Tag Archives: primary care

Introduction to the steering committee From left to right: Professor Martin Cowie, Dr Matthew Fay, Ms Jo Jerrome,Dr Abhishek Joshi, Dr Jim Moore, Ms Helen Williams Conflicts of interest The steering committe received speaking and consultation fees from Bayer plc. MRC provides consultancy advice to Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Novartis, Roche Diagnostics and Servier. MF has received speaker honoraria, conference sponsorship, unrestricted educational grants, and/or attended meetings sponsored by AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and S

Telemedicine platforms: Madeleine Oliver reviews their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities In the face of COVID-19, primary care has had to adapt at an incredible pace. With lockdown and social distancing measures in place, face-to-face GP consultations have had to be replaced by new forms of socially distanced care. Recent developments in technologies, such as video calling, mean that there is greater scope in what GPs can achieve remotely. Consultation platforms This crisis and the need it has created for telemedicine platforms has meant that many existing platforms are expanding their capabilities. An example of such a platform is Accu

Led by experts at the hospital, it gives practical advice and support. It covers the epidemiology, clinical symptoms and signs, and current management of COVID-19 and follows the evolving situation in the UK. You will learn how to complete a safe assessment of suspected COVID-19 cases and discover the best protocol to protect yourself and others. The course will cover what you need to know and what you need to do in relation to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in primary care. Topics covered include: background of COVID-19 current situation in the UK when to suspect COVID-19 infection in primary care safe assessment of suspected case

The initiative was launched in February 2015 and in a relatively short period of time, the project achieved success in all three areas with measurable improvement in outcomes, including a reduction in hospitalisations. Over 24 months, there have been around 21,000 clinical interventions, with the emphasis being on delivering change at scale, whilst being fastidious about minimising any extra workload on primary care. In this period, 13,000 patients either started statins or had their statins changed, more than 1,000 patients with atrial fibrillation were anticoagulated, and more than 5,200 hypertensive patients reached a blood pressure targe

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Introduction Screening has been proposed as a method to detect patients with undiagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF) as it is a dangerous, prevalent condition that may be easily diagnosed with a simple low-cost test, an electrocardiogram (ECG), and the risk of serious sequelae such as ischaemic stroke can be effectively reduced with anticoagulation.1 Hence, it fulfils the Wilson Jungner criteria for a screening programme.2 The potential benefits of AF screening are far reaching, as reducing stroke prevalence has massive implications for both patients and health services in the UK, where stroke consumes approximately 5% of total National Health S

The Sheffield audit of heart failure discharge advice given to GPs by Kanaan, Bashforth and  Al-Mohammed (see pages 113–16) illustrates perfectly the imperfections of implementing research findings and guidelines into every day clinical practice. The paper rightly points out the selective nature of the entry criteria of patients to RALES (Randomised Aldactone Evaulation Study).1 Most research trial patients are more scrupulously managed and monitored than in real world circumstances. The traditional way of organising discharge summaries usually defaults to the least experienced junior staff. The perception is often that a career in account

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Introduction Cardiac rehabilitation aims to address all modifiable behavioural risk factors that are susceptible to intervention, including smoking, exercise, diet and weight.1,2 Since less than half of eligible patients attended the out-patient-based cardiac rehabilitation programme at St George’s Hospital, we wanted to establish whether our service was beneficial and popular with patients, and what features might persuade others to participate. This evidence would enable us to improve our service and increase attendance, thereby reducing the risk of further cardiac events, with consequent benefits to patients, their families and healthcar

A recent survey of primary care trusts (PCTs) in England found that only 26% currently offered or had previously offered natriuretic peptides for use in primary care.4 Clinicians and healthcare purchasers (PCTs in the UK) still harbour concerns about appropriate cut-offs, the extra cost of BNP/NT proBNP assays, which assay to use (BNP or NT proBNP/point-of-care or laboratory assay), lack of expedient referral pathways for patients with a raised BNP/NT proBNP level and absence of cost-benefit/effectiveness data from a prospective primary care study. Landmark studies such as the Hillingdon heart failure study5 confirmed the high negative predic