© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
Quality improvement
A series of evidence-based drug therapy letters improved prescribing behaviour
Dormuth CR, Maclure M, Bassett K, et al. Effect of periodic letters on evidence-based drug therapy on prescribing behaviour: a randomized trial. CMAJ 2004;171:1057–61.
Q Do evidence-based drug therapy letters affect the prescribing behaviour of physicians to newly treated patients?
Key Words: physician’s practice patterns • prescriptions (drug) • drug utilisation
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Design:
cluster randomised controlled trial.
Allocation:
concealed.*
Blinding:
blinded {clinicians, patients, and outcome assessors}
.*
Follow up period:
3 months (8 wks for letters #7 and #8).
Setting:
24 local health areas (LHAs) in British Columbia, Canada.
Participants:
a 10% sample of prescribing physicians from the 24 LHAs: 499 physicians (mean age 46 y, 86% men, 90% general practitioners). The patient populations were (i) residents of British Columbia who were 
66 years of age between 1993 and 1998, lived at home or in a continuing care institution, and had been eligible for Pharmacare coverage for 1 year (people who had made no claim in the preceding year for any drug among the drug classes included in the letters were "at risk" of a first prescription); and (ii) a younger patient population, which was used to measure the effect of a letter on the management of asthma.
Intervention:
24 LHAs were
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Denver, Colorado, USA
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