Boggis, Anthony R.J. and Charles

Boggis, Anthony R.J. And Charles Stanley Cornford. General Practitioners with Special Clinical Interests: A Qualitative Study of the Views of Doctors, Health Managers and Patients. Elsevier Ireland, Ltd., 2006.

In this article, Anthony R.J. Boggis and Charles Stanley Cornford examine a particularly distressing problem related to general practitioners/doctors, namely, that alternative ways of providing services to those in need of medical attention must be developed, due to the current difficulties associated with many health care systems worldwide. One critical aspect which the authors explore in-depth are the views of health care professionals and their patients related to providing adequate health care, an area that is currently unexplored in the academic/research world of medicine. The main objective of this article is to "study the views of a variety of doctors, health managers and patients concerning the development of general practitioners with special clinical interests." The results, which were gathered in northern England via a lengthy interview, show that general practitioners are mostly concerned with "enhanced job satisfaction" and "increased recruitment and retention" for those in general medical practices. One other area of concern is decreasing "hospital specialty waiting times" and addressing a number of unmet professional and patient needs. Overall, this article goes into great depth pertaining to this topic and provides glimpses into the views and opinions of doctors and GP's worldwide.

Evans, Tim, et al. Overview: For Health Workers. Working Together for Health. The World Health Report, Geneva, Switzerland, 2006.

This overview introduces the first chapter of a very long and extremely detailed document prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006. Generally, this overview of the first chapter discusses one primary aspect, being that "Health care/service providers are the personification of a system's core values" and serve as "the human link that connects knowledge to health action." In today's world of advanced health care systems, one of the most devastating illnesses that has affected many national health care systems, along with their workers and providers, is the HIV / AIDS epidemic which has drastically lowered life expectancy in some of the poorest regions of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and other "failed states." Thus, in order to overcome this and many other pandemic diseases worldwide, Lee Jong-wook offers the following piece of advice -- "We (i.e., health care workers) have to work together to ensure access to a motivated, skilled and supported health worker by every person in every village everywhere."

Gattellari, Melina and Jeanette E. Ward. A Community-based Randomized Controlled Trial of Three Different Educational Resources for Men about Prostate Cancer Screening.

Elsevier Ireland Ltd., 2004.

In this highly-detailed article, prepared by Melina Gattellari and Jeanette E. Ward of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, the overall goal is to evaluate a number of current resources used to "facilitate informed decisions about prostate cancer screenings," a subject that has rarely been addressed in recent years. In order to accomplish this goal, the authors conducted a study of 421 men who randomly were given a leaflet, a booklet or a video concerning how to make informed decisions on whether or not to have prostate cancer surgery or some other type of treatment. What the authors found is very interesting, for after testing these men on their increased knowledge on prostate cancer alternatives, "scores were significantly higher... among those who had received (the) booklet, compared with men who received the leaflet or video." Thus, the results of the author's study suggests that men "require detailed information about the pros and cons" of PSA testing, surgery and chemotherapy "in order to make an informed decision," one that could potentially affect the rest of their lives. This article certainly demonstrates that most men are not very knowledgeable on the topic of prostate cancer and shows that all men need to become more informed about the dangers of not being tested for prostate cancer.

Glouberman, Sholom and Henry Mintzberg. Managing the Care of Health and the Cure of Disease -- Part I: Differentiation. Aspen Publishers, 2001.