Annelies Colliers

University of Antwerp | UA · Primary and interdisciplinary care

Background Point-of-care tests (POCT) can support diagnosis of patients with community acquired acute respiratory tract infections (CA-RTI) in primary care and thereby reduce uncertainty whether antibiotics may benefit patients. However, successful roll out of POCTs need to be built on a deep understanding of patients’ perspectives on the place of...

Background Cystitis are commonly treated with antibiotics, although non-antibiotic options could be considered for healthy non-pregnant women. Shared decision making (SDM) can be used in cystitis management to discuss the various treatment options but is not frequently applied in general practice. Aim Identifying barriers and facilitators for appl...

Wat is bekend? ❯ Huisartsen gebruiken vangnetadviezen om met patiënten te bespreken wanneer en hoe ze verdere hulp kunnen zoeken als hun toestand niet verbetert of verslechtert. ❯ Het geven van gerichte adviezen kan huisartsen in staat stellen om met een veilig gevoel een antibioticumvoorschrift achterwege te laten. Wat is nieuw? ❯ Videoconsulten i...

Background During out-of-hours (OOH) primary care, GPs overprescribe antibiotics for respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Many interventions have been shown to improve antibiotic prescribing quality, but their implementation in practice remains difficult. Participatory action research (PAR) aims to explore, implement and evaluate change in practice...

Background: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, GPs had to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 from other aetiologies in patients presenting with respiratory tract infection (RTI) symptoms on clinical grounds and adapt management accordingly. Objectives: To test the diagnostic accuracy of GPs' clinical diagnosis of a SARS-CoV-2 infection in a period when COVID-1...

Background: Access to testing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was limited, impacting patients with COVID-19-like symptoms. Current qualitative studies have been limited to one country or were conducted outside Europe. Objectives: To explore - in eight European countries - the experiences of patients consulting in primary care with...

Background Oseltamivir is usually not often prescribed (or reimbursed) for non-high-risk patients consulting for influenza-like-illness (ILI) in primary care in Europe. We aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding oseltamivir to usual primary care in adults/adolescents (13 years +) and children with ILI during seasonal influenza epidemics,...

Antibiotic prescribing in primary care contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. During out-of-hours (OOH) care general practitioners (GPs) see many patients with self-limiting respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and overprescribe (broad-spectrum) antibiotics. Although many interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing quality...

Background General practitioners (GPs) use safety netting advice to communicate with patients when and how to seek further help when their condition fails to improve or deteriorate. Although many respiratory tract infections (RTI) during out-of-hours (OOH) care are self-limiting, often antibiotics are prescribed. Providing safety netting advice cou...

p>Background: there is little evidence about the relationship between aetiology, illness severity, and clinical course of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in primary care. Understanding these associations would aid in the development of effective management strategies for these infections. Aim: to investigate whether clinical presentation and i...

Background The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients’ and clinicians’ perceptions of healthcare-seeking behaviour and delivery of care is unclear. The pandemic accelerated the use of remote care and understanding its benefits and drawbacks may inform its implementation during this and future healthcare emergencies. Aim To explore patients’ a...

Background Between-country differences have been described in antibiotic prescribing for RTI in primary care, but not yet for diagnostic testing procedures and prescribing confidence. Aim To describe between-country differences in RTI management, particularly diagnostic testing and antibiotic prescribing, and investigate which factors relate to an...

Background: There is little evidence about the relation between aetiology, illness severity and clinical course of respiratory tract infections (RTI) in primary care. Understanding these associations would aid to develop effective management strategies for these infections. Aim: To investigate whether the clinical presentation and illness course...

Antibiotic overprescribing is one of the main drivers of the global and growing problem of antibiotic resistance, especially in primary care and for respiratory tract infections (RTIs). RTIs are the most common reason for patients to consult out-of-hours (OOH) primary care. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way general practitioners (GPs) work,...

Objective: Communication skills can reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, which could help to tackle antibiotic resistance. General practitioners often overestimate patient expectations for an antibiotic. In this study, we describe how general practitioners and patients with respiratory tract infections (RTI) communicate about their problem,...

Background: Minimising primary care professionals' (PCPs) risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial to ensure their safety as well as functioning health care system. PCPs' perspectives on the support they needed in the early stages of a public health crisis can inform future preparedness. Aim: To understand PCPs' experiences of providing care during...

Objective: To describe primary health care (consultation characteristics and management) for patients contacting their general practitioner (GP) with a respiratory tract infection (RTI) early on in the COVID-19 pandemic in contrasting European countries, with comparison to prepandemic findings. Setting: Primary care in 16 countries (79 practices...

Background: Primary care has a crucial role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as the first point of patient care and gatekeeper to secondary care. Qualitative studies exploring the experiences of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic have mainly focused on secondary care. Aim: To understand the experiences of European PCPs w...

Objectives Patients in Belgium needing out-of-hours medical care have two options: the emergency department (ED) or a general practitioner (GP) on call. Currently, there is no triage system in Belgium, so patients do not know where they should go. However, patients who could be managed by a GP frequently present themselves at an ED without referral...

Background: Patients in Belgium needing out-of-hours care have two options: the emergency department or the general practitioner on call often organised in a general practitioner cooperative. Currently, there is no triage system in Belgium so patients do not know where to go. Methods: Our primary objective was to examine the ability of a newly d...

Infections are the most common reason why patients consult out-of-hours (OOH) primary care. Too often there is an overprescribing of antibiotics for self-limiting infections and general practitioners (GPs) do not always choose the guideline recommended antibiotics. To improve antibiotic prescribing quality, a better understanding is needed of the (...

Background: Antivirals are infrequently prescribed in European primary care for influenza-like illness, mostly because of perceived ineffectiveness in real world primary care and because individuals who will especially benefit have not been identified in independent trials. We aimed to determine whether adding antiviral treatment to usual primary...

Video recording primary care consultations is a promising and valuable method to provide rich data on actual patient–doctor interactions. Video recording for research purposes has not yet been used in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care. To obtain a high grade of participation of general practitioners (GPs), a good understanding on how to organize such...

Outpatient antibiotic use in Belgium is among the highest in Europe. The most common reason for an encounter in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care is an infection. In this study, we assessed all consultations from July 2016 to June 2018 at five OOH services. We described antibiotic prescribing by diagnosis, calculated disease-specific antibiotic presc...

Background: The organizational model of out-of-hours primary care is likely to affect healthcare use. We aimed to examine differences in the use of general practitioner cooperatives for out-of-hours care in the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders) and explore if these are related to organizational differences. Methods: A cross-sectional observatio...

Rationale: Antibiotics (ABs) are one of the most prescribed medications in out-of-hours (OOH) care in Belgium. Developing a better understanding of why ABs are prescribed in this setting is essential to improve prescribing habits. Objectives: To assess AB prescribing and dispensing challenges for general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists in OO...

Introduction Effective management of seasonal and pandemic influenza is a high priority internationally. Guidelines in many countries recommend antiviral treatment for older people and individuals with comorbidity at increased risk of complications. However, antivirals are not often prescribed in primary care in Europe, partly because its clinical...

Background Video-recordings of consultations are used by general practitioner (GP) trainees to enable reflection on aspects of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Typically, these recordings are made during office hours in general practice, but little is known about using video-recording during out of hours (OOH) care, which is an important and distin...

We lezen in de Belgische antibioticagids dat antibiotica bij acute keelpijn in de regel niet geïndiceerd zijn. Toch laat de Belgische huisarts zich nog vaak verleiden om wél voor te schrijven.

Introduction Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health threat driven by inappropriate antibiotic use, mainly in general practice and for respiratory tract infections. In Belgium, the quality of general practitioners’ (GPs) antibiotic prescribing is low. To improve antibiotic use, we need a better understanding of this quality problem and co...

Introduction Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are the most common reason for primary care (PC) consultations and for antibiotic prescribing and use. The majority of RTIs have a viral aetiology however, and antibiotic consumption is ineffective and unnecessary. Inappropriate antibiotic use contributes greatly to antibiotic resistance (ABR) leadin...

Background Primary out-of-hours care is developing throughout Europe. High-quality databases with linked data from primary health services can help to improve research and future health services. Methods In 2014, a central clinical research database infrastructure was established (iCAREdata: Improving Care And Research Electronic Data Trust Antwer...

Background: The implementation of general practitioner cooperatives (GPC) for out-of-hours (OOH) primary care, raises the question if the location of a GPC adjacent to a hospital reduces the OOH caseload of the emergency department (ED). Methods: Two natural experiments were used in this before–after study, the effect of the implementation of two G...

Acute luchtweginfecties zijn een van de voornaamste redenen voor het consulteren van de huisarts en voor het voorschrijven van antibiotica. Omwille van de wereldwijd nog steeds toenemende resistentie blijft het verminderen en het verbeteren van het antibioticagebruik belangrijk.

In some European countries telephone triage (TT) during out-of-hours primary care showed to be safe and effective. Other countries, such as Belgium, may not have trained auxiliary personnel while their national health services want to establish TT. To compare urgency levels assessed by secretaries and general practitioners in one general practice c...

Een recent Zweeds kwalitatief onderzoek toont enkele opvallende verschillen aan tussen huisartsen die de richtlijn voor het beleid bij keelpijn naleefden en huisartsen die dit niet deden. Het opvallendste verschil was dat huisartsen die deze richtlijn met collega’s bespraken, deze beter naleefden dan de andere collega’s.

In this study we examine the attainability and usefulness of opportunistic screening for Chlamydia trachomatis infection based on self-assessed risk, among university students in Belgium. A self-administered questionnaire was filled out by students (n = 243, 77.8% female, 22.2% male), who were asked to assess their own risk, to decide if their part...

Questionnaire. The structured questionnaire which was used in the study.

STI surveillance systems are subject to qualitative and quantitative underreporting. General practitioners (GPs), who are key subjects in case reporting, explain their underreporting partly by their observation that taking a sexual history is embarrassing for patients, and that patients are reluctant to disclose information on their sexual practice...

The incorporation of testing for human papillomavirus into protocols for cervical cancer screening has far-reaching consequences for counseling patients. The sexual transmission of HPV implies the recognition of sexual behavior of both men and women as a risk factor for cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate which knowledge men h...