Educational outreach visits: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes
Peer reviewed article
This review assesses the effects of Educational Outreach Visits (EOVs) on health professional practice on patient outcomes. Educational outreach visits have been identified as an intervention that may improve the practice of healthcare professionals. This type of face-to-face visit has been referred to as university-based educational detailing, academic detailing, and educational visiting.
This review finds that EOVs appear to improve the care delivered to patients. When trying to change how health care professionals prescribe medications, outreach visits consistently provide small changes in prescribing, which might be important when hundreds of patients are affected. [Adapted from abstract]