We are delighted to be hosting the 43^rd annual conference of the Society for Academic Primary Care at the University of Edinburgh in July 2014.  Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital but also a truly international city with a rich academic and medical heritage. The theme for our 2014 meeting is ‘Meeting Global Challenges’ and the conference will be an opportunity to explore the many diverse challenges facing primary care practitioners, researchers and educators in the UK and around the world. To lead us in this task, we have three internationally renowned  keynote speakers, backed up by an academic programme designed to stimulate discussion and lively debate.

As part of the conference we are honoured to host the inaugural public Helen Lester Memorial Lecture.

The programme committee welcomes the submission of abstracts for workshops, oral presentations, ‘elevator pitches’ and dangerous ideas.  Visit the programme page for details and the abstract submission page to submit your work.

Elevator pitches are a new concept for SAPC and we hope they will provide a dynamic way for new ideas and work in progress to be discussed. They challenge presenters to convey messages in a condensed form, and are a lively and fun way to share ideas.

Also new this year we will be welcoming Special Interest Group meetings into the body of the programme. No more bleary eyed breakfast meetings!

For those who submit your work on-line for presentation your work may be considered for one of thesebursaries and prizes:

* two prize plenary presentations – selected from the highest scoring abstracts

* the NAPCRG/SAPC travel award

* the education prize

* the early career prize

* prizes for the two best elevator pitches

Still undecided? Here are ten compelling reasons to join us in Edinburgh in July 2014:

1. World-class presentations in primary care research and education
2. Stimulating keynote speakers focusing on ‘Meeting Global Challenges’ through academic primary care
3. Even more dangerous ideas
4. Fast moving themed elevator pitch sessions.
5. Central Edinburgh location in the George Square area of the University of Edinburgh, a few minutes’ walk from the Royal Mile and Princes Street.
6. High quality accommodation close by, easily accessed by rail, air (Edinburgh airport) and road, and fabulous restaurants to enjoy after the drinks reception.
7. Fun optional social activities including open top bus tour, sporting activities on the Meadows, private art gallery viewing.
8. Drinks reception and whiskey tasting at Playfair Library
9. Conference dinner and ceilidh at Dynamic Earth opposite the Scottish Parliament.
10. Great opportunity to meet with friends and colleagues

All in all, a great opportunity to spend a stimulating few days with your friends and colleagues in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. We look forward to welcoming you in July 2014.

Karen Fairhurst & David Weller

Conference Chairs

Conference venue - University of Edinburgh

Click here for a map of the SAPC annual conference 2014 venues.

Registration, sessions and catering will all be held in:

Appleton Tower,

Crichton Street off George Square,

Edinburgh EH8 9LE

Most plenary sessions will take place in the George Square Lecture Theatre, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LK which is a one minute walk from Appleton Tower.

The drinks reception on Wednesday 9th July will be held at the Playfair Library at Old College (pictured above) at the University

The conference dinner on Thursday 10th July will be held at Dynamic Earth.

Travelling to the venue

Click here to access the University of Edinburgh website for travelling to the University central area.  The SAPC conference will be held at the Appleton Tower near George Square which is in the central area campus. 

Click here for the page to obtain a downloadable booklet of campus maps.  Appleton Tower is building 49 on page 3 of the booklet.

Submission Info

Programme committee chair: Brian McKinstry, Edinburgh

Education lead: Karen Fairhurst, Edinburgh

Dangerous ideas lead: Scott Murray, Edinburgh

Theme - Primary care: meeting global challenges

We are delighted that Professors Andy Haines, Ruth McDonald and Frede Olesen have agreed to be ourkeynote speakers and to be able to include other prize winning work: the winner of the RCGP Research Paper of the Year (to be announced in June 2014), the winner of the NAPCRG/SAPC presentation fromNAPCRG USA, November 2013 and the prize winning presentation from the PHCRIS meeting, Australia, July 2013. 

The main body of the programme will be shaped by the work you submit to the conference: presentations, workshops and dangerous ideas.  The two highest scoring presentation abstracts will be showcased as prize plenaries on Wednesday afternoon and the remaining submissions will be allocated to oral presentations and elevator pitch (mini) presentations. 

ABSTRACTS

Call for submissions click here

Guidelines for submission of presentation abstracts click here

Submission formats

Deadline: 10.00 on 24^th February 2014

* oral presentations

* elevator pitch presentations

* workshops 

* dangerous ideas

We invite you to submit abstracts for oral presentations, workshops and “new to SAPC” elevator pitch presentations.  Dangerous ideas are also invited and should be submitted by email. This year we will NOT be offering poster presentations, partly due to space constraints at the venue and partly because we liked the idea of introducing the elevator pitch presentation to the SAPC annual conference.  

We are especially interested in receiving your work that highlights or demonstrates how primary care is meeting global challenges. When you submit your abstract on-line there will be a tick box for indicating if your work is relevant to the main conference theme, along with the usual topics. 

Dangerous ideas

We plan to run the third ‘Dangerous Ideas Soapbox’ at the SAPC annual conference if the programme committee judge the ideas to be sufficiently dangerous.  This year we invite you to submit your idea in the form of a title which should be self-explanatory.  If your idea sounds dangerous enough we will ask you to give us a little more information before accepting your idea.  Submit your idea by email before 10.00 on 24^th February 2014 to office@sapc.ac.uk with subject line: Dangerous Idea.

Conditions of abstract submission - click here

Abstract review and criteria

All abstracts will be reviewed by experienced academics in primary care. Each abstract will receive marks from two reviewers. If there is a discrepancy in the scores a third review will be carried out by a member of the programme committee

Appeals

In the event of an appeal the abstract will be reviewed by the programme committee chair and an independent advisor. Their decision will be final.   In 2014 the programme chair is Brian McKinstry, Edinburgh and the two independent advisors are Denise Kendrick, Nottingham and Andrew Wilson, Leicester who were programme chairs in 2013.

Notification

The presenting or submitting author will be notified of the status of abstracts by email by the end of April, once the peer review process is complete.

Sue Stewart , SAPC

Email: office@sapc.ac.uk