General practitioner preferences for, access to and use of evidence in clinical practice: a mixed methods study

Background: General practitioners (GPs) aim to provide patient-centred care combining clinical evidence, clinical judgement, and patient priorities. Despite a recognition of the need to translate evidence to support patient care, barriers exist to the use of evidence in practice. Aims: To ascertain the needs and preferences of GPs regarding evidence-based guidance to support patient care. To prioritise content and optimise structure and dissemination of future evidence-based guidance. Design & setting: Convergent parallel mixed methods study in collaboration with the national GP professional body in Ireland (Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP)). Integration of quantitative and qualitative findings at the interpretive level. Method: National GP survey administered via the ICGP (December 2020) and seven GP focus groups (April-May 2021). Results: Of 3,496 GPs a total of 509 respondents (14.6%) completed the survey and 40 GP participants took part in focus groups. Prescribing updates, interpretation of test results, chronic disease management and older person care were the preferred topics for future evidence-based guidance. GPs reported that they require rapid access to up-to-date and relevant evidence summaries online for use in clinical practice. Access to more comprehensive reviews for the purposes of continuing education and teaching was also a priority. Multimodal forms of dissemination were preferred to increase uptake of evidence in practice. Conclusion: GPs indicated that rapid access to up-to-date, summarised evidence-based resources, available from their professional organisation is preferred. Evidence should reflect the disease burden of the population and involve multifaceted dissemination approaches.