Think-aloud study about the diagnosis of chronic heart failure in Belgian general practice.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Diagnosing chronic heart failure (CHF) in general practice is challenging. Our aim was to investigate how general practitioners (GPs) diagnose CHF in real-world patients.

Design

Think-aloud study.

Methods

Fourteen GPs were asked to reason about four real-world CHF cases from their own practices. The cases were selected through a clinical audit. This was followed by an interview to get a deeper insight in their reasoning. The Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven was used as a guide in data analysis.

Results

We developed a conceptual diagnostic model based on three important reasoning steps. First, GPs assessed the likelihood of CHF based on the presence or absence of HF signs and symptoms. However, this approach had serious limitations since GPs exper

SUBMITTER: Smeets M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6475198 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature