Importance Of Peer Review Research Articles

Publishing Adverse Drug Reaction Data

To the Editor. —Your timely and interesting editorial entitled Case Reports of Untoward Drug Reactions, Adverse Events, and Rare Diseases, which was published in the JulyArchives(1982;142:1271-1272), stressed the difficulties in selecting manuscripts for publication (eg, not the sixth case). You also acknowledge the problem of the quality of articles and the importance of peer review. This problem of informative value is by no means limited to single-case studies. As shown by Venulet et al,1only 61% of 5,737 articles (from 80 countries) on larger series of patients included information on the number of patients treated and the number of patients with adverse reactions and in only 55% was the incidence of each adverse reaction given. Inclusion of such basic, but relevant, items, eg, age and doses, duration of treatment, and galenic form, cut the proportion of articles providing all these data to 19%. Differences in completeness of

The Rockford School of Medicine undergraduate quality assurance program.

An undergraduate program of ambulatory care quality assurance has been operational at the Rockford School of Medicine for three years. The original intent of the program was to increase the acceptance of quality assurance activities among student physicians, inculcating in them the importance of peer review at an early stage in professional development. The program experience is described, results of preliminary evaluation reported, and generalizations offered. Activities in the first year of a hospital care quality assurance program are described.