The Pharmacist has launched its inaugural roundtable report focusing on the initial six months of Pharmacy First – based on an exclusive discussion with pharmacy and general practice stakeholders.

The Pharmacy First roundtable deliberately sought to create conversation across the two sectors, recognising that engagement from both is needed to make a success of Pharmacy First.

The discussion, held in August this year, reflected on the first six months of the service in England, including successes, challenges and possible future direction.

Pharmacy First launched in England on 31 January 2024, and sees pharmacists funded to provide advice and treatment where necessary for seven major conditions: acute otitis media in children, impetigo, infected insect bites, sinusitis in over 12s, sore throat in over fives, shingles in adults and uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women aged between 16 and 64.

The service also encompasses referrals from GPs and 111 for other minor ailments, previously known as the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS), as well as referrals for urgent repeat medicines supply.

Local relationships between general practice and community pharmacies have been identified as ‘key’ to the success of the service, as was evidenced by our discussion around referrals to pharmacies and patients being sent back to their GP.

The Pharmacy First roundtable also highlighted clear issues around funding and workload pressures within both sectors that underpin many of the challenges facing the service.

Our attendees agreed that Pharmacy First is not a solution to GP access pressures nor to the community pharmacy funding crisis.

Throughout the discussion, some clear points emerged on clinical issues and patient experience. Attendees shared examples of initiatives that had worked in their local areas to improve the service.

And suggestions were made as to how the service – including what clinical pathways were included – could be refined and expanded in the future.

Most strongly, there were clear calls to make Pharmacy First accessible to walk-in patients for all minor ailments.

With thanks to our roundtable attendees:

• Shilpa Shah, chief executive of Community Pharmacy North East London;
• Jonathan Cooper, owner of independent pharmacy group Cooper’s Chemist in the North East of England;
• Harry McQuillan, chair at Numark and former chief executive of Community Pharmacy Scotland;
• Sukhy Somal, Head of Community Pharmacy Clinical Services at The Black Country Integrated Care System;
• Dr Sarah Jacques, part of the Doctors’ Association UK GP committee;
• and Dr Selvaseelan Selvarajah, a GP partner in East London and director of Greenlight@GP, a pharmacist-GP employee-owned organisation.

For the opportunity to reach our audience of community, PCN, and in practice pharmacists through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.

August has certainly not witnessed a sleepy summer slow-down in activity from the Cogora: The Agency team!

A big push is on to deliver a complex and engagingly ambitious programme of educational and logistical support for a workstream informing care pathway enhancements is atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. Culminating in publication of a peer-reviewed manuscript in a Medline-cited journal, the process is calling on our expertise and experience in executing landscape analyses, Delphi process-driven consensus and convening of expert advisory boards.

Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer, and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men. Every year, over 2 million men worldwide will undergo a prostate biopsy, with transperineal prostate ultrasound-guided biopsy having distinct clinical benefits over alternative techniques. Cogora: The Agency is busily executing its role as Secretariat for the collation and analysis of UK data on patient and clinician experience and on quality of core sampling, to culminate in an advisory board and Medline-cited publication at the end of the month.

Cogora: The Agency continues to make an impact on the world of vascular access management, with the 9^th meeting of a clinical advisory board yielding a selection of future projects, including a pan-EU guideline for the management of peripheral vascular access devices, the collection of real-world data of vascular access complications and the creation of modules for an EU vascular access curriculum. The Agency will be participating in these initiatives, for which the month of August has been instrumental in laying the groundwork, so watch this space.

These innovative and truly exciting initiatives are in addition to the ongoing projects cited in recent newsletters.

Check out what the team were up to in July for more examples of how Cogora: The Agency, a leading Healthcare Professional Communications Agency, delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.

Pulse has launched its annual writing competition to find a new blogger to entertain our readers of GPs.

The Pulse Writing Competition looks to find a new blogger to become one of our columnists, sharing their thoughts on the state of general practice with Pulse readers.

The team are asking our community of GPs to write a blog on one of the following themes:

• That one patient
• My big idea 

The best blogs will be published on Pulse, and the winner will become one of our new bloggers – joining the likes of Copperfield, Dr Margaret Ikpoh, Dr Katie Musgrave, Dr Zoe Rog and Dr David Turner.

GPs of all career stages are welcome to enter the Pulse Writing Competition.

Pulse provides an indispensable and comprehensive range of trusted content that meets the needs of all GPs, through its political and financial news, cutting-edge investigations, clinical updates or practical business advice.

The Cogora: The Agency team have been working on a range of projects this month.

The agenda for the upcoming 2024 European NeuroEndocrine Association (ENEA) conference has been finalised and design work for flyers and banners has kicked off. The team are poised and eager to receive the speaker’s slides for the conference. 

The team is preparing for ‘Pituitary Month’ by producing four short-form educational videos led by key opinion leaders (KOLs). The videos will focus on the basics of Cushing’s syndrome, the diagnostic challenges involved, and the relationship between the syndrome and the body’s circadian rhythm.     

Exciting progress has also been made on a brand-new journal article titled ” Experience with PCR Testing for Enteric Bacteria and Viruses of Emergency Department Patients with Acute Gastroenteritis: Are There Implications for the Early Treatment of Clostridioides difficile Infection?’. Two new deep-dive articles on molecular testing techniques are also in the works.   

Fundamental work has also been conducted on a NICE abridged guidance on a new migraine preventative treatment following the publication of the much-anticipated evidence and guidance on the treatment.  

The team celebrated reaching a key milestone in developing a handbook on SGLT2 inhibitors focused on kidney disease. This achievement was marked by securing the first foreword from a KOL for the Nursing In Practice version of the booklet. 

Finally, the team received the fantastic news that NICE have approved the abridged guidance on a recently appraised treatment of wild-type or hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults with cardiomyopathy. 

Check out what the team were up to in June for more examples of how Cogora: The Agency, a leading Healthcare Communications Agency, delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.

Cogora is proud to announce that we have been named on the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women™.

The Best Workplaces for Women™ list recognises companies in the UK that are to ensuring a reasonable balance of women and men across the organisation; removing barriers to women’s career advancement; and creating workplaces where all employees, regardless of gender, can flourish.

From our anonymous feedback, 96% of Cogora employees agreed that people are treated fairly, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender.

Our inclusion on the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women™ list officially acknowledges our commitment to create a consistently and overwhelmingly positive employee experience, to foster cultures that are proven to drive business, improve lives, and better society. Over the past few years, we have introduced numerous new benefits/procedures/policies to solidify our commitment to ensuring our workplace is great for all.

To compile the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women™ List, Great Place To Work® analysed the anonymous responses of females in the workplace and considered their daily experiences of innovation, the company’s values, and the effectiveness of their leaders, to ensure they’re consistently experienced, as well. They then used these data insights to benchmark our company’s employee value proposition against the culture our employees actually experience. Only the businesses who achieve the highest scores after evaluation receive Best Workplaces™ status.

Creating a supportive and fulfilling workplace is crucial not only for our team, but also for clients. It directly translates into better collaboration, enhanced creativity, and exceptional service delivery. We have always strived to foster an environment that promotes open communications, encourages innovation, and fosters personal and professional growth, allowing employees to achieve their fullest potential.

Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place To Work UK says: “Workplaces are only great if they’re great for all employees. For seven years, the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women™ List has been paving the way by tackling discrimination, removing barriers to women’s advancement in their careers, and challenging taboos around subjects like the menopause, and endometriosis.

“Importantly, each of the companies on the list have been commended by their own female employees through their anonymous feedback that told us their workplace has gone above and beyond to ensure that women employees are treated fairly in terms of recognition, training, and promotion opportunities.

“Congratulations to Cogora for making this prestigious list!”

We’re so proud of this achievement and look forward continually build on our culture and employee satisfaction.

More GPs access PulseToday than any other medical journal website, including the BMJ and GPOnline, according to the recently released GP Media Survey (GPMS 2024).

In the recently released GP Media Survey, 39% of GPs said they accessed Pulse’s website in the month preceding the survey, which is seven percentage points higher than the BMJ and 19 percentage points higher than GPOnline.

More than half of the GPs surveyed – 53% – said that had accessed PulseToday in the previous year – the same as the BMJ (for the first time ever), and 26 percentage points higher than GPOnline.

There was further good news for Pulse 365, our centralised learning hub for our community of GPs, which showed a five-percentage point increase year on year for website use in the past four weeks.

In the last survey (GPMS 2023), Pulse was measured and reported on both as a monthly journal and as a website. These two properties were combined to report Pulse brand reach. Since then, we have published our latest ever print magazine (January 2024) as the publication transitions to a fully digital format. 

The NMRS is commissioned each year by JICMARS (Joint Industry Committee of Medical Advertisers for Readership Surveys), a group of healthcare publishers and media buyer representatives.

The GPMS 2024 annual report covers the period from November 2023 – June 2024, using a sample of 361 GPs. The data are weighted to the estimated universe of all GPs based on counts provided by IQVIA, the sample list provider.

The survey represents all Doctors in General Practice (GPs) practicing in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.  This is unchanged from the previous surveys. The number of GPs is currently estimated as 48,079.

Publications included in the survey (based on the latest period) were: BMJ, GP Notebook, Patient Info, Doctors.net and GP online.

It follows a very successful year for Pulse, which has won an array of awards, including B2B writer of the year and Best Use of Data Journalism at the BSME Talent Awards.

Pulse offers GPs a daily dose of politics and financial news, CPD, cutting-edge investigations, clinical updates, thought provoking debate, and practical business advice. Please contact us for more details on our available advertising packages to our community of GPs.

Pulse PCN’s latest roundtable, Tackling health inequalities: How PCNs are working with inclusion health groups, brings clinical directors together to discuss how they are working with these patients.

Inclusion health groups cover people who are socially excluded, who typically experience multiple overlapping risk factors for poor health, such as poverty, violence and complex trauma.

This includes people who experience homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system and victims of modern slavery.

People belonging to inclusion groups tend to have very poor health outcomes, often much worse than the general population and a lower average age of death.

Three clinical leaders discuss the outreach work they are doing to cater for vulnerable communities.

Pulse PCN editor Victoria Vaughan says: ‘While there is a lot of negativity around healthcare in general given the current pressure the NHS is under this roundtable really shows a meaningful impact PCNs are able to have on patients given the right circumstances.’

Pulse PCN’s quarterly roundtables examine the core tasks PCNs must deliver as part of the PCN Network DES and the work of the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) staff they have hired into primary acre.

Read 14 thought-provoking roundtables covering topics such as digital transformation, structured medication reviews and early cancer diagnosis led by clinical directors from across England.

The roundtable on Digital transformation: PCN progress so far is our latest from Pulse PCN, and brought clinical directors and digital transformation (DTL) leads together to discuss how networks are working with these roles.

Pulse PCN’s roundtable series is part of our comprehensive offering for our community of primary care network (PCN) clinical directors and their teams. And they are now hosted on the dedicated Pulse PCN site making it easier to access these great clinician-led debates.

For the opportunity to reach our audience of decision-makers across PCNs through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.

Pulse PCN has launched the PCN Evaluation report which looks at what the last five years of primary care networks (PCNs) has meant for primary care professionals.

This cross-brand collaboration brings together the voices of more than 1,700 health care professionals including GPs, clinical directors, nurses, pharmacists and practice managers to look at the impact PCNs and additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) has had on the sector.

PCNs were introduced in 2019 to bring about close collaboration between practices to provide care for their populations and hire in a range of professionals into primary care, such as pharmacists, via the ARRS, to increase access and free up GP time.

The PCN evaluation report explores the wide spread of views over the success of PCNs.

For clinical directors, who run PCNs and are mostly GPs, 69% said their PCN had been successful or very successful in improving joint working and around 63% said this of improving care for patients while more than half, 57%, also rated themselves in these terms for improved patient access.

But 30% said their PCN had been unsuccessful or very unsuccessful at freeing up GP time with 36% feeling neutral about this part of their work.

The majority of respondents were GPs (without a PCN role) and just 16% believe PCNs have boosted access and 14% think they have improved care. The vast majority, 69%, feel that PCNs have been unsuccessful or very unsuccessful at freeing up GP time.

However, pharmacists who work in PCNs, the most popular profession hired by networks, believe that they have freed up GP time with 62% saying this is the case.

They also rate the work of PCNs positively, with 71% stating they are successful or very successful at improving care for patients and 62% believe they have increased patient access. In contrast to GPs they believe that they have freed up GP time with 62% saying this is the case.

For nurses who work with but not in a PCN, our survey also shows more positive than negative views for the impact of PCNs on improving care for patients, tackling health inequalities and improving joint working.

For PCN network managers the results show that 60% believe their PCN has increased patient access and the same proportion say the PCN has improved care for patients. There is less support for the view that PCNs have freed up staff time. Only 40% of the managers we asked said this was the case.

Among practice managers more widely, there is slightly less positivity about the impact PCNs have had, with 49% rating them as successful in improving care for patients and 52% rating them successful in increasing patient access.

Overall, when asked about the changes brought about by the introduction of PCNs and the move to integrated care systems the total responses are largely negative.

A majority of 69% say they have increased workload, have had a negative impact on their job roles and have not increased collaboration between primary and secondary care. Just a third think they have increased access to GP services and opinion was split on whether they had improved care for patients.

Pulse PCN editor, Victoria Vaughan, says: ‘While this survey shows positive views of the impact of PCNs on both access and care for patients from those leading and working in PCNs it highlights that the majority of GPs do not feel this way. PCNs can only succeed if they are supported by the practices they are working with and are perceived to have a benefit to those practices.

‘While those working in ARRS roles report a largely positive experience there are fundamental issues around the supervision of these roles and the wider impact on other professions.

‘The next government would be wise to navigate the future role of PCNs and the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) in collaboration with GPs as a whole if the plan for better patients access and population-based neighbourhood care is to progress.’

For the opportunity to reach our audience of decision-makers across PCNs through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.

About the survey

The State of Primary Care survey took place between April 29 and May 20 2024 across Pulse PCN and our parent and sister titles, Pulse, Healthcare Leader, Nursing in Practice, The Pharmacist, Management in Practice and Hospital Pharmacy Europe.

There were 1,795 responses from health professionals. The majority – 72% or 1,294 – of respondents work in primary care in England. There were answers from across England with all 42 ICBs represented.

Of those who stated their profession (1,104) the majority were GPs at 37% (411). Nearly a quarter of these GPs (83) have a PCN role and a further 6% (65) of the total respondents are clinical directors (CDs) who are also predominately GPs.

PCN and practice managers were the next largest cohort of respondents at 21% (231) with 2% (21) of participants working as network managers.

Nurses were the third largest group to respond, representing 16% (179) of participants. The largest majority were general practice nurses at 11% (122) followed by community nurses at 3% (29) and nurses with an ARRS role at 2% (28).

Pharmacists made up 10% (114) of respondents, with the majority being pharmacists employed via ARRS 4% (44) followed by community pharmacists at 3% (31) and practice pharmacists at 2% (25).

The survey also informed a unique insight report examining how major changes to the NHS landscape has impacted its audiences. It captures the views of HCPs working across primary and secondary care, revealing how recent NHS reforms have impacted on their roles and how Cogora has adapted its brands to reflect the changes. 

Cogora has launched a unique insight report examining how major changes to the NHS landscape has impacted its audiences.

The report, released today, captures the views of healthcare professionals working across primary and secondary care, revealing how recent NHS reforms have impacted on their roles and how Cogora has adapted its brands to reflect the changes. 

To inform the report, Cogora conducted a survey of 1,800 members of its audiences to gather their views on the state of primary care, and the impact that the creation of bigger groups of GP practices known as primary care networks (PCNs) and the new commissioning groups – integrated care boards (ICBs) – has had on them.

It details what the audiences, who include senior commissioners who hold the NHS purse-strings, to the grassroot GPs and nurses delivering the reforms as well as pharmacists working in the community, think about the future of their profession and what they want to see the next Government prioritise for the NHS when they come into power in July. 

Click here to read the full report.

The report’s eight chapters, written by Cogora’s director of content and the brands’ editors, combines this unique insight with their own knowledge of the sectors and sets out Cogora’s focus for its eight media brands. It reflects on its flagship brands of Pulse, Nursing in Practice and Management in Practice and how it has created new brands or changed the focus of others such as Pulse PCN, Healthcare Leader and The Pharmacist, to cater for the new breed of ICBs and PCN staff.  

It also examines how hospital consultants and department heads, as well as hospital pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, who Cogora serves through Hospital Healthcare Europe and Hospital Pharmacy Europe, view the current pressures in secondary care and its struggles with those working in primary care. 

Director of Content and Editorial, Gemma Collins said: “We are in a very unique position of serving such a wide primary care audience across all our brands, so we are able to provide invaluable insight into how their roles are evolving and most importantly hear directly from them about what they think about the NHS. 

“This report should help provide a temperature check to help those in industry navigating the healthcare market, and as a new Government moves in on 4 July, it also provides a snapshot of what our audiences want to see in the future as more changes to the NHS are on the horizon.”   

The survey findings will also form the basis of a report evaluating the effect of PCNs five years since they were created, which will be published on the Pulse PCN website in July. 

Read the report in full here, and for further information about how to reach our audiences of primary and secondary healthcare professionals, please contact us today.

The IOTOD live Spring/Summer webinar (Improving Outcomes in the Treatment of Opioid Dependence) took place in May 2024, exploring treatment options for opioid dependency.

The free educational event was hosted by our CME division, PCM Scientific, who worked closely with expert faculty to develop the agenda.

The 60-minute session: “An individualised approach to treatment: comparing opioid dependence therapies,” was led by industry experts Professor Catriona Matheson, Professor in Substance Use at Stirling University, UK and Dr Lorenzo Somaini, Director at the Addiction Treatment Center in Biella, Italy. 

The agenda covered the different mechanisms of action behind commonly used opioid dependence treatments (ODTs), with advantages and disadvantages explored for each. Less commonly utilised therapies for opioid addiction were also discussed, including the importance of psychosocial support for recovery.

The webinar attracted over 440 registrations, with over 150 healthcare professionals attending live from across Europe and the UK. Attendees included addiction specialists, GPs, hospital pharmacists, nurses, pain specialists, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals looking to improve their care and management of opioid-dependent patients.

The event was promoted via Cogora’s primary and secondary care media brands, and the existing IOTOD community, through a series of targeted emails, online ads, faculty material, and social media activities.

Over 96% of post-event survey respondents rated the webinar 4 or 5 out of 5 for content quality.  Feedback from attendees was also extremely positive:

• ‘IOTOD webinars are informative and useful to my practice. Looking forward to the next webinar from IOTOD!’
• ‘Great webinar, fantastic presenters and slides. Well done.’
• ‘Very good presentation. Very practical and informative.’
• ‘It helped to increase awareness of the difficulties facing some of my patients.’

The webinar is now available to watch on-demand on the IOTOD website.

The webinar follows on from the success of our IOTOD winter webinar in February 2024 and is part of an educational initiative to improve opioid dependence healthcare across the globe.    

The IOTOD webinar ‘An individualised approach to treatment: comparing opioid dependence therapies’ is supported by grant funding from Camurus. The educational programme is run at arm’s length from the financial supporters and all content is created by the faculty. No funder has had input into the content of the materials or presentations used in the educational programme. PCM Scientific is the medical education company acting as scientific secretariat and webinar organiser.

Cogora has won two awards at the British Society of Magazine Editors’ (BSME) Talent Awards.

Pulse Senior Reporter Eliza Parr won B2B Writer of the Year, against some incredibly stiff competition, as well Best Use of Data Journalism, alongside fellow Pulse Senior reporter Anna Colivicchi.

Their joint nomination at the BSME Talent Awards was for an investigation into the Government’s GP recruitment plans.

The judges wrote about Eliza: ‘In her first role in journalism, Eliza’s skilful reporting and command of data-driven storytelling resonated with her audience and caught the eye of the judges. A star in the making, she shone through in a hotly contested category.’

They wrote about Anna and Eliza’s entry: ‘Anna and Eliza took a challenge faced by millions of Britons every day – getting a GP appointment – and dug into the numbers to explain why the UK public in underserved in a thorough and compelling way. Their work successfully brought to life a piece of work that could help to shape government policy.’

Pulse keeps GPs up to date with all the latest political, financial, and clinical news, as well as provide in-depth analysis, expert opinions and the clinical and financial tools they need to treat their patients and run a successful practice. It has become multi-award winning and the most widely read non-reference journal among GPs (GPMS 2023). With 36,600 GPs having engaged with Pulse over the past 90 days, its exclusives have featured in the national media more than 100 times in the past year alone. 

Cogora were nominated for a total of 10 awards, including for Nursing in Practice, The Pharmacist, Healthcare Leader, and Pulse PCN. There were a record number of entries to the awards this year, so we are thrilled to have walked away with two awards!

A roundtable meeting run by Nursing in Practice has highlighted concerns about the recruitment and retention of general practice nurses (GPNs) to meet increasing challenges in patient care. 

The first ‘In discussion’ event, on Recruitment, retention and pay, is part of a series based on the Nursing in Practice GPN Manifesto, released this year reflecting important issues for the sector raised by nurses working in primary care.

The manifesto for general practice nursing highlights key areas in which nurses want to see improvements.

Our first roundtable event meeting report – available to read online at nursinginpractice.com – explores ongoing challenges around pay, terms and conditions and the barriers to recruitment and retention within the sector.

Five nurses took part in the discussion, sharing their views on what needs to happen for general practice to be an attractive place for experienced nurses to work.  

One participant, Sara Baldwin, nurse manager in a GP practice in the northwest of England, said that perceptions of nursing in general practice, and the wide range of skills required for the role, needed to change. Nursing students, for example, might not ‘get the fact that actually you’re going to upskill massively when you come into general practice,’ she said.

Rebecca Shearer, lead nurse at Westwood Medical Centre and an advanced nurse practitioner, said the ‘opportunities in practice nursing at the minute are huge’ as the profession was ‘taking on so much’.

And Jenny Aston, an advanced nurse practitioner working in a large primary care network outside Cambridge, argued GPN pay should be standardised against national frameworks, so that nurses could ensure that their pay and employment conditions were equitable with nursing roles across the NHS.

The Nursing in Practice GPN Manifesto calls for action on pay, conditions and recruitment and retention to help resolve widespread job vacancies in general practice and the number of GPNs who are approaching retirement or choosing to look for roles elsewhere.

A second roundtable discussion will follow – covering aspects of the importance of the general practice nurse role in patient care – and further discussions based on the manifesto points are also planned.

Megan Ford, Nursing in Practice’s news editor, explained: ‘In the roundtable discussion nurses emphasised that it is so vital that general practice is visible, attractive and accessible to those seeking a nursing career and that efforts are made to recognise, value and ultimately retain those in post. Perhaps of greater concern is the funding barriers preventing students from being able to learn in a general practice setting in the first place.’

Carolyn Scott, Nursing in Practice’s editor, said: ‘We’re grateful to the nurses who have given their time to be involved in the GPN Manifesto and the new roundtable series. General practice needs to work out how it maintains a viable, supported, and expert general practice nursing workforce. Understanding where the problems are and how things could be moved forward is a very important debate to have. The Nursing in Practice GPN manifesto is helping to attract attention around issues for general practice nurses at an important time for the NHS.’

For the opportunity to reach our audience of primary care nurses, through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.

The next GPN manifesto roundtable meeting report will be published this month.

The 10 points of the manifesto for general practice nursing:

#1 IMPROVE EMPLOYMENT TERMS

The government should ensure general practice nurses have the same pay, terms and conditions as their secondary care colleagues.

#2 TAKE ACTION ON WORKFORCE

The NHS, practices, universities and other stakeholders need to change the narrative, to encourage more nurses to choose general practice.

#3 TACKLE INEQUALITIES

Practices, PCNs, the NHS and government should do more to promote the health of our less well-off families.

#4 REINSTATE TIME FOR LONG-TERM CONDITIONS

Practices and PCNs need to free up time for GPNs to empower patients to manage their long-term conditions, including diabetes, asthma and COPD.

#5 PRIORITISE HEALTH PROMOTION

NHS England, PCNs, and GP practices should ensure GPNs have the time and resources to carry out their crucial role in public health promotion and disease prevention.

#6 SUPPORT WELLBEING

GPN employers, PCNs and nursing bodies need to support nurses with their health and care, so they can care for others.

#7 FOCUS ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

All nurses should be given the time for professional development to progress their careers. NHS England, PCNs and practices should encourage and support the GPN and ANP roles to grow in general practice.

#8 ADDRESS MENTAL HEALTH

It is important for general practice nurses to consider parity of esteem – valuing the patients’ mental health needs equally to their physical health.

#9 TARGET IMMUNISATION UPTAKE

GPNs need to play an important role in overturning the decline in childhood immunisation uptake.

#10 ADAPT TO DIGITAL HEALTH

General practice needs to continue to evolve to serve patients better, adopting approved digital platforms and applications to improve patient care and outcomes.

May has been as busy as ever for Cogora: The Agency, the leading Healthcare Professional Communications Agency, with several members attending congresses and projects continuing to progress.

The European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE) congress went well despite there being a last-minute speaker cancellation. The team pulled together a video recording and seamlessly wove it into the presentation, making it look like it was planned that way all along. There was standing room only at both congresses, with 800 attendees at the main symposium and 300 at a smaller one. The team are now preparing to support the same client at the 21^st Congress of the European Neuroendocrine Association (ENEA) in September, which will take place in Seville.

A project supporting a lecture tour has left the planning stage and the team are in the process of developing individualised slide decks to support the needs of each target area. These are planned for delivery at the end of June and the start of July – the timelines have been tight, but the team is adapting processes to ensure that things run smoothly.

A survey that was undertaken on vascular access management in the medical oncology setting is now complete and the initial analysis has been done. A more comprehensive analysis is being undertaken, which will be discussed with relevant key opinion leaders (KOLs) with the aim to develop a manuscript for publication from the findings.

An interactive care pathway designed to support the launch of a drug in the field of gastroenterology is still in progress and is in the technical development stage. A leave piece intended to direct HCPs to the pathway and provide an overview of the medication is also in development in conjunction with the care pathway.

A member of The Agency attended the 34^th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Barcelona and they are now in the process of developing summaries of several key presentations and strategic insights for the client which will be used for internal distribution and brainstorming.

A dossier containing key information about a technique for breast biopsy is under development. The dossier is a collection of key information on the value of vacuum-assisted breast biopsies and vacuum-assisted excision against the more invasive surgical option and less effective core needle biopsy method. There are nearly 80 references and balancing the desired messaging with scientific accuracy is very challenging. The next steps are getting the latest version designed and sent to KOLs for review and reviewed by BDs internal medical reviewer. 

The team have been working to develop a handbook that GPs and nurses can use to understand menopause and the role they can play in ensuring patient access to appropriate treatment. The designed document is now in medical review and the final product will be shared online via Pulse and Nursing in Practice.

Check out what the team were up to in April for more examples of how Cogora: The Agency delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.

Congratulations to Anna Colivicchi, Senior News Reporter at Pulse, who has been Highly Commended in the 2024 30 to Watch: Journalism awards, health category.

Run by the MHP Group, the 30 to Watch: Journalism awards recognises some of the best young talent in the media.

Pulse’s Senior News Reporter Anna Colivicchi was Highly Commended in the health category for three articles. The first revealed that a major Essex hospital trust had discovered a backlog of around 30,000 patient documents which it failed to deliver to local GP practices – following a similar incident also revealed by Pulse last year – meaning that patients were sometimes left unaware about vital information concerning their health.

The second was from the cover feature of Pulse magazine in July 2023, looking at why there seemed to be a shortage of GPs despite the numbers trained being higher than ever.

And the third was another exclusive, showing leaked messages from GP negotiators at the BMA, which revealed that public pronouncements around strike action were misleading.

This year, the 30 to Watch: Journalism awards received over 350 entries from across the UK.

Their independent judging panel was chaired by John Ryley, Former Head of Sky News, and included Laura Wilshaw, Deputy Editor of Channel 4 News, Richard Frediani from BBC Breakfast and Jennifer Savin from Cosmopolitan.

This win follows the ten award nominations Cogora received earlier in May for the BSME Talent Awards.

Cogora supported the development and delivery of two educational symposia at the 21st International Congress of Endocrinology in Dubai.

In March 2024, Cogora worked with a global agency specialising in the treatment of rare diseases, to develop two educational symposia at the 21st International Congress of Endocrinology in Dubai.

In collaboration with our Studio team, the Cogora: The Agency began the project by creating a brand identity for the educational symposia for use across activities. This concept aligned with client’s own brand identity but was separate enough to emphasise the distinct nature of the educational activities.

Once the branding was agreed upon, the team developed a range of materials to support the conference, including email copy, event flyers and pull-up banners.

When topics had been confirmed with the relevant key opinion leaders and draft slides developed, the team stepped in to complete a final polish of the materials, creating a harmonious flow throughout the content, ensuring consistency, and streamlining the approval process through the creation of reference packs.

At the conference, the team ensured the smooth running of both sessions through assistance in technical rehearsals, last-minute slide updates and encouraging conference attendees to join the session. Printed and digital evaluation forms were available for attendees to share their thoughts on the symposia, allowing the client to adapt their strategy for their next educational event.

Post-symposia reports were developed, summarising the learnings from the events and the outcomes of the evaluations.

Despite challenging time slots, with multiple industry sessions running in parallel, both symposia were well attended, with nearly 200 attendees across the two sessions. The sessions ran smoothly, with sufficient time remaining for the planned Q&A portion of the symposia.

The client was extremely happy with the event. The team have subsequently supported the same client at their next congress, the European Congress of Endocrinology, which took place in May.

Find out more in our case study, and for further information about our marketing services and education division, please contact us today.

We are pleased to announce the upcoming IOTOD (Improving Outcomes in the Treatment of Opioid Dependence) Spring/Summer webinar ‘An individualised approach to treatment: comparing opioid dependence therapies’ will take place on Wednesday 29^th May.  

The 60-minute IOTOD Spring/Summer webinar will be led by industry experts Professor Catriona Matheson, Professor in Substance Use, Stirling University, UK and Dr Lorenzo Somaini, Director at the Addiction Treatment Center in Biella, Italy.  

This expert webinar, developed by our CME division, PCM Scientific, will explore the basics of commonly used opioid dependence treatments (ODTs), while outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each.   

The faculty’s evaluation of ODTs will help to build a profile of the ideal patient for each therapy. 

Our panel of experts will also discuss less commonly utilised therapies for opioid addiction and the importance of psychosocial support for patients with opioid dependence. The session will conclude with a live Q&A session. 

This expert webinar is suitable for both primary and secondary care clinicians looking to improve their care and management of patients with opioid dependency. 

The IOTOD Spring/Summer webinar is currently being promoted via Cogora’s media brands, to our community of primary and secondary care HCPs across the UK and Europe, including addiction specialists, pain specialists, GPs, primary care nurses, psychiatrists, and community pharmacists.  

Marketing tactics include targeted email campaigns, online ads, faculty material, and social media assets, developed by our in-house studio team to specifically engage with the audience.  

Early registration numbers indicate a high level of interest, with over 320 HCPs already signed up, reflecting the growing demand for expert-led education in opioid dependence treatment. 

This follows the success of our IOTOD winter webinar in February 2024, now available to watch on-demand on the IOTOD website.  

The IOTOD webinar ‘An individualised approach to treatment: comparing opioid dependence therapies’ is supported by grant funding from Camurus. The educational programme is run at arm’s length from the financial supporters and all content is created by the faculty. No funder has had input into the content of the materials or presentations used in the educational programme. PCM Scientific is the medical education company acting as scientific secretariat and webinar organiser. 

Cogora’s targeting capabilities now extend into using NHS clinical prevalence data to target campaigns.

Cogora digital campaigns are now increasingly integrating our first-party data with third– party NHS data to segment and target HCPs according to specific client requirements in pursuit of the greatest engagement and return.

Campaigns can now be targeted based on the prevalence of certain clinical areas amongst a practice or ICB patient list. For example, a third-party email or digital advertising unit can be served to HCPs in practices or ICBs with a high prevalence of a particular clinical area. Different copy can also be used to target each cohort.

A wide range of indicators are available to target against, including: asthma, atrial fibrillation, cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, depression, diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, heart failure, hypertension, learning disability, mental health, non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, obesity, osteoporosis: secondary prevention of fragility fractures, palliative care, peripheral arterial disease, rheumatoid arthritis, secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, and stroke and transient ischaemic attack.

By combining our proprietary data with NHS clinical prevalence data, we can identify key areas for targeting and market expansion.

Cogora’s Audience Platform provides an effective way of targeting HCPs, providing efficiencies in budget, delivery, and insight, to empower all activity to the highest level of success.

We recently carried out an online ad campaign via Pulse, Nursing in Practice and The Pharmacist, targeting our community of primary care clinicians – all responsible for patient prescriptions. The campaign utilised NHS prescription trends to deliver targeted messaging about patient treatment for type 2 diabetes, chronic heart failure and chronic kidney disease to HCPs.

The results were fantastic, with the ads generating a 54% uplift in click through rates compared to the benchmark, highlighting the efficacy of Cogora’s Audience Platform.

For information about our targeting options, including by job title, geography, clinical content, workplace, prescription habits, programmatic, sequential and A/B testing, please contact us today.

Healthcare Leader’s latest roundtable is out now, bringing together system leaders and experts to discuss the inclusion health groups.

Healthcare Leader’s roundtables look at the core issues facing NHS leaders at integrated care boards (ICBs), the challenges they face, the solutions they’ve found and their plans for the future.

Inclusion health groups cover people who are socially excluded, who typically experience multiple overlapping risk factors for poor health, such as poverty, violence and complex trauma.

This includes people who experience homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system and victims of modern slavery.

People belonging to inclusion groups tend to have very poor health outcomes, often much worse than the general population and a lower average age of death.

Clinical leaders from NHS Norfolk and Waveney and NHS Frimley discuss their approaches to caring for inclusion health groups in this roundtable.

Editor Victoria Vaughan says: ‘Integrated care systems have been asked to choose which populations they will focus on when it comes to the ‘plus’ bit of Core20PLUS5, the NHS England approach to reduce health inequalities. Both ICB areas discuss their work around asylum seekers and the unique challenges this population faces and where ICBs can have a positive impact.’

Healthcare Leader’s roundtable series broadens our intelligence offering for ICBs includes news, views, features and reports.

In July 2022, clinical commissioning groups were dissolved, and their staff were transferred into ICBs. This change was made to shift the way of working from competition to collaboration and bring health and care together. The ICB aims are better health for everyone, better care for all, efficient use of NHS resources, and to enhance the NHS contribution to social and economic regeneration.

ICBs represent the NHS in the wider integrated care partnerships as part of the integrated care systems.

Healthcare Leader aims to support NHS system leaders in taking forward their strategies for the future of health and social care in their places and neighbourhoods.

For the opportunity to reach our audience of decision-makers across NHS integrated care systems (ICSs), including ICB leaders, through a variety of digital advertising options, please contact us today.

Cogora has been shortlisted for 10 awards at the British Society of Magazine Editors’ (BSME) Talent Awards. 

We are thrilled to have our brands and teams nominated for 10 awards at the BSME Talent Awards. 

For the first time, Nursing in Practice and The Pharmacist have been recognised in the national awards with News Editor Megan Ford being nominated for Best Section Editor. Senior reporter for The Pharmacist, Joanna Robertson has been shortlisted in the Best Writer – Health, Science and Technology category as well as for Best News Writer.

For Pulse, senior reporters Anna Colivicchi and Eliza Parr’s work on an investigation into the Government’s GP recruitment plans has earned them a nomination in the Best Use of Data Journalism category.

The major analysis involved an in-depth review of NHS data spanning the stages of a GP’s career to determine why and at what stages the healthcare system is losing GPs. They then examined whether the Government’s latest plans would help solve the biggest crisis currently facing general practice.

Anna and Eliza have also both been nominated for Best Writer – Health, Science and Technology, and Best Writer B2B. Anna is also shortlisted in the Best News Writer category.

And as a first for Healthcare Leader, this brand together with Pulse PCN has been shortlisted in the Best Newsletter category. This recognises editor Victoria Vaughan and editorial assistant Mollie Fraser-Andrews’ hard work in creating and producing the brands’ frequent newsletters.   

The winners will be announced at the BSME Talent Awards ceremony on June 4^th in London.

Cogora: The Agency, the leading Healthcare Communications Agency, have been all go in April, with projects progressing, client meetings, and several large projects making it over the finishing line.

Cogora: The Agency are finalising their preparations for attending the European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE), taking place in Sweden next month to support a client in delivering two educational symposia. The timelines have been tight, and the team have needed to be flexible to work around the deadlines of the speakers. The team are making a final push to get all assets finalised and approved for smooth sailing at the event. In parallel, the team have just agreed to support the same client at the 21^st Congress of the European Neuroendocrine Association (ENEA) in Seville in September, making it the third event this year for which the Agency will support this client.

Some of the team have set off to Barcelona to attend the 34^th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) to support a client in gleaning all relevant information from this large and packed event. The team will attend key presentations and create impactful summaries for the client to distribute to colleagues.

The team have continued development and refinement of an interactive care pathway to support a drug launch in the gastroenterology field. The pathway is now progressing from the copy stage to the technical development stage and the team is excited to watch it come together. The team are also developing a leave piece to provide a quick overview of the medication and direct HCPs to the pathway to aid their decision making.

After a huge effort from both the Agency and the client, three comprehensive compendia that focus on integrated diagnostic solutions were completed and signed off in April. Two of the compendia were new assets; the third was an update of an existing compendium that the client had been using successfully for 3 years, to which they wanted to add emerging publications. This refresh approach brought the asset up to date, maintaining its usefulness to the client without reinventing the wheel and providing best value for the client.

The team had a successful face-to-face meeting with a long-standing client to discuss the results of a survey the Agency had conducted on their behalf. With over 500 responses from a variety of HCPs across Europe, the client is keen to develop a manuscript, with the Agency’s support, to share these interesting results. Two other papers for the same client are ongoing, with one about to be submitted and another returning from peer review for minor amends ahead of acceptance. The team is also planning a face-to-face advisory board for the same client in early July.

A project supporting a lecture tour series planned for late June has been progressing this month, with the team helping to focus on details to ensure smooth progression and finalising the campaign branding. The team and the client agreed that the events needed to speak to the specific needs of each of the individual stops on the tour while still covering similar themes overall. The team created a core agenda for the series, which has now been adapted to suit the needs of each of the four tour stops, reflecting the day-to-day challenges for HCPs in those areas.

The team have been hard at work developing two assets to support GPs and nurses in understanding menopause and the role they can play in ensuring patient access to appropriate treatment. With the funding having been provided at arm’s length, the Agency team are managing all aspects of development alongside their KOLs. The KOLs have been thoroughly impressed with the high-quality draft materials produced by the team and the client are looking forward to seeing the final versions, which will be shared with the target audience via Pulse and Nursing in Practice.

Just a few examples of how Cogora: The Agency delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.

Check out what the team were up to in March for more examples of how Cogora: The Agency delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.

It’s that time of year once again, to look back over the past 12 months and decide which of your many (and we are sure there are many) highlights you want to enter for a General Practice Award.

Perhaps you work with an outstanding colleague who has gone the extra mile in delivering brilliant patient care. Maybe you launched a Greener Practice Initiative that would be perfect for our new Sustainability Award; or maybe you have introduced new technology into practice that is streamlining processes – this would be perfect for our second new award: The Digital Innovation Award. If so, make sure you download the entry forms today.

We also have all your favourite categories including GP of the Year, the Nursing Award, Clinical Improvement Awards, GP Trainee of the Year, PCN of the Year, and Practice Manager of the Year.

For our valued Suppliers, we have six categories now open for entry: Digital Provider, Medical Supplier, HCP Education Programme Provider, Telecoms Provider, Professional Services Provider, and Recruiter of the Year.

We have welcomed two new Sponsors to the GP Awards this year: Medi2data – sponsoring the PCN of the Year Award, and GP Profit Recovery (powered by Enhanced Technology) – sponsoring the Practice Manager of the Year Award.

If you are interested in sponsoring the General Practice Awards 2024, please contact [email protected] for further details and this year’s sponsor pack.

Deadline to enter: 16 May 2024

The General Practice Awards highlight the innovation, dedication, and passion of teams and individuals working across the UK. Last year, the 2023 General Practice Awards were held at the Novotel London West, and welcomed over 500 guests from across primary care and the community as well as the healthcare industry for a fantastic night celebrating the very best in patient care.

Pulse has launched an investigation into sexism in general practice.

Based mainly on a special survey of around 700 female and marginalised gender GPs, the four-part analysis reveals the extent to which women face abuse, harassment, casual sexist comments, hampered career progression and even burnout due to the nature of work given specifically to female GPs.

The first part of the sexism in general practice investigation will focus on the abuse, harassment and sexist comments they face from patients and colleagues in the practice. Female GPs have told us of being stalked by patients, facing harassment from senior partners and day-to-day belittling of their roles.

The second part will focus on how women’s career progression is affected, how sexist attitudes around partnerships and families continue to prevail, leaving women having to take sessional roles, even if they did want to pursue partnerships. It also shows how women are still being given certain types of clinical work that they may have no interest in, sometimes as a result of patient preferences, but sometimes due to outdated attitudes within the practice.

Pulse then explore the gender pay gap, which is greater in general practice than other professions, even when controlled for other factors. We look at how the GP funding crisis disproportionally affects female GPs.

And finally, an analysis of female representation on health boards, PCNs and professional groups.

The full investigation will be released this week, on the Pulse investigations hub.

The recent HHE Clinical Excellence in Cardiovascular Care event, held on 19 March, welcomed 175 medical professionals working in MDTs across the UK including Cardiologists, Cardiology Nurses, Cardiovascular Specialists, Emergency Medicine, and Heads of Departments including Nephrology, Paediatrics, and Radiology.

Over 70 hospitals were represented, and attendees joined us for the HHE Clinical Excellence in Cardiovascular Care event from as far apart as Scotland and Cornwall – the benefit of virtual events meaning we can reach our audience wherever they are based. The most popular topics at this event proved to be heart failure, cardiorenal syndrome, and interventional cardiology.

HHE Clinical Excellence Events offer healthcare professionals working in secondary care the chance to explore the latest advances via talks presented by renowned experts from recognised Centres of Excellence.

Developed by Hospital Healthcare Europe and Hospital Pharmacy Europe in 2023, and with the help of an advisory board of clinical specialists, the events are free to attend and delivered virtually live and then available on-demand. Tailored to work around busy schedules.

For our clients, the events offer a great opportunity to tap into a hard-to-reach market, showcasing your products and services to an engaged audience. By sponsoring a session on the agenda, you can place your brand directly in front of clinical professionals working in hospitals across the UK.

The next event is HHE Clinical Excellence in Respiratory Care on 1 May. Contact us today for further details about how your organisation can get involved.

March has been a busy month for Cogora: The Agency, a leading Healthcare PR & Communications Agency in London, with a number of new projects kicking off as others wrap up.

Some of the Cogora: The Agency team headed to Dubai to support their clients on-site at the 21^st International Congress of Endocrinology. The educational symposia were well attended, with nearly 200 attendees across the two sessions. The sessions were also well received, with 100% of attendees stating that they would recommend the educational activity to other HCPs. The client was thrilled with the smooth delivery of the project and the successful execution of the symposia. The Agency are looking forward to supporting more educational symposia for the same client at the European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE), taking place in Sweden in May.

The team have continued development and refinement of an interactive care pathway to support a drug launch in the gastroenterology field. As the pathway progresses, the team are now developing leave pieces and suggesting additional ways to support the launch.

A new project will be kicking off soon, supporting the development of a NICE medical technologies guidance company evidence submission for a client working in the medical technology field. With an ambitious plan to review up to 70 articles, the team will have to expertly identify and prioritise the relevant literature and create impactful summaries for use in the evidence submission.

A value dossier refresh also kicked off this month, with the Agency team supporting the review and updating of an existing client asset. Recognising the value of not “reinventing the wheel”, the team is supporting their client in identifying new or updated literature, where it fits within the dossier and highlighting any sections that may no longer be relevant, while still maintaining existing relevant materials.

Two new assets to support GPs and nurses in understanding menopause and the role they can play in ensuring patient access to appropriate treatment were started this month. With the funding having been provided at arm’s length, the Agency team are handling all aspects of development alongside their KOLs.

The writing team have prepared yet another manuscript for publication in an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, this time on optimising patient safety through the early identification of characteristics of avoidable complications arising from the use of peripheral intravenous catheters. Submission is scheduled for April ’24. For the same client, 2024 activities have kicked off in the last week of March, with two virtual working groups. Plans are afoot for a face-to-face advisory board in early July.

A new project supporting a lecture tour series kicked off this month, supporting educational awareness on treatments for severe eosinophilic asthma. With a planned delivery in June, the team will be optimising timelines, streamlining preparations and nimbly adapting to the client need to ensure this challenging ask can be met.

Check out what the team were up to in February for more examples of how Cogora: The Agency delivers consistent value for its clients. For more information, please contact us.