Evidence-Based Practice in Primary Care

Evidence Based Practice in Primary Health Care is split into two sections. The frist discusses how the individual can apply evidence based medicine in the clinical setting, and the second covers the wider issue of changes in organisation and strategy to promote better and more effective delivery of care within a practice or primary care group. Chapters are writtten by leading specialists in evidence based primary care from Australlia, the UK,and mainland Europe. Contributors.

Preface to the second edition.

Getting started: how to set priorities and define questions.

Tracking down the evidence.

Critical appraisal.

Applying the evidence with patients.

Screening and diagnostic tests.

Evaluating the application of evidence.

An overview of strategies to promote implementation of evidence based health care.

Clinical practice guidelines.

Role of information technology.

Continuing medical education as a means of lifelong learning.

Integrating research evidence into practice.

Appendix 1: Using MEDLINE to search for evidence.

Appendix 2: Some further sources of information and resources that facilitate evidence-based practice.

Index

In the Royal Society of Medicine Journal review of the first edition of this book, David Seamark wrote: “Evidence-based medicine provokes reactions from enthusiasm to loathing. Silagy and Haines’ well laid out book seeks to reconcile the two extremes by explaining why evidence-based medicine is relevant to daily practice in primary care and by asking primary care professionals to regard themselves as learners and not just practitioners.”

Christopher Allen Silagy AO - 14 September 1960 – 13 December 2001 - was an advocate of evidence-based medicine and an evaluator of health care programs. He was Professor of Public Health and Foundation Director of the Monash Institute of Health Services Research at Monash Medical School and he was also founder of the Australasian Cochrane Centre. Hence the text is split into two sections, the first dealing with the way primary care workers can begin to understand and practise in an evidence-based way, the second addressing the broader issue of engendering a more evidence-based culture in their practice. Contributions from leading practitioners around the world ensure that the discussions are relevant internationally.

In this second edition each chapter has been thoroughly revised in the light of changes both in attitudes to and practice of evidence-based medicine. Emphasis is given to the need for continuing medical education using effective searching and critical appraisal, and to integrating research findings into practice.

As with the first edition, this revised text will be an invaluable guide for anyone in primary health care, providing authoritative and thoughtful information on this important development in clinical practice.