In brief

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4416

Published 28 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4416
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4416

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In brief

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Fall in autopsies may adversely affect monitoring of medicaloutcomes: Autopsy rates in the United States have fallen sincethe 1940s from 50% of bodies to less than 8% today, and healthcarefinancing reforms may be implicated, say researchers (SocialScience and Medicine 2009 Oct 21, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.018)."Our results imply that these reforms may inadvertently reducethe incentive to monitor medical outcomes using techniques suchas autopsies, which is often called the ‘gold standard’in measuring medical outcomes," they say.

US uses more intensive care beds than UK: US patients in hospitalwho die are almost five times more likely to have spent timein the intensive care unit than their UK counterparts, a studyhas found (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical CareMedicine 2009;180:875-80). That increased to eight times inpatients older than 85. The researchers at Columbia Universityattributed the greater use of . . . [Full text of this article]

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