[Do computerized reminders to the patients affect the preventive work in general practice?]

Norwegian general practitioners have the opportunity to perform preventive medicine on many levels. There are uncertainties as to the effect of this activity. A systematic approach is one of the prerequisites for obtaining significant results. We have made a study of the review literature concerning computerised patient-specific reminders used in preventive health care. Electronic literature search was supplemented by expert-guided manual search. We found that a conclusion from the literature is that such computerised reminders have a lasting effect regarding doctors' handling of preventive care issues. The effect of reminders in a general practice setting will be determined by the way they are implemented. In this process it will be necessary to address motivating issues, technical solutions and administrative adjustments.