Updated Protocol for the Examination of Specimens From Patients With Carcinomas of the Prostate Gland

BACKGROUNDThe goal of quality assurance in health care is to preserve and improve patient care. Recently, RAND developed a set of evidence‐based candidate indicators for evaluating the quality of care for patients with localized prostate carcinoma; however, the feasibility and sensitivity of these indicators have not been tested in a clinical setting. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of measuring these quality indicators and to determine their sensitivity to change in practice patterns over time.METHODSOne hundred sixty‐eight men who presented in either 1995 or in 2000 and were treated for localized prostate carcinoma were selected randomly from the University of Michigan tumor registry. A combination of electronic data base review and explicit chart review was used to assess the feasibility of measuring compliance for each indicator. For each indicator in which assessment was feasible, compliance with the RAND indicators was determined for patients in both years. Multivariate regression analysis was used to adjust for potential confounding effects of disease stage, tumor grade, prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, patient age, and therapy.RESULTSBased on review of available clinical data, measurement of compliance was feasible for 19 of 22 RAND candidate quality indicators (86%). For five indicators, significant differences in documentation (compliance) were detected between 1995 and 2000 (P < 0.05). Treatment received and higher PSA levels were associated independently with documentation of compliance for several indicators (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONSMeasurement of the majority of the RAND quality indicators for the treatment of patients with localized prostate carcinoma was feasible, and improvements in several indicators were observed between 1995 and 2000. Demonstration of such variation, even within a single institution, suggests that the indicators are sufficiently sensitive to detect differences in practice patterns. Cancer 2003;97:1428–35. © 2003 American Cancer Society.DOI 10.1002/cncr.11216

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The quality of surgical pathology care for men undergoing radical prostatectomy in the U.S.

Miller

Spencer

Shah

et al. 2007

Cancer

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Amorphous‐made poly(L‐lactide) [i.e., poly(L‐lactic acid) (PLLA)], poly(L‐lactide‐co‐D‐lactide)[P(LLA‐DLA)](77/23), and P(LLA‐DLA)(50/50) films and PLLA films with different crystallinity (Xc) values were prepared, and the effects of molecular weight, D‐lactide unit content (tacticity and optical purity), and crystallinity of poly(lactide) [i.e., poly(lactic acid) (PLA)] on the water vapor permeability was investigated. The changes in number‐average molecular weight (Mn) of PLLA films in the range of 9 × 104–5 × 105 g mol−1 and D‐lactide unit content of PLA films in the range of 0–50% have insignificant effects on their water vapor transmission rate (WVTR). In contrast, the WVTR of PLLA films decreased monotonically with increasing Xc from 0 to 20%, while leveled off for Xc exceeding 30%. This is probably due to the higher resistance of “restricted” amorphous regions to water vapor permeation compared with that of the “free” amorphous regions. The free and restricted amorphous regions are major amorphous components of PLLA films for Xc ranges of 0–20% and exceeding 30%, respectively, resulting in the aforementioned dependence of WVTR on Xc. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006

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Updated Protocol for the Examination of Specimens From Patients With Carcinomas of the Prostate Gland

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Use of quality indicators to evaluate the care of patients with localized prostate carcinoma

The quality of surgical pathology care for men undergoing radical prostatectomy in the U.S.

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