Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
When Prof Rupert Payne and I got our heads together to start writing our latest BJGP Editorial GLP-1 receptor agonists: panacea or affirmation of societal failure? It was difficult to know where to start. GLP-1 receptor agonists under the various brand names of Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have sky rocketed in use over recent years. […]
Associate Professor Christopher Clark We know how to lower blood pressure with drugs, and quite a lot about how health professionals can help people to treat their hypertension. (1) Evidence to support these interventions is well summarised in various international hypertension guidelines, which also reinforce lifestyle changes to lower blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular risk. […]
I’ve always enjoyed the regional SAPC conferences. Being very much at the smaller end of the conference spectrum, they are a great way to find out what’s going on in the local region, and offer an opportunity for early career researchers in particular to present work in a friendly and relaxed environment. The 2025 meeting […]
Wow, it has been an amazing year, and my first full year as Director of APEx (Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care). I wanted to take this opportunity to give an overview of the year in some numbers. And there have been so many achievements over the past 12 months, that I am not going […]
Attending my first School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) Trainee event marked a significant milestone in my Post Doctoral Fellowship, researching physical activity promotion in Primary Care. Fresh from the excitement of being awarded a SPCR Funded fellowship, I arrived at the Manchester Marriott Piccadilly Hotel, eager to immerse myself in the programme of events. […]
In July I attended the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) conference in Bristol, my adopted home. This year the theme was “Sustainable Primary Care: healthy systems, healthy people”, which seemed fitting as Bristol is the UK’s first cycling city and has been voted the most environmentally friendly city in the UK. It also cannot […]
Non-adherence to medication is a “wicked” problem. Studies consistently report non-adherence rates of 50% or more particularly in people living with long-term chronic diseases. Non-adherence has been identified as a key target, for clinical interventions, for many years; I first learnt about it when I trained as a pharmacist over 30 years ago. Despite numerous […]
The PALP-AF Study is funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (FR9). It is led by Dr Christopher Clark and Dr Rosina Cross and brings together a diverse team of researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Glasgow, clinicians from the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and public advisors with lived […]
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is common: it affects up to 25% of the adult population aged over 80 years-old. It can lead to limb loss or death, and PAD is an indicator of future cardiovascular events. Symptoms such as leg pain vary, and the condition is underdiagnosed. Clinicians focus on modifying future cardiovascular risk. Patient […]
I am a primary care clinical pharmacist and have worked for the past ten years in clinical practice in both community and general practice settings across Devon and Cornwall. I am an independent prescriber with an interest in mental health and deprescribing, and completed my MSc in Clinical Pharmacy Practice last year. As well as […]