Pearls

Tomorrow is World Oral Health Day, so we thought we would consider some of the more common oral conditions that patients may present to general practice with. We break the topic down into a simple overview to give you the essentials fast.

Making a diagnosis relies on knowledge and suspicion that outweighs our experience. In support of Brain Tumour Awareness Month, we wanted to help you to top up that knowledge with this week's Pearl

This month’s GPST Pearl on non-migrainous headaches focuses on tension headache, medication-overuse headache and cluster headache, providing you with the confidence to convert your consultation from a headache into a win.

After a tremendous reception in 2025, the Let’s Dance campaign is back! In this week’s Pearl, we’re delighted to share more information about this joyful national initiative and how our patients and practices can benefit.

One of the jedi skills of general practice is spotting the rare among the common - recognising when something just isn’t following the usual pattern. For Rare Disease Day (28 February), we’re sharing a Pearl on bullous pemphigoid, a rare autoimmune blistering skin disease.

Precocious puberty is relatively rare so many of us will need a helping hand if a potential case pitches up on the triage list.   In this week’s Pearl, we share our handy two-page GEMS (Guidelines and Evidence Made Simple) on this very subject. 

This month’s GP Trainee Pearl gives you a clear, step-by-step guide to heart failure, perfect for exam prep or making a busy clinic a bit easier. 

When selecting topics for our GP Update course, we choose things that are new or practice-changing, or sometimes just because they are important and we won’t learn about them anywhere else. Perianal masses fall into the ‘you probably won’t learn about this anywhere else’ category!

Early pregnancy can feel overwhelming, especially when raising a sensitive topic like weight. This week’s Pearl shares our updated article on obesity and weight management in pregnancy, based on the 2025 NICE guidance.

The BBC news headline ‘Menopause linked to Alzheimer’s-like brain changes’ (27/1/26) will catch the attention of women across the UK. When this happens, questions come our way in primary care. Our Pearl is here to help!

In this week’s Pearl, we share our article and GEMS, which were updated in 2024 to include new NICE guidance that changed recommendations around when to suspect meningitis and meningococcal disease, and pre-hospital antibiotics.

In this week’s Pearl, we consider how we might walk alongside patients, colleagues, friends and family through the experience of grief.  

If passing the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) has made it to your New Year’s resolutions list, we’ve got just the treat! This month’s GP trainee Pearl contains golden nuggets to help you prepare for the SCA.

January is a prime time for “I’m going to get healthier” resolutions… and, let’s be honest, making lasting change can be tough. So, this week’s Pearl shares a toolkit to help turn intentions into results through brief, effective support in the primary care consultation.