BJGP open
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While the use of prescribing safety indicators (PSI) can reduce potentially hazardous prescribing, there is a need to identify actionable strategies for the successful implementation and sustainable delivery of PSI-based interventions in general practice. ⋯ Extending ownership of prescribing safety beyond primary care-based pharmacists, and achieving greater alignment between general practice and hospital prescribing safety initiatives, is fundamental to achieve sustained impact of PSI-based interventions in primary care.
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Generalist physician care is associated with improved patient outcomes. Despite initiatives to promote generalism in educational settings, recruitment to generalist disciplines remains less than required to serve societal needs. Increasingly this impacts not just general practice but also generalist specialties such as internal medicine, surgery, and paediatrics. One potential factor for this deficit is a lack of explicit attention to generalism as a praxis, including clarifying key aspects of generalist expertise. ⋯ Findings will characterise generalism and generalist practice from a grassroots clinical perspective. By identifying similarities and differences across generalist disciplines, this work will inform more focused educational initiatives on generalism at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including collaborations between generalist disciplines.
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Owing to the rising disease burden of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), prevention programmes for CMD are increasingly implemented in primary care. Organisational practice characteristics and availability of preventive services may be associated with a more effective programme. ⋯ In this study, general practice organisational and preventive service characteristics showed no impact on the effectiveness of a CMD prevention programme. Possible explanations could be the effectiveness of protocolised pharmaceutical treatment and only limited contribution of lifestyle programmes on the improvement of CMD risk factors.
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The SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 binds human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in human tissues. ACE2 expression may be associated with COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. Routinely prescribed drugs that up- or down-regulate ACE2 expression are, therefore, of critical research interest as agents that might promote or reduce risk of COVID-19 infection in a susceptible population. ⋯ This systematic review will identify drug therapies that may increase or decrease ACE2 expression. This might identify medications increasing risk of COVID-19 transmission, or as targets for intervention in mitigating transmission.