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The demand for information from health professionals is ever-increasing. Not only do these patrons want information, they want and need it fast. Keeping up with this demand is a difficult task, especially for those who have very little or no personnel for assistance. The staff in the Health Sciences Library at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center (BGSMC) surmised that implementing a scanner/photocopier would speed and improve document delivery to internal as well as external clients. First, an informal survey was performed to gauge the number of libraries already using this technology. Next, a scanner/photocopier was procured. Finally, a small time-and-motion study was carried out to determine if time and cost savings were significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient's interest in learning more about their health and medical issues has grown tremendously over the last decade. Consumers demand to be informed and participate in their health care decisions. However, this increasing demand for information is confounded in the fact that many people in the United States cannot read above an eighth grade reading level. Most health information materials are not written at an appropriate level for the majority of Americans to read. This paper is a reexamination of an earlier study done in 1995 that surveyed patient education materials on lung cancer available from national organizations, such as the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. The 1995 study done by Sarna and Ganley found that very few materials were available and they were written at a much higher reading level than what most Americans could comprehend. The purpose of this study is to see if more materials are available and written at a useable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exercise treadmill testing is frequently performed to screen for coronary artery disease (CAD) in asymptomatic individuals; however, its clinical value is unclear. We examined a consecutive cohort of asymptomatic adults undergoing exercise treadmill testing at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation between September 1990 and December 1993. End points included (1) identification of subjects with severe CAD and (2) performance of any second diagnostic study within 90 days of the index exercise treadmill test. Screening exercise treadmill testing was performed in 4,334 adults (median age 51, 89% men); only 34% had > or = 1 cardiac risk factor and 15% exhibited an abnormal response to exercise. A second test after treadmill testing was performed in 215 patients (in 110, coronary angiography; in 105, stress thallium scintigraphy, followed by coronary angiography in 16). The strongest predictor of referral for a second test was an ischemic ST-segment response (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 34, 95% confidence intervals [Cl] 24 to 47, p < 0.0001). The only clinical variable independently associated with referral for a second test was female gender (adjusted OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.60, p <0.0001). Of the 126 patients who underwent coronary angiography, severe CAD was identified in only 19 individuals (10.44% of the original cohort, 95% CI 0.26% to 0.62%); coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 14 of these patients. The estimated cost of exercise treadmill testing to identify 1 case of severe CAD for which surgical revascularization may provide a survival benefit was $39,623. The estimated cost per year of life saved was at least $55,274. Thus, as used in actual practice in 1 center, screening exercise treadmill testing has a low yield and is costly. This is perhaps in part because of the low-risk population that was selected and the failure to incorporate pretest variables, increasing probability of disease into post-test clinical decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]