Qual Saf Health Care
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Qual Saf Health Care · Jun 2008
Assessing the professional performance of UK doctors: an evaluation of the utility of the General Medical Council patient and colleague questionnaires.
To investigate the utility of the GMC patient and colleague questionnaires in assessing the professional performance of a large sample of UK doctors. ⋯ The GMC patient and colleague questionnaires offer a reliable basis for the assessment of professionalism among UK doctors. If used in the revalidation of doctors' registration, they would be capable of discriminating a range of professional performance among doctors, and potentially identifying a minority whose practice should to subjected to further scrutiny.
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Qual Saf Health Care · Jun 2008
An epistemology of patient safety research: a framework for study design and interpretation. Part 2. Study design.
This is the second in a four-part series of articles detailing the epistemology of patient safety research. This article concentrates on issues of study design. It first considers the range of designs that may be used in the evaluation of patient safety interventions, highlighting the circumstances in which each is appropriate. ⋯ The difficulties associated with masking in patient safety research are described and suggestions given on how these can be ameliorated. The paper finally considers the role of study design in increasing confidence in the generalisability of study results over time and place. The extent to which findings can be generalised over time and place should be considered as part of an evaluation, for example by undertaking qualitative or quantitative measures of fidelity, attitudes or subgroup effects.