David Pownall's Master Class - Set Unseen

This study of the set designs for the Canadian productions of David Pownall's play Master Class attempts to gauge the contribution of the design to the overall effect of the play. The study is based upon the designs themselves, personal interviews with the author and designers, and contemporary newspaper reviews. Cette étude des desseins de la scène pour les réalisations canadiennes de Master Class de David Pownall cherche à évaluer la contribution du dessein à 1'effet total de la pièce. L'étude est fondée sur les desseins eux-mêmes, des entrevues personnelles avec I'auteur et les décorateurs, et sur des critiques parsues dans les journaux contemporains

Assessing the variation of pathology test utilisation volume by diagnosis-related groups

There are currently few meaningful data and analyses about variation in the use of pathology tests controlling for patient casemix. Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) codes are allocated to all patients admitted into a hospital as inpatients. The aim of this study was to use these codes to examine pathology test volumes and variation between hospitals based on linked administrative datasets collected from the pathology service and hospitals. A total of 11,370,000 test orders over six years for inpatients at four hospitals with a single pathology provider were analysed in this retrospective cohort study. The crude and adjusted rates of tests ordered per patient day were estimated using Poisson models. The adjusted rate across all the hospitals revealed a general increase of pathology requests across time from 2008 to 2012. Quality improvements in pathology requesting are dependent on the availability of quality data and meaningful analyses to identify variation between locations across time accounting for differences in patient characteristics. Using DRGs as a way to control for casemix can facilitate the meaningful examination of test utilisation and variation between hospitals and across time to improve quality use of pathology.6 page(s