Mateja Bulc

University of Ljubljana · Department of Family Medicine

Background Patients who have experienced a cardiovascular clinical event such as a myocardial infarction or stroke qualify for intensive risk factor evaluation and management. The aim of this study is to explore lifestyle changes as well as the achievement of targets for risk factors in patients with established cardiovascular disease. Methods Cr...

Objectives Family doctors make diagnoses and manage problems in unique ways, however we rarely discuss openly how we think.Gabbay and Lemay have described ‘mindlines’ as the internal processes doctors use to reach their decisions. Guidelines are a welcome help in working with patients as they offer professional, evidence-based and equal treatment f...

Objectices To get an overview on the policy and practice regarding overdiagnosis and related medical excess in our European countries. Secondly to analyse facilitating factors, barriers and possible actions taken on this matter such as avoidance of mitigation of harm from excessive or unnecessary health interventions. Background It is generally ag...

www.woncaeurope.org Working Group on Overdiagnosis chaired by Prof Johann Sigurdsson. Other members Mateja Bulc, Schlomo Vinker, Giorgio Vincentin, Andree Rochfort. Paper commissioned by President of Wonca Europe Anna Stavdal and the Wonca Europe Executive Board.

Introduction and objective: The idiosyncrasies of rural health demand further research to instigate rural health initiatives and to monitor progress in rural health care. In 2008, a study examined health-related behaviour, perception of importance of preventive interventions, readiness to change lifestyle and willingness to receive support from GP...

The international Bled course for teacher training has played a central role in faculty development in family medicine for the past 25 years. The course was originally designed to promote faculty development for family medicine teachers in the new academic discipline of family medicine in Slovenia in 1990 and to introduce new topics into the family...

Aim. This study aimed to evaluate a new project of the Slovene Ministry of Health - the Family Medicine Model Practices (MPs) Project in Slovenia, and to show its effectiveness in the management of asthma and COPD by family medicine practice teams, consisting of a family physician, a nurse practitioner and a practice nurse. Methods. A total of 107...

Background: The family physician's task in prevention is not only an assessment of patients' health risks but also counselling individual patients. Aim: Aim of this primary care based study was to find how patients' characteristics relate to their readiness to change. Methods: This multinational cross-sectional survey was conducted in primary...

Furthermore, practice visits and the social night have the advantage of easing the communication between all participants and is a defi nite ' plus ' for team-building. CONCLUSION In our opinion, the EGPRN conference presents a unique and extremely valuable opportunity for growth and self-improvement in clinical research. Therefore, it is a perfect...

For preventive interventions in general practice to succeed, patients' points of view must be taken into account in addition to those of GPs. To explore patients' views and beliefs about the importance of lifestyle and preventive interventions, to assess their readiness to make changes to their lifestyle and their willingness to receive support fro...

To assess patients' attitudes toward changing unhealthy lifestyle, confidence in the success, and desired involvement of their family physicians in facilitating this change. We conducted a cross-sectional study in 15 family physicians' practices on a consecutive sample of 472 patients (44.9% men, mean age(±standard deviation) 49.3±10.9 years) from...

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to describe the organisation of the CINDI programme in Slovenia, to present the results of a survey of risk factors of chronic disease in the adult population and to describe the effects of political changes on the programme. Methods: Assessment of the health status of a random sample of 1692 adults from the Lju...

Background: Instruction in principles and methods of medical education is a core component of the training of medical teachers. Curricula for new medical teachers have developed across Europe, but few European courses have had the success of the EURACT Bled course for teachers of family medicine. The course focuses on practical issues in medicine...

Background. The article summarizes the main results of the WHO Primary Care Quality Management project, which has been implemented as a pilot study to identify and support mechanisms for quality management in primary health care. Material and methods: The project was commissioned by WHO Europe and carried out in 2007 by NIVEL in collaboration with...

Of all GPs in Slovenia 86% are not interested in activities to systematically improve care. A clear national quality policy, further education for care managers and financial incentives for GPs could change the picture, as NIVEL research – done on the initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) – has shown. The results have been published in...

To determine 12-year dynamics of the average value of arterial blood pressure and arterial hypertension prevalence among adult residents of Ljubljana area in Slovenia, and to assess the probable contribution of World Health Organization's Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Diseases Intervention Program (CINDI) to observed dynamics. A total of 4...

Unlabelled: Family medicine in Europe started to develop in the 1960s with the introduction of obligatory specialist training. Slovenia is a country with a long tradition of family medicine specialist training, but up until 2002 this was neither elaborated on nor conducted by peers in general practice/family medicine. When the country's socialist...

Most of the national colleges of general practitioners (GPs) do not have their own dietary/nutritional tools, and GPs and nurses do not have the time, knowledge, or skills to advise their patients about desirable dietary practices. To assess the usefulness of a simple and practical guide on healthy diet to be used by European GPs and nurses. A post...

Disease prevention and health promotion are important tasks in the daily practice of all general practitioners (GPs). The objective of this study was to explore the knowledge and attitudes of European GPs in implementing evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention recommendations in primary care, to describe GPs' perceived barriers to im...

Background: Most of the national colleges of general practitioners (GPs) do not have their own dietary/nutritional tools, and GPs and nurses do not have the time, knowledge, or skills to advise their patients about desirable dietary practices. Objective: To assess the usefulness of a simple and practical guide on healthy diet to be used by European...

Introduction. The goal of this publication is to promote a healthy diet, improve the health status of the population and prevent chronic non-communicable diseases that are related to unhealthy diet. Diet plays an important role in coronary heart disease, cancers, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and obesity. This document...

One of the many problems of academic medicine is its detachment from actual health problems of the population. Family medicine has a potential of bridging this gap. The paper describes the positive experience from introducing family medicine as a new academic discipline to the medical school in Slovenia. Its introduction was of benefit to family me...

Slovenia has implemented a new final summative assessment for vocational training in family medicine. As all family medicine trainees work independently in practice, the assessment is focused on actual performance. The preparation included a literature search, consultation with foreign experts, consultation with tutors and trainees in general pract...