Effectiveness of educational outreach visits compared with usual guideline dissemination to improve family physician prescribing-an 18-month open cluster-randomized trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Educational outreach visits are meant to improve the practice of health professionals by promoting face-to-face visits to deliver educational contents. They have been shown to change prescription behavior, but long-term effects are still uncertain. This trial aimed to determine if they improve family physician prescribing compared with passive guideline dissemination.

Methods

Parallel, open, superiority, and cluster-randomized trial. National Health Service primary care practices (clusters) were recruited in the Lisbon region-Portugal between March 2013 and January 2014. They could enter if they had at least four family physicians willing to participate and not planning to retire in the follow-up period. Three national guidelines were chosen for dissemination: aci

SUBMITTER: Pinto D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6126017 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature