Systematic identification of a population's needs or the assessment of individuals to determine the proper level of services needed.

Health services required by a population or community as well as the health services that the population or community is able and willing to pay for.

Calamities producing great damage, loss of life, and distress. They include results of natural phenomena and man-made phenomena. Normal conditions of existence are disrupted and the level of impact exceeds the capacity of the hazard-affected community.

Assistance, such as money, food, or shelter, given to the needy, aged, or victims of disaster. It is usually granted on a temporary basis. (From The American Heritage Dictionary, 2d college ed)

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

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.

A course of study offered by an educational institution.

The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).

Educational programs designed to inform physicians of recent advances in their field.

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.

The use of community resources, individual case work, or group work to promote the adaptive capacities of individuals in relation to their social and economic environments. It includes social service agencies.

An agency of the PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE concerned with the overall planning, promoting, and administering of programs pertaining to substance abuse and mental health. It is commonly referred to by the acronym SAMHSA. On 1 October 1992, the United States Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) became SAMHSA.

Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.

The teaching staff and members of the administrative staff having academic rank in a medical school.

The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care.

Specialized health care, supportive in nature, provided to a dying person. A holistic approach is often taken, providing patients and their families with legal, financial, emotional, or spiritual counseling in addition to meeting patients' immediate physical needs. Care may be provided in the home, in the hospital, in specialized facilities (HOSPICES), or in specially designated areas of long-term care facilities. The concept also includes bereavement care for the family. (From Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)

Studies designed to assess the efficacy of programs. They may include the evaluation of cost-effectiveness, the extent to which objectives are met, or impact.

Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community.

Educational programs designed to inform nurses of recent advances in their fields.

The capability to perform the duties of one's profession generally, or to perform a particular professional task, with skill of an acceptable quality.

The qualitative or quantitative estimation of the likelihood of adverse effects that may result from exposure to specified health hazards or from the absence of beneficial influences. (Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 1988)

Conversations with an individual or individuals held in order to obtain information about their background and other personal biographical data, their attitudes and opinions, etc. It includes school admission or job interviews.

The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.

Services offered to the library user. They include reference and circulation.

The interactions between members of a community and representatives of the institutions within that community.

Educational programs designed to inform individuals of recent advances in their particular field of interest. They do not lead to any formal advanced standing.

Collaborative process of research involving researchers and community representatives.

Branch of medicine concerned with the prevention and control of disease and disability, and the promotion of physical and mental health of the population on the international, national, state, or municipal level.

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).

A system of medical care regulated, controlled and financed by the government, in which the government assumes responsibility for the health needs of the population.

A medical specialty concerned with maintaining health and providing medical care to children from birth to adolescence.

A geographic location which has insufficient health resources (manpower and/or facilities) to meet the medical needs of the resident population.

The assessing of academic or educational achievement. It includes all aspects of testing and test construction.

Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities.

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)

Programs of training in medicine and medical specialties offered by hospitals for graduates of medicine to meet the requirements established by accrediting authorities.

Educational programs for medical graduates entering a specialty. They include formal specialty training as well as academic work in the clinical and basic medical sciences, and may lead to board certification or an advanced medical degree.

Organized services to provide information on any questions an individual might have using databases and other sources. (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)

Theoretical models which propose methods of learning or teaching as a basis or adjunct to changes in attitude or behavior. These educational interventions are usually applied in the fields of health and patient education but are not restricted to patient care.

Community or individual involvement in the decision-making process.

The purposes, missions, and goals of an individual organization or its units, established through administrative processes. It includes an organization's long-range plans and administrative philosophy.

Education that increases the awareness and favorably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of health on a personal or community basis.

The teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs.

Care which provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. (JAMA 1995;273(3):192)

Services for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the aged and the maintenance of health in the elderly.

Management of public health organizations or agencies.

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.

Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.

A medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the internal organ systems of adults.

Those physicians who have completed the education requirements specified by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Small-scale tests of methods and procedures to be used on a larger scale if the pilot study demonstrates that these methods and procedures can work.

Encouraging consumer behaviors most likely to optimize health potentials (physical and psychosocial) through health information, preventive programs, and access to medical care.

Support systems that provide assistance and encouragement to individuals with physical or emotional disabilities in order that they may better cope. Informal social support is usually provided by friends, relatives, or peers, while formal assistance is provided by churches, groups, etc.

A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.

Care alleviating symptoms without curing the underlying disease. (Stedman, 25th ed)

The degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider as useful, effective, or beneficial.

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)

The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.

The educational process of instructing.

Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)

Assessment of psychological variables by the application of mathematical procedures.

Organized services to provide mental health care.

New abnormal growth of tissue. Malignant neoplasms show a greater degree of anaplasia and have the properties of invasion and metastasis, compared to benign neoplasms.

A generic concept reflecting concern with the modification and enhancement of life attributes, e.g., physical, political, moral and social environment; the overall condition of a human life.

The status of health in urban populations.

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.

The inhabitants of rural areas or of small towns classified as rural.

The largest country in North America, comprising 10 provinces and three territories. Its capital is Ottawa.

Diseases which have one or more of the following characteristics: they are permanent, leave residual disability, are caused by nonreversible pathological alteration, require special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation, or care. (Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)

Evaluation of the nature and extent of nursing problems presented by a patient for the purpose of patient care planning.

Social and economic factors that characterize the individual or group within the social structure.

Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.

Research aimed at assessing the quality and effectiveness of health care as measured by the attainment of a specified end result or outcome. Measures include parameters such as improved health, lowered morbidity or mortality, and improvement of abnormal states (such as elevated blood pressure).

A systematic collection of factual data pertaining to health and disease in a human population within a given geographic area.

Evaluation of the level of physical, physiological, or mental functioning in the older population group.

Binary classification measures to assess test results. Sensitivity or recall rate is the proportion of true positives. Specificity is the probability of correctly determining the absence of a condition. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)

Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.

Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.

Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.

The failure by the observer to measure or identify a phenomenon accurately, which results in an error. Sources for this may be due to the observer's missing an abnormality, or to faulty technique resulting in incorrect test measurement, or to misinterpretation of the data. Two varieties are inter-observer variation (the amount observers vary from one another when reporting on the same material) and intra-observer variation (the amount one observer varies between observations when reporting more than once on the same material).

Evaluation and measurement of nutritional variables in order to assess the level of nutrition or the NUTRITIONAL STATUS of the individual. NUTRITION SURVEYS may be used in making the assessment.

Levels within a diagnostic group which are established by various measurement criteria applied to the seriousness of a patient's disorder.