Improving the Introductions of Manuscripts
Authors: Matthew P. Smith, Jason S. Haukoos, Roger J. Lewis
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2005)

Letters20 September 2005Improving the Introductions of ManuscriptsMatthew P. Smith, MD, Jason S. Haukoos, MD, MS, and Roger J. Lewis, MD, PhDMatthew P. Smith, MDFrom San Francisco General Hospital and University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143; Denver Health Medical Center and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80204; and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Torrance, CA 90509.Search for more papers by this author, Jason S. Haukoos, MD, MSFrom San Francisco General Hospital and University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143; Denver Health Medical Center and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80204; and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Torrance, CA 90509.Search for more papers by this author, and Roger J. Lewis, MD, PhDFrom San Francisco General Hospital and University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143; Denver Health Medical Center and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80204; and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Torrance, CA 90509.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-143-6-200509200-00018 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:Background: Introductions of manuscripts are crucial because they place clinical problems into context. The importance of a clinical problem is influenced by its incidence, morbidity, mortality, and costs. Quantifying these factors requires attention to denominators. For example, stating that some number of hospital admissions results from heart failure does less to quantify this issue compared with other illnesses than does also including the total number of annual hospital admissions.Objective: To examine the use of quantitative information in the introductions of published clinical studies.Methods and Findings: We reviewed clinical reports in 4 clinical journals. Two were ...References1. Wu WC, Rathore SS, Wang Y, Radford MJ, Krumholz HM. Blood transfusion in elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 2001;345:1230-6. [PMID: 11680442] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Woods WG, Gao RN, Shuster JJ, Robison LL, Bernstein M, Weitzman S, et al. Screening of infants and mortality due to neuroblastoma. N Engl J Med. 2002;346:1041-6. [PMID: 11932470] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Margolin A, Kleber HD, Avants SK, Konefal J, Gawin F, Stark E, et al. Acupuncture for the treatment of cocaine addiction: a randomized, controlled trial. JAMA. 2002;287:55-63. [PMID: 11754709] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Altman DG, Schulz KF, Moher D, Egger M, Davidoff F, Elbourne D, et al. The revised CONSORT statement for reporting randomized trials: explanation and elaboration. Ann Intern Med. 2001;134:663-94. [PMID: 11304107] LinkGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From San Francisco General Hospital and University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143; Denver Health Medical Center and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80204; and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Torrance, CA 90509.Grant Support: In part by an Individual National Research Service Award from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (F32 HS11509) and a research training grant from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine to Dr. Haukoos.Disclosures: None disclosed. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoThe Revised CONSORT Statement for Reporting Randomized Trials: Explanation and Elaboration Douglas G. Altman , Kenneth F. Schulz , David Moher , Matthias Egger , Frank Davidoff , Diana Elbourne , Peter C. Gøtzsche , Thomas Lang , and Metrics Cited byRecent Publications on Medications and Pharmacy 20 September 2005Volume 143, Issue 6Page: 467-468KeywordsAcademic medicineClinical trial reportingEmergency medicineHealth care qualityNeuroblastomaResearch grantsResearch quality assessmentResearch reporting guidelines ePublished: 20 September 2005 Issue Published: 20 September 2005 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2005 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...