The NEW Hot Topics GP Update Course for Spring 2026 – What shall we be covering?

Have you been so busy seeing patients and juggling clinical and life commitments that you’ve barely had time to open a journal this year? You’re not alone! But, worry not as we’ve done all the hard work for you. After months of carefully reviewing the latest research, key guidelines, and high-quality review papers we’re delighted to launch our brand-new Hot Topics GP Update course for Spring 26!

You can join us live and online for our interactive webinar on March 5th, or attend face-to-face in London on March 6th. If those dates don’t suit, the course will run throughout the Spring and early Summer with additional live webinars, and it will of course be available on demand so you can learn at a time and place that fits around your busy schedule.

As ever, our presentations will be short, focused, clinically relevant and with lots of time for interaction and Q&A. At a time when AI seems to be reshaping so much of modern life, we remain passionate about the need for medical education that is human-generated and peer-delivered, by practising NHS GPs who understand the daily realities of primary care. We focus on what really matters: balancing research evidence and guideline recommendations with the pragmatism required in today’s stretched NHS.

We believe this is the most up-to-date and clinically focussed GP update course available. It comes with a comprehensive course book, your practical evidence-based manual for the year ahead provided in both digital and printed formats. The programme is also packed with Quality Improvement ideas to support your CPD and help you translate learning into meaningful change in your practice.

Hot Topics that we shall cover will include:

• Cardiometabolic and renal medicine:
  • Type 2 Diabetes
    • The new 2026 NICE guideline has just published in February this year, but we’ll have it covered. Described as the ‘biggest shake up in diabetes care for a decade’ there are major changes in practice we need to be aware of, including a special focus on early-onset type 2 diabetes.
  • Chronic Heart Failure
    • We also have a brand-new NICE guideline on CHF, the first for 8 years since when the evidence base has changed significantly including for heart failure with preserved and ‘mildly reduced’ ejection fraction, now enshrined in national guidance.
  • Obesity and Overweight
    • As we start prescribing tirzepatide in primary care, we discuss the latest data we need to be aware of, including rebound weight gain, long-term side effects and interactions with hormonal contraception and HRT.
  • Chronic Kidney Disease
    • In which patients should we be prescribing SGLT2i, ACEi/ARBs or both in primary care?
• Women’s and Men’s Health
  • Menopause
    • Menopausal symptoms in women with breast cancer are extremely common, and have a major negative impact on quality of life in women who are already having to cope with a cancer diagnosis. What options do we have to help them in a safe and effective way?
    • We discuss issues around testosterone prescribing in primary care.
  • Bacterial vaginosis
    • Should we treat sexual partners for women with recurrent BV?
  • Chronic prostatitis/pelvic pain syndrome in men
    • Common, troublesome and so difficult to treat - new evidence-based guidelines make it easier for us to effectively help our patients.
• Mental Health
  • Gambling
    • The new NICE guideline on gambling-related harms says we should be asking all our patients who present with mental health problems about harmful gambling. Why, what is the evidence base and what can we do to help people when we do discover gambling related harm?
  • Antidepressants
    • Important new data on potential harm and managing withdrawal from these drugs that we prescribe every single day.
• Cancer
  • Ovarian cancer
    • New DRAFT NICE guidelines (final to be published in late March) propose a radical change in how we use CA-125 testing. We discuss the evidence base for the change and the implications for practice.
  • Myeloma and MGUS
    • Do you ever get confused between paraproteins, M-proteins, free light chains and kappa lambda ratios? Worry not, you are not alone! We demystify primary care investigation based on an important update from the NICE Suspected Cancer NG12 guideline.
• Asthma
  • We discussed last year the major changes in the BTS/NICE/SIGN guideline of 2024 for adults, but how should we manage children? Should we continue with SABA + ICS, or combination AIR therapy?
• Miscellaneous Hot Topics cases
  • Based on recent papers and guidelines we shall present a range of other cases including management of faecal incontinence, older people falling on anticoagulants, discharging ears and more!

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you on the Hot Topics GP Update course very soon!