OBJECTIVE To review current knowledge of the effectiveness of medical audit programmes as a whole and of specific interventions within these programmes, as a means of changing clinical behaviour. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION OF PUBLISHED REPORTS: Articles listed on Medline from 1985-92 with key words "quality assurance" or "medical audit", and "evaluation" and relevant references from t...

The last two or three years have seen an explosion of interest in medical audit, a phrase hitherto barely used in the UK except by a few hardy pioneers (for references, see' 2). Then in quick succession in the last two years appeared the Confidential Enquiry on Perioperative Deaths,3 the Report of the Royal College of Physicians on Medical Audit,4 and the White Paper "Working for patients".5 Th...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the attitudes of general practitioners to medical audit, and any associations between their attitudes and their personal characteristics. DESIGN Postal questionnaire survey. SETTING --Staffordshire, United Kingdom. SUBJECTS 870 Staffordshire general practitioners. MAIN MEASURES Agreement or disagreement and associations between the attitudes to 16 statements abou...

The Government's proposals for the reform of the National Health Service' have met with a mixed response. Amidst the controversy one item has received widespread support. Increasingly it is recognized that medical audit is an essential component of high quality clinical practice, and the United Kingdom can no longer lag behind countries such as the United States, Australia and the Netherlands2 ...