Family practice
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In a therapeutic partnership, physicians rely on patients to describe their health conditions, join in shared decision-making, and engage with supported self-management activities. In shared care, the patient, primary care, and specialist services partner together using agreed processes and outputs for the patient to be placed at the centre of their care. However, few empirical studies have explored physicians' trust in patients and its implications for shared care models. ⋯ Trust plays a significant role in the patient's access to shared care. The implementation of shared care should consider the relational dynamics between the patient and health care providers.
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The quality of the doctor-patient relationship plays a crucial role in patients' experiences with healthcare services, positively influencing clinical outcomes and satisfaction with care. The Patient-Doctor Relationship Questionnaire (PDRQ-9) is widely used to assess this relationship. However, there are no quality categories that can be derived from the instrument's score to facilitate understanding and decision-making. ⋯ The categorization proposed in this study enhances the interpretability of PDRQ-9 results, providing a practical framework for assessing the quality of the doctor-patient relationship. By establishing actionable quality categories, this tool could support targeted interventions, such as performance feedback and training, aimed at fostering empathy, communication, and trust in healthcare settings.
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When research and management of Dupuytren's disease (DD) shift from symptom relief to preventing contractures, general practitioner (GP) care may become more central to treatment. However, the presentation and course of DD in GP care are underexplored and this has been recognized as a knowledge gap that hinders effective treatment decisions. This study is the first to map the trajectory of DD patients in GP care. ⋯ The diagnosis and management of DD in GP care are in line with the current guidelines. Less than half of the DD patients were referred to secondary care during follow-up. This may give room for preventive treatment that limits progression. Future studies should focus on the accuracy of diagnosis and the feasibility of effective treatments in GP care.