The Evidence-Based Primary Care Handbook

Here at last is a realistic and practical book that shows how evidence-based practice can be successfully applied in a primary care setting. The first section provides an introduction to the principles of evidence-based health care as they apply to primary care, and many other books on this subject stop right there. However, Section 3 practises what this first section preaches, by applying these tools to 15 common clinical problems in primary care, such as sore throat, asthma, urinary tract infections, low back pain and heart failure. In between, Section 2 focuses on topics of particular relevance to planners and to Primary Care Groups (PCGs), and includes chapters on commissioning, prescribing issues and health economics. The authors are all familiar with primary care as clinicians and/or researchers, and understand the reality of practising evidence-based medicine in primary care - for example, how to cope in the absence of 'best evidence', or how to search for evidence when time is very limited. GPs, primary care nurses, PCG managers, practice managers, community pharmacists and all other members of the primary health care team will find this book challenging, informative and relevant.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors Preface Acknowledgements SECTION 1: GENERAL ISSUES IN EVIDENCE-BASED PRIMARY CARE 1. Why Evidence-Based Health 2. A Guide to Reading 3. A Guide to Literature Sources 4. Clinical Practice Guidelines and Primary Care 5. Dissemination and Implentation Strategies 6. Using Evidence-Based Health in Learning and Development 7. Nursing and Evidence-Based Practice: A World Away from Evidence-Based Health 8. Evidence-Based Health, Patient Consent and Consumerism 9. Patient Involvement in Evidence-Based Health in Relation to Clinical Guidelines SECTION 2: EVIDENCE-BASED PRIMARY CARE COMMISSIONING AND PRESCRIBING 10. Fundamental Statistics for Evidence-Based Health in Primary Care 11. Evidence-Based Commissioning in Primary Care 12. Commissioning Stroke Services 13. Economics-Based Medical Practice: Using Evidence to Capture and Release Resources 14. Using Evidence from Economic Studies to Inform Service Development in General Medicine Practice 15. Prescribing Dilemmas: A Barrier to Evidence-Based Health 16. Role of Pharmacist in Evidence-Based Prescribing in Primary Care 17. Evidence in Practice: A Review of 18 Months of Evidence-Based General Practice SECTION 3: EVIDENCE-BASED PRIMARY CARE IN PRACTICE 18. Sore Throat 19. Sinusitis 20. Depression 21. Anxiety 22. Headache Diagnosis: When is a Migraine not a Middle Class Tension Headache? 23. Mastalgia 24. Prostate Screening: A Decision Analysis 25. Urinary Tract Infections: Test or Treat and How to Treat? 26. Helicobacter Pylori 27. The Trouble with Head Lice 28. Leg Ulcers and Fever in Children: Finding Evidence for Non-Medics 29. Heart Failure Guidelines 30. Low Back Pain 31. Asthma 32. Secondary Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease Epilogue Appendix: Useful sources of evidence for primary care Index

About the Author :
Mark Gabbay FRCGP Dip Psychotherapy DFFP Senior Lecturer in General Practice, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK