Great idea, Martin! You can definitely sign me up for the effort. I
think we might sort out early whether we want to look at presenting
complaints (congestion, cough, stomach ache) which require diagnosis or
diagnoses we tend to quickly make which require treatment (and then
"retrospectively" information about the best diagnostic methods), or both.
I think I'd favor both since both show up in the clinics. It would also be
interesting to see them just how they come in--because some symptoms might
come in as frequently as other diagnoses, and people see a mix of both.
I also think it will make sense to have people do this, say at least 3 or 4
times, just to get closer to the average picture for each. Is there a way
to predict how many times will give you a reasonable picture if there are,
hmmm.....25 most common conditions as people sometimes say?
best,
Ati
At 09:59 AM 10/6/98 +0100, you wrote:
>This idea is for general or family practitioners anywhere in the world. I
have
>used e-mail lists and apologise for cross posting.
>
>What sort of questions (and how many) will arise from your next monday
morning
>surgery. (i acknowldge that monday's are odd and would be happy to accept
any
>day of the week)
>
>The reason for this question - how can we provide answers to family
>practitioners when we don't know what questions they are asking! This would
>give us some idea of the scope and quantity
>
>Trish Greenhalgh wrote to the EBH list about this and it prompted an idea.
As
>there are so many of us on these lists why don't we do a study. Again
accepting
>that all of us are for many reasons one or two standard deviations from the
>normal it would still be valuable.
>
>DON'T DO THIS YET !!!!
>
>- lets wait until we have heard everyone's comments
>
>A very basic idea is that we collect at our next surgery
>
>presenting complaint
>age
>sex
>problem
>
>question (we would categorise later)
>
>
>
>send on e-mail - preferably on excel which we have formatted
>with your geographical location
>{enclosed version 5 excel sheet}
>
>You can see i have been very informal - perhaps this is too loose -
>
>If we bashed out a surgery each we could soon get a decent database of
>questions. Volunteers could then categorise and send the results back to all
>who took part. I am happy to co-ordinate this. If it looks worth
publsihing on
>pulped tree we can assign/choose parts of the paper to write.
>
>The great thing is that each of us has only to do one surgery. If we want to
>alter the data collection slightly - feel that we need more information etc
>then we can just do it again. Simple -
>
>The first thing is to get a list of names of people who are interested. Then
>agree the format of the data collection sheet. Then do it.
>
>thanks for your help
>
>martin dawes
>
>
>
>Dr Martin Dawes
>MD FRCGP
>Lecturer in Primary Care
>University of Oxford
>Institute of Health Sciences
>Old Rd, Headington
>OXFORD OX3 7LF
>Tel (44) 1865 226700
>
>
>
______________________
Ati Yates, M.D.
Internal Medicine and Psychiatry
Michigan State University
Phone: W 517 353 4362
H 517 339 5037
Fax: 517 339 5569
517 432 3603
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