Preview for the Spring 2014 Hot Topics GP Update Courses

We are all very excited about our upcoming Spring series of the Hot Topics GP Update course which starts in Sheffield on March 14^th. We have been working very hard trawling through all the guidelines, research and papers for you finding the evidence which is recent, reliable and above all relevant to primary care. We will be covering some of the most challenging Hot Topics facing GPs today: the evidence around reducing unplanned hospital admissions, how to safely and effectively manage polypharmacy, medically unexplained symptoms and chronic pain as well as a wide range of other problems we commonly face from dyspepsia to overactive bladder.

·       All the presented Hot Topics will be new compared to Spring 2013  so if you came a year ago, do come back. You can be confident it will all be new presented material with lots of new CPD ideas to help you prepare for appraisal and revalidation

·        We have streamlined the paper book, and included more of our ever popular KISS (keep it simple) summaries. Less text, more KISS

·      The electronic version of the book has been developed to become an invaluable resource to use during your working day. It is a PDF you can download onto all of your devices (computer, phone, tablet etc). It is instantly searchable. Original sources are hyperlinked, and the KISS summaries contain direct links to resources for you and your patients to make life easier for you and to encourage self-management and help in your patient.

·       You will be emailed pre and post course MCQs so that you can test your knowledge and demonstrate your learning

·        We have developed some of our own patient information sources to reflect current evidence for you to give your patients e.g. for patients requesting a PSA test, on low salt/high potassium diets in hypertension, low FODMAP diet in IBS etc.

·        We focus on the things which are most likely to have an impact on your practice. A survey from our Spring 13 courses showed that 97% of our delegates changed practice as a result of the course, and over 70% use the course material at least weekly to find an evidence-based answer to a clinical pro

 

As ever, a broad range of topics will be discussed which reflect the incredible diversity of things we have to deal with in primary care….highlights will include new research, evidence reviews and guidelines on:

·         Reducing unplanned hospital admissions

 

• Polypharmacy, how to manage safely and effectively

·         Malnutrition, impact, diagnosis and management

·         Medically unexplained symptoms

·         End of life care

·         Hypertension, lipids and statins

·         Stroke and TIA

·         MI secondary prevention

 

• Acute kidney Injury

 

• Chronic non-cancer pain

·         IBS

·         Dyspepsia

·         Anal fissures

·         Overactive bladder syndrome

·         Cow’s milk protein allergy and lactose intolerance

 

• Pre-school viral wheeze

·         Common sports injuries & MSK problems e.g. shin splints, plantar fasciitis etc

·         Gout

·         Detection of melanoma

·         Common infections

·         Obesity, alcohol and smoking

·         Common infections

 

As ever we want you to have a relaxing and fun day out of the practice, so we will keep the atmosphere light, with some good new funny clips and we really hope you have an enjoyable day. With GPs being so busy, we are convinced that this model provides us the best way of practising patient-centred evidence based medicine. So, do come along and we look forward to seeing you next month!

Simon, Zoe, Neal and Gail