Some considerations in clinical evaluation of mental health care products.

Mental health professionals in clinical settings have a responsibility to ensure that product evaluations are carried out safely and produce results useful to patients, clinicians and administrators. Little information regarding this issue has appeared in mental health literature. Increasing concern in this area has led to new Food and Drug Administration regulations which require more stringent product evaluations. A case study of a product evaluation carried out in a large mental health facility is presented. The study illustrates the questions mental health professionals should address in a product evaluation: prior product testing, consequences of product use for staff and ethical issues in carrying out the evaluation. The authors conclude that a comprehensive evaluation design will help to ensure the safety of both patients and staff and identify the overall costs to the institution of using the product.

Observations on a rural health manpower project.

The Rural Externship Program was developed by the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program in conjunction with the State University of New York at Buffalo and the health professionals of western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. It was designed to encourage health science students to practice in a rural area following graduation. This interdisciplinary program provides health science students with an eight-week summer living-working experience in a rural environment, supervised by practitioner-preceptors. The intent is to develop their appreciation of rural health care and life-styles. Since the summer of 1970, 240 students have participated. This paper describes and discusses the project and presents measures of the externs' changes in attitudes toward rural practice which occurred after they participated in the program. A survey of externs who have graduated shows the effect of the program on their decision to locate. Of the 61 externs contacted, 55 percent indicated that they were in rural practice, and 53 percent of the latter indicated that their experience in the Rural Externship Program was an important factor in their decision to practice in a rural area.

Study of the Information Dissemination Service--Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo.

The Information Dissemination Service at the Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo, was established June 1970 through a three-year grant from the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Inc. Analysis of two samples of user request forms yielded results which significantly substantiate findings in prior biomedical literature utilization studies. The findings demonstrate comparable utilization patterns by user group, age of material, journal titles, language, time to process request, source of reference, and size of institution.