Thus far, the response to the nationwide screening programme for cervical cancer in The Netherlands, which was started in 1989, has been disappointing. One way to improve response is to involve general practitioners in the call system. A postal survey was conducted to review the implementation of the current screening ...

"I did not set out to be either a general practitioner or an academic. However, three personality traits helped to point me in that direction. A consciousness of the difficulties of minority groups and a desire to help them fight their battles, a valuing of the generalist role and a ...

'Science and technology have successfully removed uncertainty from diagnosis and management in clinical practice' is the essay topic required of candidates for the Post Graduate Diploma in Family Medicine at Monash University, Melbourne. Bruce Alcorn, a general practitioner from Kangaroo Island, South Australia, provides a thought provoking treatise on this ...

OBJECTIVES: To identify those important characteristics of doctors' and patients' behaviour that distinguish between "good" and "bad" consultations when viewed on videotape; to use these characteristics to develop a reliable instrument for assessing general practitioners' performance in their own consultations. DESIGN: Questionnaires completed by patients, general practitioner trainers, and general ...

The recent survey of the way general practitioners act in case of euthanasia, did point to the fact that procedural requirements were not always observed. This concerned particularly the issuing of an appropriate death certificate. It is important that the practice of euthanasia be prudently surveyed in order to safeguard ...

OBJECT: To ascertain the management of inflammatory smear results by general practitioners. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey. SUBJECTS: All 200 general practitioners on Wirral Family Health Services Authority list as principals in 1990 and 1991. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Answers to questions covering a variety of aspects concerning the management of inflammatory ...

Proposals for fundholding were greeted with scepticism by many general practitioners, and in Scotland the BMA persuaded the government to allow a scheme to test the arrangements as a demonstration project operating "shadow" practice funds. This allowed the six selected practices to set up administrative and computer systems without the ...

Clinical medicine is a pragmatic discipline. Because of its aim to alleviate pain and suffering as well as to foster well-being, its practitioners can be lulled into thinking that there are times when basic science is irrelevant to the practice of medicine. This attitude is evaluated by comparing a 19th ...

Intraocular pressure was measured in 132 consecutive patients over the age of 20 in a general practice with two general practitioners (GP). Tono-Pen tonometry was compared to Goldmann applantation tonometry in a masked, randomized design. Also, agreement between Tono-Pen measurements by the GPs and the ophthalmologist was estimated. Both mean ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relevance of the initial certifying examination to the practice of internal medicine and the suitability of items used in initial certification for recertification. DESIGN: Using a matrix-sampling approach, items from the 1991 Certifying Examination were assigned to two sets of judges: directors of the American Board ...

David Geddes is a general practitioner in Portland in Dorset. After seven years in the Royal Army Dental Corps he has been in general practice since 1983 and in his present practice since 1986. His practice is one-third private and two-thirds exempt patients. He was one of the originators of ...

OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence of counselling services in English and Welsh general practices and factors associated with their distribution; to describe qualifications, working arrangements, and case mix of "counsellors." DESIGN: Postal questionnaire and telephone interview survey of a sample of about one in 20 general practitioners in England and ...

Kampo medicines, aqueous extracts of a mixture of natural crude drugs, have numerous ingredients. Recent pharmacologic studies on Kampo medicines have clarified their many and varied biological activities. In this study, based on recent research that has been directed toward the excellent antioxidant properties of Kampo medicines, we investigated antioxidant ...

The recognition of early dementia remains a difficult task, calling on the clinician's alertness to subtle clues, skillful assessment and selective use of investigations. This approach may lead to earlier diagnosis, which can reduce carer stress, avoid unnecessary treatments and allow planning and management to begin. The diagnosis of dementia ...

Six practice assessment visits which jointly involved lay and medical visitors were arranged by the patient liaison group of the Royal College of General Practitioners. These visits were inspired by the 'What sort of doctor' report published by the RCGP in 1985. A subgroup of the patient liaison group adapted ...

A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of general practitioners in Lower Saxony, Germany to assess how general practitioners regard newly developed but not yet implemented options of practice computers and future applications such as expert systems and information retrieval systems. Replies were received from 276 (response rate ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The aim was to examine the scale, source, and relevance of variation between general practices in respect of the rates with which patients consulted with illnesses falling in each of several diagnostic groups. DESIGN: This study involved a general practice morbidity survey conducted over two years, 1970-72. All ...

General practitioners are responsible for the overall management of patients and their expertise is invaluable in this respect. With the ever changing horizons in disease processes and therapeutics, the dedicated family physician has more knowledge in general than many of his specialist colleagues. It is unfair, however, to expect general ...

All general practitioners and psychiatrists working in a single health district were sent a questionnaire on their perceptions of the prevalence of psychological problems among patients consulting in general practice. One hundred and twenty-one GPs (75%) and 10 (83%) psychiatrists responded. GPs and psychiatrists agreed that up to 20% of ...

This article is meant to serve as a general overview of the ADA and the regulatory areas that have the greatest implications for audiologists and speech-language pathologists. If you would like more detailed information, copies of the regulations and technical assistance are available from federal agencies (See Table 1) and ...

OBJECTIVE: To identify the attitudes of general practitioners towards the use of thermometers in general practice. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey. SETTING: All general practitioners in the catchment area of Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey. SUBJECTS: 145 general practitioners. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Answers to questions covering a variety of aspects concerning the ...

The Scientific Board of the California Medical Association presents the following inventory of items of progress in occupational medicine. Each item, in the judgment of a panel of knowledgeable physicians, has recently become reasonably firmly established, both as to scientific fact and important clinical significance. The items are presented in ...

The characteristics of general practitioners in the west of Scotland who are high attenders at meetings accredited for the postgraduate education allowance were studied. One hundred and seventy one principals in general practice (9.5%) had attended more than 35 half-day sessions of accredited education between 1 April 1989 and 31 ...

OBJECTIVE: To survey South Australian general practitioners to investigate their knowledge and reported management of patients with hypertension. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Of 156 randomly selected SA general practitioners 132 responded to a questionnaire survey. RESULTS: This survey showed substantial differences between general practitioners in their knowledge about hypertension and ...

OBJECTIVE: To establish whether Australian chiropractors regard spinal adjustment as an intervention option for patients presenting with visceral conditions and to ascertain the preferred level of adjustment for patients presenting with migraine, asthma, hypertension or dysmenorrhea. DESIGN AND SETTING: A survey of all chiropractors registered in Australia. OUTCOME MEASURE: Practitioners' ...

Clinical confusion, treatment failure and recurrence commonly plague the Management of Otitis Externa. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical attitudes and habits of army general practitioners and to review the recent literature. The results of a questionnaire survey showed that although all the respondents agreed that ...

A questionnaire containing 37 questions concerning oral surgery and oral medicine was mailed to a systematic random sample of 500 Norwegian general dental practitioners in October 1989. A 60% return rate was obtained. From the 20 questions included in this paper the following conclusions were drawn: Norwegian general practitioners perform ...

Various guidelines have been issued to doctors concerning the treatment of anxiety in primary care and particularly on the use of benzodiazepines. Little has been reported about how this advice has influenced doctors' opinions and practice. This paper describes results of interviews with 15 general practitioners and 15 general practitioner ...

Of the many characteristics that classify the practice of medicine as a profession, autonomy plays the most important role. There are currently assaults on the profession's ability to select, train, and license its own practitioners and on the medical knowledge base itself, as well as the standards for applying it. ...

Audit has long been a feature of good general practice. The literature is full of examples of audit by general practitioners and this Occasional Paper quotes many examples of audit which have produced valuable results. This chapter gives some advice to doctors wishing to audit their prescribing.

The authors describe a brief intervention that aims to raise awareness among general practitioners of the illness prevention needs of their patients. Many patients surveyed in three general practices needed tetanus immunisation, wanted to cease smoking or reduce their use of alcohol--findings that highlight the need for general practitioners to ...

The natural science base of modern medicine influences the way in which medicine is delivered and may ignore the spiritual factors associated with illness. The history of spirituality in healing presented here reflects the growth of scientific knowledge, demands for religious renewal, and the shift in the understanding of the ...

Those doctors in a Scottish city who had completed the most death certificates in 1985 were identified, interviewed about their certifying practices, and asked, for comparative purposes, to complete a series of dummy death certificates, based on case summaries. Analysis of the dummy certificates indicated substantial inter-practitioner variations in practice. ...

During the 1980s the Auckland metropolitan area increased its share of all general practitioners in New Zealand at a much faster rate than its share of the population, resulting in a high level of availability by 1987. In the light of such trends, neoclassical theory would predict a diffusion of ...

An attempt has been made to evaluate the evidence for the likely benefit or otherwise, of the obligatory three-yearly checks as defined within the terms of service for doctors in general practice introduced to British general practitioners in April 1990. The content, interval, age groups, ethics, organizational cost, yield and ...

General practice notes may be inaccurate for various reasons. A study was carried out in one semi-rural practice to investigate the agreement between records held by the family practitioner committee and those kept in the practice. Details on the practice notes and the family practitioner committee list were compared for ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between general practitioners' referral rates to individual specialties and the individual areas of expertise of the referring doctors. DESIGN: Data collected on referral patterns in one group practice over nine months. SETTING: General practice in suburban Birmingham consisting of five partners and a trainee. RESULTS: ...

A survey of babies born in the Waikato revealed an incidence of neonatal circumcision of 7% in the first month. General practitioners performed 58% of these. About half were carried out before the baby left the maternity unit. Waikato maternity units had a wide variation in the rate of circumcision ...

Samuel Fitzpatrick, MBE, CBE, was an outstanding general practitioner and surgeon in the Western District of Victoria for 50 years. He became a world authority on the surgical management of hydatid disease. He is also an accomplished and prolific painter, especially in watercolours. Many of his works are displayed in ...

The Aylesbury spatula and a newer plastic device, the Cervex sampler (Steriseal), have been compared in a prospective study, to assess their ability to obtain endocervical cells on cervical smears taken in general practice. Twelve general practitioners in Cumbria took part in the study each taking equal numbers of smears ...

A 76-year-old man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was admitted to our hospital because of progressive exertional dyspnea (PaCO2 = 68.5 torr, PaO2 = 62.5 torr). He was put on mechanical ventilation, and thereafter sleep apnea of a central type was recognized. After improvement of general conditions, a portable ventilator "Pneu-PAC" ...

A postal questionnaire was used to assess general practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and current practice of treatment regarding obesity and weight problems. Overall, 299 responses (75%) were received from general practitioners randomly selected from family practitioner committee lists in Portsmouth and Norwich. Currently 27% of the doctors were overweight and a ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine general practitioners' attitudes to medical audit and to establish what initiatives are already being undertaken; to define future ideas for audit and perceived difficulties in implementing audit in primary care. DESIGN: Analysis of responses to a self administered postal questionnaire. SETTING: Urban conurbation with a population of ...

This study investigated, by means of a directly mailed postal questionnaire to each of the general dental practitioners in a Scottish Health Board area, the use of posterior composites by general dental practitioners and the factors affecting their selection and introduction of these materials into their practices. Three non-restorative practitioners ...

The Royal College of General Practitioners and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys have collaborated in three national studies of morbidity in general practice at approximately ten-year intervals. This paper presents data derived from the second survey conducted in 1970/71. A comparison of practice referral rates based on different ...

General practitioners predominate in osteopathic medicine (57% of all D.O.s), as compared with allopathic medicine. A number of possible reasons are put forth: the student selection process (cloning by admission committee general practitioners); special features of osteopathic education (more required courses, primary care courses, and rotations); training in osteopathic hospitals ...

Doctors who were general practitioners in the period 1973-88 and had written a successful MD or PhD thesis were identified. Of 96 doctorates, 64 were MDs and 32 PhDs. Fourteen doctors had obtained their MD before becoming general practitioners and the remaining 50 after becoming general practitioners. Twenty of the ...

There is considerable interest in general practice assessment both as a means of monitoring vocational training and as a form of self audit for the general practitioner. Basic principles involved in the selection and design of assessment procedures are reviewed and their application discussed.

The business component of prosthodontics is certain to become a greater focus for those who enter the profession in the 21st century. Whether future professionals are prepared to accept the inevitability of change is, in part, the present generation's responsibility to decide. Prudent management decisions based on basic business principles ...

Society is experiencing major restructuring best articulated by John Naisbitt's Megatrends. This article contends that many changes in pharmacy practice are not incongruent with overall megatrends being experienced by our nation in general. Thus pharmacy practitioners and the profession must work diligently to ensure that both reflect social adjustments that ...