Medical group adoption of Internet services

Physician leaders and office-based practicing physicians in medium and large practice organizations were surveyed regarding their use of administrative and clinical systems enabled by the Internet. More than 85% of medical groups reported using one or more Internet-enabled services and 35 reported use of more than five Internet-enabled services, including both business and clinical applications. Physician leaders and practicing physicians identified six Internet-enabled services as "essential" for the future success of their practice and indicated that reduced administrative costs, faster payments, and improved quality of care are the most important benefits derived from Internet-enabled applications. Ninety-six percent of survey respondents estimated that Internet-enabled technologies will have a significant, positive impact on the practice of medicine in general and will improve the quality of care before 2003. The lack of industrywide standards for health information and the inability of current computer systems to exchange information across health care delivery networks were cited as the most important barriers to the adoption of Internet-enabled applications by physicians. Respondents believed that action by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) or major health plans to require participating physicians to use the Internet for administrative services will be needed to bring about rapid migration to Internet-enabled services.

Sulphur status in some Swedish podzols as influenced by acidic deposition and extractable organic carbon

To evaluate the changes in sulphur pools in response to acidic deposition, two studies were made-one in southwest Sweden where podzolic B horizons originally sampled in 1951 were resampled in 1989. At the Norrliden site, northern Sweden, sulphur pools in control plots were compared to plots that had been subjected to H(2)SO(4) application between 1971 and 1976. The results show that in southwest Sweden neither organic S nor extractable SO(4)(2-) increased significantly over the 38-year period, despite a decreasing pH and a high S deposition. At Norrliden, about 37% of the applied S was still remaining in the upper and central parts of the Bs horizon, most of which was inorganic sulphate. These contrasting results are explained by intrinsic differences in the soil organic carbon status between the sites-in southwest Sweden, organic carbon concentrations were high which inhibited SO(4)(2-) adsorption. Low organic carbon concentrations and high extractable Fe/Al concentrations promoted SO(4)(2-) adsorption and caused a low subsequent SO(4)(2-) desorption rate at the Norrliden site. The results suggest that sulphate adsorption may be an important mechanism which delays the response in soil chemistry to H(2)SO(4) deposition, provided that soil organic carbon concentrations are low. Organic S retention was not shown to be an important S retention mechanism in any of the sites studied.