Medical Centre

Two recent Cochrane reviews examine the role of computer-assisted history taking in people with diabetes. In the first review , Igor Wei and colleagues examine the role of computer-assisted history taking for dietary histories.  They found that computer-assisted diet history taking was potentially as accurate as the conventional oral-and-written method and may potentially allow doctors to spend more time with their patients. However, the research on this topic was limited and they concluded  that more primary research is required in this area. In the second review , Yannis Pappas and colleagues examined the role of computer-assisted for identifying people with identifying people with a family history of of type 2 diabetes. Pappas and colleagues found no randomised controlled trials that investigated this area. They concluded that more primary research is required in this area to allow an informed decision to be made by physicians, patients and policymakers. Although information te

In a paper published in JRSM Short Reports , Carmen Tsang and colleagues from the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London interviewed a sample of NHS general practitioners to determine what they felt were the  main patient safety issues and priorities for improvement in general practice. The study provided a snapshot of general practitioners' views on patient safety concerns, uses of routinely collected data to measure adverse events and existing methods for monitoring incidents of patient harm in primary care. Medication-related issues were  identified a major cause for concern. Issues such as communication and training were also identified as important factors in ensuring patient safety in primary care. Further investigation of the patient safety topics identified by Tsang and colleagues will help develop methods to improve the involvement of general practitioners and other health professionals in schemes to improve patient safety in primary c