Vulval lichen sclerosus
Women with VLS typically experience soreness, itching, burning, and dryness. On examination, there is often a whitening of vulval skin, ecchymoses, and fissuring. This can progress to irreversible changes to the vulval architecture, and VLS is also a risk factor for vulval cancer. However, VLS is treatable. In this survey, 92.6% of health care professionals in primary care felt further education would be useful for diagnosis, with 37.7% never having participated in learning on vulval skin disease. This study provides insight into the barriers to VLS diagnosis and potential for improvements.
Language and the MRCGP exam
Undertaking medical training in English and in a country where English is the native language results in significantly better chances of passing the MRCGP exams and better exam scores according to this study. Undertaking undergraduate clinical training in a country where the native language is not English can negatively affect examination performance in MRCGP exams even when the language of primary medical qualification is English. The findings provide new insights on the exam attainment gap which if narrowed can improve the conversion rates of GP registrars to fully qualified GPs.
Supporting online service use
This research explored how general practice is supporting patients to use online services. It found support is often ad hoc and is mostly delivered by reception staff. Patients are not necessarily getting the support they need due to lack of strategy on how to help patients, the existence of multiple online platforms, and assumptions about who can use online services. Additionally, there is no funding at present for general practice to provide this to patients. Supporting patients to use online services requires strategy, training, and resources.
