Family Medicine
Shingles is largely preventable, and two doses of recombinant vaccine from age 50 is a step often missed
A primary care review of zoster and postherpetic neuralgia; why tribal patients in Telangana bypass government clinics for chronic disease care; and stress as a stroke risk factor across four million people.
General practice in England still finds only a quarter to a third of people with a learning disability
English registers are growing but remain far below expected prevalence, and teenagers miss their annual checks most; AI reading of wearable pulse signals is a screen for sleep apnoea, not a diagnosis; and continuity with one GP showed only a small link to self-rated health.
A parent-completed digital check caught 94% of toddlers with developmental conditions
In Australian general practice, a digital developmental screener sent to parents found far more children with real needs than usual GP assessment; ear pain with a normal ear needs a look elsewhere; and women with recurrent UTIs describe feeling dismissed.
Faecal occult blood screening cuts colorectal cancer deaths; low vitamin D rarely looked like osteomalacia on blood tests
A meta-analysis of 1.5 million people confirmed stool-based screening lowers colorectal cancer mortality. Also: few people with low vitamin D showed a biochemical picture of osteomalacia, primary care quality and hospital use in multimorbidity, and AI-enhanced handheld carotid ultrasound.
Half of people who died by suicide had seen a GP in the previous three months, often for something other than mental health
A BJGP study of 157 coroners' reports shows what the last consultations looked like. Also: the six point-of-care tests European experts call essential out of hours, peritonsillar abscess without a preceding sore throat, and what group visits give patients with chronic pain.
UTI prophylaxis runs for years with little review, and resistant cultures rarely change it
An audit of 256 adults on antibiotic prophylaxis for recurrent UTI in 18 English practices found a median 2.2 years of treatment, review within six months in 58%, and a change of drug after a resistant isolate in 23%. Also: NHS Health Check attendance and mortality, small-team chronic care in Singapore, and an AI diagnostic assistant in simulated consultations.
Chest pain in the surgery: a score plus point-of-care troponin missed one ACS in 740
A Dutch cluster-randomised diagnostic trial tests a rule GPs can apply at the desk. Also: ultra-processed food across eight million adults, simple tests for male urinary symptoms, what continuity saves, and how reassurance lands.
Three ways of asking about alcohol found three different groups of patients
In nearly 9,000 Swedish primary care records, a questionnaire flagged 26.5% as hazardous drinkers, a blood biomarker 15–18%, and a simple weekly count 8.5% — and each found people the others missed. Meanwhile 677 practitioners describe exactly where their confidence in managing urinary tract infection runs out, and a structured medicines review in over-65s found problems usual care did not.