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Seminar Details

Format: 10 minute presentations with 5 minutes for questions.

 Date: Thursday, 17th January 2013
 Time:  1 pm - 2.45 pm (12.45 for sandwiches)
 Venue:  Seminar Room 2, PCPH, Upper 3rd Floor, UCL (Royal Free Campus)
Speakers:
 1 pm Sam Bulford Qualitative exploration of sexual health in old age
 1.15 pm Tom Nolan Micromapping population health data: an exploratory study
 1.30 pm

Sophie Park

 A systematic review of undergraduate medical education in the general practice setting
 1.45 pm Lisa Feldman What characteristics are associated with help-seeking behaviours in people with symptoms suggesting dementia?
 2 pm Zoe Wang Educating undergraduate medical students about unexplained physical symptoms: a systematic review
 2.15 pm Tom Nolan Developing a risk calculator and support package for a diabetes self-management website


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Title:
 		Micromapping population health data: an exploratory study
 - Tom Nolan
Details: Background:
If hotspots of disease, risk or health seeking behaviour exist within your practice boundary how would you know? The smallest geographical area for routine population health surveillance is the middle super output area, with an average population of 7200. Meanwhile, GPs can't be expected to notice geographical trends when consulting. Advances in mapping software mean that geographical data can be easily and intuitively displayed at low cost. If mapping of practice data by postcode, or micro-mapping, can be shown to reliably detect significant highly localised variations in health and health-seeking behaviour, a valuable new field of population health may emerge along with cost effective strategies for targeting health inequality.

Aims:
To develop a methodology for plotting postcode level data that will enable highly localised geographical trends to be identified.

Methods:
We created a random dataset for a fictitious outcome in a South London practice. After researching available mapping software we mapped the dataset using Quantum GIS software. Different ways to map the data were tested.

Results:
Different formats of displaying the data will be demonstrated. These highlight many of the challenges ahead, including graphical, statistical, and data protection issues.

Discussion:
As GPs become responsible for commissioning they will be expected to know, better than ever, their local population needs. Meanwhile, pressure on resources is greater than ever. Micromapping can give GPs a visual representation of their practice population needs and behaviour, and may help target cost effective interventions. This exploratory study demonstrates how this may be done and identifies the challenges that lie ahead.

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Title:
 		Developing a risk calculator and support package for a diabetes self-management website
 - Tom Nolan
Details:

Background:
Research on cardiovascular risk calculators suggests that, despite their widespread use, they have little impact on understanding of risk, motivation, or health behaviours. Possible reasons for this finding include a simple lack of understanding on the part of users, or psychological defensive mechanisms protecting the user from challenging information.  We therefore undertook a qualitative study exploring users’ cognitive and emotional reactions to a newly developed cardiovascular risk calculator for people with type-2 diabetes.

Aims:
1. To determine whether a cadriovascular risk calculator developed for a diabetes self-management website incorporates best practices in risk communication.
2. To determine user experience, acceptability and reactions to this risk calculator.

Methods:
The risk calculator was evaluated against a checklist of best practice in conveying risk following a review of the literature. Two focus groups (16 participants with type-2 diabetes) were conducted to gauge acceptability of the content and presentation. Four one-to-one interviews (data collection ongoing) were conducted to explore users’ cognitive and emotional reactions.

Results:
Evaluating the risk calculator against the best-practice checklist and focus group feedback identified several areas for improvement including better explanation of medical terms, displaying normal values, and altering the user journey. Reactions to the tool included scepticism about its validity, demotivation, and relief.

Discussion:
It is apparent, even at this early stage in our research, that conveying individual risk does not necessarily motivate or translate into behaviour change. Within primary care, this suggests that we need to find ways to explain risk that bypass psychological defence mechanisms and do not provoke undue anxiety.

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Page last modified on 17 jan 13 12:07 by Maryanne Ogbogbo