Top 20 POEMs of the Past 20 Years: A Survey of Practice-Changing Research for Family Physicians.

POEMs (patient-oriented evidence that matters) are studies that address a relevant clinical question, demonstrate improved patient-oriented outcomes, and have the potential to change practice. For 20 years the authors of this article have reviewed more than 100 English language clinical journals monthly to identify POEMs in the medical literature relevant to primary care practice. This article identifies the POEMs in each of the last 20 years that were highest ranked for having recommended a major and persistent change in practice that year. They include POEMs that recommend a novel, effective intervention, a second group that recommends abandoning an ineffective practice, and a third group that recommends abandoning a potentially harmful practice. The top POEMs of the past 20 years illustrate the breadth of practice change in primary care and the need for family physicians to have a systematic approach to keeping up with the medical literature, such as that in POEMs, especially because many of these important articles did not appear in the primary care literature.

Milestones in the development of Nordic general practice*.

The common history and development of Nordic family medicine is important and interesting. This paper looks back on the aspects and factors influencing academic family medicine in the Nordic countries and especially the central position of the Nordic Congresses and the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. The importance of pioneers and bringing people together is emphasized. More than 30 years of Nordic academic family medicine has indeed had an incredible impact and has initiated development from only a few people to become world leading.

The earliest mention of a black bag.

A black bag, needed especially for home visits, has been used since the time of Hippocrates who, in his treatise "On good manners", gave the first detailed description of a medical bag with guidelines for the required equipment and structure. Ancient Egyptian and Palestinian references also date back at least two millenniums.

Raymond Greene: physician, mountaineer, and raconteur.

C. Raymond Greene (1901-1982) was a man of many talents. After graduating from medical school in 1927, he spent a decade in general practice. He subsequently became heavily involved in the emerging specialty of endocrinology and went on to gain considerable recognition in the treatment of thyroid disorders before eventually becoming involved in the world of medical publishing. Aside from Greene's mainstream vocational and intellectual pursuits, from boyhood he nurtured a passionate interest in mountaineering--first in his native Great Britain, and then the European Alps, and ultimately in the high Himalayas. His involvement in landmark climbs, such as the successful Kamet venture in 1931 and Everest attempt in 1933, earned him a place in the pantheon of Himalayan explorers and mountaineers and stimulated Green's interest in high altitude physiology and medicine. He made notable additions to the literature on this subject in publications such as Nature and Journal of Physiology. Apart from his remarkable life achievements in the areas of medicine, mountaineering, and publishing, Greene was perhaps best remembered by those close to him (and by contemporary readers who are devotees of his writing) as a peerless storyteller with a sardonic sense of irony.