A new customer for practice site services would often approach COLA after it had been unhappy with in-house services or with other accrediting organizations. It was difficult to assess COLA's market share for this type of service, given the predominance of in-house services provided by the HMO themselves. But COLA estimated that its market share of practice site services was still relatively small. Some managers attributed this limited share of the market to a lack of customer focus. When MPA was first introduced, for example, COLA had little knowledge of which particular services MPA customers really needed. It was only when those needs were addressed that the product started selling.

1 How should the body surface area be calculated when giving drugs for which doses are given per square metre of body surface area?

2 Where can I find a reference table that shows drugs that can safely be prescribed and avoided during pregnancy and during lactation? Might this be included in the next edition of Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine?

3 Where might I find a reference table showing paediatric drug doses?

4 My question is concerned with the practical use of steroids. In inflammatory bowel disease, what doses are used and when is the dose reduced?

5 What is the safe dosage/length of treatment for the drug dexmethasone so that its destructive effects are avoided?

6 1. Please explain 'odds ratio' and 'risk ratio'. 2. What is meant by saying that diabetics have a 3.3 risk ratio of developing dementia?

7 I'm a medical student from the Faculty of Medicine, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. I have a question about the management of aspirin poisoning. Is it reasonable to carry out a postalkaline diuresis in these patients?

8 What is meant by intermediate syndrome in organophosphorus poisoning?

9 What are the pulmonary manifestations of Pink's disease and how common are they relative to the usual cerebral, skin and renal effects?

10 Is it necessary to administer antivenom to a person bitten by a snake 6 hours previously, presenting only with local leg swelling over the bitten site and so far no other systemic feature of poisoning?