General Practice
Diagnosis in general practice: Using probabilistic reasoning, BMJ (2009)
Diagnostic tests—whether clinical signs, imaging, or laboratory tests—are imperfect: there is always a possibility that...
Doctors as patients: A systematic review of doctors' health access and the barriers they experience (with Margaret Kay, Geoffrey Mitchell, and Alexandra Clavarino), British journal of general practice (2008)
Background The need to improve doctors' access to health care by reducing the barriers they...
Diagnosing patients with tiredness in general practice, Australian family physician (2003)
Trying to sort out which patients have a relatively simple problem that will resolve spontaneously...
What is Cochrane all about? (with Chris Del Mar), Australian family physician (2002)
Recently the Australian Minister for Health, the Hon Kay Patterson, announced that Australia is purchasing...
No subject area
Cardiovascular risk scores do not account for the effect of treatment: A review (with Su May Liew and Paul Glasziou), Heart (2011)
Objective To compare the strengths and limitations of cardiovascular risk scores available for clinicians in...
Diagnosis of heart failure in primary care (with F. D. R. Hobbs, J. Mant, and M. R. Cowie), Heart (2010)
Extract:
Heart failure is a syndrome resulting from a structural or functional cardiac disorder. For...
Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians' prescribing: A systematic review (with Geoffrey K. Spurling, Peter R. Mansfield, Brett D. Montgomery, Joel Lexchin, Noordin Othman, and Agnes I. Vitry), PLoS medicine (2010)
Background: Pharmaceutical companies spent $57.5 billion on pharmaceutical promotion in the United States in 2004....
Qualification versus validation of biomarkers, Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation (2010)
The phases of research used to evaluate new drugs provide a useful reference point for...
Presenting a simplified assistant tool for breast cancer diagnosis in mammography to radiologists (with Ping Zhang and Kuldeep Kumar), 2nd International conference on medical biometrics: ICMB 2010 (2010)
This paper proposes a method to simplify a computational model from logistic regression for clinical...
Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of diagnosis of heart failure, with modelling of implications of different diagnostic strategies in primary care (with J. Mant, A. Roalfe, P. Barton, M. R. Cowie, P. Glasziou, D. Mant, R. J. McManus, R. Holder, J. Deeks, K. Fletcher, M. Qume, S. Sohanpal, S. Sanders, and F. D. R. Hobbs), Health technology assessment (2009)
Objectives: To assess the accuracy in diagnosing heart failure of clinical features and potential primary...
Evaluating diagnostic tests—Should the same methods apply? (with Jonathon C. Craig), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2008)
It is now accepted wisdom by regulators, purchasers, journal editors, and clinicians that the true...
Seriously working together: Integrated governance models to achieve sustainable partnerships between health care organisations (with Claire L. Jackson, Caroline Nicholson, Lily Cheung, and John O'Donnell), Medical journal of Australia (2008)
Objective: To identify sustainable governance arrangements for health care organisations undertaking integrated health service delivery...
Check Unit: evidence based medicine (with Chris Del Mar), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2008)
Extract:
This is an updated version of an original check unit on evidence based medicine...
Acute respiratory infections (with Sharon Sanders and Chris Del Mar), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2008)
Extract:
Acute respiratory infections may be classified in several different ways: by their symptoms...
EBM journal clubs in general practice (with Chris B. Del Mar, Brett David Montgomery, Clare Heal, Rachel Bidgood, David Jeacoke, Gary Bourke, and Geoffrey Spurling), Australian family physician (2008)
Evidence based medicine (EBM) changes the way medicine is practised by integrating individual clinical expertise...
Antibiotics for bronchiolitis in children (with Geoffrey KP Spurling, Kithsiri Fonseka, and Chris B. Del Mar), Cochrane database of systematic reviews (2007)
Background
Bronchiolitis is a serious, potentially life-threatening respiratory illness commonly affecting young babies. It is most...
Scrub typhus serologic testing with the indirect immunofluorescence method as a diagnostic gold standard: A lack of consensus leads to a lot of confusion (with Stuart D. Blacksell, Naomi J. Bryant, Daniel H. Paris, Yoshihiro Sakoda, and Nicholas P.J. Day), Clinical infectious diseases (2007)
A review was performed to determine the evidence base for scrub typhus indirect immunofluorescence assay...
Teaching evidence based laboratory medicine (with Sharon Sanders), Evidence based laboratory medicine: Principles, practice, and outcomes (2007)
The role of BNP testing in heart failure (with Richard Lehman and Paul Glasziou), American Family Physician (2006)
Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels are simple and objective measures of cardiac function. These measurements...
Clinical thinking: Evidence, communication and decision-making (with Chris Del Mar and Paul Glasziou), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2006)
Clinicians are taught masses of facts, but not how to use them in the messy...
Early invasive versus conservative strategies for unstable angina & non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction in the stent era (with Michel R. Hoenig, Constantine N. Aroney, and Ian A. Scott), Cochrane database of systemic reviews (2006)
Background
In patients with unstable angina and non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (UA/NSTEMI) two strategies are possible:...
Evidence based answers - Is salmeterol safe in asthma? (with Geoffrey Spurling), Australian Family Physician (2006)
Case history
SW, 21 years of age, presented for a prescription for her salbutamol puffer....
Is pulse palpation helpful in detecting atrial fibrillation? A systematic review (with Georga Cooke and Sharon Sanders), Journal of Family Practice (2006)
Background: Atrial fibrillation in the elderly is common and potentially life threatening. The classical sign...
Models of disease (with Chris Del Mar and Paul Glasziou), Clinical thinking: evidence, communication, and decision-making (2006)
[Excerpt] What we will do here is set out some models of disease, and then...
How well does B-type natriuretic peptide predict death and cardiac events in patients with heart failure: Systematic review (with Eva Pietrzak, Annette Dobson, and Paul Glasziou), BMJ: British Medical Journal (2005)
Objective To assess how well B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) predicts prognosis in patients with heart...
Identifying health centers in Honduras infested with Rhodnius prolixus using the seroprevalence of Chagas disease in children younger than 13 years (with Geoffrey Spurling and Romuald Lucas), American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2005)
The objective of this study is to determine if a Chagas disease protocol starting with...
A systematic review of brachytherapy. Is it an effective and safe treatment for localised prostate cancer? (with Emma Miller, Gillian Duchesne, Michael Kitchener, and David Weller), Australian Family Physician (2004)
BACKGROUND Brachytherapy is a promising treatment for prostate cancer as it may have reduced rates...
Why do doctors use treatments that do not work? For many reasons - including their inability to stand idle and do nothing. (with Chris Del Mar), BMJ (2004)
Why do we still use ineffective treatments? One reason is that our expectations for the...
A systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of natriuretic peptides for heart failure (with Paul P. Glasziou, Eva Pietrzak, and Annette J. Dobson), Archives of Internal Medicine (2004)
Background The diagnosis of heart failure is difficult, with both overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis occurring commonly...
Diagnosing coughs and colds (with Chris Del Mar), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2004)
It is easy to dismiss coughs and colds as 'trivial' however they cause a significant...
Diagnostic and management strategies for anaemia in adults, Australian Family Physician (2003)
BACKGROUND Anaemia is often an incidental finding or is discovered when patients present with nonspecific...
Promoting better use of the PSA test in general practice: Randomized controlled trial of educational strategies based on outreach visits and mailout (with D Weller, F May, D Rowett, A Esterman, C Pinnock, S Nicholson, and C Silagy), Family practice (2003)
Background. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer is controversial. Demand for PSA testing is...