The “Point of Care” section answers everyday clinical questions by providing practical information that aims to be useful at the point of patient care. The responses reflect the opinions of the contributors and do not purport to set forth standards of care or clinical practice guidelines. Readers are encouraged to do more reading on the topics covered. If you would like to contribute to this se...

The context of general practice makes the translation of evidence into clinical practice difficult. General practitioners interested in implementing evidence met at The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' 2006 Annual Scientific Convention. We discussed evidence based medicine (EBM) journal club as a solution to this problem, including keys to success and barriers to overcome. The...

A rotation for the preregistration year which included medicine, surgery, and general practice started at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in August 1981. Initially approved by London University for an experimental period of three years, in 1984 it became an established rotation subject to normal review. Special arrangements were made for clinical work, supervision, prescribing, teaching, and ...

OBJECTIVE To describe the workforce characteristics and current responsibilities of nurses working in Australian general practice settings. DESIGN Survey research combining qualitative and quantitative data collected through telephone interview. SUBJECTS 222 enrolled (RN Division 2 in Victoria) and registered nurses (RN Division 1 in Victoria) working in general practice in rural and urban ...

There is a growing interest in clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for all health care providers. As discussed in the first paper of this 2-part series, there are many misperceptions about guidelines and their potential risks and benefits. The dental profession in Canada, cognizant of both the importance and the challenges of developing sound, credible and relevant guidelines for dentists, has ...

General practice is suffering a crisis of status, as shown by financial, power and intellectual markers. This is serious as a strong general-practice workforce is important to deliver cost-effective, high-quality healthcare. We argue that strengthening the intellectual aspects of general practice (particularly critical thinking) is essential. Most strategies to achieve this centre on research, ...

This article reports on a national study of collaborative relationships between general practitioners and other health care providers in 20 Division of General Practice projects. It argues that health care organisations will need to collaborate with others in the future and that much can be learnt from the literature on collaborative networks in business and community organisations. Successful ...

BACKGROUND Development of a manual or well-defined criterion for prioritizing the topics of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) will help validate and organize this process evermore. This study was conducted to design an applicable manual that would prioritize the CPG topics for family physicians. METHODS This study was a multi-stage method using a qualitative approach that was conducted for ...

BACKGROUND The complexity and quality requirements for the development of clinical practice guidelines steadily increase. Internet technologies support this process by optimizing the development process. OBJECTIVE The aim of this internet based solution was to facilitate the development of clinical practice guidelines. METHODS An internet portal was developed allowing for a shared workplace...

Dr. Waldman is Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of General Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine, Stony Brook University; Dr. Perlman is Global Clinical Director, Special Olympics, Special Smiles, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatric Dentistry, Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and in private practice in Lynn, MA; and Dr. Xu is Clinical Assistant Professor, De...