News

PCRS-UK News

The PCRS-UK is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Stephen Gaduzo as the new Chair of the PCRS-UK Executive, who succeeded Dr Iain Small in July 2013. The PCRS-UK Executive, as the main standing committee of the Primary Care Respiratory Society UK, is the main driving force and focal point of the organisation, responsible for advising on, developing and implementing all the activities of the charity.

Stephen joined what was then the General Practice Airways Group (GPIAG) in the early 1990's when he was a new partner in general practice, to get some support and encouragement in his role as respiratory lead of the practice. Stephen participated in the PCRS-UK Respiratory Leaders programme and subsequently took on an additional role as a GPwSI and as respiratory lead for NHS Stockport, where he led the local integrated respiratory network. He later took on roles helping to organise the PCRS-UK Respiratory Leaders programme and was a member of the working party for the joint PCRS-UK /BTS initiative around integrating and improving respiratory healthcare, IMPRESS, for five years. Stephen brings a wealth of practical leadership experience to the role in terms of practice level change, quality patient-centred care and integrated working, and we look forward to him being able to build on the excellent work done by Iain Small and other predecessors.

A special thank you ….

The PCRS-UK Trustees and Executive extend their very grateful appreciation and thanks to Dr Iain Small, who served as Chair of the Executive 2008–13. Under his leadership the size, influence and impact of the Society has grown significantly. Iain's specific achievements have included conceiving and bringing the PCRS-UK Quality Award to fruition, championing a change of name for the Society (Primary Care Respiratory Society UK) and hosting of the 6th World IPCRG by PCRS-UK in April 2012. Iain has been a first class ambassador for PCRS-UK and is exceptionally well regarded throughout the respiratory community. Honorary life membership of the Society will be awarded to Iain at the AGM on 11th October during the PCRS-UK annual conference for his outstanding contribution to the Primary Care Respiratory Society UK and to primary care respiratory medicine.

The premier respiratory conference for primary care — offering a route map to quality respiratory care and essential clinical updates for all members of the primary care respiratory team.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to attend our flagship national event

The PCRS-UK annual conference has a packed programme featuring keynote speakers Professor Mike Morgan, Respiratory National Clinical Director and Sir Muir Gray, Director, Better Value Healthcare Limited. Other highlights of the programme include:

Focusing on the patient: right care, right place and right time. Parallel sessions include:

• COPD: navigating the patient pathway, with June Roberts, Noel Baxter and Jane Scullion

• Bronchiectasis: the hidden problem, with Steve Holmes, Jane French and John O'Reilly

• Exploring other pathways — Respiratory allergies: what, where and why? with Dermot Ryan, Dominic Roberts and Samantha Walker

• Management of acute respiratory tract infections in the community: an interactive session with Michael Moore

• Grand Round: Next patient please: challenges and dilemmas in diagnosis with Vincent McGovern and Iain Small

• Balancing risk and control in asthma with David Supple and Alex Supple, Samantha Walker, David Price and Mike Thomas

…and if that isn't enough, parallel sessions on skills for the future and cutting edge research sessions and poster displays. For more information visit our conference pages on the website at http://www.pcrs-uk.org/pcrs-uk-annual-conference.

Places are filling up so register now so as not to miss this great opportunity!

PCRS-UK Respiratory Leaders

RESPIRATORY LEADERS WORKSHOP

Making a difference for clinicians, working in teams and dealing with difficult people

November 22nd & 23rd 2013

Hinckley Island Hotel, Watling Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 3JA

The PCRS-UK Respiratory Leader's Team is delighted to announce the next in our series of workshops for current and aspiring respiratory leaders in primary care. This event will focus on understanding some of the principles of teams, how they work well or at times how they conflict, and also how to work effectively across team boundaries.

Many of us are working in teams and, at times, have to deal with communication issues or other poor performance within the team. This interactive workshop will provide you with tools and advice to help you deal with difficult team members and may also be applied in the clinical environment in communicating more effectively with difficult patients and help to manage patient/carer expectations.

Places are limited and restricted only to PREMIUM members of PCRS-UK. Visit the PCRS-UK website for more information http://www.pcrs-uk.org/respiratory-leaders-events or contact mel@pcrs-uk.org to register your interest in attending this event.

Becoming a member of PCRS-UK

Whether you're a primary care nurse searching for tried and tested protocols, a GP looking for guidance on COPD diagnosis and management, or a respiratory specialist interested in the latest research, it pays to become a member of the Primary Care Respiratory Society UK. And with our new contemporary website offering new and improved functionality later in the year there's never been a better time to join.

As a member you'll have unlimited access to a wealth of specialist respiratory care information including newly published resources such as our new opinion sheets on tailoring inhaler choice and cost-effective prescribing.

Join today and get the support of the UK's leading respiratory-care specialists

Membership packages available from as little as £27.00 per year

Great reasons to join PCRS-UK today

• Make life easier. Become a PCRS-UK member and discover a wealth of credible respiratory care information and resources all in one place

• Keep pace with developments. From COPD guideline changes to managing asthma, there's a best practice resource waiting for you

• Get help with professional development. Save time. It's ready to download and share with your practice staff

• Benefit from expert advice. From managing allergic rhinitis to using spirometry, you'll find a range of concise, easy-to follow Opinion Sheets available free exclusively to members of the society via our website

• Hard copy of the Primary Care Respiratory Journal. As the flagship publication of the PCRS-UK, this international academic journal provides all the latest primary care respiratory research and top class editorial comment, discussion and educational articles

• Read regular e-alerts. Get the latest respiratory information, news and updates, sent direct to your inbox.

IPCRG News

IPCRG working locally, collaborating globally

7th World International Primary Care Respiratory Group Conference

Athens 21st-24th May 2014 www.ipcrg2014.org

Our IPCRG Research Needs Statement states “Firstly, there is a real need for research to be undertaken within primary care, which recruits patients representative of primary care populations, evaluates interventions realistically delivered within primary care, and draws conclusions that will be meaningful to professionals working within primary care.” H Pinnock et al. Prim Care Resp J 2010;19(Suppl 1):S1-S20 http://dx.doi.org/10.4104/pcrj.2010.00021

Our 7th world conference is an important contribution to this and there are nine good reasons to submit an abstract to IPCRG Athens 2014 (for full document go to www.ipcrg2014.org)

• 1 Reach a unique audience

• 2 Receive robust review from primary care

• 3 Choice of oral presentation, printed poster or e-poster

• 4 Substantial scope: A Breath of Fresh Air: multi-morbidity and integration

• 5 Multi-professional scope

• 6 Not just clinical research findings but research ideas and implementation studies too

• 7 Submit previously presented relevant research

  Note we've improved the word count facility so that it matches the ERS word count.

• 8 Linguistic and structural issues do not impede acceptance

• 9 Feedback and support offered for selected abstracts that are relevant but need improvement

Tips to improve the success of your clinical research abstract:

• Include a hypothesis

• Include data

• Check it is relevant to a primary care audience

• Check it is relevant to the conference theme

• If it is a service development consider if it should be submitted using the Implementation Science/Service Development form

Tips to improve the success of your Implementation science/service development abstract:

• State the problem the change is trying to address

• Specify who: who has made/is making the change, and/or who benefits

• Include measures: more measures, less text is a good way to think

• Provide evidence of the change (remember we can learn from changes that are not improvements)

• Consider how it is relevant for a wider international IPCRG audience

• Include a final message: so what have you learned that you want to share?

• Avoid presenting a literature review, we want an analysis of a real service change

• If it is about clinical medicine it might be more suitable for the Clinical Research Results category.

Dates for your diary

• 7th World Conference Athens, Greece 21 — 24 May 2014

• Online registration and abstract submission opens: 10 September 2013 www.ipcrg2014.org

• Abstract deadline: 10 January 2014

• Late breaker details will be announced on www.ipcrg2014.org in mid-January (must contain new and exciting information that was not yet available at the 10 January deadline; not an extension of the regular abstract submission deadline).

Mapping guidelines used in primary care

We reported in the June edition about a member survey on which respiratory guidelines were used in primary care and how they were developed. The results are now available by country and by topic (asthma, COPD, allergic rhinitis, community acquired pneumonia and obstructive sleep apnoea) with a summary position paper, which we think is the first of its kind.

https://www.theipcrg.org/display/ResMapping/Mapping+of+national+guidelines+used+by+primary+care

Its recommendations are:

• 1 Every country should have a national action plan which describes primary care's role in chronic respiratory diseases including COPD, asthma, allergic rhinitis, tobacco dependence and, over time, community-acquired pneumonia and obstructive sleep apnoea.

• 2 This national action plan should include clinical guidelines relevant for primary care in that country that are based on evidence of real life populations with their expected multi-morbidities and service-using behaviours. Guidelines should encourage the same practice for the same interventions by family physicians or alternative primary care professionals as by hospital-based professionals to ensure coordinated care.

• 3 Where absent, planners could use the national guidelines identified by the IPCRG as a starting point to develop such clinical guidelines as part of national action plans.

• 4 Apply the principle of “nothing about me without me” when developing national action plans and clinical guidelines. This means primary care professionals need to be involved in developing guidelines requiring primary care action. It also means patients need to be involved.

• 5 Every national action plan needs to include an implementation plan that puts in place mechanisms that encourage clinicians to do the “right” thing (allocating resources where there would be most benefit) and to do it “right” (using appropriate and consistent technical skills). These plans need to be followed up to monitor how effectively clinical guidelines are implemented.

In addition, we would like to draw your attention to a new WHO Europe guide to non-communicable disease guidelines:

http://www.euro.who.int/_data/assets/pdf_file/0009/195876/Clinical-Guidelines-for-Chronic-Conditions-in-the-European-Union.pdf

WONCA

We have created a new page on our website describing our many and growing links with Wonca at global and regional level and offering slides used at our popular workshops at Wonca Europe meetings in the last three years:

http://www.theipcrg.org/display/wonca/IPCRG+and+WONCA

Siân Williams Niels Chavannes

ERS General Practice and Primary Care Group 1.6 news

ERS Congress, Barcelona, 7th-11th September 2013

Primary Care Day

There will again be a Primary Care Day on Saturday morning, 7th September. This year the topic is ‘Asthma management in clinical practice' and the programme will include a practical overview of telemonitoring, monitoring and achieving asthma control, and self-management. If you are planning to be at the ERS, make sure you arrive in Barcelona in time to join us at what promises to be an excellent session!

PCRJ Award for the best quality abstract submitted to Group 1.6

Worth 荤500, and kindly funded by the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, the PCRJ Award will once again be awarded to the best primary care abstract submitted to Group 1.6 for the 2013 ERS Congress in Barcelona. The award is particularly aimed at encouraging young researchers to submit their work.

Last year, there were over 100 primary care abstracts selected for the 2012 ERS Congress in Vienna. The top 7 were shortlisted for the PCRJ Award, 3 were highly commended, and the winner of the 2012 ERS Group 1.6 PCRJ Award was:

Abstract Number: 1434

Title: More than 50% of patients visit a general practitioner (GP), general physician (Gen P) or a pediatrician (P) in India for respiratory symptoms: Results of a one-day point-prevalence study in 204,912 patients across 22 states and 5 union territories in India Komalkirti Apte, Monica Barnes, Sapna Madas, Jaideep Gogtay, Sushmeeta Chhowala, Nadar Mahajan and Sundeep Salvi. Chest Research Foundation, Pune, Maharashtra, India; CIPLA LTD, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Group 1.6 Members meeting

This will take place on Sunday 8th September at 18.00 in Room 3.5 in the ERS Congress Centre in Barcelona. The winner of the PCRJ Award for the best primary care abstract submitted to Group 1.6 this year will be announced during the Group meeting. The quality of submitted abstracts has been extremely high, and the competition is intense! Everybody welcome!

Joining the ERS

Are you an ERS member? If you're not and you regularly attend the ERS Congress, why not join the ERS and receive all the membership benefits? If you are thinking of joining, please ensure that you join Group 1.6, the General Practice and Primary Care Group.

Bjorn Stallberg, Chair Group 1.6 Hilary Pinnock, Secretary Group 1.6