Patient safety in actioning and communicating blood test results in primary care: a UK wide audit using the Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT).

Background: Errors associated with failures in filing, actioning and communicating blood test results can lead to delayed and missed diagnoses and patient harm. This study aimed to audit how blood tests in primary care are filed, actioned and communicated in primary care, to identify areas for patient safety improvements.

Methods: UK primary care clinicians were recruited through the Primary Care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT).

Safety-netting advice documentation out-of-hours: a retrospective cohort from 2013 to 2020.

Background: Providing safety-netting advice (SNA) in out-of-hours primary care is a recognised standard of safe care but it is not known how frequently this occurs in practice.

Aim: Assess the frequency and type of SNA documented in out-of-hours primary care and explore factors associated with its presence.

Design And Setting: Retrospective cohort using the Birmingham Out-of-hours General Practice Research Database.

Exploration of reasons for primary care testing (the Why Test study): a UK-wide audit using the Primary care Academic CollaboraTive.

Background: Rates of blood testing have increased over the past two decades. Reasons for testing cannot easily be extracted from electronic health record databases.

Aim: To explore who requests blood tests and why, and what the outcomes of testing are in UK primary care.

Why Test study protocol: a UK-wide audit using the Primary Care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT) to explore the reasons for primary care testing.

Background: The number of blood tests done in primary care has been increasing over the past 20 years. Some estimates suggest that up to one-quarter of these tests may not have been needed. This could lead to a cascade effect of further investigations, appointments, or referrals, as well as anxiety for patients, increased workload, and costs to the health service.

Factors affecting the documentation of spoken safety-netting advice in routine GP consultations: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Previous studies have reported how often safety-netting is documented in medical records, but it is not known how this compares with what is verbalised and what factors might influence the consistency of documentation.

Aim: To compare spoken and documented safety-netting advice and to explore factors associated with documentation.

Design And Setting: A cross-sectional study, using an existing GP consultations archive.

Continuous, risk-based, consultation peer review in out-of-hours general practice: a qualitative interview study of the benefits and limitations.

Background: Systems to detect and minimise unwarranted variation in clinician practice are crucial to ensure increasingly multidisciplinary healthcare workforces are supported to practise to their full potential. Such systems are limited in English general practice settings, with implications for the efficiency and safety of care.

Aim: To evaluate the benefits and limitations of a continuous, risk-based, consultation peer-review system used for 10 years by an out-of-hours general practice service in Bristol, UK.

Changes in marital quality over 6 years and its association with cardiovascular disease risk factors in men: findings from the ALSPAC prospective cohort study.

Background: Marital relationship quality has been suggested to have independent effects on cardiovascular health outcomes. This study investigates the association between changes in marital relationship quality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in men.

Methods: We used data from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective birth cohort study (Bristol, UK).

E-learning and near-peer teaching in electrocardiogram education: a randomised trial.

Background: Near-peer teaching and electronic learning (e-learning) are two effective modern teaching styles. Near-peer sessions provide a supportive learning environment that benefits both the students and the tutor. E-learning resources are flexible and easily distributed.

Diagnostic accuracy of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging in fetuses, children and adults: a systematic review.

To determine, in a systematic review, the diagnostic accuracy, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of less invasive autopsy by post-mortem MR imaging, in fetuses, children and adults. We searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane library and reference lists to identify all studies comparing post-mortem MR imaging with conventional autopsy, published between January 1990 and March 2009. 539 abstracts were identified; 15 papers met the inclusion criteria; data from 9 studies were extracted (total: 146 fetuses, 11 children and 24 adults).