Cardiovascular Medicine for Primary Care Physicians PgDip PgCert

As part of a national strategy to improve cardiovascular health, the NHS is developing community cardiology clinics to provide more focused primary care services. These clinics will be run by GPs and specialist nurses.

They will take on many of the tasks currently done in hospital departments, which include

* anti-smoking strategies
* raising awareness of the impact of obesity and lack of exercise
* improving the quality of care and follow up for patients in the community
* implementing treatment strategies for existing vascular disease including using the new range of risk factor modifying drugs

This course provides the extra training many GPs need to work in these clinics. It is work-based with emphasis on applying what you have learned. It involves working with patients to reinforce clinical skills and interpreting the results of cardiology investigations.

You improve your clinical judgement, treatment and management skills through interactive case studies.

We designed the course from the Coronary Heart Disease Collaborative Working Party on GPs with a special interest in cardiology. We then designed each module to provide clear practical guidance for clinical use.

The course has four modules, each equivalent to 150 hours of study, and you must successfully complete all four modules to gain your award. You also attend five study days spread over the two years.

Each study day introduces a theme and we split the day into several seminars covering that theme. Study days are always Saturdays.

Your training relies heavily on pattern recognition, which we support with a series of worked examples using problem solving algorithms.

You have a personal tutor to support you throughout the course.