In the first experimental telephones the electric current that powered the telephone circuit was generated at the transmitter, by means of an electromagnet activated by the speaker's voice.
At 24 h after the experimental session, the experimenter telephoned each participant and administered the homophone task.
Walsh and Piccard spent only 20 minutes on the bottom of the ocean – enough time to eat a Herschey's chocolate bar and test their experimental acoustic telephone system – but their descent into the Mariana trench set a record for man's deepest dive.
Experimental subjects received telephone nursing intervention weekly for 3 months; control subjects received informational calls at weeks 6 and 12. Readmission rates were 13% (n = 2) for experimental subjects and 23% (n = 5) for controls.
During a six-week treatment period, patients will receive one of the following two treatment programs: - Interdisciplinary, group-based, self-management program (experimental intervention); - Telephone-based, self-management program (active control).
While only very few Dutch GP cooperatives make (experimental) use of computerized telephone advice systems (TAS) [ 6], nationwide telephone nurses do have access to a broad set of written protocols for the most acute problems, developed by the Dutch College of General Practitioners.
Patients allocated to each of the experimental groups (mail and telephone invitation) were found to be comparable on median age, gender, mean blood pressure, level of blood pressure, previous diagnosis of hypertension, and four additional cardiovascular risk factors (see Table 1).
Furthermore, diagnostic interview data were collected at T1. Parents of the participants who had completed the experimental sessions were contacted by telephone by a research assistant to make an appointment for interviews with the parents as well as the adolescents.
For patients allocated to the intervention group, each patient's magnet will be assigned the same study-specific identification number which will be used by patients in the experimental group to access the telephone and website patient aids, facilitate tracking patient use of the intervention support tools, and protect personal health information.
