Implementation of evidence based medicine in primary care

Abstract

The particular situation of primary care - i.e. decentralized setting, comprehensive medical care, and limited access to continuous medical education - makes it difficult to implement evidence-based medicine into daily practice. Therefore, the Institute of General Practice of the Paracelsus University (PMU) in Salzburg and Actavis GmbH Austria developed "REM" (Rechercheservice evidenzbasierte Medizin). This is a web-based enquiry service offered mainly to GPs who can submit questions arising in daily practice which are answered by the service according to current best evidence. In 8.5 months 176 physicians registered to participate. A total of 31 submitted at least one question. In total, REM processed 134 questions. The number of physicians registered and the frequency of enquiries show that REM can facilitate the implementation of evidence-based medicine in primary care. Nonetheless, only a small proportion of the physicians registered actually made use of the service. Improvements are necessary to promote interest in this new way of continuous medical education.

Editorial

“…Im Beitrag von Otto Pichlhöfer werden die Sinnhaftigkeit und die Akzeptanz des Streptokokkenantigenschnelltests in der Praxis evaluiert [6]. Der letzte Beitrag von der Abteilung Allgemeinmedizin an der Paracelsus Medizinischen Universität Salzburg stellt die ersten Ergebnisse eines Literatur-Services für niedergelassene € Arzte vor [7]. Neben der Publikation der evidenzbasierten Leitlinien für das Fach Allgemeinmedizin [8] und von Österreichweiten Konsensusberichten zu bestimmten diagnostisch-therapeutischen Problemen [9] stellt dieses evidenzbasierte Service einen wichtigen Schritt in der Qualitätssicherung und Verbesserung im niedergelassenen Bereich dar.…”