Focus groups: a method for developing consensus guidelines in general practice

The measurement of quality in any clinical discipline depends, in part, on a comparison with an accepted standard. Currently, such standards do not exist for the management of many common clinical situations in Australian general practice. As part of the General Practice Evaluation Programme, a group of Illawarra general practitioners (GPs) selected 'GP management of the menopause and asthma' for in-depth study, and were able to arrive at a consensus on 'principles of practice' and 'minimal acceptable care' for these conditions through a series of focus (research) group meetings. However, the process by which these standards were derived was felt, of itself, to be a valuable means of: (i) reducing professional isolation; (ii) promoting quality assurance; (iii) introducing peer review; (iv) introducing clinical audit; and (v) providing meaningful and targeted continuing medical education appropriate to Australian general practice. This paper describes the focus group methodology used in this process.