The European journal of general practice
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Despite awareness that comparative analysis of patient safety data from several data sources would promote risk reduction, there has been little effort to establish an incident classification system that is generally applicable to patient safety data in European primary care. ⋯ Classification systems are key tools in the analysis of patient safety incidents. A system that has relevance for primary care is now available.
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Computerized diagnostic decision support systems (CDDSS) have the potential to support the cognitive task of diagnosis, which is one of the areas where general practitioners have greatest difficulty and which accounts for a significant proportion of adverse events recorded in the primary care setting. ⋯ Developing a CDDSS that is able to utilize dynamic vocabulary tools to quickly capture and code relevant diagnostic findings, and coupling these with individualized diagnostic suggestions based on the best-available evidence has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy, but requires evaluation.
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Drug treatment is an important clinical process in primary care that is associated with risk of error and adverse events. ⋯ A number of tools and interventions to investigate and enhance medication safety have been identified. Further research is necessary to implement and evaluate current concepts.
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Healthcare can cause avoidable serious harm to patients. Primary care is not an exception, and the relative lack of research in this area lends urgency to a better understanding of patient safety, the future research agenda and the development of primary care oriented safety programmes. ⋯ Future research studies should target specific primary care domains, using prospective methods and innovative methods such as patient involvement.
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This paper is an introduction to a supplement to The European Journal of General Practice, bringing together a body of research focusing on the issue of patient safety in relation to primary care. The supplement represents the outputs of the LINNEAUS collaboration on patient safety in primary care, which was a four-year (2009-2013) coordination and support action funded under the Framework 7 programme by the European Union. Being a coordination and support action, its aim was not to undertake new research, but to build capacity through engaging primary care researchers and practitioners in identifying some of the key challenges in this area and developing consensus statements, which will be an essential part in developing a future research agenda. This introductory article describes the aims of the LINNEAUS collaboration, provides a brief summary of the reasons to focus on patient safety in primary care, the epidemiological and policy considerations, and an introduction to the papers included in the supplement.