ArticleBMC family practice2009
Consensus on gut feelings in general practice.
Article in BMC family practice, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Primary care practitioners' experiences managing urinary tract infections: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding the role of GPs' gut feelings in diagnosing cancer in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing evidence.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Pooled it
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- Physicians' appraisal of parental concerns: a qualitative assessment.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Reasoning in Surgical Pathology.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- Prevalence and characteristics of the 'bad feeling' among healthcare professionals in the context of emergency situations: A Bi-Hospital Survey.Journal of clinical nursing · 2025Article
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- Diagnosing intuition: a phenomenological account of intuitive knowledge in clinical practice.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Acute internal medicine physicians' clinical intuition based on acute care telephone referral: A prospective study.PloS one · 2024Article
- The linguistic validation of the gut feelings questionnaire in Turkish.The European journal of general practice · 2023Article
- How patients in general practice voice and value their gut feelings about health: a qualitative interview study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
- Article
- Prospective Observational Study on the Prevalence and Diagnostic Value of General Practitioners' Gut Feelings for Cancer and Serious Diseases.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Observational
- Patients' gut feelings seem useful in primary care professionals' decision making.BMC primary care · 2022Article
- Cultivating Doctors' Gut Feeling: Experience, Temporality and Politics of Gut Feelings in Family Medicine.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2022Article
- Building the case for the use of gut feelings in cancer referrals: perspectives of patients referred to a non-specific symptoms pathway.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Virtual Wards: A Rapid Adaptation to Clinical Attachments in MBChB During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2022Article
- Unprofessional behaviour of GP residents and its remediation: a qualitative study among supervisors and faculty.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Embracing complexity with systems thinking in general practitioners' clinical reasoning helps handling uncertainty.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2021Article
- General practitioners' perceived indicators of vulnerability in pregnancy- A qualitative interview study.BMC family practice · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGeneral practitioners sometimes base clinical decisions on gut feelings alone, even though there is little evidence of their diagnostic and prognostic value in daily practice. Research to validate the determinants and to assess the test properties of gut feelings requires precise and valid descriptions of gut feelings in general practice which can be used as a reliable measuring instrument. RESEARCH QUESTION: Can we obtain consensus on descriptions of two types of gut feelings: a sense of alarm and a sense of reassurance?
methodsQualitative research including a Delphi consensus procedure with a heterogeneous sample of 27 Dutch and Belgian GPs or ex-GPs involved in academic educational or research programmes.
resultsAfter four rounds, we found 70% or greater agreement on seven of the eleven proposed statements. A "sense of alarm" is defined as an uneasy feeling perceived by a GP as he/she is concerned about a possible adverse outcome, even though specific indications are lacking: There's something wrong here. This activates the diagnostic process by stimulating the GP to formulate and weigh up working hypotheses that might involve a serious outcome. A "sense of alarm" means that, if possible, the GP needs to initiate specific management to prevent serious health problems. A "sense of reassurance" is defined as a secure feeling perceived by a GP about the further management and course of a patient's problem, even though the doctor may not be certain about the diagnosis: Everything fits in.
conclusionThe sense of alarm and the sense of reassurance are well-defined concepts. These descriptions enable us to operationalise the concept of gut feelings in further research.
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What 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.