Richard Thomson has research interests in quality in health care and health services research. He previously headed the Northern Regional Health Authority's multidisciplinary quality directorate with responsibility for facilitating audit and quality assurance activities across the region. He has contributed to several national groups concerned with influencing policy on audit, including that at...

introduction: pre-operative investigations for emergency surgical patients differ between centers. following established guidelines can reduce unnecessary investigation, cost of treatment and hospital stay. the present audit was carried out to evaluate the condition of doing pre-operative investigations for three common surgical emergencies compared to national institute for health and care exc...

Introduction During the past decade, demands for eVective quality assessment in primary health care have increased considerably. “The third revolution of medical care” has seen a move towards more rigorous assessment of clinical interventions and increasing calls for more accountability. Although most agree that quality improvement is important there are many views about the best approach to qu...

BACKGROUND Since 1991, all general practices have been encouraged to undertake clinical audit. Audit groups report that participation is high, and some local surveys have been undertaken, but no detailed national survey has been reported. AIM To determine audit activities in general practices and the perceptions of general practitioners (GPs) regarding the future of clinical audit in primary ...

Medical audit has been defined as "a systematic critical analysis of the quality of medical care, including the procedures used for diagnosis and treatment, the use of resources, and the resulting outcome for the patient". In Britain, recent reforms of the Health Service increase the need for neurologists to undertake audit. The basic principles of audit in relation to the management of common ...

Objective—To review the literature on the benefits and disadvantages of clinical and medical audit, and to assess the main facilitators and barriers to conducting the audit process. Design—A comprehensive literature review was undertaken through a thorough review of Medline and CINAHL databases using the keywords of “audit”, “audit of audits”, and “evaluation of audits” and a handsearch of the ...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on the benefits and disadvantages of clinical and medical audit, and to assess the main facilitators and barriers to conducting the audit process. DESIGN A comprehensive literature review was undertaken through a thorough review of Medline and CINAHL databases using the keywords of "audit", "audit of audits", and "evaluation of audits" and a handsearch of th...

Clinical research is considered by many doctors as erudite and not an activity likely to involve them directly. Indeed, most medical practitioners are so distanced from clinical research that they do not consider entering patients into clinical trials. The reasons for this are unclear but may derive from attitudes acquired as undergraduates , when research is often perceived as unrelated to the...