Newsletter - Winter 2001 edition
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Post or email | Profile | Annual Scientific Meeting | New Committee | Literature Review | Websites | Mugs and mousemats | Reminder
Dear Colleague
Well another edition of the Newsletter rolls off the press, and as you can tell, it’s a bumper edition! A combination of items from members as well as telling you about Diary dates for the future. As it’s also going to appear on your doorstep before Christmas I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Bernie
Stribling
Chair
Post or email
The Newsletter currently gets posted to you – if you would prefer an Electronic copy then just email Sally Armstrong, who is currently compiling this email list: s.armstrong@ic.ac.uk
Do we have your correct details? If any of your details have changed: title, address or email please let Sally know, again via email. Thanks
In this edition we have included a profile of one of our members, Alison Deary, who is also on the NHA Committee. If you want to feature in our ‘who’s who’ section, or indeed want to request a profile on somebody, then send it direct to me on either: BStribling@uhl.trent.nhs.uk or bernie_stribling@hotmail.com
Profile: Alison Deary
Senior Research Nurse, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge
I graduated from University College Cardiff with a degree in biochemistry in 1980. When I told my friends I was going to train as a nurse, they all thought I was mad, but I had tried lab work, and it wasn’t for me. I wanted “to work with people”, and I thought that with the combination of a science degree and a nursing qualification, I should be able to do research. I was appointed to my current position in May 1999. Finally, I had made it! I knew nothing about hypertension, but I did know how to conduct a clinical trial, having just completed a post-graduate diploma in clinical research. Two and a half years later, I know a lot more about hypertension, gleaned from seeing patients with the Professor, attending conferences and reading. I am running my own study (presented at the NHS meeting this year) and am about to write my first grant application for a study in hypertensive diabetic patients. I also manage, or try to, the research clinics of our unit. We have 6 research nurses, 3 of whom work off-site, and one research midwife. Between us, we are conducting studies in hypertension – a combination of phase-IV rotation studies in essential hypertensives, a study of arterial function in isolated systolic hypertension and phase II and III multi-centre trials in patients admitted to the coronary care unit. The research fellows also perform volunteer studies, and we have recently gained a new consultant who is an expert in measurements of arterial function using tonometry as well as more invasive methods, so everyone who walks through the door has their augmentation index measured at the very least!
As my contract end approaches, and with the money running out, I begin to wonder why on earth I wanted to do research so much when there is so little job security. The answer is that I love it. Without the time constraints that come with working in the NHS, it provides the opportunity of giving a good standard of patient care in the context of a clinical study. The autonomy, the opportunity to write up my work, the stimulus provided by working alongside scientists as well as clinicians are all grist to my mill. I am constantly learning something new, be it a new technique, how to apply for a research grant, or how to fit an explanation of a complicated study into 2300 characters and spaces for an abstract!
I got here via nurse training at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington, midwifery training in Oxford and 6 years as a “research nurse” in the reproductive medicine unit. In fact, the job was more one of providing an infertility service. My break came when one of the consultants decided to take on some clinical trials in women with endometriosis, and my working hours were increased so that I could conduct these for him. One of the companies I was conducting a study for encouraged me to get some training in clinical research, and I eventually decided to enrol for the post-graduate diploma in clinical research at the University of Wales in Cardiff – my alma mater!
Despite all the uncertainty and the lack of anything resembling a management structure (or maybe because of it), I love my job, and feel very lucky that after a rather directionless career, (although I feel that my variety of experience is an advantage) I have finally got to where I want to be.
Annual Scientific Meeting
Sally Brett, our Scientific Secretary has given the following paragraph on the NHA Annual Scientific meeting in Oxford. For those of you who could attend this should prove to be a refresher, or indeed for those of us who couldn’t attend, an opportunity not to be forgotten.
Keeble College, Oxford
10th – 12th September 2001
As always Keeble College in Oxford provided us with a beautiful setting to hold our annual scientific meeting, held in parallel with a very good BHS meeting. Although the distance between the two venues made moving from one to the other a bit difficult, our meeting was well attended by BHS members, who are always interested in what we have to say. Unfortunately the whole meeting was somewhat overshadowed by the tragic events that occurred on Tuesday in America.
We had a very good response to call the call for abstracts – from as far away as Poland. The NHA meeting was sponsored by the Hypertension Influence Team (HIT), who were very supportive. The meeting kicked off with a talk by Professor Neil Poulter on HIT and the cost and burden of hypertension. During the course of the meeting we had some very good presentations by NHA members and non-members who had submitted abstracts to our meeting. We were also lucky enough to have another two guest speakers. Dr David Williams from the Chelsea and Westminster gave a talk on Hypertension in Pregnancy on Tuesday afternoon. This was a fascinating talk of interest to everybody. On Wednesday morning Professor Martin Wilkins from the Hammersmith presented a talk on Pulmonary Hypertension. He covered aspects of Pulmonary Hypertension from genetics to novel forms of treatment and managed to make interesting and informative at all levels.
Unfortunately Hampton Medical had not included the abstracts in the delegate packs. A large number of copies were made available at the meeting and since then I think that I have managed to get some out to people who told me at the meeting that they had not managed to get hold of a copy. However if you still have not managed to get a copy of the abstracts presented at the meeting and would like one please do give me a call.
We were also lucky enough this year to be able to offer a prize of £800 year for the best abstract submitted. This money will go towards travel to, and registration for, the International Society of Hypertension meeting in Prague next year. This is thanks to hard work by Joan Curzio who secured the money and is similar to the competition held two years ago to send members to the 2000 ISH in Chicago. This competition is designed to encourage NHA members to submit abstracts to the scientific meetings. In previous years the response to the call for abstracts has been woeful and this year the incentive appears to have made a difference. We had an increase in the number of abstracts submitted of very good standard. The abstracts were made anonymous and judged by 2 independent judges (not connected to the NHA) and scored according to 3 categories:
1 Scientific merit
2 Potential utility
3 Written presentation of abstract
The winning abstract was: The impact of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol on coronary heart disease risk assessed using the Joint British Charts. S.L.Wilson, A.Johnston, J. Robson, D.J. Collier, G Feder, N. Poulter, M.J. Caulfield (London). On behalf of the ASCOT investigators. The prize goes to the first author S L Wilson.
The AGM took place on Tuesday afternoon and was well attended. This was chaired by Susan Kennedy as Bernie Stribling was unavoidably detained by Leicester NHS! There was a short presentation by HIT who had distributed videos and packs over the course of the day. These certainly looked as if they would be very useful and HIT would appreciate any feedback, either through the NHA or directly to their web site. We were also able to have a look at the new NHA web site, which is covered elsewhere in this newsletter, and again any comments would be very welcome by Sally Armstrong. The rest of the AGM provided a useful forum for debate with particular comments on the location of meetings (not London again!). We unfortunately had to say goodbye from the committee to Denise Thurston and so Alison Cox is our new minutes secretary. Three ordinary members were elected to the committee – Clare Addison from London, Victoria Wharfe from Manchester and Alison Deary from Cambridge.
As usual the champagne reception and dinner on the Tuesday night was a great occasion. Lots of drunken debauchery in the bar afterwards which is always the sign of a good night. Bernie, like the trooper she is, managed to make it to Oxford in time for the booze and looking like she needed a really very large glass of wine (or several).
New Committee for 2001/2002
- Chair: Bernie Stribling, Leicester
- Vice-Chair: Susan Kennedy, Glasgow
- Secretary: Sally Armstrong, London
- Treasurer: Ursula Kirwan, London
- Scientific Secretary: Sally Brett, London
- Minutes Secretary: Alison Cox, London
- Committee Members:
Clare Addison, London
Victoria Wharfe, Manchester
Rebecca Walton, London
Alison Deary, Cambridge
Literature Review
Rebecca Walton has produced a quick review of the literature for this edition. If you feel you would like to contribute something you have seen/red then email it to me at: BStribling@uhl.trent.nhs.uk
This month saw the publication of the NICE guidelines on the use of sibutramine for weight loss. Guidelines on its use in hypertensive patients are limited due to the findings of the STORM study published in the Lancet last year. This study recruited obese patients from eight sites across Europe including the United Kingdom, although, it showed a significant reduction of weight loss with the use of sibutramine and diet, and it also showed an increase in both SBP and DBP. As a result the NICE guidelines have recommended restricting the use of sibutramine to stable hypertensive patients with a blood pressure of less than 145/90mmHg at the start of the treatment, withdrawal of sibutramine is recommended if any patient if the blood pressure increases above 145/90mmHg or causes a 10mmHg increase in either SBP or DBP
References
James W, Astrup A, Finer N, et all. Effect of sibutramine on weight maintenance after weight loss: a randomised trial. Lancet 2000; 356:2119-25
National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Guidance on the use of sibutramine for the treatment of obesity in adults 2001. London: NICE, October 2001
We all know that patient centred care is essential for all our patients, however, now doctors have cottoned on to the idea. Published in the British Medical Journal this month, was an article, which assessed patients’ perception and expectations of a patient centred approach to care. This was a questionnaire-based study carried out at the different general practices in the United Kingdom. The results showed that many patients did not feel their general practitioner knew them particularly well and felt good communication skills was an important component of their consultation
Reference
Little, P, Everitt H, Williamson I, et al. Observational study of effect of patient centredness and positive approach on outcomes of general practice consultations. BMJ 2001; 323:908-11
Lastly, this month also saw the publication of the PROGRESS study, which looked at the use of perindopril verses placebo for the prevention of the reoccurrence of stroke events. The results showed a reduction of SBP by 9mmHg and 4mmHg for DBP with or without the use of indapamide. This reduction reduced the occurrence of stroke by 28% and major cardiovascular complications by 26%. It is worth reading the commentary made on this study by Jan Stasesen and Jiguang Wang.
References
PROGRESS Collaborative Group. Randomised trial of a perindopril-based blood pressure-lowering regime among 6195 individuals with previous stroke or transient ischaemic attack. Lancet 2001; 358:1033-41
Staessen J, Wang j. Commentary: Blood pressure lowering for the secondary prevention of stroke. Lancet 2001; 358:1026-27
Websites
Have you visited our own website recently? www.nha.uk.net
Or the World Hypertension League one? www.mco.edu/whl
Please provide feedback/updates so the websites can continue to accommodate the needs of the users.
Mugs/Mousemats
We still have a few mugs with the NHA logo on them – if you want to receive your free mug or mugs then please send me your details. All you have to do is pay £2.50 for p&p. Cheques made payable to ‘Nurses Hypertension Association’.
Reminders
Diary Dates
NHA Scientific Meeting – September 11th 2002
Clinical update meeting – Manchester Royal Infirmary – March 1st 2002
This exciting Clinical update is titled ‘New Themes in Hypertension’ and proves to be an exciting day. If you would like to register for a place early to express your interest then please do so via Sally Armstrong at s.armstrong@ic.ac.uk
Lastly…
Please remember that abstracts for next year’s scientific meeting don’t materialise overnight. So now is the time to think positive and how you can submit and abstract for next years meeting. This year was a resounding success because of your contribution – lets do it again next year.
Details
Bernie Stribling
Email: BStribling@uhl.trent.nhs.uk
Tel: 0116 258 5971
Secretary (Meg): 0116 258 5394
Course
Are you running a training session on hypertension? Do you want to let others know? Tell me and it will appear in big print here!