Access to Information
Health Services Accessibility
Arteriovenous Shunt, Surgical
Catheters, Indwelling
Vascular Access Devices
Devices to be inserted into veins or arteries for the purpose of carrying fluids into or from a peripheral or central vascular location. They may include component parts such as catheters, ports, reservoirs, and valves. They may be left in place temporarily for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.
Internet
A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.
Renal Dialysis
United States
The term "United States" in a medical context often refers to the country where a patient or study participant resides, and is not a medical term per se, but relevant for epidemiological studies, healthcare policies, and understanding differences in disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and health outcomes across various geographic locations.
Catheterization, Central Venous
User-Computer Interface
Catheterization, Peripheral
Socioeconomic Factors
Health Care Surveys
Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.
Computer Communication Networks
A system containing any combination of computers, computer terminals, printers, audio or visual display devices, or telephones interconnected by telecommunications equipment or cables: used to transmit or receive information. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)
Information Storage and Retrieval
Insurance, Health
Online Systems
Poverty
A situation in which the level of living of an individual, family, or group is below the standard of the community. It is often related to a specific income level.
Delivery of Health Care
The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.
Rural Health Services
Health services, public or private, in rural areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.
Commerce
The interchange of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale, between different countries or between populations within the same country. It includes trade (the buying, selling, or exchanging of commodities, whether wholesale or retail) and business (the purchase and sale of goods to make a profit). (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, p411, p2005 & p283)
Computer Security
Protective measures against unauthorized access to or interference with computer operating systems, telecommunications, or data structures, especially the modification, deletion, destruction, or release of data in computers. It includes methods of forestalling interference by computer viruses or so-called computer hackers aiming to compromise stored data.
Insurance Coverage
Radial Artery
Software
Questionnaires
Health Policy
Punctures
Incision of tissues for injection of medication or for other diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Punctures of the skin, for example may be used for diagnostic drainage; of blood vessels for diagnostic imaging procedures.
Polytetrafluoroethylene
Homopolymer of tetrafluoroethylene. Nonflammable, tough, inert plastic tubing or sheeting; used to line vessels, insulate, protect or lubricate apparatus; also as filter, coating for surgical implants or as prosthetic material. Synonyms: Fluoroflex; Fluoroplast; Ftoroplast; Halon; Polyfene; PTFE; Tetron.
Primary Health Care
Referral and Consultation
Treatment Outcome
Medicaid
Appointments and Schedules
The different methods of scheduling patient visits, appointment systems, individual or group appointments, waiting times, waiting lists for hospitals, walk-in clinics, etc.
Kidney Failure, Chronic
The end-stage of CHRONIC RENAL INSUFFICIENCY. It is characterized by the severe irreversible kidney damage (as measured by the level of PROTEINURIA) and the reduction in GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE to less than 15 ml per min (Kidney Foundation: Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative, 2002). These patients generally require HEMODIALYSIS or KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION.
Confidentiality
The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure.
Health Services Research
The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Information Services
Databases, Factual
Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references.
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Cross-Sectional Studies
Patient Satisfaction
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Vulnerable Populations
Urban Health Services
Health services, public or private, in urban areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.
Quality of Health Care
Axillary Vein
The venous trunk of the upper limb; a continuation of the basilar and brachial veins running from the lower border of the teres major muscle to the outer border of the first rib where it becomes the subclavian vein.
Interviews as Topic
Private Sector
Developing Countries
Countries in the process of change with economic growth, that is, an increase in production, per capita consumption, and income. The process of economic growth involves better utilization of natural and human resources, which results in a change in the social, political, and economic structures.
Residence Characteristics
Elements of residence that characterize a population. They are applicable in determining need for and utilization of health services.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Medically Underserved Area
Telemedicine
Delivery of health services via remote telecommunications. This includes interactive consultative and diagnostic services.
Health Care Reform
Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.
State Health Plans
National Health Programs
Infusions, Intraosseous
Social Justice
Brachiocephalic Veins
HIV Infections
Medical Records Systems, Computerized
Femoral Vein
The vein accompanying the femoral artery in the same sheath; it is a continuation of the popliteal vein and becomes the external iliac vein.
Copyright
It is a form of protection provided by law. In the United States this protection is granted to authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. (from Circular of the United States Copyright Office, 6/30/2008)
Community Health Services
Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community.
Program Evaluation
Database Management Systems
Systems Integration
Logistic Models
Statistical models which describe the relationship between a qualitative dependent variable (that is, one which can take only certain discrete values, such as the presence or absence of a disease) and an independent variable. A common application is in epidemiology for estimating an individual's risk (probability of a disease) as a function of a given risk factor.
Attitude of Health Personnel
Human Rights
Libraries, Digital
Geographic Information Systems
Universal Coverage
Health insurance coverage for all persons in a state or country, rather than for some subset of the population. It may extend to the unemployed as well as to the employed; to aliens as well as to citizens; for pre-existing conditions as well as for current illnesses; for mental as well as for physical conditions.
California
I'm sorry for any confusion, but "California" is a place, specifically a state on the western coast of the United States, and not a medical term or concept. Therefore, it doesn't have a medical definition.
Qualitative Research
Publishing
"The business or profession of the commercial production and issuance of literature" (Webster's 3d). It includes the publisher, publication processes, editing and editors. Production may be by conventional printing methods or by electronic publishing.
Computer Systems
Systems composed of a computer or computers, peripheral equipment, such as disks, printers, and terminals, and telecommunications capabilities.
Canada
Focus Groups
A method of data collection and a QUALITATIVE RESEARCH tool in which a small group of individuals are brought together and allowed to interact in a discussion of their opinions about topics, issues, or questions.
Needs Assessment
Family Practice
A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.
Self Administration
Electronic Mail
Messages between computer users via COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS. This feature duplicates most of the features of paper mail, such as forwarding, multiple copies, and attachments of images and other file types, but with a speed advantage. The term also refers to an individual message sent in this way.
CD-ROM
An optical disk storage system for computers on which data can be read or from which data can be retrieved but not entered or modified. A CD-ROM unit is almost identical to the compact disk playback device for home use.
Intellectual Property
Property, such as patents, trademarks, and copyright, that results from creative effort. The Patent and Copyright Clause (Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 8) of the United States Constitution provides for promoting the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. (From Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed, p1014)
Databases as Topic
Information Systems
Managed Care Programs
Health insurance plans intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS and PREFERRED PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS.
Ethnic Groups
Ontario
A province of Canada lying between the provinces of Manitoba and Quebec. Its capital is Toronto. It takes its name from Lake Ontario which is said to represent the Iroquois oniatariio, beautiful lake. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p892 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p391)
Great Britain
Great Britain is not a medical term, but a geographical name for the largest island in the British Isles, which comprises England, Scotland, and Wales, forming the major part of the United Kingdom.
Risk Factors
Poverty Areas
Hispanic Americans
Persons living in the United States of Mexican (MEXICAN AMERICANS), Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin. The concept does not include Brazilian Americans or Portuguese Americans.
Prospective Studies
Pregnancy
Continuity of Patient Care
Constriction, Pathologic
Feasibility Studies
Catheterization
Minority Groups
Communication Barriers
Blood Vessel Prosthesis
Privacy
Archives
England
I'm sorry for any confusion, but 'England' is not a medical term and does not have a medical definition. England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, known for its rich history, cultural heritage, and contributions to medical science. However, in a medical context, it may refer to the location of a patient, healthcare provider, or research study, but it is not a term with a specific medical meaning.
Subclavian Vein
The continuation of the axillary vein which follows the subclavian artery and then joins the internal jugular vein to form the brachiocephalic vein.
Databases, Bibliographic
Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of references and citations to books, articles, publications, etc., generally on a single subject or specialized subject area. Databases can operate through automated files, libraries, or computer disks. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, FACTUAL which is used for collections of data and facts apart from bibliographic references to them.
Dental Care
Ethics, Dental
Health Status Disparities
Microcomputers
Small computers using LSI (large-scale integration) microprocessor chips as the CPU (central processing unit) and semiconductor memories for compact, inexpensive storage of program instructions and data. They are smaller and less expensive than minicomputers and are usually built into a dedicated system where they are optimized for a particular application. "Microprocessor" may refer to just the CPU or the entire microcomputer.
Health Care Rationing
Pilot Projects
Ambulatory Care
Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation
African Americans
Persons living in the United States having origins in any of the black groups of Africa.
Social Class
A stratum of people with similar position and prestige; includes social stratification. Social class is measured by criteria such as education, occupation, and income.
Gatekeeping
The controlling of access to health services, usually by primary care providers; often used in managed care settings to reduce utilization of expensive services and reduce referrals. (From BIOETHICS Thesaurus, 1999)
Feeding Behavior
Medical Informatics
Medical Indigency
Models, Molecular
Community Health Centers
Facilities which administer the delivery of health care services to people living in a community or neighborhood.
Libraries, Medical
'Medical Libraries' are repositories or digital platforms that accumulate, organize, and provide access to a wide range of biomedical information resources including but not limited to books, journals, electronic databases, multimedia materials, and other evidence-based health data for the purpose of supporting and advancing clinical practice, education, research, and administration in healthcare.
Ambulatory Care Facilities
Those facilities which administer health services to individuals who do not require hospitalization or institutionalization.
Age Factors
Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.
Radiography, Interventional
Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that are invasive or surgical in nature, and require the expertise of a specially trained radiologist. In general, they are more invasive than diagnostic imaging but less invasive than major surgery. They often involve catheterization, fluoroscopy, or computed tomography. Some examples include percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography, percutaneous transthoracic biopsy, balloon angioplasty, and arterial embolization.
Australia
Equipment Failure
Models, Organizational
State Medicine
National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
An agency of the NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH concerned with overall planning, promoting, and administering programs pertaining to advancement of medical and related sciences. Major activities of this institute include the collection, dissemination, and exchange of information important to the progress of medicine and health, research in medical informatics and support for medical library development.
Patient Selection
Emergency Service, Hospital
New York City
Emigrants and Immigrants
Nova Scotia
A province of eastern Canada, one of the Maritime Provinces with NEW BRUNSWICK; PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; and sometimes NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR. Its capital is Halifax. The territory was granted in 1621 by James I to the Scotsman Sir William Alexander and was called Nova Scotia, the Latin for New Scotland. The territory had earlier belonged to the French, under the name of Acadia. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p871 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p384)
Upper Extremity
Remote Consultation
Consultation via remote telecommunications, generally for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment of a patient at a site remote from the patient or primary physician.
Preventive Health Services
Services designed for HEALTH PROMOTION and prevention of disease.
Health Expenditures
The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.
Health Records, Personal
Health Personnel
Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976)
Health Promotion
Reproductive Health Services
Health care services related to human REPRODUCTION and diseases of the reproductive system. Services are provided to both sexes and usually by physicians in the medical or the surgical specialties such as REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE; ANDROLOGY; GYNECOLOGY; OBSTETRICS; and PERINATOLOGY.
Health Surveys
Sanitation
Public Policy
Choice Behavior
Cohort Studies
Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Health Care Costs
The actual costs of providing services related to the delivery of health care, including the costs of procedures, therapies, and medications. It is differentiated from HEALTH EXPENDITURES, which refers to the amount of money paid for the services, and from fees, which refers to the amount charged, regardless of cost.
Biomedical Research
Insurance, Health, Reimbursement
Payment by a third-party payer in a sum equal to the amount expended by a health care provider or facility for health services rendered to an insured or program beneficiary. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)
Follow-Up Studies
Health Status
Multivariate Analysis
A set of techniques used when variation in several variables has to be studied simultaneously. In statistics, multivariate analysis is interpreted as any analytic method that allows simultaneous study of two or more dependent variables.