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Background: Male urinary tract infections (mUTIs) are rare in primary care. The definition of mUTIs varies across countries. The therapeutic management of mUTIs in France is based on a 14-day course of fluoroquinolones despite a high risk of antimicrobial resistance., Objectives: The objective of this qualitative study was to explore general practitioners' (GPs) experiences and behaviours regarding the diagnostic and therapeutic management of mUTIs., Methods: GPs were recruited by convenience sampling in Haute Normandie (France) and interviewed individually with semi-structured guides. GPs' experiences and behaviours were recorded and analysed using an interpretive phenomenological approach., Results: From March 2021 to May 2022, 20 GPs were included in the study. Defining a mUTI was perceived as a diagnostic challenge. A diagnosis based on clinical evidence alone was insufficient and complementary tests were required. For GPs: 'male cystitis does not exist'. A mUTI was considered an unusual disease that could reveal an underlying condition. GPs considered fluoroquinolones to be 'potent' antibiotics and treated all patients with the same 14-day course. GPs implemented improvement strategies for antibiotic stewardship and followed the guidelines using a computerised decision support system., Conclusions: GPs' experiences of mUTIs are limited due to low exposure and variable clinical presentations in primary care, representing a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. In order to modify GPs' antibiotic prescribing behaviours, a paradigm shift in the guidelines will need to be proposed.KEY MESSAGESDefining a male urinary tract infection represents a diagnostic challenge for GPs.A diagnosis based on clinical evidence alone is insufficient and complementary tests are required.A male urinary tract infection is an unusual disease in primary care and suggests a more serious underlying condition.

Objective(s): Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an insidious disease that requires early nephroprotective measures to delay progression to end-stage kidney disease. The objective of this study was to describe the management of patients with CKD in primary care, including clinical and biological monitoring and prescribed treatments. A retrospective, single-centre study was conducted on adult patients who were treated in the Maison de Neufchâtel (France) between 2012 and 2017 at least once a year. The inclusion criteria were 2 estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) measurements <60 mL/min more than 3 months apart. Two subgroups were constituted according to whether CKD was coded in the electronic medical records (EMRs)., Results: A total of 291 (6.7%, CI95% 5.9-7.4) patients with CKD were included. The mean eGFR was 51.0 ± 16.4 mL/min. Hypertension was the most frequent health problem reported (n = 93, 32%). Nephrotective agents were prescribed in 194 (66.7%) patients, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in 22 (8%) patients, and proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) in 147 (47%) patients. CKD coding in EMRs was associated with dosage of natraemia (n = 34, 100%, P < 0.01), albuminuria (n = 20, 58%, P < 0.01), vitamin D (n = 14, 41%, P < 0.001), and phosphorus (n = 11, 32%, P < 0.001). Eighty-one patients (31.5%) with low eGFR without an entered code for CKD were prescribed an albuminuria dosage. Clinical monitoring could not be analysed due to poor coding., Conclusion: This pilot study reinforces the hypothesis that CKD is underscreened and undermanaged. More systematic coding of medical information in EMRs and further studies on medical centre databases should improve primary care practices., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Purpose: Studies in the United States, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland showed that the majority of health problems are managed within primary health care; however, the ecology of French medical care has not yet been described., Methods: Nationwide, population-based, cross sectional study. In 2018, we included data from 576,125 beneficiaries from the General Sample of Beneficiaries database. We analysed the reimbursement of consultations with (i) a general practitioner (GP), (ii) an outpatient doctor other than a GP, (iii) a doctor from a university or non-university hospital; and the reimbursement of (iv) hospitalization in a private establishment, (v) general hospital, and (vi) university hospital. For each criterion, we calculated the average monthly number of reimbursements reported on 1,000 beneficiaries. For categorical variables, we used the χ2 test, and to compare means we used the z test. All tests were 2-tailed with a P-value < 5% considered significant., Results: Each month, on average, 454 (out of 1,000) beneficiaries received at least 1 reimbursement, 235 consulted a GP, 74 consulted other outpatient doctors in ambulatory care and 24 in a hospital, 13 were hospitalized in a public non-university hospital and 10 in the private sector, and 5 were admitted to a university hospital. Independently of age, people consulted GPs twice as much as other specialists. The 13-25-year-old group consulted the least. Women consulted more than men. Individuals covered by complementary universal health insurance had more care., Conclusions: Our study on reimbursement data confirmed that, like in other countries, in France the majority of health problems are managed within primary health care., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Aims: To describe the key elements of the interprofessional decision-making process in health, based on published scientific studies. To describe the authors, reviews and subject matter of those publications., Design: Scoping review of the literature., Data Sources: MEDLINE, APA Psycinfo OpenGrey, Lissa and Cochrane databases were searched in December 2019 and January 2023., Review Methods: References were considered eligible if they (i) were written in French or English, (ii) concerned health, (iii) studied a clinical decision-making process, (iv) were performed in an interprofessional context. 'PRISMA-scoping review' guidelines were respected. The eligible studies were analysed and classified by an inductive approach RESULTS: We identified 1429 sources of information, 145 of which were retained for the analysis. Based on these studies, we identified five key elements of interprofessional decision-making in health. The process was found to be influenced by group dynamics, the available information and consideration of the unique characteristics of the patient. An organizational framework and specific training favoured improvements in the process., Conclusion: Decision-making can be based on a willingness of the healthcare organization to promote models based on more shared leadership and to work on professional roles and values. It also requires healthcare professionals trained in the entire continuum of collaborative practices, to meet the unique needs of each patient. Finally, it appears essential to favour the sharing of multiple sources of accessible and structured information. Tools for knowledge formalization should help to optimize interprofessional decision-making in health., Impact: The quality of a team decision-making is critical to the quality of care. Interprofessional decision-making can be structured and improved through different levels of action. These improvements could benefit to patients and healthcare professionals in every settings of care involving care collaboration., Impact Statement: Interprofessional decision-making in health is an essential lever of quality of care, especially for the most complex patients which are a contemporary challenge. This scoping review article offers a synthesis of a large corpus of data published to date about the interprofessional clinical decision-making process in healthcare. It has the potential to provide a global vision, practical data and a list of references to facilitate the work of healthcare teams, organizations and teachers ready to initiate a change., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: There are various Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms used to index general practice research, without consistency., Aim: To understand how general practice-related research is indexed in the main general practice journals between 2011 and 2021, and to analyse the factors that influenced the choice of the general practice-related MeSH., Design and Setting: This was a quantitative bibliometric study conducted on MEDLINE., Method: MeSH were selected according to the international definition of General Practice/Family Medicine: 'General Practice', 'Primary Health Care', 'Family Practice', 'General Practitioners', 'Physicians, Primary Care', and 'Physicians, Family'. Their use was studied from 2011 to 2021 on MEDLINE, reviewing the 20 general practice journals with the highest impact factors. A descriptive and analytical approach was used; the association of the country, journal, and year with the choice of general practice-related MeSH terms was analysed., Results: A total of 8514 of 150 286 articles (5.7%) were using one of the general practice-related MeSH terms. The most used were 'Primary Health Care' (4648/9984, 46.6%) and 'General Practice' (2841/9984, 28.5%). A total of 80.0% (6172/7723) of the articles were related to the UK or US and 71.0% (6055/8514) of the articles came from four journals ( BJGP , BMJ , Journal of General Internal Medicine , and Annals of Family Medicine ). Two main country clusters emerged from the use of general practice-related MeSH: a British cluster mainly using 'General Practice' and an American cluster using 'Primary Health Care'. The journals also mainly differed in their used of these two MeSH terms., Conclusion: Important variations in the indexation of general practice research were found. Researchers should consider combining 'Primary Health Care' and 'General Practice' in their PubMed searches to access all the general practice research, regardless of their country of origin., (© The Authors.)

Background: The Congress of the National College of Academic General Practitioners took place in France in June 2021. In total, 1300 participants were registered, provoking concerns about the risk of COVID-19 contamination., Objectives: The study objective was to report participation in the first French face-to-face medical congress after restrictions due to COVID-19 and whether it resulted in COVID-19 contamination., Methods: We performed two web-based surveys of respectively 46 and 33 questions. The first questionnaire was sent to all congress participants during the congress (and to a panel of non-participants) and investigated demographic characteristics, medical conditions, behaviours related to COVID-19 contamination risk, and the interest of face-to-face congress as compared to virtual congress. Two weeks after the congress, a questionnaire was addressed to the same population and to university General Practice departments to identify incident COVID-19 cases among participants., Results: A total of 1001 general practitioners and residents completed the first questionnaire; 752 participated in the congress. The respondents were mainly women (61.3%), with a mean age of 35 ( SD 10) years, 96.2% had been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and 11.4% considered themselves at risk for a severe form of COVID-19 for medical reasons. Concerning the interest in attending the congress face-to-face, mean score was 9 over 10 ( SD 1.5). No case of COVID-19 was reported among participants according to the second questionnaire (449 respondents)., Conclusion: During a world pandemic, even participants considering themselves at risk came to a medical congress, highlighting the networking and social aspects of a face-to-face congress.

Introduction: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the most common viral infections encountered in primary care settings. The identification of causal viruses is still not available in routine practice. Although new strategies of prevention are being identified, knowledge of the relationships between respiratory viruses remains limited., Materials and Methods: ECOVIR was a multicentric prospective study in primary care, which took place during two pre-pandemic seasons (2018-2019 and 2019-2020). Patients presenting to their General practitioner (GP) with ARIs were included, without selecting for age or clinical conditions. Viruses were detected on nasal swab samples using a multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction test focused on 17 viruses [Respiratory Syncytial Virus-A (RSV-A), RSV-B, Rhinovirus/Enterovirus (HRV), human Metapneumovirus (hMPV), Adenovirus (ADV), Coronaviruses (CoV) HKU1, NL63, 229E, OC43, Influenza virus (H1 and H3 subtypes), Influenza virus B, Para-Influenza viruses (PIVs) 1-4, and Bocavirus (BoV)]., Results: Among the 668 analyzed samples, 66% were positive for at least one virus, of which 7.9% were viral codetections. The viral detection was negatively associated with the age of patients. BoV, ADV, and HRV occurred more significantly in younger patients than the other viruses ( p  < 0.05). Codetections were significantly associated with RSV, HRV, BoV, hMPV, and ADV and not associated with influenza viruses, CoV, and PIVs. HRV and influenza viruses were negatively associated with all the viruses. Conversely, a positive association was found between ADV and BoV and between PIVs and BoV., Conclusion: Our study provides additional information on the relationships between respiratory viruses, which remains limited in primary care., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Petat, Schuers, Marguet, Humbert, Le Bas, Rabiaza, Corbet, Leterrier, Vabret and Ar Gouilh.)

Background: The management of adult male urinary tract infections (mUTIs) in primary care lacks international consensus. The main objective of this study was to describe the different guidelines for the diagnosis and management of mUTIs in primary care, to assess their methodological quality, and to describe their evidence-based strength of recommendation (SoR)., Methods: An international systematic literature review of the electronic databases Medline (PubMed) and EMBASE, and gray-literature guideline-focused databases was performed in 2021. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) assessment tool was used by 2 independent reviewers to appraise each guideline., Results: From 1,678 records identified, 1,558 were screened, 134 assessed for eligibility, and 29 updated guidelines met the inclusion criteria (13 from Medline, 0 from EMBASE, and 16 from gray literature). Quality assessment revealed 14 (48%) guidelines with high-quality methodology. A grading system methodology was used in 18 (62%) guidelines. Different classifications of mUTIs are described, underlining a lack of international consensus: an anatomic classification (cystitis, prostatitis, pyelonephritis) and a symptomatic classification (approach based on the intensity and tolerance of symptoms). The duration of antibiotic treatment for febrile mUTIs has been gradually reduced over the last 20 years from 28 days to 10-14 days of fluoroquinolones (FQ), which has become the international gold standard. Guidelines from Scandinavian countries propose short courses (3-5 days) of FQ-sparing treatments: pivmecillinam, nitrofurantoin, or trimethoprim. Guidelines from French-speaking countries use a watchful waiting approach and suggest treating mUTIs with FQ, regardless of fever., Conclusions: This lack of scientific evidence leads to consensus and disagreement: 14 days of FQ for febrile mUTIs is accepted despite a high risk of antimicrobial resistance, but FQ-sparing treatment and/or short treatment for afebrile mUTIs is not. The definition of afebrile UTIs/cystitis is debated and influences the type and duration of antibiotic treatment recommended., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) need to be better understood and treated, as they are critical to public health, especially during crises such as the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. These are the most abundant infections in the general population and are seen primarily in primary care by general practitioners (GPs). Many different viruses are involved, according to epidemic variations. Viral co-detections account for a significant proportion of ARIs in hospital cohorts. The objective of the ECOVIR cohort was to study viral co-detections by setting up a biobank of respiratory tract samples from patients consulting their general practitioner for ARI symptoms. We report here on the course of the study: the design, the conduct, and the difficulties encountered. ECOVIR (Etude des CO-detections VIrales dans les prélèvements Respiratoires) was a prospective, multicenter cohort conducted in France during two epidemic seasons (2018-2019 and 2019-2020). We recruited GPs. Each GP investigator (GPI) saw patients weekly for examination, clinical data collection, and nasopharyngeal swabbing. Each sample was sent to the virology unit for biobanking and molecular analysis. Clinical and sociodemographic data were collected 7 days after inclusion. ECOVIR involved 36 GPIs. Patients with symptoms of an ARI were included ( n = 685). The median number of inclusions was 16 patients per GPI over both seasons (IC 25-75% [4.75; 27]). Patients aged 18 to 64 years were the most numerous (57%), followed by children (30%), and the elderly (13% over 65 years). This age distribution emphasizes the young adult and middle-aged population. Residents participated in the project and called patients on day 7 to obtain clinical and sociodemographic data. Our study triggered the creation of an original network, which plans to establish a functional link between research and primary health care. Primary care is unfortunately poorly represented in research protocols, particularly in respiratory infections, even though it is a cornerstone of our French health care system, as demonstrated every day in this period of crisis., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the urgent need for safe and effective vaccines has led to many vaccine trials, implying fast and extensive recruitment of volunteers. In France, until 2020, vaccine clinical research participants were usually recruited locally, through center-based pools of volunteers, and local communication plans. Covireivac is a French public online platform launched on 10/01/2020 that enables national, large-scale recruitment of volunteers for Covid-19 vaccine studies. On the Covireivac website, all adult participants registered online, gave their informed consent, and filled out two online forms with information on their identity, health status (comorbidities, treatments), and known exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Since July 2021, volunteers could mention if their children are interested in participating in a Covid-19 vaccine trial. The objective of this work is to describe Covireivac's volunteer characteristics registered from 10/01/2020 to 11/02/2022. To identify independent volunteer characteristics associated with a period of registration we performed a multivariate logistic regression. Among 54,424 registrations, 52,391 (96%) were analysed; 61% were male ( n = 31,893), median age was 50 y; 13% ( n = 6586) were healthcare workers. At registration, 15,879 volunteers (33%) reported at least one comorbidity, among whom 16% ( n = 7349) were obese and 17% ( n = 8346) had hypertension. Most volunteers registered during the first month ( n = 35,876, 66%). The Covireivac platform allowed quick and large recruitment of potential volunteers for Covid-19 vaccine trials and could be used on a larger scale for vaccine trials in France. It could facilitate recruitment in vaccine trials and provide sponsors with better visibility of the recruitment capacities of clinical research centers.

Introduction: The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of brief interventions realized in primary care in reducing cannabis use for adolescents and emerging adults., Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and Central (Cochrane Library) were searched until December 2020. Randomized controlled trials conducted in primary care, concerning in-person brief interventions for non-medical cannabis users aged from 12 to 25 years old were eligible for inclusion. Brief interventions had to last 30 min or less. Patients with comorbid mental health disorder or very specific populations were not included., Results: One thousand eighty hundred and fifty-five studies were identified through database searching; only 8 studies involving 2,199 patients were included for qualitative synthesis after double reading and data extraction. Randomized controlled trials selected were heterogeneous regarding screening tools, initial levels of cannabis use and cannabis outcomes measures. Brief interventions were all based on motivational interviewing techniques or personalized feedback. Seven studies consisted in a single session of brief intervention. Six studies involved also other substance users. No significant reduction of cannabis use after brief intervention was found for most studies, especially in the long term. A trend of decreased cannabis consequences, such as negative psychosocial repercussions, perception of cannabis use by peers, or driving under the influence of cannabis, was reported., Conclusion: The current state of knowledge does not allow us to say that the brief intervention is effective in reducing cannabis use among adolescents in primary care. We found a mild positive effect on cannabis consequences after brief intervention. Mixed qualitative and quantitative studies are need to better evaluate the impact of brief intervention and his faisability. PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews): n° CRD42016033080., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Polypharmacy in elderly is a public health problem with both clinical (increase of adverse drug events) and economic issues. One solution is medication review, a structured assessment of patients' drug orders by the pharmacist for optimizing the therapy. However, this task is tedious, cognitively complex and error-prone, and only a few clinical decision support systems have been proposed for supporting it. Existing systems are either rule-based systems implementing guidelines, or documentary systems presenting drug knowledge. In this paper, we present the ABiMed research project, and, through literature reviews and brainstorming, we identified five candidate innovations for a decision support system for medication review: patient data transfer from GP to pharmacists, use of semantic technologies, association of rule-based and documentary approaches, use of machine learning, and a two-way discussion between pharmacist and GP after the medication review.

Background: The definition and the treatment of male urinary tract infections (UTIs) are imprecise. This study aims to determine the frequency of male UTIs in consultations of general practice, the diagnostic approach and the prescribed treatments., Methods: We extracted the consultations of male patients, aged 18 years or more, during the period 2012-17 with the International Classification of Primary Care, version 2 codes for UTIs or associated symptoms from PRIMEGE/MEDISEPT databases of primary care. For eligible consultations in which all symptoms or codes were consistent with male UTIs, we identified patient history, prescribed treatments, antibiotic duration, clinical conditions, additional examinations and bacteriological results of urine culture., Results: Our study included 610 consultations with 396 male patients (mean age 62.5 years). Male UTIs accounted for 0.097% of visits and 1.44 visits per physician per year. The UTIs most commonly identified were: undifferentiated (52%), prostatitis (36%), cystitis (8.5%) and pyelonephritis (3.5%). Fever was recorded in 14% of consultations. Urine dipstick test was done in 1.8% of consultations. Urine culture was positive for Escherichia coli in 50.4% of bacteriological tests. Fluoroquinolones were the most prescribed antibiotics (64.9%), followed by beta-lactams (17.4%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (11.9%) and nitrofurantoin (2.6%)., Conclusions: Male UTIs are rare in general practice and have different presentations. The definition of male UTIs needs to be specified by prospective studies. Diagnostic evidence of male cystitis may reduce the duration of antibiotic therapy and spare critical antibiotics., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps are a potential means of empowering patients, especially in the case of multimorbidity, which complicates patients' care needs. Previous studies have shown that general practitioners (GPs) have both expectations and concerns regarding patients' use of mHealth apps that could impact their willingness to recommend the apps to patients., Objective: The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate French GPs' attitudes toward the prescription of mHealth apps or devices aimed toward patients by analyzing GPs' perceptions and expectations of mHealth technologies., Methods: A total of 36 GPs were interviewed individually (n=20) or in a discussion group (n=16). All participants were in private practice. A qualitative analysis of each interview and focus group was conducted using grounded theory analysis., Results: Considering the value assigned to mHealth apps by participants and their willingness or resistance to prescribe them, 3 groups were defined based on the attitudes or positions adopted by GPs: digital engagement (favorable attitude; mHealth apps are perceived as additional resources and complementary tools that facilitate the medical work, the follow-up care, and the monitoring of patients; and apps increase patients' compliance and empowerment); patient protection (related to the management of patient care and fear of risks for patients, concerns about patient data privacy and security, doubt about the usefulness for empowering patients, standardization of the medical decision process, overmedicalization, risks for individual freedom, and increasing social inequalities in health); doctor protection (fear of additional tasks and burden, doubt about the actionability of patient-gathered health data, risk for medical liability, dehumanization of the patient-doctor relationship, fear of increased drug prescription, and commodification of patient data)., Conclusions: A deep understanding of both the expectations and fears of GPs is essential to motivate them to recommend mHealth apps to their patients. The results of this study show the need to provide appropriate education and training to enhance GPs' digital skills. Certification of the apps by an independent authority should be encouraged to reassure physicians about ethical and data security issues. Our results highlight the need to overcome technical issues such as interoperability between data collection and medical records to limit the disruption of medical work because of data flow., (©Aline Sarradon-Eck, Tiphanie Bouchez, Lola Auroy, Matthieu Schuers, David Darmon. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 04.03.2021.)

Objectives: To describe how general practitioners (GPs) adapted their practices to secure and maintain access to care in the epidemic phase. A secondary objective was to explore if GPs' individual characteristics and type of practice determined their adaptation., Design: Observational study using an online questionnaire. Organisational changes were measured by a main question and detailed in two specific outcomes. To identify which GPs' characteristics impacted organisational changes, successive multivariate logistic modelling was performed. First, we identified the GPs' characteristics related to organisational changes with a univariate analysis. Then, we tested the adjusted associations between this variable and the following GPs' characteristics: age, gender and type of practice., Setting: The questionnaire was administered online between 14 March and 21 March 2020. Practitioners were recruited by email using the contact lists of different French scientific GP societies., Participants: The target population was GPs currently practising in France (n=46 056). We obtained a total of 7481 responses., Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: Primary outcome: Proportion of GPs who adapted their practice. Secondary outcome: GPs' characteristics related to organisational changes., Results: Among the 7481 responses, 5425 were complete and were analysed. 3849 GPs (70.9%) changed their activity, 3605 GPs (66.5%) increased remote consultations and 2315 GPs (42.7%) created a specific pathway for probable patients with COVID-19. Among the 3849 GPs (70.9%) who changed their practice, 3306 (91.7%) gave more answers by phone, 996 (27.6%) by email and 1105 (30.7%) increased the use of video consultations. GPs working in multi-professional group practices were more likely to have changed their activity since the beginning of the epidemic wave than GPs working in mono-professional group or single medical practices (adjusted OR: 1.32, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.56, p=0.001)., Conclusions: French GPs adapted their practices regarding access to care for patients in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. This adaptation was higher in multi-professional group practices., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Aim: Over the last two decades teledermatology has become one of the most widely used applications in telemedicine. Wide-ranging medico-economic evaluations are necessary to facilitate its deployment. "Accurate and measurable" indicators must be defined in order to enable high-quality assessments to be performed. The objective of this study is to identify all indicators allowing evaluation of teledermatology procedures and to assess the relevance and results thereof., Materials and Methods: A literature search until September 2017 was conducted in PubMed using the following MeSH search terms: "telemedicine", "dermatology" and "quality improvement"., Results: The search identified 372 articles, of which 127 were included. Fourteen indicators were identified and split into 4 categories: processes indicators, quality indicators, cost indicators and satisfaction indicators. Reliability of diagnosis was the most widely evaluated indicator (49 studies). It was good overall compared to conventional consultations. Costs were generally reduced. Due to the absence of a validated measuring tool, it was difficult to compare the results for certain indicators, particularly satisfaction, and thus to make any generalizations., Conclusion: Teledermatology is a promising tool. Its deployment must be adapted to the various needs in the field and achievement of this goal requires consultation with patients and with the different healthcare professionals involved. Its evaluation must also be specific to each terrain and must employ standardized measuring instruments., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Screening and management of frail elderly patients is essential in general practice., Objective: This study aims to describe and evaluate the knowledge about frailty, its screening tests and management in a population of general practice interns., Method: A prospective, descriptive and mono-centric study using an online survey was conducted. The 2018's promotion of general practice interns in Rouen's University participated. Evaluation of the general knowledge (e.g diagnostic criteria) and specific knowledge (e.g ranking different conditions such as: undernourishment leading to asthenia) and management algorithm (e.g to address the patient for geriatric evaluation) Results: 90 questionnaires were analyzed. Ten interns (11%) stated to know at least one screening test or to know a set of 4 major frailty criteria. Thirty four interns knew at least 4 frailty criteria (major or minor) and 46 interns had partial knowledge. Fried's phenotype was the most known. Seventy-five interns (83%) stated to know the frailty syndrome. However, 88% of the interns had little knowledge about its pathophysiology. Concerning frailty management, 78% (70 interns) stated to know how to screen frailty and prescribe first line treatments. Thirty-one among them knew how to reassess initial treatment if failure. In 59 interns (65%), identifying frailty would have led to a geriatric consultation. Seventy-nine interns (87%) were favorable to go through further training on frailty., Conclusion: These general practice interns were able to identify frailty criterion but, in contrast, global understanding of the syndrome was missing. Further training about this topic seems to be necessary.

Introduction: Research in family medicine is necessary to improve the quality of care. The number of publications in general medicine remains low. Databases from Electronic Medical Records can increase the number of these publications. These data must be coded to be used pertinently. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of semantic annotation by a multi-terminological concept extractor within a corpus of family medicine consultations., Method: Consultation data in French from 25 general practitioners were automatically annotated using 28 different terminologies. The data extracted were classified into three groups: reasons for consulting, observations and consultation results. The first evaluation led to a correction phase of the tool which led to a second evaluation. For each evaluation, the precision, recall and F-measure were quantified. Then, the inter- and intra-terminological coverage of each terminology was assessed., Results: Nearly 15,000 automatic annotations were manually evaluated. The mean values for the second evaluation of precision, recall and F-measure were 0.85, 0.83 and 0.84 respectively. The most common terminologies used were SNOMED CT, SNOMED 3.5 and NClt. The terminologies with the best intra-terminological coverage were ICPC-2, DRC and CISMeF Meta-Terms., Conclusion: A multi-terminological concepts extractor can be used for the automatic annotation of consultation data in family medicine. Integrating such a tool into general practitioners' business software would be a solution to the lack of routine coding. Developing the use of a single terminology specific to family medicine could improve coding, facilitate semantic interoperability and the communication of relevant information., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Clinical research is mostly conducted among hospitalized patients, which restricts the generalizability of research results. The involvement of GPs in research has been consistently highlighted as a factor associated with successful study recruitment., Objectives: To assess GPs' motivations and willingness to participate in primary care research as investigators and to identify factors associated with their willingness., Methods: We conducted an observational, cross-sectional study in Normandy, France, with a self-questionnaire sent to 3002 GPs. We collected data on GPs' socio-demographic characteristics, their experiences and their expectations regarding research, and their reasons for non-participation., Results: Overall, 489 questionnaires were collected. Two hundred and forty-six GPs (50.3%) were interested in participating in clinical research as investigators. The two main conditions for participation as investigators were the relevance of the study topic for clinical practice (80.5%) and the feedback of study results (80.1%). The two main reasons for non-participation were lack of time (79.4%) and administrative burden (43.6%). Age between 27 and 34 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.86, P = 0.004) and GP trainer status (AOR = 2.41, P < 0.001) were associated with willingness to participate in primary care research. Age between 60 and 70 years (AOR = 0.53, P = 0.03) and locum status (AOR = 0.40, P = 0.04) were associated with non-participation in research., Conclusions: Based on our results, we were able to establish a profile of GPs willing to participate in primary care research as investigators. GPs' involvement should be based on their preferred areas of research. Different incentives such as a dedicated clinical research nurse or financial support could also be considered., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The ApiAppS ongoing project aims to provide physicians with a decision support system for the prescription / recommendation of mHealth technologies. We describe the context and the components of the project which includes: 1) a technical part on modelling and implementing the decision support system, and 2) a psychosocial investigation part designed to have a better knowledge of general practitioners (GPs) and patients' expectations, beliefs and practices.

Background: Burnout is a common occurrence among GPs, decreasing quality of and access to care and impacting both physician and patient health. The link between burnout and low medical density has never been studied., Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of burnout and its related factors, including low medical density, among GPs., Method: We conducted a cross-sectional survey. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to all of the 1632 GPs in Normandy, France, in September 2015. The Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to assess the three burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and low personal accomplishment (PA)., Results: In all, 501 GPs sent back their questionnaire (response rate: 30.7%); 487 questionnaires were analysed. Burnout had been experienced by 43.3% of the physicians in the sample. Nearly 24% of the respondents scored high EE, 27.3% scored high DP, and 13.3% scored low PA. Low medical density [odds ratios (OR): 2.16 (1.31-3.54)], and intent to quit [OR: 4.40 (2.59-7.47)] were strongly linked to the three burnout dimensions. Burnout was not linked with quantitative workload., Conclusion: Burnout among GPs was common. Low medical density and intent to quit were strong predictors of burnout. Given the current medical demographic crisis, these results highlight the relationship between burnout and medical shortage. Qualitative workload may have a more significant influence on burnout than quantitative workload. Recruiting more GPs is necessary, but may prove insufficient in fighting burnout. Preventive and curative actions are required, especially in areas with low medical density., (© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Childhood obesity (CO) has become a true epidemic and a subject of increasing publications. The aim of this study was to assess if the number of publications in that field increases over time in proportion to the epidemic, and also according to socioeconomic factors. Methods: A PubMed search was carried out to extract articles related to CO published between 1945 and 2017. Data were downloaded from PubMed and processed through a dedicated parser. Socioeconomic data were collected from international organizations. Results: Overall, 36,554 articles were retrieved among 3329 journals, one-third of them being concentrated in 44 journals. The annual growth rate of publications on CO was on average 11.6% per year between 1990 and 2016, whereas the growth rate of articles on pediatrics or of the total articles indexed in MEDLINE was 2.6% and 4.4%, respectively. The most productive countries were the United States (37.80%), the United Kingdom (6.24%), and Italy (4.56%). There was a significant relationship between publications on CO in a country and prevalence of CO in that country ( p  = 0.002) and between evolution of the number of publications and evolution of the Human Development Index ( p  = 0.01). Following exponential growth, CO publications reached a plateau in 2013, whereas publications targeted on obesity in infants continue to increase. Conclusions: Research on CO has risen markedly in the last two decades, with a higher growth rate than biomedical research overall, as a result of the worldwide obesity epidemic and also due to specific socioeconomic factors.

Background: Despite growing access to effective therapies, asthma control still needs improvement. Many non-drug factors, such as allergens, air pollutants and stress also affect asthma control and patient quality of life, but an overview of the effectiveness of non-drug interventions on asthma control was lacking., Objectives: To identify non-drug interventions likely to improve asthma control., Methods: A systematic review of the available literature in Medline and the Cochrane Library was conducted in March 2017, without any time limit. Initial searching identified 884 potentially relevant clinical trial reports, literature reviews and meta-analyses, which were screened for inclusion using criteria of quality, relevance, and reporting outcomes based on asthma control., Results: Eighty-two publications met the inclusion criteria. In general, the quality of the studies was low. Patient education programmes (22 studies) significantly improved asthma control. Multifaceted interventions (10 studies), which combined patient education programmes with decreasing exposure to indoor allergens and pollutants, significantly improved asthma control based on clinically relevant outcomes. Renovating homes to reduce exposure to allergens and indoor pollutants improved control (two studies). Air filtration systems (five studies) were effective, especially in children exposed to second-hand smoke. Most measures attempting to reduce exposure to dust mites were ineffective (five studies). Dietary interventions (eight studies) were ineffective. Promoting physical activity (five studies) tended to yield positive results, but the results did not attain significance., Conclusion: Twenty-six interventions were effective in asthma control. Simultaneously combining several action plans, each focusing on different aspects of asthma management, seems most likely to be effective.

Introduction: The pharmaceutical record system (PRS) is a French nationwide centralized electronic database shared among all community pharmacists listing all drugs dispensed by community pharmacists in the last four months. The objective of this study, the Medication Assessment Through Real time Information eXchange - Distributed Pharmaceutical Record System (MATRIX - DPRS) study, was to assess the clinical impact of the PRS upon granting access to physicians in three hospital specialties: anesthesiology, emergency medicine and geriatrics., Material and Methods: A multicenter prospective study was conducted in six hospital departments, two per specialty. Participating physicians noted medication information found exclusively in the pharmaceutical record (PR) of each patient unavailable elsewhere and any diagnostic or therapeutic management changes resulting from the PR information. The primary objective was to assess the proportion of diagnostic or therapeutic management changes attributable to the PR among patients who had an accessible PR., Results: The inclusion level ranged from 1.1 to 30% in the six departments. The rate of diagnostic or therapeutic management changes was highest in geriatrics (n = 31/67; 46.3% 95% Confidence IntervaI (CI): 34.0-58.9%) and lowest in anesthesiology (n = 36/227; 15.9% 95% CI: 11.4-21.3%). Emergency medicine was intermediate (n = 5/22; 22.7% 95% CI: 7.8-45.4%)., Conclusion: Although the inclusion rate and statistical precision were low, these findings suggest that the information contained in the PRS is useful and may result in modifying patient management in a sizeable proportion of patients. This opens the prospect of evaluating other hospital specialties, as well as primary and secondary care settings., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: General practice became an academic discipline quite recently in many western countries. In France, junior lecturer work is specified in a three-part mandate: medical work in general practice, teaching in the university, and research. Since 2007, 130 junior lecturers have been appointed in general practice. The aim of the creation of junior lecturer status was to align general practice with other specialties and to develop research and education in primary care., Objectives: To describe the healthcare, teaching and research undertaken by junior lecturers in general practice, practising in October 2014., Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre study using an online self-administered questionnaire on the cohort composed of all the junior lecturers in general practice with open questions and the qualitative analysis of written verbatim accounts., Results: Of the 95 junior lecturers practising at the date of the study, 75 (79%) responded; average age 32 years; gender ratio (F/M) 2.4:1. They spent five, two and three half-days per week respectively in healthcare, teaching and research. The healthcare activity was predominantly carried out in the community (73%). Thirty-nine per cent worked as part of a multi-professional team taking on 50 consultations per week. Most of the educational work involved lecturing and mentoring students specializing in general practice (median 86 hours per year). Research output increased during the fellowship. Research topics were varied and relevant to the disciplinary field., Conclusion: During the fellowship, the balancing, and even the reinforcement, of healthcare and research contributions were accompanied by a significant investment in educational provision.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to provide an analysis of scientific production on occupational diseases (OD) during the period 1945-2015 in order to describe publication trends on that topic and identify the major diseases as well as the predominant actors (journals, countries) involved in this field. Methods A PubMed search was carried out to extract articles related to occupational diseases during the period 1 January 1945 to 31 December 2015 using a specific query. Data were downloaded from PubMed in Extensible Markup Language (XML) and processed through a dedicated parser. Results A total of 160 025 articles were retrieved from 7127 journals. One third of these articles were published in 39 journals: the core journals according to Bradford's law. Following exponential growth, OD publications reached a plateau in 2007. The overall dynamics of the OD field are heterogeneous with differences between subfields: psychological diseases emerged in the 1990s while "traditional" OD are less studied nowadays. Despite a sharp decrease in the proportion of publications, the most productive country remains the USA with 14.5% of the OD publications over the period but Scandinavian countries are, proportionally, the most active in research and publication on OD. Conclusions The proportion of publications on OD is decreasing in Medline, except for specific subfields of OD. This is discrepant with the global burden of occupational diseases.

Background: MEDLINE is the most widely used medical bibliographic database in the world. Most of its citations are in English and this can be an obstacle for some researchers to access the information the database contains. We created a multilingual query builder to facilitate access to the PubMed subset using a language other than English. The aim of our study was to assess the impact of this multilingual query builder on the quality of PubMed queries for non-native English speaking physicians and medical researchers., Methods: A randomised controlled study was conducted among French speaking general practice residents. We designed a multi-lingual query builder to facilitate information retrieval, based on available MeSH translations and providing users with both an interface and a controlled vocabulary in their own language. Participating residents were randomly allocated either the French or the English version of the query builder. They were asked to translate 12 short medical questions into MeSH queries. The main outcome was the quality of the query. Two librarians blind to the arm independently evaluated each query, using a modified published classification that differentiated eight types of errors., Results: Twenty residents used the French version of the query builder and 22 used the English version. 492 queries were analysed. There were significantly more perfect queries in the French group vs. the English group (respectively 37.9% vs. 17.9%; p < 0.01). It took significantly more time for the members of the English group than the members of the French group to build each query, respectively 194 sec vs. 128 sec; p < 0.01., Conclusions: This multi-lingual query builder is an effective tool to improve the quality of PubMed queries in particular for researchers whose first language is not English.

Competing Interests: Les auteurs déclarent n’avoir aucun lien d’intérêts.

Background: To evaluate the impact of the pharmaceutical patient record use in emergency, geriatric and anaesthesia and intensive care departments, an experimentation was launched in 2013 in 55 hospitals. The purpose of the study was to assess the opinions of physicians and pharmacists about the benefits and usability of the patient pharmaceutical record., Methods: An e-mailed self-administered questionnaire was sent to all the pharmacists, anaesthesiologists, geriatricians and emergency physicians of the 55 hospitals involved in the patient pharmaceutical record experimentation. The questionnaire assessed the usability of the patient pharmaceutical record using the "System Usability Scale", as well as its use, its benefits and limitations perceived in clinical practice, and overall user satisfaction. Questionnaires were collected from November 2014 to January 2015., Results: Ninety-six questionnaires were collected, from 47 hospitals, representing 86% of the hospitals involved in the experimentation. The patient pharmaceutical record was effectively operational in 36 hospitals. Data from 73 questionnaires filled by physicians and pharmacists with potential experience with the patient pharmaceutical record were used for evaluation. Forty-two respondents were pharmacists (57%) and 31 were physicians (43%), including 13 geriatricians, 11 emergency physicians and 7 anaesthesiologists. Patient pharmaceutical record overall usability score was 62.5 out of 100. It did not vary with the profession or seniority of the respondent. It was positively correlated with the frequency of use. More than half of respondents reported that they never or uncommonly used the patient pharmaceutical record. The length of access to data period was considered as insufficient. Main obstacles to more utilization of the patient pharmaceutical record were the lack of information about the dosage of dispensed drugs, the low number of patients in possession of their health card and the low number of patients with an activated patient pharmaceutical record., Conclusion: Two years after the beginning of the experiment aiming to broaden the access to the patient pharmaceutical record to physicians, these first evaluation results are encouraging. The evaluation of the consequences of the access to the patient pharmaceutical record for physicians remains necessary., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Background: Physicians are increasingly encouraged to practice evidence-based medicine (EBM), and their decisions require evidence based on valid research. Existing literature shows a mismatch between general practitioners' (GPs) information needs and evidence available online. The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes and behavior of residents in general medicine and GPs when seeking medical information online., Methods: Five focus groups (FGs) involving residents in general medicine and GPs were conducted between October 2013 and January 2014. The overall number of participants recruited was 35. The focus group discussion guide focused on participants' experiences in searching for health information on the Internet, perceived barriers and possible solutions for improving the quality of their own search processes. Descriptive analysis was performed by three researchers., Results: Participants described a wide range of research topics, covering all general medicine core competencies, and especially patient-oriented topics. They used a limited list of websites. Participants were not confident about their ability to assess the quality of the information they found. Their assessment of data quality was based on intuition, and they mainly sought concordance with their existing knowledge. The way the data were exposed was considered very important. Participants were looking for information that was directly linked to their clinical practice. Information seeking processes varied among participants. They felt they had not mastered query building for conducting searches, and were aware of the impact this shortcoming had on the quality of their search for information., Conclusions: Residents in general medicine and GPs understood the importance of EBM and the need for objective and reliable information. The present study highlights the difficulties in identifying this kind of information, and suggests ideas for improvement. Available search tools should change in order to fill the gap with real-world clinical practice, for example by integrating a patient-centred approach., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)