Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2002
A randomised controlled trial of the effect of educational outreach by community pharmacists on prescribing in UK general practice.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 33 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Elusive search for effective provider interventions: a systematic review of provider interventions to increase adherence to evidence-based treatment for depression.Implementation science : IS · 2018Pooled it
- Interventions for enhancing medication adherence.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- Knowledge exchange processes in organizations and policy arenas: a narrative systematic review of the literature.The Milbank quarterly · 2010Pooled it
- Effect of outpatient pharmacists' non-dispensing roles on patient outcomes and prescribing patterns.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2010Pooled it
- Educational outreach visits: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2007Pooled it
- Academic Detailing Compared with Group Meetings to Change Drug Prescribing for Type 2 Diabetes-A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2024Trial
- Academic detailing and adherence to guidelines for Group B streptococci prenatal screening: a randomized controlled trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2013Trial
- Can community retail pharmacist and diabetes expert support facilitate insulin initiation by family physicians? Results of the AIM@GP randomized controlled trial.BMC health services research · 2013Trial
- A cluster randomised stepped wedge trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted information technology-based intervention in reducing high-risk prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antiplatelets in primary medical care: the DQIP study protocol.Implementation science : IS · 2012Trial
- Trial
- Pilot study on the feasibility and acceptability of academic detailing in general practice.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2003Trial
- Sustainability in Ophthalmology: A Comparative Study of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Among Surgeons and Nurses.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Changing hearts and minds: theorizing how, when, and under what conditions three social influence implementation strategies work.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- A realist synthesis of educational outreach visiting and integrated academic detailing to influence prescribing in ambulatory care: why relationships and dialogue matter.BMJ quality & safety · 2023Article
- Rationing decisions and the endowment effect.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2020Review
- Academic detailing as a method of continuing medical education.Advances in medical education and practice · 2019Article
- Article
- Patient-specific academic detailing for smoking cessation: feasibility study.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Article
- A brief overview of academic detailing in Canada: Another role for pharmacists.Canadian pharmacists journal : CPJ = Revue des pharmaciens du Canada : RPC · 2012Article
- Improving identification and management of partner violence: examining the process of academic detailing: a qualitative study.BMC medical education · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEducational outreach visits are commonly used to promote changes in prescribing in family practice. However, the effectiveness of outreach visits has not been evaluated across a range of settings.
aimTo estimate the effectiveness of educational outreach visits on United Kingdom (UK) general practice prescribing and to examine the extent to which practice characteristics influenced outcome. DESIGN OF STUDY: Randomised controlled trial.
settingGeneral practices in 12 health authorities in England.
methodEducational outreach visits were made to practices that received two of four guidelines. Each practice provided data on treatment of patients for all four guidelines for both pre and post-intervention periods. The primary outcome is average effect across all four guidelines. Secondary analyses examined the predictive effect of practice and guideline characteristics.
resultsSeventy per cent of practices approached agreed to take part in the intervention. Overall, educational outreach was associated with a significant improvement in prescribing practice (odds ratio [OR] = 1.24 [95% CI = 1.07 to 1.42]), a 5.2% (95% CI = 1.7% to 8.7%) increase in the number of patients treated within the guideline recommendations. Smaller practices (two or fewer full-time equivalent practitioners) responded much more favourably to educational outreach than larger practices. Smaller practices improved their performance in line with the guidelines by 13.5% (95% CI = 6% to 20.9%) attributable to outreach, while larger practices improved by only 1.4% (95% CI = -2.4% to 5.3%, P-value for interaction <0.001).
conclusionIn large practices, educational outreach alone is unlikely to achieve worthwhile change. There is good evidence to support the use of educational outreach visits in small practices.
Indexed as
Identifiers
11942445PMC1314269What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.