full-text guidelines incorporating the updated material are available on the Internet (www.
acc. org or www. americanheart. org) in both a version that shows the changes from the …

Summary...... 1277 1.3. 4. Comparison With Percutaneous Techniques...... 1277 1.3. 4.1.
Overview of Randomized Trials...... 1278 1.3. 4.2. Results of Randomized Trials...... 1280 1.3 …

Despite an overall reduction in the death rate due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the
United States over the last several decades, the rate of decline is less for women than men …

Despite rising costs, health care often is of poor quality. 1-4 Current solutions to improving
quality may do more harm than good if they focus more on diseases than on people. 2, 5-9 …

The United States has experienced dramatic growth in both the technical capabilities and
share of resources devoted to medical care. While the benefits of more medical care are …

Background—Trends in risk-severity and operative mortality (OM) were examined in 3330
consecutive patients aged 70 years and older who underwent isolated coronary artery …

An extensive literature has documented racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in
health care and health outcomes. We argue that the influence of geography in medical …

Viewing primary care as merely one of the many niches in individual patient care fosters a
narrow perspective that neither accounts for the full value of primary care nor offers proper …

Benchmarking is generally considered to be an important tool for quality improvement.
Traditional approaches to benchmarking have relied on subjective identification of 'leaders …

PROLOGUE: Canada's health insurance system, the nation's most popular publicly financed
service, has for years demonstrated a capacity to deliver universal, high-quality medical care …