THE UNITED STATES SPENDS MORE per capita on health care services than any other
country, yet there are mounting concerns about the uneven and unpredictable quality of care …

▪ Abstract Cascade effect refers to a process that proceeds in stepwise fashion from an
initiating event to a seemingly inevitable conclusion. With regard to medical technology, the …

We determined whether adherence to recommendations for coronary angiography more
than 12 h after symptom onset but prior to hospital discharge after acute myocardial …

The ACC/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines herein revises and updates the original
“Guidelines for Coronary Angiography,” published in 1987 (1). The frequent and still …

Background It is unclear whether stable, high-risk patients with persistent total occlusion of
the infarct-related coronary artery identified after the currently accepted period for …

Medicare spending varies more than twofold among regions, and the variations persist even
after differences in health are corrected for. Higher levels of Medicare spending are due …

Abstract The Sixth Conference on the “Standards of Laboratory Practice Series”, sponsored
by the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB), was held on August 4–5, 1998, at …

Background Universal health care systems seek to ensure access to care on the basis of
need rather than income and to improve the health status of all citizens. We examined the …

ContextA number of studies have found race-and sex-based differences in rates of
cardiovascular procedures in the United States. Similarly, mental disorders might be …

The goal of this article is to address, from the perspective of users of the health care system
(consumers), the following questions: What are the most important health care quality gaps …