The 20th Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine was held in Washington, DC, from May 1-3, 1997. The meeting featured a variety of presentations on clinical epidemiology, patient factors, and health outcomes. Key topics included: 1. **Long-Term Disability and Return to Work Among Patients Initially Receiving Workers' Compensation for Sciatica**: A study found that while most patients receiving workers' compensation for sciatica return to work and are not permanently disabled, those who remain on disability after initial treatment have little impact on long-term return to work or disability. Retaining an ankylosis and the severity of symptoms are associated with an increased likelihood of long-term disability. 2. **Patient Reading Ability and Use of Health Care Services**: Patients with poor reading ability have an increased risk of hospital admission and more non-emergent outpatient visits, even after adjusting for their worse health status and other determinants of health care use. 3. **Tuberculosis in New York City - The Impact of Poverty**: Poverty remains a significant risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) in New York City, with higher incidence rates among Blacks compared to Whites at all levels of geographic aggregation. 4. **Patient Factors Associated with Changing Anti-Hypertensive Therapy**: High diastolic blood pressure is the strongest patient factor predictive of medication changes in hypertension patients, while other factors such as systolic blood pressure and comorbidities are not associated with changing therapy. 5. **Effects of Coenzyme A Reductase Inhibitors on Stroke**: Coenzyme A reductase inhibitors reduce the incidence of non-fatal and fatal stroke and coronary heart disease, suggesting a causal role of cholesterol in stroke pathogenesis. 6. **Influence of Perioperative Blood Transfusion on Postoperative Mortality**: Postoperative transfusion practices vary significantly among patients, but there is no clear evidence that transfusing at lower hemoglobin levels improves outcomes. 7. **Survival After Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Among Elderly Residents of Quebec**: The median survival following percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is 210 days, with certain patient characteristics associated with poor survival, such as malignancy, stroke, congestive heart failure, and renal failure. 8. **Risk Factors for Intracranial Hemorrhage with FTA Treatment in Acute Myocardial Infarction**: Killip class, CHF, age, tPA dose, history of diabetes, hypertension, and female gender are independent risk factors for intracranial hemorrhage in AMI patients treated with tPA. 9. **Natural History of Prostacyclin: Urologic Complications in Community-Dwelling Men**: Urologic complications of prostacyclin are common in community-dwelling men, with lower urinary tract symptoms, decreased peak urinary flow rate, and enlarged prostates being associated with increased incidence. 10. **The 20th Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine was held in Washington, DC, from May 1-3, 1997. The meeting featured a variety of presentations on clinical epidemiology, patient factors, and health outcomes. Key topics included: 1. **Long-Term Disability and Return to Work Among Patients Initially Receiving Workers' Compensation for Sciatica**: A study found that while most patients receiving workers' compensation for sciatica return to work and are not permanently disabled, those who remain on disability after initial treatment have little impact on long-term return to work or disability. Retaining an ankylosis and the severity of symptoms are associated with an increased likelihood of long-term disability. 2. **Patient Reading Ability and Use of Health Care Services**: Patients with poor reading ability have an increased risk of hospital admission and more non-emergent outpatient visits, even after adjusting for their worse health status and other determinants of health care use. 3. **Tuberculosis in New York City - The Impact of Poverty**: Poverty remains a significant risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) in New York City, with higher incidence rates among Blacks compared to Whites at all levels of geographic aggregation. 4. **Patient Factors Associated with Changing Anti-Hypertensive Therapy**: High diastolic blood pressure is the strongest patient factor predictive of medication changes in hypertension patients, while other factors such as systolic blood pressure and comorbidities are not associated with changing therapy. 5. **Effects of Coenzyme A Reductase Inhibitors on Stroke**: Coenzyme A reductase inhibitors reduce the incidence of non-fatal and fatal stroke and coronary heart disease, suggesting a causal role of cholesterol in stroke pathogenesis. 6. **Influence of Perioperative Blood Transfusion on Postoperative Mortality**: Postoperative transfusion practices vary significantly among patients, but there is no clear evidence that transfusing at lower hemoglobin levels improves outcomes. 7. **Survival After Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Among Elderly Residents of Quebec**: The median survival following percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is 210 days, with certain patient characteristics associated with poor survival, such as malignancy, stroke, congestive heart failure, and renal failure. 8. **Risk Factors for Intracranial Hemorrhage with FTA Treatment in Acute Myocardial Infarction**: Killip class, CHF, age, tPA dose, history of diabetes, hypertension, and female gender are independent risk factors for intracranial hemorrhage in AMI patients treated with tPA. 9. **Natural History of Prostacyclin: Urologic Complications in Community-Dwelling Men**: Urologic complications of prostacyclin are common in community-dwelling men, with lower urinary tract symptoms, decreased peak urinary flow rate, and enlarged prostates being associated with increased incidence. 10. **