Family practice
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The Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) was asked by UK health ministers to advise on the standards of clinical care attainable for people with depression. The GP survey reported here is one part of a multicomponent UK-wide study of services for depression that also included visits to a sample of services and structured patient telephone interviews. ⋯ GPs appeared to view obstacles to providing effective treatment of depression as being more allied to external issues, in particular service provision, rather than internal factors such as their own knowledge and skills. The study revealed continuing concerns over excessive workload, and longstanding difficulties with the interface between primary and secondary mental health services.
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Comparative Study
Chest pain in general practice or in the hospital emergency department: is it the same?
The aim of the present study was to provide a description of the impact of setting on the diagnostic case mix that is identified in consecutive patients presenting with chest pain. ⋯ There is a large difference between the diagnostic case mix presented in general practice compared with the ED and among referral-related subgroups within the hospital emergency department.
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Comparative Study
Effects of electronic communication between the GP and the pharmacist. The quality of medication data on admission and after discharge.
When a patient is admitted to a hospital, the need for information about the medications prescribed is an important issue. ⋯ We conclude that electronic communication between the GP and the community pharmacist results in a better agreement between them with respect to the current medication of the patient than paper-based communication. However, electronic communication does not suffice as a solution to obtain reliable information.
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Previous studies limited to specific drugs or journal types have shown an association between the source of funding of research and the published results. ⋯ An association was found between the source of study support and the published outcome. Though the reason for this association cannot be determined from the data collected, future studies may clarify the importance of this finding for readers concerned with the relationship of funding bodies to the publication of research outcomes.