title: [Diagnosis and treatment in general practice. I. The course of illness in primary health service].
abstract: The purpose of this review is to present an outline of the use of the unifying concepts of "episodes of medical care" and "episodes of illness" in recent research. The review focuses on theoretical and methodical problems connected with the use of these concepts in research related to general practice. The concept of "episodes of medical care" has been accepted as a valid and useful method of clustering discrete units of services into cohesive entities in previous literature. The concept of "episodes of illness" is, on the other hand, not yet fully defined and further development of this concept is suggested in the paper. The major methodical problem in connection with the use of these concepts is how to define when an episode starts and ends. Three typical examples on how research workers have dealt with this problem are presented and the consequences their choice of definitions have on the results from such studies are outlined. The concept of "episodes of medical care" has hitherto been used mostly in various utilization and morbidity studies in the primary health care sector and psychiatry. In the last decade the concept has also been used especially in American research in connection with studies focussing on the performance of medical care systems. The concept of "episodes of illness" has only been used in connection with relatively few population studies.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heldrup
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Frimodt-Møller
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gannik
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hollnagel
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Pedersen
mesh_terms: D003933:Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: Diagnostik og behandling i almen praksis. 1. Forløbsundersøgelser i den primaere sundhedstjeneste.