This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.

This text is an invaluable, comprehensive data reference for anyone involved in health physics or radiation safety. This new edition addresses the specific data requirements of health physicists, with data presented in large tables, including the latest NCRP recommendations, which are tabulated and given in both SI and traditional units for ease of use. Although portions of these data can be obtained from various internet sites, many are obscure, difficult to navigate and/or have conflicting information for even the most common data, such as specific gamma ray constants. This new edition compiles all essential data in this vast field into one user-friendly, authoritative source. It also offers a website with full-text search capability. Markets include radiation safety, medical physics and nuclear medicine

"This Report extends the concepts and approaches discussed in NCRP Report No. 171 and Commentary No. 24 to further reduce uncertainty in radiation risk assessments at low doses and low dose rates, thereby enhancing the bases for radiation protection guidance"--

This book is the seventh in a series of titles from the National Research Council that addresses the effects of exposure to low dose LET (Linear Energy Transfer) ionizing radiation and human health. Updating information previously presented in the 1990 publication, Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR V, this book draws upon new data in both epidemiologic and experimental research. Ionizing radiation arises from both natural and man-made sources and at very high doses can produce damaging effects in human tissue that can be evident within days after exposure. However, it is the low-dose exposures that are the focus of this book. So-called “late” effects, such as cancer, are produced many years after the initial exposure. This book is among the first of its kind to include detailed risk estimates for cancer incidence in addition to cancer mortality. BEIR VII offers a full review of the available biological, biophysical, and epidemiological literature since the last BEIR report on the subject and develops the most up-to-date and comprehensive risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-level ionizing radiation.

An essential resource for medical imaging professionals, this book provides everything you need to create exceptional radiology reports. In an accessible and informal style, one of the foremost experts on radiology reporting gives you practical tips for precise image interpretation and clear communication. This book should be required reading for radiologists in training, and is destined to become an indispensable part of every radiologist's library. Topics include: * The virtues of "normal" * How to say "I don't know" * Building a rhetorical foundation * Spatial relationships * Making recommendations * Suggesting clinical correlation * The hedge * Severity straddling * Size matters * Eponyms in radiology * A summary of reporting best practices * How speech recognition works * Optimizing your speech recognition * Templates and macros * The history of radiology reporting * Structured reporting case study * Structured reporting: what you can do today * Standard terminology for the radiology report * How to think about imaging information * Logic, probability, and the radiology report * Decision making in radiology * The radiology report in 2025

Medical devices that are deemed to have a moderate risk to patients generally cannot go on the market until they are cleared through the FDA 510(k) process. In recent years, individuals and organizations have expressed concern that the 510(k) process is neither making safe and effective devices available to patients nor promoting innovation in the medical-device industry. Several high-profile mass-media reports and consumer-protection groups have profiled recognized or potential problems with medical devices cleared through the 510(k) clearance process. The medical-device industry and some patients have asserted that the process has become too burdensome and is delaying or stalling the entry of important new medical devices to the market. At the request of the FDA, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examined the 510(k) process. Medical Devices and the Public's Health examines the current 510(k) clearance process and whether it optimally protects patients and promotes innovation in support of public health. It also identifies legislative, regulatory, or administrative changes that will achieve the goals of the 510(k) clearance process. Medical Devices and the Public's Health recommends that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gather the information needed to develop a new regulatory framework to replace the 35-year-old 510(k) clearance process for medical devices. According to the report, the FDA's finite resources are best invested in developing an integrated premarket and postmarket regulatory framework.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

The Symposium on Radionuclides in the Food Chain, sponsored by the Interna tional Life Sciences Institute in association with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, was intended to bring together policymakers and other representatives of the food industry with radiation experts involved in measuring and assessing radioactivity in foodstuffs. The symposium was made timely by the problems arising from the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, in the USSR, which brought out the lack of international agreement on guidance for responding to such radionuclide contamination of food and foodstuffs. The presentations by the radiation experts covered the sources of radionu clides-natural radioactivity, fallout from nuclear weapons tests, routine releases from nuclear facilities, and various nuclear accidents. The speakers represented a broad distribution in both scientific disciplines and international geographic origin. They summarized the available data on measurements and indicated the current procedures for assessing radiation exposure. It was hoped that the food industry representatives would bring out the problems posed to industry and governments by the presence of radioactivity in food.