Researchers at the University of Birmingham are looking to recruit primary care clinicians interested in becoming a site for a COPD and antibiotics study.

On World Lung Day, 25 September 2022, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) calls on governments worldwide to address stark global inequalities in respiratory health. The COVID-19 pandemic may have subsided, but its impact highlights a global lung health crisis that has not gone away.

PCRS joins the nation in offering our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family on the death of Her Majesty the Queen. The PCRS Conference is scheduled to be held after the official period of National Mourning comes to an end and at the present moment, given the importance of rejuvenating and revitalizing respiratory services and respiratory health care, we envisage that the full event will go ahead as planned.

The PCRS conference is one of the highlights of the PCRS calendar. This year, we are excited to be bringing back our regular face-to-face conference and we’ll be travelling down to Telford International Centre on 22nd September spring in our step! We can’t run this programme without the support, dedication and commitment of our Conference Organising Committee who are critical to the success of the conference. This Committee is responsible for advising on and developing the conference programme and selecting speakers.

After nearly three years in the role, Lynn Ladbrook, PCRS CEO, has announced that she will be leaving the Primary Care Respiratory Society at the end of September to take on a new role at the Association of Science Education. Lynn has led the Society through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, streamlined activities and processes, and worked with members and stakeholders to deliver on a wide ranging programme of educational and clinical resources, events, conferences and campaigns. On her resignation Lynn said:

Supply disruption of varenicline has been on going since October 2021 because of the presence of nitrosamines above acceptable level of daily intake. There is still no certainty when varenicline will return. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) would seem a reasonable alternative that can offer almost immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms and urges to smoke. NRT is most effective when given in the form of a patch in combination with a faster-acting product such as the nicotine lozenge, nasal spray or mouth spray.

A new ‘NICE real-world evidence framework’ was launched last week, with the aim to improve the quality of real-world evidence which informs NICE guidance development.

During 2021, IPCRG has been providing evidence based answers to the questions our global Sentinel Network of practising primary health care professionals ask about COVID. The project was set up as a response to queries from primary care colleagues about how to apply in practice the latest evidence on diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.