Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 82-86.

Thesis (M.A. (African Language Studies)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 321-350).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1992.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Medicine (RMH/WH), 2010. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 359-392)

Medicine unavailability, also known as stock-outs is a global problem. South Africa is not exempt from this problem which impacts negatively on the way in which healthcare services are rendered, more especially in the public sector. Communities are complaining about the unavailability of medicines at public health facilities particularly in primary health care clinics. In an effort to address this problem, the Minister of Health has declared medicine availability as one of the six priorities of the Department of Health. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experiences and perceptions of healthcare professionals practicing at primary healthcare clinics in a peri-urban area of the Eastern Cape regarding the unavailability of medicines. Understanding the experiences and perceptions was expected to assist in addressing the problem at hand and help management in developing ways to address the problem and support the employees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals working at primary health care clinics in and around Mdantsane Township in the Eastern Cape. The main findings of the study can be divided into the following topics: perceived causes of medicine stock-outs, the implications of stock shortages, actions taken in the case of stock-outs and the role to play by in mitigating the impact of stock shortages. The limitations of the study include the research sample which was not truly representative of all healthcare professionals working at Mdantsane sub-district primary healthcare clinics. The study recommends various strategies that management should follow to assist in addressing medicine shortages. The researcher recommends further research to describe the experiences of healthcare professional regarding medicine unavailability.

Rufus of Ephesus's 'Quaestiones Medicinales' is an under-studied work by one of the most respected doctors of Greco-Roman antiquity. This thesis presents a new translation - the first in English of the complete work - and a reassessment of the treatise. I propose that, far from being a simple handbook teaching doctors how to take a patient history, as has hitherto been assumed, QM is an ardent plea for doctors to recognise the limits of their own knowledge and the indispensability of questioning the patient. I argue that QM articulates the idea that the aim of medicine cannot be achieved through medical knowledge alone, and that, in constructing the patient as an essential partner in diagnosis and decisions about treatment, Rufus implies a sharing of authority between doctor and patient that is noticeably different from the emphasis that other authors, particularly the determinedly hierarchical Galen, place on securing patients' obedience, a subject on which Rufus is noticeably silent. I argue that Rufus is unusual in the clarity and candour with which he perceives and acknowledges the limits of medical knowledge, in his conceptualisation of questioning as a discursive rather than a formulaic activity, in his explicit insistence that it must be addressed directly to the patient, in his psychological concept of habits, and in his recommendation of questioning as a strategy for resolving the tension between universal theory and individual experience. I look at modern cross-cultural research into the factors that drive patient compliance, and note that chief among them is patients feeling they are partners in the treatment process. This raises the question whether and to what extent the features that drive compliance are diachronically as well as cross-culturally consistent, and whether Rufus's shared authority model is more likely to have produced successful treatment outcomes than the autocratic paradigm promoted by Galen, and subsequently absorbed into Western medical tradition, that seems to have met with so much resistance.

This experimental study was designed to evaluate the effect of planned teaching on the self-medication practices of ambulatory cardiac patients. The sample was composed of forty male and female cardiac patients who were over the age of forty-five years, who lived at home and were of low socio-economic status. They all lived in a large urban centre and attended an outpatient clinic for medical attention. All were taking digoxin and thirty-six, 18 from each group, were also taking a diuretic. They were randomly assigned to two groups, experimental and control, when they visited the outpatient clinic. The twenty patients in the control group were given the usual routine factual information during their clinic visit. The twenty patients in the experimental group received additional planned teaching over a thirty-minute period by the researcher. The data were gathered by means of a twenty-item questionnaire designed to elicit information regarding the self-medication behavior of the study population. The questionnaire was administered in the homes of the patients ten to fourteen days following their visit to the outpatient clinic. Three hypotheses were tested in the study. Analysis of the data in relation to Hypothesis I indicated a statistically significant difference in the number of self-medication errors in digoxin and diuretics made in a twenty-four-hour period by patients in the experimental group as compared with the control group. The experimental group made significantly fewer errors. Although patients in the experimental group made fewer errors of the four types of errors studied with regard to Hypothesis II, there was not a statistically significant difference in errors related to time, dosage and non-prescribed medications made in a twenty-four-hour period by patients in the experimental group as compared with the control group. There was, however, a statistically significant difference in the fourth type of error--that of omission. The testing of Hypothesis III showed a statistically significant difference in the level of knowledge of the two groups of patients. The experimental group had a higher level of knowledge of their medications. The study concludes with consideration of implications for nursing practice and research. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

A decade ago, only 10% of U.S. healthcare organizations used an electronic health record (EHR), whereas more than 99% do today. The rapid adoption of EHRs has radically transformed communication of health information. Previously, health records consisted of providers handwriting notes in paper charts, rarely seen by outsiders. Today, EHRs integrate information from dozens of sources, to be used by providers, administrators, researchers, and increasingly, patients. Last year alone, an estimated 100 million Americans interacted with their own health records through patient-facing systems. This information has been used to prevent medical errors, reduce nonadherence to treatment, increase shared decision-making, and improve health outcomes. However, failure to comprehend this information can negate any potential benefits and even cause medically-harmful miscommunication. Therefore, it is critical to represent health information using methods that promote patients' comprehension. Despite the need for better representation, today's patient-facing systems do little more than present unexplained data, and limited guidance has been given by research or policy. In this thesis, we present new evidence about representation of health information in patient-facing systems, and we use this evidence to develop informatics methods that promote comprehension. Two aims center on (1) medical abbreviations and acronyms, one of the biggest barriers to patients' comprehension of their health records, and (2) changes in patient-reported outcomes, one of the most important informants of chronic disease management. We assess challenges with representing this information to patients, using randomized trials and qualitative studies. Then, we develop and evaluate an array of informatics methods for overcoming challenges, specifically: (1) machine learning methods for automated expansion of medical abbreviations and acronyms, and (2) information visualization methods for representing changes in patient-reported outcomes. In the future, these interventions can be implemented in patient-facing systems to optimize comprehension. Our evidence will guide strategies for meaningful communication that, ultimately, will build trust between patients and the healthcare system that serves them.