Can doctors do better?

Press release issued: 9 September 2009

About two million people in the UK currently have or have had angina*, with about 96,000 new cases each year. A talk this week will explore what can be done to improve the quality of care for people with angina.

About two million people in the UK currently have or have had angina*, with about 96,000 new cases each year. A talkthis week will explore what can be done to improve the quality of care for people with angina.

The free talk, Can doctors do better? Diagnosing and treating people with angina will be given by Gene Feder, Professor of Primary Health Care in the Department of Community Based Medicine at the University of Bristol, and will take place this Friday, 11 September, at 6 pm at the Victoria Rooms, Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol. The talk is part of a series of events to celebrate the opening of the new Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) medical centre.

Angina is a pain or discomfort in the chest or neck, usually caused by coronary artery disease - the narrowing of arteries supplying the heart, reducing its blood supply.

Professor Feder said: “Currently, many patients with angina are not receiving optimum care in initial diagnosis, further investigation or treatment, resulting in poor control of symptoms, potentially inappropriate care and increased risk of subsequent heart attack. Moreover, women, older people and south Asian patients are more likely to have sub-optimal care.

“In this talk I will explore reasons why this might be the case, and what can be done to improve quality of care for people with angina.”

Professor Feder is part of a collaborative £1.9 million research study that will look at the quality of care for people suffering from angina or heart attacks.

The study proposes – a world first – to link detailed primary care records with detailed hospital care records, and to carry out a major new clinical trial (the OMA trial) in rapid access chest pain clinics, the interface between primary (general practice) and secondary (hospital) care for patients with new onset stable heart disease.

To celebrate the opening of the new BHI medical centre a symposium will take place on Saturday 12 September. The keynote lecture will be on NHS cardiovascular strategy and will be given by Professor Roger Boyle CBE, National Director for Heart Disease and Stroke.

* British Heart Foundation, coronary heart disease statistics 2008.

Further information

Gene Federis a GP and Professor of Primary Health Care in the Department of Community Based Medicine, University of Bristol. He trained at Guy’s Hospital medical school, qualifying in 1982, and practised as a GP in Hackney, east London, for 21 years until he moved to Bristol in 2007. His main research fields are angina and domestic violence. He has chaired three NICE clinical guidelines, including guidelines on secondary prevention of myocardial infarction, currently chairs the domestic violence subgroup of the Government’s taskforce on violence against woman, and advises the WHO on the management of domestic violence by health care professionals. This year he was short listed for the BMJ group award for outstanding achievement in evidence based health care.

The Bristol Heart Institute consists of over 200 researchers and clinicians in the University of Bristol and Bristol NHS Trusts. As well as improving collaboration between scientists and clinicians within the Institute, the aim is to communicate research findings to the public.

Please contact Joanne Fryer for further information.