Best practice in primary care pathology: an evidence-based approach to influence laboratory testing in primary care.

The best practice in the primary care initiative was carried out in the UK to collate an evidence-based knowledge resource for primary care to in order to support better use of laboratory tests. The initiative examined a series of approximately 150 clinical questions and produced brief vignettes accompanied by core bullet point guidance. These were published in a review series in the Journal of Clinical Pathology and then assembled into a website to allow rapid easy access.Whereas previous studies have suggested that 'data pull', i.e., expecting users to search for information is not generally particularly successful, modern internet interfaces which support 'real time' access to succinct information 'in a few clicks' (paraphrased by Sir Muir Gray, UK Department of health, as '10 words in 10 seconds') might be expected to be more attractive to users, although this hypothesis remains to be tested.