Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE: To determine the personal qualities important in physiatrists as described by patients and rehabilitation team members. DESIGN: An oral survey. SETTING: Adult rehabilitation service at a teaching rehabilitation institution affiliated with an academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 171 people including inpatients, rehabilitation nurses, occupational and physical therapists, and resident and full-time attending physicians. INTERVENTIONS: Two questions to elicit the personal qualities that were considered important in a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Subjects' responses grouped as personal qualities (personality), working qualities (professionalism), competence, caring, and collegiality. RESULTS: Caring and competence qualities were the most important to patients. Collegiality and caring were valued most by the rehabilitation staff. Personal qualities and competence were of relatively greater importance to the physiatrists. CONCLUSIONS: There was significant variability in the relative. value assigned to each of the five groups of traits among the respondents. Knowledge of the desires and expectations of the people involved in the rehabilitation process may benefit rehabilitation patients, physicians, and staff

Thirty years of active acupuncture research have failed to unequivocally demonstrate its clinical efficacy. Certain characteristics of acupuncture are difficult to fit into an experimental study. Many researchers mention selection of appropriate controls, single- or double-blind research design, and application of relevant outcome measures as areas causing most difficulties. Also cited are the variability of acupuncture techniques, difficulty of standardizing acupuncture treatments, inadequate population size, significant variability of response to treatments, the use of a distinctive terminology, and importance of practitioner's experience. Acupuncture and Chinese traditional medicine are based on a unique philosophical model, and the instruments of biomedical research may be inadequate and inappropriate. In contrast to the quantitative experimental method, introspective self-observation and qualitative observation are offered as a means of studying the effectiveness of acupuncture

Myotonic dystrophy is a rare genetic neuromuscular disorder with multisystem involvement. Hydrocephalus and cognitive deterioration are not commonly considered part of adult-onset myotonic dystrophy. This report describes a case of progressive distal muscle weakness, cognitive decline, and longstanding ventricular enlargement. Review of the literature suggests that hydrocephalus may be associated with myotonic dystrophy while progressive cognitive decline is rare in the adult form of the disease

This article compares and contrasts philosophical foundations as well as practical approaches of eastern and western medical systems. Discussion is based on the premise that medicine is a reflection of a society's more general structures and beliefs. Historical developments of Oriental and Occidental cultures and their respective medical models follows and is used to explain the disparity in practice that exists today. The dichotomy of medicine in the East and West is then considered in terms of Yin and Yang, as well as possibilities for interaction.