BJGP Interviews

In this episode, we talk to Dr Laura Armitage, a GP and Doctoral Research Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences at the University of Oxford. Laura and her team conducted a study looking at a common issue in primary care: hypertension, and how to measure it in practice. Title of paper: Diagnosing hypertension in primary care: the importance of night-time blood press...

In this episode, we talk to Dr Pauline Williams, a GP and an NRS Career Research Fellow. She’s based at the Institute of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. Title of paper: Help seeking behaviour in women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer: a systematic review.  Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0071 Reducing diagnostic delay, by improving patients’ help see...

In this episode, we talk to Julien Vos, who is a doctoral student and clinician based at the Department of General Practice at the University of Amsterdam. We’re going to discuss his paper about survivorship care for colorectal cancer and patients experiences of GP-led care in the Netherlands.  Paper: Patients’ experiences with general practitioner-led colon cancer survivorship care; a m...

In this episode, we talk to Professor Jeremy Horwood, Professor of Social Science and Health at the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol.  Paper: Unintended consequences of patient online access to health records: a qualitative study in UK primary care Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0720 Previous studies of patient online access to their medical recor...

In this episode, we talk to Ben Cranfield, who is undertaking a PhD In the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL.  Paper: Primary care blood tests before cancer diagnosis: National Cancer Diagnosis audit data Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0265 Evidence relating to the predictive value of blood tests for cancer diagnosis is growing, yet how often they are used b...

In this episode, we talk to Maha Abo-Tabik, a doctoral research student at the Global Psoriasis Atlas who is based at the University of Manchester. Paper: Mapping opportunities for the earlier diagnosis of psoriasis in primary care settings in the UK Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0137 Many people suffer needlessly from psoriasis due to missed or delayed diagnosis. Primary ca...

In this episode, we talk to Professor Trish Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.  Paper: UK newspapers “on the warpath”: media analysis of remote consulting in 2021 Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0258 How this fits in In 2020, the shift from in-person to remote consulting in general practice was depicted positively by the media as...

In this episode, we talk to Dr Natasha Tyler and Dr Maria Panagioti who both work in the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research at the University of Manchester. Paper:  Patient Safety, Self-injection and B12 deficiency: A UK Cross sectional study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0711 It is known that individuals with vitamin B12 deficiency (including pernicious anaemia) describ...

In this episode, we talk to Dr Dan Jones, who is a GP and an Academic Clinical Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Paper: Factors influencing symptom appraisal and help-seeking of older adults with possible cancer: a mixed methods systematic review https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0655 The burden of cancer falls predominantly on older (≥65 years) adults, and prompt presentation to primary care w...

In this episode we talk to Dr Lieke Koggel who is a PhD candidate in gastroenterology at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, The Netherlands. Paper: Predictors for inappropriate proton pump inhibitor use: observational study in primary care https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0178 While overuse of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) is a common issue wo...

In this episode we talk to Dr Simon Fraser who is a GP and associate professor of public health at the School of Primary Care, Population Sciences, and Medical Education at the University of Southampton. Paper: Change in treatment burden among people with multimorbidity: a follow-up survey https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0103 The extent to which treatment burden changes over time and which group...

In this episode we talk to Dr Sally Hull who is a GP and Honorary Reader in Primary Care Development at QMUL. Paper: Measuring continuity of care in general practice: a comparison of two methods using routinely collected data https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0043 Longitudinal continuity of care is associated with lower mortality, fewer hospital admissions, better care for chronic disease and grea...

We have a quick update from the editor, Euan Lawson, as we take a short break over the summer. Here are some links to ensure you stay in touch with us: BJGP Life: https://www.bjgplife.com . (And details on contributing here: https://www.bjgplife.com/contribute ) Twitter: @BJGPjournal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BJGPjournal/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BJGPjournal RCGP members opt in...

In this episode we talk to Dr Jan Verbakel who is a GP and professor of primary care at Leuven. Paper: GPs’ perspectives on diagnosing childhood urinary tract infections: a qualitative study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0589 Diagnosis of childhood UTIs is challenging in the outpatient setting. GP’s perspectives for the diagnostic workup of childhood UTIs are not well understood. In this study...

In this episode we talk to Dr Meena Rafiq who is an academic GP and clinical research fellow at University College London. Paper: Inflammatory marker testing in primary care in the year before Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis: a UK population-based case–control study in patients aged ≤50 years https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0617 Understanding the timing of the inflammatory response in Hodgkin lymphom...

In this episode we talk to Dr Sean MacBride-Stewart who is Lead Pharmacist for Medicines Management Resources, Pharmacy Services, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Paper: Feedback of actionable individual patient prescription data to improve asthma prescribing: pragmatic cluster randomised trial in 233 UK general practices https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0695 Prescribing feedback to GPs is a common...

In this episode we talk to Dr Jessica Watson who is a GP and NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol. Paper: ‘I guess I’ll wait to hear’: a qualitative study of communication of blood test results in primary care https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0069 Previous studies have shown that failure to communicate or action blood tests can lead to pat...

In this episode we talk to Dr Anita Lim who is a Senior Research Fellow, School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London. Paper: Non-speculum clinician-taken samples for HPV testing: a cross sectional study in older women https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0708 Speculum use is a significant barrier to cervical screening and can become parti...

In this episode we talk to Dr Sarah Price who is a research fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School. Paper: Intra-abdominal cancer risk with abdominal pain: a prospective cohort primary care study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0552 Abdominal pain is a non-specific symptom, which may portend serious disease, including intra-abdominal cancers. There is no unified pathway for investigat...

In this episode we talk to Dr Yin Zhou who is a GP and Clinical Research Fellow at the Primary Care Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, at the University of Cambridge. Paper: Pre-diagnostic clinical features and blood tests in patients with colorectal cancer: a retrospective linked data study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0563 Understanding pre-diagnostic patterns of relevant c...

In this episode we talk to Dr Kimberley Foley who is a Research Associate at the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London. Paper: Impact of Covid-19 on primary care contacts with children and young people aged 0-24 years in England; longitudinal trends study 2015-2020 https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0643 The Covid-19 pandemic response led to health system reorganisat...

In this episode we talk to Dr Rohini Mathur who is an associate professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Dr Sally Hull who is a GP and a member of the Clinical Effectiveness Group at QMUL. Paper: Characterisation of type 2 diabetes subgroups and their association with ethnicity and clinical outcomes: a UK real-world data study using the East London Databa...

In this episode we talk to Dr David Whiteley who is a lecturer at the Department of Nursing and Community Health, School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University. Paper: Developing a primary care-initiated hepatitis C treatment pathway in Scotland: A qualitative study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0044 Historically, GPs were rarely involved in the treatment of HCV, their role...

In this episode we talk to Amy Clark who is a final year medical student at Cardiff and Dr Kathryn Hughes who is a GP and senior clinical lecturer at PRIME Centre Wales at the School of Medicine at Cardiff University. Paper: Accuracy of the NICE traffic light system in children presenting to general practice: a retrospective cohort study https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0633 The National Institut...

In this episode we talk to Dr Jon Gibson who is a research fellow at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester. Paper: Primary care workforce composition and population, professional, and system outcomes: a retrospective cross-sectional analysis https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0593 The increasing number of staff from diverse healthcare backgrounds is changing the general prac...