Delaney BC, Hyde CJ, McMaunus RJ et al. Systematic review of near patient test evaluations in primary care. Br Med J 1999;319:824-7.
[Medline reference]
This article is a must for any pharmacist using near patient testing to run clinics. It reviews published and unpublished research over the past 13 years. While it concludes that we still need further good quality evaluation of near patient tests if primary care is to be able to achieve more accurate diagnosis and therefore a more consistent approach to disease management, it provides a good reference source for further papers on the subject, especially anticoagulant and Helicobacter pylori testing.
What's in the medical press? - The rapidly changing situation in primary care means that it is often difficult to keep up to date with what is happening politically and clinically. This section of Primary Care Pharmacy will try to pick out a few articles that may be useful in day-to-day practice or have importance for the primary care role.