BACKGROUND: Educational outreach visits, particularly when combined with social marketing, appear to be a promising approach to modifying health professional behaviour, especially prescribing. Results from previous studies have shown a varying effect. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of academic detailing as a method of implementing a clinical guideline in general practice. METHODS: A cluster randomized, controlled, blinded study was carried out of the effect of an academic detail visit compared with postal distribution of a guideline for prescribing asthma medication. Half the practices in a Danish county with 100 practices were visited once. The outcome measure was routinely collected data from all Danish pharmacies on the sales of asthma medication. Data were collected monthly for 2 years before to 1 year after the intervention. RESULTS: There was no effect on the pattern of prescription of asthma medicines following the visit, neither immediately nor long term. CONCLUSION: We found no effect of academic detailing as a single intervention.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: Educational outreach visits, particularly when combined with social marketing, appear to be a promising approach to modifying health professional behaviour, especially prescribing. Results from previous studies have shown a varying effect. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of academic detailing as a method of implementing a clinical guideline in general practice. METHODS: A cluster randomized, controlled, blinded study was carried out of the effect of an academic detail visit compared with postal distribution of a guideline for prescribing asthma medication. Half the practices in a Danish county with 100 practices were visited once. The outcome measure was routinely collected data from all Danish pharmacies on the sales of asthma medication. Data were collected monthly for 2 years before to 1 year after the intervention. RESULTS: There was no effect on the pattern of prescription of asthma medicines following the visit, neither immediately nor long term. CONCLUSION: We found no effect of academic detailing as a single intervention.
Authors: M A O'Brien; S Rogers; G Jamtvedt; A D Oxman; J Odgaard-Jensen; D T Kristoffersen; L Forsetlund; D Bainbridge; N Freemantle; D A Davis; R B Haynes; E L Harvey Journal: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Date: 2007-10-17
Authors: Elizabeth A Edwardsen; Susan H Horwitz; Naomi A Pless; Helena D le Roux; Kevin A Fiscella Journal: BMC Med Educ Date: 2011-06-16 Impact factor: 2.463
Authors: Merrick Zwarenstein; Angeni Bheekie; Carl Lombard; George Swingler; Rodney Ehrlich; Martin Eccles; Michael Sladden; Sandra Pather; Jeremy Grimshaw; Andrew D Oxman Journal: Implement Sci Date: 2007-09-24 Impact factor: 7.327