title: Screening and Registering Patients with Asthma and Copd in Slovenian Primary Care: First Results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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 family practices with 203122 patients joined the project during the first year of its initiation. The effectiveness of the program in disease management was analysed in two phases according to the registration of family practices. The number of patients registered and the number of asthma and COPD patients (existing and newly detected) by model practice teams were being reported. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the study populations. Prevalence by diseases and phases was established after the initial round of data collection. Chi square (χ(2)) test was used to analyse the difference between the phases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequency of asthma was 2.12%, while the frequency of COPD was 1.15% throughout the study period. For both diseases, more than 30% of patients were newly diagnosed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The project of implementing Family Medicine MPs in the area of COPD has given first positive results and the project is still ongoing to its full implementation.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Centre Ljubljana, Metelkova 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Tonka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Poplas-Susič
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Švab
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Darinka
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Klančar
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Davorina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petek
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Vlasta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vodopivec-Jamšek
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Mateja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bulc
authors.affiliation: University of Ljubljana, Medical Faculty, Department of Family Medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Janko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kersnik
authors.affiliation: University of Szeged, Department of of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dóm tér. 10, Szeged, 6720, Hungary.
authors.forename: Beáta Éva
authors.initials: BÉ
authors.lastname: Petrovski
keywords: COPD; Slovenia; asthma; family practice; model practices; nurse practitioner; primary health care