspects, Evaluation, Therapeutics, Quality of life, editorial

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Evaluating Quality Management Systems

Article Abstract:

Research reveals how one multiclinic system in the rural midwest evaluated its quality management procedures and policies. Many hospitals, clinics, and multispecialty clinics have moved toward these initiatives that borrow from quality improvement plans. Faced with the need to restructure its aging structure, the clinical staff worked with a local university to assess its system and to plan subsequent change.

Research, Total quality management

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Quality wound care equals cost-effective wound care: a clinical model

Article Abstract:

A model for assessing the cost-effectiveness of wound care is presented. In the past, the cost of wound care was measured as the cost of the materials used plus the labor costs. Inexpensive materials may be more costly if they must be changed many times a day. Any cost-benefit analysis must specify treatment goals such as healing, pain relief, reduced incidence of infection and quality of life.

Care and treatment, Methods, Wounds and injuries, Wound care, Cost benefit analysis

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