gms | German Medical Science

G-I-N Conference 2012

Guidelines International Network

22.08 - 25.08.2012, Berlin

Point-of-care decision support as a vehicle for guideline dissemination: Best Practice case study

Meeting Abstract

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  • K. Brunnhuber - BMJ Group, London, UK
  • L. Nherera - BMJ Group, London, UK
  • S. Bharatan - BMJ Group, London, UK

Guidelines International Network. G-I-N Conference 2012. Berlin, 22.-25.08.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. DocO59

doi: 10.3205/12gin091, urn:nbn:de:0183-12gin0910

Published: July 10, 2012

© 2012 Brunnhuber et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Background: Guidelines and web-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools share the aim of promoting evidence-based practice at the point of care. Guidelines are used to inform content creation, and in turn may be disseminated and promoted through knowledge resources.

Objectives: To outline the use and display of guidelines within BMJ Group’s CDS tool Best Practice (BP); to use Google Analytics data to explore BP’s role for guideline dissemination.

Methods: Description of editorial processes and guideline display in BP; evaluation of Google Analytics data for overall BP usage, visits to guideline pages, and top 10 guideline pages.

Results: BP uses high-quality guidelines as an integral part of its content feed and contains thousands of live links within its guideline sections. Of the over 2.7 million visits to BP between January 2009 and December 2011, 11% and 5.6% were attributable to visits to its treatment and diagnostic guideline pages respectively. The observed steady rise in numbers, accelerated since the end of 2010, is strongly correlated to the increase in the number of overall visits. Top 10 guideline pages include common as well as rare but potentially serious conditions.

Discussion: BP has matured into an important tool for guideline dissemination, providing easy access to thousands of major guidelines and raising awareness of their currency and content.

Implications for guideline developers/users: Clinical decision support tools such as BP are an effective means of bringing guideline recommendations to the point of care.