Objectives: To examine the relationship between the level of burnout in general practitioners and doctors' interpersonal skills, the patient centeredness, the consultation length. The effect of GPs' gender, age, time since registered, and the likelihood to suffer from burnout was also investigated. Design: A cross-sectional study of NHS general practitioners. A postal survey used the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure self-reported levels of burnout, in 564 doctors. A sample of 38 respondents, selected by high or low emotional exhaustion scores, was further assessed via practice visits. 822 consultations were audio recorded, and 1,900 patients completed the Doctor Interpersonal Skills Questionnaire. Setting: Two studies have been conducted. First, a pilot study was carried out in Tower Hamlets, Newham and Hackney areas of North London in 2000. Then, I set out to perform the main study in county of Essex in 2003. Main measures: Burnout of the doctors; patient-centeredness; the doctors' interpersonal skills, the consultation length, gender, age, time in practice since registration, workload characteristics of the doctors, and general characteristic of the patients. Results: I report high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation and correlate these levels to characteristics of the doctor. Male doctors reported significantly higher depersonalisation than female doctors, and doctors in group practice suffer more from depersonalisation than singlehanded practitioners. I also find no significant correlation with DISQ (patient assessment of the consultation) or patient centeredness (observer assessment of consultation). Finally, my results also demonstrate that patient-centeredness is significantly associated with consultation length and that "usual doctor" visits correlate with higher ratings of the doctors' interpersonal skills by patients (DISQ). Conclusions: Burnout is a significant issue in Essex general practitioners. Burnout, patient centeredness, doctors' interpersonal skills and consultation length are inter-related.

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The treatise On Theriac to Piso has been attributed to Galen since ancient times; the attribution is however disputed. This thesis argues that although the content and style of the treatise is heavily influenced by Galen its author differs on a wide range of issues from the beliefs of Galen expressed in undoubtedly authentic works on matters of pharmacology, philosophical doctrine, the history of Pergamum and the interpretation of Hippocrates to the extent that it should no longer be attributed to him. The thesis also attempts to establish the best possible text from the Greek, Latin and Arabic manuscript sources and to provide a clear English translation and a commentary on the text focussing in particular on matters relevant to the question of the authorship of the treatise.

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This thesis contributes to the scholarship of medical professionalism by construing an anthropological study with general practitioners (GPs) in the United Kingdom (UK). Whilst enquiring into GPs’ working lives, the study attempts to move along interdisciplinary approaches of professionalism by following it in everyday life. It is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in Devon and Cornwall from November 2011 to February 2013 with mid-career GPs in the National Health Service (NHS). I engaged in participant observation by shadowing four GPs for over eight weeks each and conducted in-depth interviews with two GPs in addition to those I shadowed. Partaking in exploratory enquiries into their working life, the study has three major outcomes. Firstly, I craft a narrative and descriptive account of the ‘correspondence’ process between the GPs and I, attending to what GPs showed or told me and the personal experiences they enabled me to undergo in their presence. I argue that GPs exposed me to ways of carrying on a life informed by a specific “professional culture” but also by a wider “culture of professionalism”. Secondly, I discern motional, spatial and temporal references that provide a sense of orientation in everyday work, such as the moods alternating between work motions, the boundaries delimiting the workplace, and the tasks distinguishing moments at work. I argue that such norms and values, by ordering everyday life, inform GPs’ ‘moral experience’ of professionalism. Thirdly, I examine the premises by which medical generalism presumes ‘jurisdiction’ over place, time and action, and explore GPs’ self-investment in such professionalism claims when negotiating with oneself between one’s expectations and the actualities of working life. I argue that professionalism, as economic morality, affords a personhood animated by an evolving occupational ethos enmeshed with other moral logics along which GPs, as wayfarers, are making a way of life. The thesis proposes an analytical distinction between therapeutic and professional dimensions of medical work. By focusing on the latter, I consider how professionalism engages at micro and macro levels, local and global scales, and in particulars and universals. Finally, by interweaving this ‘practice of education’, the study brings to life a moral economy of professionalism.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2007 / If medical doctors are expected to function effectively and efficiently to provide the highest quality of care to the largest number of patients in rural hospitals, it is imperative that they derive job satisfaction from their work and thus perform well. The present study aimed to investigate whether the doctors in the target population have job satisfaction. The doctors were selected from the rural hospitals of the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province. An exploratory qualitative research design was used, which included a self administered questionnaire enquiring about the demographic and work situation variables. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The main findings that emerged from the study were that the respondents were dissatisfied with their work environment. The most common theme that emerged was related to the bad working conditions, lack of support from management, lack of proper equipment, and the salary or incentives in proportion to the workload. These findings highlighted the issues that can be addressed by the employing organisation.

Das Lebensschicksal des Doktors der Medizin und Chirurgie, Gustav Heinrich von Martius (* 28.12.1781 Radeberg, † 4.8.1831 Berlin), der zusätzlich zu seiner medizinischen Arbeit auch als Naturwissenschaftler, Botaniker, Schriftsteller, Historiker und Chronist tätig war, ist durchaus als außergewöhnlich für seine Zeit anzusehen und regt zu Vergleichen an, die auf seiner Herkunft aus einer mehr als 400 Jahre existierenden weitverzweigten Familiendynastie beruhen. Der Bildungsweg von Heinrich Martius führt in der Napoleonischen Zeit über Freiberg an die Universität Wittenberg zum Medizinstudium, von wo er 1804 an die Universität Moskau als Unteraufseher und Bibliothekar an das Kaiserliche Museum für Naturgeschichte berufen wurde. Sein Wirken in Moskau, zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts und seine wissenschaftlichen Reisen innerhalb des russischen Reiches und in Krisengebiete, geben Einblicke in bisher wenig bekannte Details dieses Riesenreiches und das ganz normale Leben. Martius gehörte bereits 1805 zu den 25 Stiftern der „Moskauer Gesellschaft der Naturforscher“. Nach seiner Promotion zum Dr. der Medizin begann seine steile Karriere zum Leibarzt bedeutender russischer Familien bis hin zum Fürsten und Bildungsminister Alexej von Rasumowski, der ihn in den Adelsstand erhob. Nach dem Brand von Moskau, bei dem Martius alles verlor, nahm er Heimaturlaub nach Deutschland bei seiner Familie in Radeberg, ging als Arzt nach Bautzen, wurde Amtsarzt in Nossen, wo er mit seinen fortschrittlichen Ideen für die Verbesserung des Gesundheitswesens auf Widerstand stieß und in Prozesse verwickelt war, woraufhin er mit seiner Familie als Arzt nach Berlin übersiedelte, wo sein Leben mit 39 Jahren endete.