Publications by authors named "Steve Van den Bulck"

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most frequent reasons for encounter in general practice. Yet results from literature show adherence to clinical practice guidelines is low. Audit & feedback is a well-known strategy to improve adherence to guidelines.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hypertension is a major health issue globally, requiring a multidisciplinary approach with general practitioners (GPs) providing standardized care based on the latest European guidelines.
  • The study aimed to define quality indicators (QIs) for assessing and improving hypertension care within general practices, particularly those that can be derived from electronic health records (EHRs).
  • Using a modified Delphi method, researchers consolidated 115 recommendations, resulting in 35 finalized QIs focusing on aspects like screening and diagnosis after consensus discussions.
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Background: Audit and feedback (A&F) is a widely used implementation strategy to evaluate and improve medical practice. The optimal design of an A&F system is uncertain and structured process evaluations are currently lacking. This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire to evaluate the use of automated A&F systems.

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Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in general practice remains uncertain. Several studies showed an increase in terms of mental health problems during the pandemic. In Belgium, especially during the first waves of the pandemic, access to general practice was limited.

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Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on healthcare but uncertainty remains about the extent to which primary care provision was affected. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the impact on primary care provision and the evolution of the incidence of disease during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Flanders (Belgium).

Methods: Care provision was defined as the number of new entries added to a patient's medical history.

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High-quality care for patients with COPD is necessary. To achieve quality improvement in primary care, the general practitioner and the electronic health record (EHR) play an important role. The aim of this study was to develop a set of evidence-based and EHR extractable quality indicators (QIs) to measure and improve the quality of COPD primary care.

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Background: The electronic health record (EHR) of the general physician (GP) is an important tool that can be used to assess and improve the quality of healthcare. However, there are some problems when (re) using the data gathered in the EHR for quality assessments. One problem is the lack of data completeness in the EHR.

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Purpose: The aim of this systematic review was (i) to assess whether electronic audit and feedback (A&F) is effective in primary care and (ii) to evaluate important features concerning content and delivery of the feedback in primary care, including the use of benchmarks, the frequency of feedback, the cognitive load of feedback and the evidence-based aspects of the feedback.

Data Sources: The MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and CENTRAL databases were searched for articles published since 2010 by replicating the search strategy used in the last Cochrane review on A&F.

Study Selection: Two independent reviewers assessed the records for their eligibility, performed the data extraction and evaluated the risk of bias.

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Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common chronic condition and a rising public health issue with increased morbidity and mortality, even at an early stage. Primary care has a pivotal role in the early detection and in the integrated management of CKD which should be of high quality. The quality of care for CKD can be assessed using quality indicators (QIs) and if these QIs are extractable from the electronic medical record (EMR) of the general physician, the number of patients whose quality of care can be evaluated, could increase vastly.

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Aims: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a worldwide cause of significant morbidity and mortality. The general physician (GP) plays an important role in managing this disease and the use of the electronic health record (EHR) can improve quality for type 2 diabetes care. We aimed to develop a set of evidence-based and EHR extractable quality indicators for type 2 diabetes, enabling an automated quality assessment.

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Background: In recent literature, patient portals are considered as important tools for the delivery of patient-centered care. To date, it is not clear how patients would conceptualize a patient portal and which health information needs they have when doing so.

Objective: This study aimed (1) to investigate health information needs, expectations, and attitudes toward a patient portal and (2) to assess whether determinants, such as patient characteristics, health literacy, and empowerment status, can predict two different variables, namely the importance people attribute to obtaining health information when using a patient portal and the expectations concerning personal health care when using a patient portal.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on identifying quality indicators (QIs) to evaluate care for heart failure (HF) patients in general practice in Belgium, an area currently lacking appropriate measures.
  • - Researchers used a modified Delphi method, involving literature review and expert panel evaluation, to create and refine a list of potential QIs, ultimately arriving at 19 suitable indicators for monitoring HF care quality.
  • - The top three QIs include identifying the cause of HF, distinguishing between types of HF, and treating with specific medications, thereby aiming to enhance the quality of care provided to HF patients through data from electronic health records.
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