Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Urinary incontinence is a common problem, affecting quality of life and leading to high costs. There is doubt about the use of clinical practice guidelines on urinary incontinence in primary care. ⋯ Dutch GPs follow the guideline only partially: compliance with diagnostic advices is fairly good; compliance with treatment advices is low. Further research should focus on solutions how to support GPs to tackle major barriers to facilitate the adherence to guidelines (substitution of tasks to specialized nurses, reducing the threshold for referral and concentrating expertise in integrated continence care services).
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The purpose of this paper is to explore new perspectives about difficulties academicians may have communicating with clinicians, obtaining subjects, and gaining compliance for their research. ⋯ Evidence to practice and practice to evidence redefines EBM as a circular integration of best research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values.
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Evidence-based guidelines can make a substantial contribution to improving medical care. However, it is important to ensure that guidelines are: (1) developed in areas in which they are needed the most; and (2) translated effectively into everyday clinical practice. ⋯ The results of the present study indicate that there is a great need for guidelines on the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris in Germany, especially in light of dermatologists' low levels of confidence administering systemic treatments. Strategies for broad dissemination are essential for proper guideline implementation.
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Substitution of skills has been introduced to increase health service efficiency, but little evidence is available about its cost-effectiveness. This systematic review aims to identify economic evaluations of substitution between professionals, to assess the quality of the study methods applied and to value the results for decision making. ⋯ Several potential limitations influence the validity and generalizability. Full economic evaluations per se are of limited value for making decisions about substitution of skills. The tenuous relationship between structural, process and outcome variables is not sufficient investigated. For meaningfully placing the costs and consequences of substitution of skills in the context of health care and generating relevant data for decision making, it is strongly recommended to combine an economic evaluation (RCT) with an observational longitudinal study.