Concept identification and context analysis of the Wonca Europe 2015 book by instance-based categorization of general practice activities

Context:
Family physicians are large producers of knowledge. The site of Wonca Europe provides access to almost 20,000 abstracts produced by family physicians since 1995 (from Europe) and 1998 (from World Conferences). On the occasion of 20 years of Wonca Europe, an editorial committee selected 100 of the best abstracts and has asked each author (or a substitute) to make a chapter for the Wonca Book published in 2015 at the Wonca Europe congress.
The content analysis of medical texts is generally achieved by the use of MeSH. To fill gaps in MeSH, a specific family medicine classification has been developed under the name Core Content Classification of General Practice / Family Medicine (3CGP). A combination of ICPC + Q-Codes (new tool for non-clinical items) provides just fewer than 900 concepts for analyzing the contents of specific texts to family medicine.
Method:
The 100 chapters of the Wonca Book 2015 were analyzed using 3CGP by a single observer not involved in the editorial committee of the book. Every text has been carefully read and a maximum of two concepts by chapter were reported in an Excel spreadsheet.
Result:
150 codes were used of which 143 from the classification of non-clinical items Q-codes and 7 coming from ICPC. Among the topics discussed by 143 authors and identified by Q-codes, 35 relate to knowledge management which includes family medicine education, 29 codes concern research and development, 29 doctor's specific area, 24 patients’ issues, 11 relate to the structure and 8 deal with ethics.
Discussion:
Despite limitations (unique observer – not validated tools) the study reveals striking facts. It is noted that the editorial board has favored themes that affect the structure and organization of knowledge of the profession. Clinical items or affecting directly the patients are very poorly represented. More about 3CGP on http://docpatient.net/3CGP
The chapter of the book are also used as source of knowledge in the Q-Codes content study (ongoing) available on www.hetop.eu (inscription needed)