The transformative power of tin
Susan DoveyCorrespondence to: Professor Susan Dovey, Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand. Email: susan.dovey@otago.ac.nz
Journal of Primary Health Care 10(2) 97-99 https://doi.org/10.1071/HCv10n2_ED1
Published: 28 June 2018
Journal Compilation © Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners 2018.
This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
2018 marks the 10th, or Tin, anniversary of the Journal of Primary Health Care. To celebrate, we are releasing a Special Virtual Issue of the Journal at the Annual Conference of the College (The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners) in July. In this Virtual Issue we are re-publishing 10 articles from the last 10 years that have had visible traction with our readers. The 10 articles represent the wide array of topics and manuscript types that characterise the Journal. We also announce the 10th anniversary gift to readers of a new section in the Journal entitled ‘Medical Arts’, where we will publish peer-reviewed poems, short stories, other prose and artwork. This section acknowledges the contribution of the arts to the understanding of clinical practice, the many gifted clinicians whose skills extend beyond clinical practice and the many engaged readers interested in artistic expressions.
Given the occasion, I hope readers will forgive some artistic licence as I draw comparisons between the Journal and the chemical element, tin (atomic number 50). We have an average of nearly 50 different authors writing for every issue, we publish ~50 original scientific research manuscripts every year (and ~35 editorial and discussion pieces), and it takes two or three issues for the Journal to publish 50 articles in total. ‘Tinny’ in the Australasian vernacular means ‘lucky’. I think that is exactly what we are: lucky in our owners, the College and its members and fellows, who have committed to publishing a scientific journal since 1974, before almost every other general practice college in the world; lucky in our publishers, who make sure we get four issues to our readers every year (despite the editor-in-chief sometimes dragging her heels!); lucky in our team of Associate Editors and reviewers who tenaciously move manuscripts through the editorial process; lucky in our authors who reflect the array of health professionals contributing to primary health care in New Zealand and internationally; and by no means least, lucky in our readers from around the world whose interest in the Journal is now measurable, thanks to the electronic publishing process.
Tin has been used for centuries to transform and create other metals in various alloys and as the base for various fabric dyes. In the 10th anniversary Virtual Issue we have tried to capture some of the Journal’s main components to the ‘alloy’ or colour it has become, including its Māori and Pacific focus, and its international and multidisciplinary brief.
Rochelle Lee and Nicola North make visible the problem of healthcare access for young Māori women in their 2013 research article1 and a 2014 Vaikoloa paper by Samoan cardiologist Dr Satupaitea Viali addresses the impact of rheumatic fever in Pacific nations.2 Supporting the Journal’s international scope we have also included in the Virtual Issue the article by Canadian Lawrence Leung, suggesting abandoning the classical analgesic ladder concept in favour of the broader platform idea.3
Sue Pullon’s 2011 paper about teamwork speaks directly to the multi-disciplinary scope of the Journal4 which was new for the College when this Journal started in 2009 and previously poorly addressed internationally. The Journal is not only for and about general practitioner (GP) College members but extends to the entire primary health care team. We are including in the Virtual Issue papers by Jenny Carryer5 and Leonie Walker6 representing the nursing contribution to the Journal and also the highly cited column about drug interactions by Linda Bryant and Tana Fishman7 to recognise the importance of both our columnists and of combined contribution of pharmacist and GP knowledge to the Journal and to primary health care.
The celebration Virtual Issue also includes transformative articles such as the 2017 publication of Lucy O’Hagan’s Eric Elder lecture, drawing attention to past inhumanities in the way doctors have been treated in their training and practise.8 An astonishing level of world-wide readership was attracted to this article soon after its initial publication. Ian Anderson’s 2016 proposed early warning of catastrophic health events designed for primary care clinicians9 and Bruce Arroll’s systematic review of antidepressant treatment from the same year10 showcase just a little of the wide range of topics addressed in the Journal by College members from both clinical and academic bases.
But for this June issue of the Journal we also have an array of papers representing the colourful mix of primary health care. Garry Nixon’s Eric Elder Lecture from the 2017 College conference argues for the special health care considerations needed by rural New Zealanders11 and Landers identifies desired improvements in rural palliative care services.12 Conversely Leitch and her team show that there are remarkable similarities between urban and rural general practices.13 Are these mutually exclusive ideas?
Todkari provides a valuable update on female genital mutilation in New Zealand:14 this may be an issue poorly addressed in their training for many primary health care providers but with increasing numbers of affected refugees coming to New Zealand it is also important to understand the health effects of their lives before landing here. In a similar vein, we have two case reports, one a ‘horse’ (hip fracture in an elderly woman)15 and one a ‘zebra’ (eye irritation with an unusual cause).16 Our guest editorialist, Dr Sam Murton, brings her view to bear on both common and extraordinary exigencies of clinical general practice.17
The clinical issues addressed in the research articles reflect the usual fascinating array of articles submitted to the journal. Rose’s team investigate what medical records reveal about notification of partners of patients with sexually transmitted diseases,18 while Grattagliano from the Italian College of General Practitioners also uses GP records to estimate hyponatraemia prevalence.19 Gray and her colleagues capture the delicate dance of GPs’ discussions with patients about their weight,19,20 Forrest and colleagues explore factors related to recovery after mild concussion21 and we have a paper that gives a voice to the experiences of people with sleep apnoea.22
References
[1] Lee R, North N. Barriers to Maori sole mothers’ primary health care access. J Prim Health Care 2013; 5 315–21.[2] Viali S. Rheumatic heart disease in Samoa and the Pacific Nations. J Prim Health Care 2014; 6 84–5.
[3] Leung L. From ladder to platform: a new concept for pain management. J Prim Health Care 2012; 4 254–8.
[4] Pullon S, McKinlay E, Maria S,, et al. Patients’ and health professionals’ perceptions of teamwork in primary care. J Prim Health Care 2011; 3 128–35.
[5] Carryer J, Budge C, Hansen C, Gibbs K. Providing and receiving self-management support for chronic illness: Patients and health practitioners’ assessments. J Prim Health Care 2010; 2 124–9.
[6] Walker L, Clendon J, Nelson K. Nursing roles and responsibilities in general practice: three case studies. J Prim Health Care 2015; 7 236–43.
[7] Bryant L, Fishman T. Clinically important drug–drug interactions and how to manage them. J Prim Health Care 2009; 1 150–1.
[8] O’Hagan L. Narrating Our Selves: Eric Elder Lecture Presented at the annual conference of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, July 2016. J Prim Health Care 2017; 9 100–4.
[9] Anderson I. A proposed Primary Health Early Warning Score (PHEWS) with emphasis on early detection of sepsis in the elderly. J Prim Health Care 2016; 8 5–8.
| A proposed Primary Health Early Warning Score (PHEWS) with emphasis on early detection of sepsis in the elderly.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[10] Arroll B, Chin W-Y, Martis W,, et al. Antidepressants for treatment of depression in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Prim Health Care 2016; 8 325–34.
[11] Nixon G Rural generalism: the New Zealand Way. Address for the Eric Elder Medal. RNZCGP Conference July 2017. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 102–105.
[12] Landers A, Dawson D, Doolan-Noble F. Evaluating a model of delivering specialist palliative care services in rural New Zealand. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 125–131.
[13] Leitch S, Dovey SM, Gray A,, et al. Characteristics of a stratified random sample of New Zealand general practices. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 114–124.
[14] Todkari N. Female genital mutilation: an update for primary health care professionals. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 110–113.
[15] Hughes LD, Love G. Incidental hip fracture in an out-patient clinic: the importance of patient-centred assessment. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 176–178.
[16] Lu LM. Phthiriasis palpebrarum: an uncommon cause of ocular irritation. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 174–175.
[17] Murton S. Surprisingly mundane. How do we remain vigilant? J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 100–101.
[18] Rose SB, Garrett SM, Kennedy J,, et al. Partner notification and retesting for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea: a case-note review in New Zealand primary care. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 132–139.
[19] Grattagliano I, Mastronuzzi T, D’Ambrosio G. Hyponatremia associated with long-term medication use in the elderly: an analysis in general practice. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 167–173.
[20] Gray L, Stubbe M, Macdonald L,, et al. A taboo topic? How General Practitioners talk about overweight and obesity in New Zealand. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 150–158.
[21] Forrest RHJ, Henry JD, McGarry PJ, Marshall RN. Mild traumatic brain injury in New Zealand: factors influencing post-concussion symptom recovery time. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 159–166.
[22] Gibson R, Campbell A, Mather S, Neill A. From diagnosis to long-term treatment: the experiences of older New Zealanders with obstructive sleep apnoea. J Prim Health Care 2018; 10 140–149.
