Preventive Services in Family Medicine

Family doctors are often sought out by patients who are well and want to prevent potential future illnesses but have no identifiable biological disease. Undergoing laboratory and diagnostics tests with a preventive intention has become frequent and has been often driven by health authorities. However, presently we have evidence of a substantial risk of harm when healthy individuals undergo preventive health services. Finding an incidentaloma, getting a false positive or being overdiagnosed are some of the possible harms associated with preventive health services. The objectives of the three studies in the present research were to assess which healthcare services are deemed necessary, and with what frequency, by adults from the general Portuguese population; to assess if Portuguese family physicians are performing preventive health services in accordance with the scientific evidence; and to compare the effects of modifying the electronic health records ordering communication system through a randomized controlled trial.