The Dutch sentinel practice network: relevance for public health policy.

The Dutch sentinal practice network: relevance for public health policy, considers the now 20-year history of the Continuous Morbidity Registration Sentinel Stations the Netherlands. The book consists of two parts. In the first part general aspects are discussed: the origin of the project at the end of the sixties and the objectives, organization and procedure. For a number of characteristics (age and sex, size of practice etc.) a comparison is made between the spotter physicians and the total population of Dutch general practitioners. On other aspects, including the attitude of the physicians with regard to a number of facets of the work of the GP, the spotter physicians are compared with populations of GPs who have participated in other Nivel studies. Finally, the results are discussed of the analysis of the registration pattern of the spotter physicians over five years. Topics varying from influeza(-like) illness to requests for application of euthanasia are discussed in the second part. A choice has been made among the long series of topics that have appeared on the weekly return during the existence of the sentinel stations or have been the subject of an incidental investigation. The authors of the chapters in the second part of the book are often also the applicants for registration of a certain topic. One of the questions that is discussed in the chapters is what the importance has been of registration of the topics by the CMR Sentinel Stations. The results of registration of topics are presented in a number of chapters in a different way from that usual in the annual reports, of which to date 18 have been published (1970 to 1987 inclusive). In several respects this publications is therefore an extension of the usual publication policy of the CMR Sentinel Stations. The book has been published in English to meet the end that exists in other countries for information on both Dutch health care and more specifically, the functioning of the Dutch general practitioner. The CMR Sentinel Stations is one of the projects in which information is collected on a coninuous basis on problems and diseases submitted to the GP and action taken by the GP