News

PCRS-UK News

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.

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT NOW £250 prize for best original abstract showing best practice!

***Deadline for receipt of Abstract submissions is 7th June 2013***

Late breakers may be considered

Our aim is to showcase community-based respiratory research and innovative clinical/service developments through a series of abstract-based sessions running throughout the two-day conference. We therefore invite submission of abstracts related to the management of respiratory and respiratory-related allergic diseases, and the delivery of respiratory services, in primary care. Categories for Abstract submission: • Asthma; • Allergy; • COPD; • Miscellaneous. Our simple online submission process can be accessed at https://www.pcrs-uk.org/abstracts/

Be a part of the Conference — Share your work with the PCRS-UK! The PCRS-UK is willing to offer support to those without previous experience of submitting posters. For full details visit our website at http://www.pcrs-uk.org/abstracts

Attend the conference

Renowned for its friendly and informal atmosphere, the PCRS-UK conference is a great opportunity to hear from and meet the leading experts in the field, network with like-minded colleagues, share best practice, and — through a combination of posters and presentations — see how others are navigating new routes to quality respiratory care.

Covering the key respiratory issues for primary care, this conference will provide you with the knowledge, examples and skills to help your team navigate the path to quality respiratory care and inspire excellence locally. There will be:

• Patient-centred, essential clinical updates from leading experts — helping you to provide the right care for your patients, in the right place, at the right time

• ‘How to’ sessions to build your skills, and help you inspire excellence in respiratory care at practice, locality and regional level

• Cutting edge research sessions run in conjunction with the Primary Care Respiratory Journal

• Presentations and posters with a focus on sharing and implementing best practice examples to meet QIPP targets.

To view the latest programme, visit our conference pages at http://www.pcrs-uk.org/pcrs-uk-annual-conference. The programme will be presented by an impressive list of respiratory experts, and PCRS-UK are delighted to announce the opening and closing plenaries will include the following guest speakers:

• Professor Mike Morgan — the new National Clinical Director for Respiratory Disease; and Consultant Respiratory Physician at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Allergy and Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust at Glenfield Hospital and Honorary Professor at the University of Leicester

• Sir Muir Gray CBE, Director, Better Value Healthcare Limited.

Excellent value for money

Registration fees start from just £185.85 for PCRS-UK premium members* registering after 1 June 2013 and this is inclusive of the conference dinner and lunches.

If you are not already a paying member* of the PCRS-UK, conference registration includes free premium membership of the PCRS-UK, from the date of registration through to end-2013.

Register NOW to confirm your place

Visit the conference website NOW for more information and to register at www.pcrs-uk.org/pcrs-uk-annual-conference

PCRS-UK Affiliated Nurse-Led Groups — “Bringing together like-minded healthcare professionals”

The PCRS-UK Nurse Committee is delighted to announce the next Nurse-led Group Leaders workshop to be held on Thursday 10th October 2013, 12–5pm at Telford Conference Centre, Telford — prior to the PCRS UK annual conference titled “Understanding yourself to understand others”.

This workshop is designed to inspire healthcare professionals who run established local nurse-led respiratory groups, those who are in the process of setting up a new group or anyone wishing to join us and learn how easy it is to set up a group and affiliate to PCRS-UK in their local area.

The workshop will provide innovative ideas to help support you with your groups and make all your local meetings a great success no matter the size of your group. A must attend for anyone involved in local respiratory groups!

This event is FREE to PCRS-UK Premium members in the UK. To register for your place, email mel@pcrs-uk.org. Limited places available so act NOW

PCRS-UK Respiratory Leaders Programme

• Want to make a real difference to respiratory patient care beyond your practice and into your locality?

• Would you like to take the lead and work with your colleagues to influence and improve respiratory services beyond practice level?

• All it takes is just one person to take the lead. And with our help, that person could be you.

• With the right support, you'll make all the difference

Join the Respiratory Leaders Programme and we'll give you all the support you need to take the lead, motivate and inspire best practice within your locality. It's designed to enable UK-based primary care health professionals like you to take the next step. Plus, it's FREE to get involved if you're a Premium Member. If you are not a Premium member of PCRS-UK and would like to join please visit http://www.pcrs-uk.org/premium.

With two education workshops each year focusing on developing your skills to influence respiratory care beyond the practice as well as regular policy updates and information to support you both clinically and in the wider service provision arena there's never been a better time to join this programme.

RESPIRATORY LEADERS WORKSHOP — PLACES STILL AVAILABLE Building & Maintaining Successful Local Respiratory Networks 7th & 8th June 2013, Aston, Birmingham

This event will focus on how to build or expand a local respiratory network group in your area. Developing and maintaining a network that drives improvements and in turn supports the patient journey within a joined up pathway is an achievable goal whatever your level of leadership. Places are limited to PREMIUM members of PCRS-UK working in the UK (Visit http://www.pcrs-uk.org/premium for more information on how to join as a premium member). 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

New members

We are delighted to welcome three new country members, elected at the recent Annual General Meeting:

• India: Chest Research Foundation, Pune, and the Respiratory Research Network of India (RRNI) initiated by CRF

• Singapore: COPD Association, Singapore (COPDAS) www.copdas.com

• Vietnam: IPCRG-Vietnam, hosted by Ho Chi Minh City Society of Respirology with three centres in Ho Chi Minh City, Hue and Can Tho.

3rd Scientific Meeting Uppsala 23–24 May 2013

We received the best ever number of abstracts to this meeting, which bodes well for the future of primary care research. We were delighted to debate research with new colleagues in India, Bangladesh and Chile, as well as industry partners. A selection of abstracts is available online as part of this issue, at http://www.thepcrj.org/journ/curissue.php

IPCRG 7th World Conference Athens www.ipcrg2014.org

Bookmark this page (www.ipcrg2014.org) to keep up-to-date with this event and put the dates in your diaries:

Dates: 21-24 May 2014 (with exhibition set-up on 21st) Theme: A Breath of Fresh Air: Multiple Morbidities and Integration Venue: Hilton Hotel, Athens http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/greece/hilton-athens-ATHHITW/index.html

Education

We have awarded funding to two new pilot educational projects as part of a second round of the E-Quality programme in 2013/2014. This follows a rigorous selection process led by the IPCRG Education Sub Committee.

Dr Sonia Maria Martins and colleagues, Sao Bernardo Do Campo, Sao Paolo, Brazil. A Multidisciplinary Educational Programme to Develop Knowledge and Practice for Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma and COPD: Family Health Strategy. Multidisciplinary training for asthma and COPD, Sao Paolo, Brazil

Dr Beraki Ghezai, Dr Svein Hoegh Henrichsen, Dr Anders Ostrem, Lunger i Praksis, Norway and Professor Andemariam Gebremichael, Dean, Orotta School of Medicine, University of Asmara, Eritrea. Training programme to improve diagnosis and management of CRD in Eritrea. Improving diagnosis & management of chronic respiratory disease (CRD) — Eritrea

We supported two E-Quality programmes in 2011/2012- see an update on the project pages of the IPCRG website.

Dr Sundeep Salvi and Dr Monica Barne, Chest Research Foundation, Pune, India. To assess the impact of Chest Research Foundation's one day training programme for GPs on Asthma called CHAMPS (Changing Asthma Management Practices). Changing Asthma Management Practice — Pune, India.

Professor James Stout, University Washington in collaboration with Professor Alan J Crockett, University of Southern Australia and Dr Kerry Hancock Adelaide. Disseminating online spirometry training and feedback in Australia based on the Spirometry 360 Train-the-Trainer program. Disseminating online spirometry training — University Washington, US/ Adelaide, Australia

For more information:

IPCRG Education

http://www.theipcrg.org/display/EDUPRO/Educational+Programmes

IPCRG E-Quality

http://www.theipcrg.org/display/EDUEQU/IPCRGt+E-Qualityt+Programme

Mapping guidelines used in primary care

IPCRG member countries have different approaches to guidelines for use by primary care practitioners. Some countries have developed their own national guidelines, others use internationally accepted tools as guidelines and several are in the early stages of developing guidelines. Now the IPCRG is undertaking a mapping to systematically collect and present information on national guidelines used by primary care for the key IPCRG topics of COPD, asthma, allergic rhinitis, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and smoking cessation.

The overall aim of the mapping is to create a resource on the IPCRG web platform that enables members easily and quickly to share information and learning about national guidelines used by primary care. Members will be able to use this resource to search for information on a specific topic or on a particular country or a combination of topic and country.

We anticipate this resource will be useful to IPCRG members reviewing existing guidelines or developing new ones in their own country. In particular, it will enable them:

• To access easily guidelines from other countries;

• To learn about approaches to guidelines that are used in different IPCRG countries;

• To learn about the methodology applied in the development of guidelines, which national agency leads the process, the evidence base used and how guidelines are evaluated;

• To access published information about the implementation and effectiveness of guidelines;

• To see which IPCRG countries have most recently developed or updated guidelines;

• To learn how other IPCRG countries have included primary care perspectives in the development of guidelines;

• To find a contact in that country who can provide more information about the guidelines;

• To explore how international guidelines and tools such as GINA and GOLD are used at national levels.

• To promote debate and share learning about guidelines between IPCRG members.

This mapping is not intended to cover countries that are not currently IPCRG members and it does not include analysis of the implementation or effectiveness of the guidelines.

Key contacts from each IPCRG country are now in the process of submitting information about guidelines used by primary care in their country using a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. This information should be available on the IPCRG web platform during June 2013: http://www.theipcrg.org/display/ResMapping/Mapping+of+national+guidelines+used+by+primary+care

Siân Williams Executive Officer

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 €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.

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