How will Brexit affect patient care and medical research?

BMJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. m4380
Author(s):  
Layla McCay
2006 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 641-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia A. LiVolsi ◽  
Stanley Leung

Abstract Critical values in anatomic pathology are usually information sensitive, whereas most such values in laboratory medicine are time sensitive. However, there is an important time element in anatomic pathology as well. Pathologists should be aware that many medicolegal actions against radiologists are based on failure to communicate “abnormal” results in a timely manner. Are pathologists the next group that will be targeted? Pathologists can spend much time trying to communicate important data that will affect patient care to someone who will accept the information. This is not an efficient use of pathologists' professional time. Most important, what are our obligations to patients to communicate “critical” abnormal results to the treating physician? What results need to be so communicated? Are pathologists obliged to contact the patient directly if there is a failure to communicate the critical results to a clinician? We explore these questions to promote discussion of these important issues as they relate to pathologists' liability and to patient care.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Longo ◽  
Craig Weinert ◽  
T. Kenny Fountain

Medical personnel in hospital intensive care units routinely rely on protocols to deliver some types of patient care. These protocol documents are developed by hospital physicians and staff to ensure that standards of care are followed. Thus, the protocol document becomes a de facto standing order, standing in for the physician's judgment in routine situations. This article reports findings from Phase I of an ongoing study exploring how insulin protocols are designed and used in intensive care units to transfer medical research findings into patient care “best practices.” We developed a taxonomy of document design elements and analyzed 29 insulin protocols to determine their use of these elements. We found that 93% of the protocols used tables to communicate procedures for measuring glucose levels and administering insulin. We further found that the protocols did not adhere well to principles for designing instructions and hypothesized that this finding reflected different purposes for instructions (training) and protocols (standardizing practice).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document