Practice-Based Research Networks Answer Primary Care Questions
- Paul A. Nutting, MD, MSPH;
- John W. Beasley, MD;
- James J. Werner, MS
- Author Affiliations: Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network, Denver, Colo (Dr Nutting and Mr Werner), and the Wisconsin Research Network and the Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Dr Beasley).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- contempo 1999: updates linking evidence and experience (jefferson tc, ed)
- health services research
- preventive health services
- primary health care
- research
Does every woman who has a miscarriage require a dilation and curettage (D&C)? Does every patient with new-onset headache require a computed tomographic (CT) scan? Does every child with otitis media need a 10-day course of antibiotics? Does every woman with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) require hospitalization?
These are popular and appropriate questions to ask and investigate in 1999 but challenged conventional medical wisdom in the early to mid 1980s, when a group of practicing family physicians in the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network (ASPN; http://www.aspn.denver.co.us) began a series of descriptive studies of current practices for common clinical dilemmas they faced in everyday practice. Their early work suggested that the then-current National Institutes of Health Consensus Guidelines for use of CT scanning in new-onset headache were not being followed and that the gap between practice and the guidelines led to no measureable harm to patients1-3 and to a …
