Update in Outpatient General Internal Medicine: Practice-Changing Evidence Published in 2022

Area of Science:

• General Internal Medicine
• Clinical Practice Guidelines
• Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

• Clinicians face challenges staying current with practice-changing medical literature.
• Synthesizing relevant articles and guideline updates is essential for informed clinical practice.
• This review focuses on high-impact general internal medicine journals and evidence databases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and synthesize practice-changing articles and key guideline updates for outpatient internal medicine.
• To provide clinicians with a curated summary of significant advancements impacting patient care.
• To facilitate evidence-based decision-making in general internal medicine.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 7 high-impact general internal medicine journals (excluding COVID-19 research).
• Inclusion of article synopsis collections and databases (e.g., ACP Journal Club, NEJM Journal Watch).
• Modified Delphi method employed by 8 physicians to achieve consensus on clinical relevance, practice impact, and evidence strength.

Main Results:

• Five practice-changing articles were identified and synthesized.
• Key guideline updates relevant to outpatient internal medicine were highlighted.
• Articles were clustered by topic for a comprehensive overview.

Conclusions:

• This synthesis provides a valuable resource for clinicians seeking to stay abreast of critical updates in internal medicine.
• The identified articles and guidelines offer significant potential to impact and improve clinical practice.
• Consensus-driven selection ensures the relevance and importance of the presented information.