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The School's Director and Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Prof Richard Hobbs, opened the conference with a warm welcome to Oxford and the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre.

During his welcome, Richard paid tribute to Professor George Lewith who recently passed away, "George will be remembered for his commitment to academic primary care and for his unshakable enthusiasm and support of young clinical academics, and his influence and inspiration to trainees and established researchers around the country." 

To me it spoke to the need for researchers to be open to designing practical research studies to answer questions that policy-makers need answered, within their time frames."
- Dr Mairead Murphy, University of Bristol

In the first of three keynote addresses, RCGP Chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard presented the General Practice Five Year Forward View and emphasised that key to putting patients first is understanding how the interface between primary and secondary care works best. Professor Peter Horby asked how primary care research can better contribute in preparing for epidemics; and Professor Sue Ziebland reflected on the contributions of qualitative social science for health research, in their subsequent addresses. 

Former trainee Dr Mairead Murphy, from the University of Bristol, said: "I really enjoyed listening to Helen Stokes-Lampard's presentation. Her suggestion for an increased amount of 'silver standard' research done quickly, rather than 'gold standard" research done more slowly gave me (and I think others in the audience) pause for thought. To me it spoke to the need for researchers to be open to designing practical research studies to answer questions that policy-makers need answered, within their time frames. This was also an important message in Lesley Wye's presentation, about the knowledge mobilisation team at the University of Bristol. Lesley concluded that researchers need to "write less and talk more" (ideally to commissioners) if they want to see their research make an impact."

Highlights for me particularly focussed on effective communication in  primary care. An intriguing presentation by Charlotte Albury ... described a study which had used conversational analysis to explore the language used  by GPs in delivering a brief weight loss intervention and in how patients responded. " 
- Dr Clare McDermott

Former SPCR trainee Dr Clare McDermott gave this feedback: "Highlights for me particularly focussed on effective communication in  primary care.  An intriguing presentation by Charlotte Albury (co-authors Elizabeth Stokoe, Sue Ziebland and Paul Aveyard) described a study which had used conversational analysis to explore the language used  by GPs in  delivering a brief weight loss intervention and in how patients responded. Findings suggested  that there may be  unexpected clues to be picked up in  language, which could make a real difference to GP effectiveness, even in very brief consultations.

On a very different topic, Eefje de Bont presented her prize winning abstract on an interactive booklet to  optimise management and medication for childhood fever in out of hours primary care- a great example of effective communication in  an area which represents a major part of GP workload. On a less common, but equally important topic, Sharon Dixon, Lisa Hinton and Louise Locock had conducted a sensitive and inspirational Patient and Public Involvement  project in  which they engaged with communities, especially women,  who are affected by the complex issue of female genital mutilation." said Clare.

 School funded studies included:

  • Views of oral antibiotics and advice seeking about acne: a qualitative study of online discussion forums. Miriam Santer, University of Southampton
  • Feasibility study for a community based intervention for adults with severe CFS/ME. Clare McDermott, University of Southampton
  • Views and experiences of seeking information and help for vitilligo: a qualitative study of written accounts. Emma Teasdale, University of Southampton
  • What really happens when GPs measure blood pressure? A prospective "mystery shopper" study. Sarah Stevens, University of Oxford
  • Quantifying clustering by GP practice in individually randomised trials in primary care. Beth Stuart, University of Southampton
  • Quantitative testing of the PCOQ: a new instrument for measuring outcome in primary care. Mairead Murphy, University of Bristol
  • The impact of Albuminuria on cardiovascular mortality in patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A systematic review. Ben Feakins, University of Oxford
  • 'Yeah' versus 'Oh yeah' - using conversation analysis to examine patient response to very brief opportunistic behaviour change interventions. Charlotte Albury, University of Oxford
  • Reduced salt intake for heart failure: a Cochrane systematic review. Kamal Mahtani, University of Oxford
  • Assessing the economic impact of oral dexamethasone for symptom relief of sore throat: The TOAST study. Richeal Burns, University of Oxford
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled interventions to reduce burnout in physicians. Maria Panagioti, University of Manchester
  • Investigating the impact of a short-course MBSR-based mindfulness interventino on patients with difficult-to-manage asthma. Ben Ainsworth, University of Southampton
  • Polypharmacy patterns in the last year of life in patients with dementia. Rupert Payne, University of Bristol
  • What is the diagnostic value of symptoms and signs at presentation in the ambulatory care setting to identify serious bacterial infections in the elderly? Kome Gbinigie, University of Oxford
  • Andrographis Paniculata for symptomatic relief of respiratory tract infections in adults and children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Xiao-Yang Hu, University of Southampton
  • Systematic review and qualitative synthesis of people's experiences of acne vulgaris and its related treatments. Athena Ip, University of Southampton