Clinical Update

In this episode, Monica Boulton, healthcare integration lead at the National Academy for Social Prescribing talks to Rhiannon Ashman, deputy editor at MIMS Learning, about how all members of the primary care team can embed the ethos of social prescribing into their practice. Monica highlights the importance of finding out from patients, ‘not what’s the matter with you, but what matters to you’. 

She also discusses the role of social prescribing in the care pathway for long-term conditions, its applicability for children and young people, and how link workers can help to connect with hard-to-reach communities to tackle health inequalities.

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Resources

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National Academy for Social Prescribing 

SIGN guidelines for support of people with dementia and their carers

Resources for supporting people to improve their mental wellbeing

COPD and mental wellbeing

Self-harm in children and young people

Generalised anxiety disorder: clinical review

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Chronic pain is pain that lasts for more than 3 months, and it can be primary (with no underlying cause identified) or secondary (with an underlying cause identified). In this episode, the MIMS Learning editors look at the diagnosis and management of chronic pain in primary care. They review what NICE says about assessing chronic pain, the possible causes of chronic pain, and management options. 

Educational objectives

After listening to this podcast, healthcare professionals should be more aware of:

• The definition of chronic primary pain and when to consider it as a diagnosis 
• The different types of neuropathic pain, including postherpetic neuralgia 
• Non-pharmacological and pharmacological options for managing chronic pain
• The relationship between chronic pain and mental health

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Guidance update: NICE guidelines on chronic pain in over 16s

Best use of neuropathic pain medication

Understanding painful diabetic neuropathy

Depression and anxiety in people with chronic pain

Post-herpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster vaccines

Acute pelvic pain - red flag symptoms

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In this episode of the Clinical update podcast, neurogastroenterology clinical fellow Dr Mohsin Butt talks to Sangeeta Krishnan about the stigma around the term ‘functional gut disorders’, which are now called ‘disorders of gut brain interaction’ (DGBI). He discusses some of the most common DGBI, evidence implicating the microbiome in the pathogenesis of DGBI, and research investigating faecal transplantation.

He also explores how GPs can recognise DGBI in primary care and what current guidelines have to say about using probiotics for individuals with DGBI symptoms. 

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Resources from MIMS Learning

Disorders of gut brain interaction

Bloating

MIMS Learning

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Hair loss can be distressing for patients, and many over-the-counter remedies are expensive and ineffective. In this episode, the MIMS Learning team consider red flags for hair loss, possible causes, and which treatments are effective. Types of alopecia that are more common in Black women are discussed, including how you can offer sensitive advice on hair-styling practices. 

Educational objectives

After listening to this podcast, healthcare professionals should be more aware of:

• Red flags to look out for in a patient presenting with hair loss
• Possible causes of hair loss, including psychological problems, medications and hormonal factors
• Hairstyles that are implicated in traction alopecia and how to offer appropriate advice to patients
• How to spot a kerion, and how to treat
• When is it reasonable to refer and what the management options are for hair loss conditions

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Resources from MIMS Learning

Hair loss - red flag symptoms

Traction alopecia

Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia

Self-harm in children and young people

Resource from British Association of Dermatologists

Patient information leaflet - Tinea capitis (May 2023)

News story from MIMS

Alopecia drug to be available on the NHS

MIMS Learning

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In this episode, Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham OBE talks to Dawn Liz Powell about how to support people with severe mental illness in primary care. She discusses how severe mental illness might present in primary care, how to take a comprehensive history, and how to build a good relationship with a person with severe mental illness.

Professor Chew-Graham also looks at the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness. She notes that people with severe mental illness die, on average, 15 to 20 years earlier than those without mental illness; therefore, GPs should remember the adage ‘don’t just screen, intervene’ when identifying risk factors for physical conditions in this group.

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

MIMS Learning

Strategies for the safe deprescribing of antidepressants

Smoking cessation for people with mental illness

Addressing the needs of people with diabetes and mental illness

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Consultations for neurological conditions and for headache are very common in primary care. In this episode the MIMS learning editors focus on blackouts, dizziness and vertigo, facial pain, gait disturbance, and alterations in taste and smell. 

They also highlight the recommendations of NICE and SIGN on migraine prophylaxis, including drug therapies, acupuncture, botulinum toxin and oxygen therapy. 

After listening to this podcast, healthcare professionals should be more aware of:

• How to differentiate between epileptic seizures, syncope and functional seizures
• Symptoms associated with potentially serious neurological conditions such as stroke, giant cell arteritis and malignancy
• Possible causes of gait disturbance
• Questions to consider in presentations of facial pain
• Recommendations from NICE and SIGN on migraine prophylaxis

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Resources from MIMS Learning

Guidance update: latest NICE guidelines on neurological conditions

Diagnosis and management of functional seizures

Dizziness - red flag symptoms

Facial pain - red flag symptoms

Guidance update: NICE guidelines on vitamin B12 deficiency in adults

Guidance update: NICE and SIGN guidelines on headache

Resource from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust

Unlicensed and `off label’ medicines

MIMS Learning

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In this episode, Dr Pipin Singh talks to MIMS Learning editor Pat Anderson about how to provide care for nursing home residents that meets their needs and enables them to have the best possible quality of life.

His practice’s approach makes best use of time and draws in the support of pharmacists and nursing home teams to plan and deliver care and to plan ahead so that frail, older residents are treated in accordance with their wishes.

As part of the episode, Dr Singh focuses on medication review, using a case study example to work through the issues faced by one elderly resident with multiple health problems and multiple prescribed medications. He outlines how medication review has affected this patient’s quality of life, and how providing continuity of care to patients in this situation is very professionally rewarding. 

This episode is supported by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, which has recently released an e-learning course entitled Managing Respiratory Diseases. 

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Unsafe swallow in a patient who lacks capacity: nursing home case study

Polypharmacy in a patient with dementia: nursing home case study

Multiple morbidity: nursing home case study

Recurrent falls in older people

Assessment of older people

MIMS Learning

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In this episode of the Clinical Update podcast, the MIMS Learning editors discuss the potential causes of chest pain, with a focus on diagnosis and management in primary care, including cardiac causes, gastrointestinal causes, and psychosocial causes.

This episode explores how misconceptions about coronary artery disease in women can lead to its underdiagnosis, how changes to diet and sleep can help with reflux, and how chest pain can cause anxiety (and vice versa).

The editors also touch upon respiratory causes of chest pain, looking at COPD, interstitial lung disease, and pneumonia.

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Cardiac causes

• Chest pain - red flag symptoms
• Ischaemic heart disease: clinical review
• Coronary artery disease in women
• Aortic dissection: clinical review
• Aortic valve disease: clinical review
• ​​PCI as a first-line treatment for stable angina

Gastrointestinal causes

• Dyspepsia - red flag symptoms

Psychological causes

• Generalised anxiety disorder: clinical review

Respiratory causes

• Interstitial lung disease: clinical review
• Guidance update: global strategy for prevention, diagnosis and management of COPD

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 15% of all new cancer cases. In this episode, MIMS Learning editor Sangeeta Krishnan speaks to consultant medical oncologist Dr Jay Naik about the GP’s role in breast cancer screening and red flags, and the management breast cancer. 

Discussing a memorable case, Dr Naik touches upon the importance of team effort in dealing with complex scenarios, and the far-reaching impact of cancer on the friends and families of patients.

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

Further learning on MIMS Learning

Breast pain - red flag symptoms

Earlier cancer diagnosis

Guidance update: latest NICE guidelines on recognition and referral of suspected cancer

Explaining genomic profiling results in breast cancer

Why do adverse events occur in immunotherapy?

Managing the oncology patient’s expectations

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What are the symptoms of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism? Are some persons at a higher risk of thyroid disorders than others? 

This week, the MIMS Learning editors discuss symptoms and risk factors for various thyroid disorders, the physiology of the thyroid gland, and how to interpret thyroid function tests. They also discuss NICE guidelines on management, as well as the latest consensus statement by the British Thyroid Association and the Society for Endocrinology on treatment for hypothyroidism. 

After listening to this module, healthcare professionals should be more aware of symptoms, risk factors, and management of thyroid disease.

You can access the website version of this podcast on MIMS Learning to make notes for your appraisal. MIMS Learning offers hundreds of hours of CPD for healthcare professionals, along with a handy CPD organiser.

Please note: this podcast is presented by medical editors and discusses educational content written or presented by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the MIMS Learning website and at live events.

Useful links

MIMS Learning modules discussed in this episode

Diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism

Hyperthyroidism: diagnosis and management

Latest NICE guidelines on thyroid disease

Genomic testing for thyroid cancer

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