Swiss Physicians Research Articles

Medical organisation and training in Switzerland

This paper aims to report on a successful medical system in a very successful country, politically organized as a federal republic, which put 12 billion Swiss francs in its Health budget in 1980. It also reports on the training of Swiss physicians with special reference to internal medicine and emphasis on their independence. The benefit of close collaboration between the public and the private sector should appear obvious even if this situation might be jeopardized by too many new graduates for fewer patients.

Evaluation of suffering resulting from terminal dehydration and choice between oral and artificial hydration by Swiss physicians

Evaluation of suffering resulting from terminal dehydration and choice between oral and artificial hydration by Swiss physicians

Technology in ambulatory medical care: Cost increasing or cost saving?

Health insurers fear that increased use of medical technology in ambulatory care results in increased billings per physician. This view may overlook certain subtle links between available, appropriated technology in ambulatory practice and the propensity to hospitalize a marginal patient. In this paper, the impacts of technology on four components of total per physician treatment cost were analyzed statistically using 1976–1978 percentage changes for a sample of more than 700 Swiss physicians: number of cases treated, per case billings for ambulatory care, rate of hospitalization and cost of a hospital stay relative to ambulatory care. On net, a 10% reduction in use of laboratory work and X-ray procedures was estimated to result in about 2 and 0.4% savings, respectively. A similar reduction of direct drug sales to patients would increase total cost by 0.3%. From the vantage point of society, even the modest savings indicated probably disappear as soon as the full social cost of a hospital stay is taken into account.

Experience with a new beta-receptor blocking agent (Trasicor�) in the management of cardiac arrhythmias

Twenty-six Swiss physicians took part in a study in which the effects of an orally administered new beta-receptor blocking agent, Trasicor®, were assessed in out-patients with disturbances of cardiac rhythm. Ninety-eight patients were treated for 3 weeks with daily doses ranging from 20 to 120 mg, the most commonly employed daily dose being 60 mg. The patients were examined before treatment and again after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days of treatment. The compound proved highly effective in decreasing heart rate in sinus tachycardia and ventricular rate in chronic auricular fibrillation, both at rest and during effort. Trasicor also abolished, or substantially reduced, the frequency of attacks of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular ectopic beats. — In hypertensive patients, Trasicor elicited a statistically significant decrease in both the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, whereas in normotensives only the systolic blood pressure was affected to a statistically significant extent. - Side effects were usually mild and transient; treatment had to be withdrawn in only a small percentage of patients.

Geschichte der Medicinischen Wissenschaften in Deutschland

August Hirsch, best known for his classic study on historical-geographical pathology, also wrote a history of medicine in Germany, published in 1893, shortly before his death. This text, never translated, is now reprinted as part of a 24-volume series which covers the history of scholarship in Germany and which includes both liberal arts and the natural sciences, and ranges from history of German philosophy or theology to history of mineralogy, zoology, or medicine. All but one of the volumes were originally published in the 19th century. The present volume will interest medical historians. It offers a concentrated view of the middle European medical scene, particularly during the 17th, 18th, and first half of the 19th century. Important non-Germanic figures, predominantly Swiss, Dutch, English, and French physicians, receive considerable attention, but the emphasis is mostly on the central European area. The reprint is important for medical historiography, and will take its