Principles of educational outreach ('academic detailing') to improve clinical decision making
Article Abstract:
The development of new drugs which are more efficacious, more expensive, and possibly more hazardous to prescribe, places new demands upon the traditional methods of keeping physicians informed about new pharmaceutical drug products. The authors recommend an awareness of the various psychological methods for inducing behavioral change (in this case prescribing a new product) and review key steps to influence clinical decision making. Any program must clearly define its objectives and rely upon accurate market research. Although physicians are aware of the profit motive of the pharmaceutical companies and their representatives, it is nonetheless imperative that credibility be established. Very often, an effective means of introducing changes in prescription-writing behavior is the identification of high-potential physicians with a greater-than-average need for the product and opinion-leader physicians who are respected and influential in local networks. The authors emphasize the importance of two-sided communication as opposed to the one-sided "hard-sell", and indicate that the involvement of the physician as an active partner in learning is especially effective. Laws and regulations are effective in eliminating the prescription of harmful substances but do not provide an effective means of improving the prescribing techniques of physicians as new pharmaceutical agents are introduced. An effective understanding and use of basic techniques of behavioral science may eliminate this shortcoming. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1990
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A controlled trial of educational outreach to improve blood transfusion practice
Article Abstract:
An educational outreach visit by a transfusion specialist may improve the blood transfusion practices of surgeons and physicians. These visits include a lecture on appropriate transfusion practices and a 30-minute meeting with each transfusing physician. Among 101 transfusing surgeons and attending physicians from a community or teaching hospital, 55 participated in an educational outreach visit and 46 did not. Researchers audited 1,449 red blood cell transfusions that took place six months before and after an outreach visit for compliance with blood transfusion guidelines. After the outreach visit, a 40% decrease in the proportion of non-compliant transfusions occurred among physicians who participated. A 9% increase occurred over the same time period among the physicians who did not participate in an outreach visit.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1993
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