First in our new series of Research Alerts for GPs and service commissioners, prepared by PCU with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group. Please download and share but reproduce in entirety and cite sources. Queries: Lucy Lloyd, Communications Manager at the Primary Care Unit.
What should doctors say to men asking for a PSA test?
The evidence behind prostate cancer screening – including the latest large trial of prostate cancer screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test – shows no difference in prostate cancer mortality after 10 years, according to a review published in the BMJ last week. Neither the US Preventive Services Task Force nor Public Health England recommend population […]
Removal of GP incentives associated with decline in quality of care
The removal of financial incentives for doctors working in primary care is associated with a decline in performance on quality measures, according to new findings by researchers from the Universities of Dundee and Cambridge, and staff from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Researchers said the decline in performance measures may be […]
No evidence to support claims that telephone consultations reduce GP workload or hospital referrals
Telephone consultations to determine whether a patient needs to see their GP face-to-face can deal with many problems, but a study led by researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research (University of Cambridge and RAND Europe), found no evidence to support claims by companies offering to manage these services or by NHS England […]
South Asian patients have worse experiences of GP interactions, study suggests
Communication between doctors and South Asian patients is poor, according to national GP surveys, but a question has been raised about whether this reflects genuinely worse experiences or differences in responding to questionnaires. Now, a new study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge has shown that it is in fact the former – […]
Influencing the future of primary care – a case study on Professor Martin Roland’s engagement with policymakers
Professor Martin Roland CBE, Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge, used a career’s worth of research and insight to influence primary care policy. This included chairing a government commission on the primary care workforce and working hard to ensure that the Commission’s recommendations were effectively communicated to the relevant policymakers. […]