Academic General Practice

Report for SAPC news from St. George’s — University of London

The GP academics at St. George’s are now all back in our new offices.We have all returned to refurbished offices— having been temporarily re-located while our old offices were modernised and re-decorated.Our offices are on 6^th Floor of Hunter Wing and offer many of us a panorama of London stretching from Canary Warf on the right; past the Nat West Tower and “gherkin” building in the City; then the Post Office Tower finally round to the new Wembley arch on the extreme right….

A team led by Judith Ibison are busy sorting out the London SAPC which is due to be held in February next year.The call has attracted a good range of papers and workshops.The meeting is being held in February next year on Thursday 15^th and Friday 16^th February.The theme of the meeting is:  Reality and hype in the ICT revolution: e-learning, e-health and informatics in primary care.We look forward to welcoming SAPC colleagues from London, Cambridge and East Anglia to this meeting which is being held in Madingley Hall, near Cambridge. (More details at: http://www.madingleyhall2007.sgul.ac.uk/index.htm)

We welcomed our first two “F2” trainees on GP academic placements in August this year.We are set to have two F2 trainees for four month placements with use over the coming year.They are undertaking research projects as well as having some time in clinical general practice and some time gaining teaching experience.Our first trainees are working on a pilot home monitoring blood pressure measuring project and a project enhance a rating scale to measure the impact of the computer on the consultation.

On the research side the usual team continues to be active.Pippa Oakshott, promoted to Reader at the start of the year, continues to publish excellent papers on sexual health in primary care.The primary care epidemiology group led by Derek Cook continues to publish widely using routinely collected computer data.Sally Kerry was one of the co-authors of a paper voted the best informatics paper of 2006 by the International Medical Informatics Association.

Our general practice teaching activities in common with other medical schools continue to expand.Adrian Brown has done a superb organisational job in leading the placement of these increased numbers.We have been looking to place increasing numbers of students in primary care.Support from local practices has been superb and we continue to make additional placements.

George Freeman continues to run a series of GP seminars and provide academic support for GPs.These sessions are highly regarded by general practice members of the Division and set to continue for at least another year.

In addition to general practice teaching many members of the Division have contributed to teaching on the new Biomedical Informatics undergraduate course offered at St. George’s.This is the first full time undergraduate informatics course in the country and has 42 students in its first cohort.As I write this Andrew Singleton is leading a module on the use of the computer in the clinical consultation.Tess Harris is providing clinical support to two non-clinical module leaders to ensure their informatics is clinically correct!(More details at: /informatics/ )

Finally, from the beginning of next year Sean Hilton will be concentrating on leading the development of the tripartite alliance between St. George’s, KingstonUniversity and Royal Holloway; including the setting up of a number of new institutes.Sean, thanks for the exceptional way you have successfully steered general practice through a period of unprecedented change at St. George’s.Simon de Lusignan will become the GP academic lead.