Conference template

Oral presentation

Full oral presentation - 10 minute presentation, 5 minute discussion

Lightning presentation - 3 minute presentation, 2 minute discussion (maximum 3 slides)

Oral and Lightning presentation format: PowerPoint widescreen 16:9 Landscape 

Work in progress - the Scientific Programme Committee will consider work in progress for oral presentations.

Review criteria

Poster

Poster format: Printed poster size A0, preferably sustainable material.

Posters will be displayed for casual viewing throughout the conference (No associated oral presentation).

Review criteria

Abstracts will be included in the book of abstracts which will have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) reference.

Workshops offer a 60 minute slot to bring people together with shared interests to explore a topic in greater depth. Workshops may have an educational, research or practice-based theme. We welcome innovative topics and formats for workshops.

Please describe your workshop using the following headings:

Title
Aim and intended outcome / educational objectives
Format
Content
Intended audience (include a maximum number of participants if you wish)

Points for authors to note:

Your workshop must be interactive with plenty of time for discussion
Please avoid using presentations as the key feature of the workshop
Please limit time spent talking to slides to a maximum of 10 minutes
Participants will not sign up in advance so preparatory work by attendees will not be possible

Maximum word count: 350 including title

Review Criteria for the assessment of Workshops

Workshops will be judged against the following criteria by two independent peer reviewers using a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) for each of the following criteria:

1. Topicality
Is the workshop topic important, interesting and relevant to primary care and likely to appeal to SAPC delegates?

2. Objectives
Are the learning objectives of the workshop clear, relevant and achievable?

3. Educational methods
Do the authors suggest appropriate pedagogical methods to achieve the learning objectives?

4. Format
Is the proposed format of the workshop likely to provoke discussion and interaction between workshop participants?

Theme
In addition to the criteria described above, peer reviewers will also be asked to indicate (on a scale from 1 - 10) the extent to which this submission aligns with conference theme.

Creative Enquiry Presentations: exploring ‘caritas’ through creative or artistic media

At SAPC 2025 we will once again give an opportunity for delegates to extend engagement with the complexity and inter-subjectivity of primary care through a creative enquiry. This is an opportunity to engage with different forms of evidence, knowledge-creation and meaning-making.

Creative Enquiry was first introduced to the SAPC ASM in Bristol in 2011 and then again in London in 2018.  View the gallery from SAPC ASM 2018.  

Work selected for presentation will be allocated a workshop slot. 

You may use any creative medium for your presentation, for example: music, dance, monologue, painting, photography, prose, poetry, sculpture. You must submit some evidence of the created work at the time of submission and this must be accompanied by an abstract/reflection (limited to 350 words). The created work on which your abstract/reflection is based may be your own. Alternatively you may choose to present something which is not your own creation but which has deepened your own engagement with, or understanding of, primary care. We are primarily interested in the quality and depth of your accompanying engagement and thought.

Review criteria.  

What is Creative Enquiry?

We are drawing inspiration for this new kind of presentation from what is sometimes known as ‘arts-based inquiry’. This has been described as ‘the making of artistic expressions…as a primary way of understanding and examining experience (McNiff 2008, p29) Arts-based approaches invite extension of cognition and expression beyond the limitations of literal language, giving feeling form (Langer, 1957) and embracing metaphor, symbol and imagination. The arts facilitate the emergence of voice, perspective and reflexivity (Younie, 2013, 2014) as well as inviting multiple forms of knowing (Eisner, 2008) thereby extending epistemology (Seeley, 2011).

The motto of the Royal College of General Practitioners is ‘Cum Scientia Caritas’ (science with compassion). It is usual at academic conferences to focus predominantly on the science and it can be very easy to lose sight of the ‘art’ or ‘practice’ of medicine. Caritas: Creative Enquiry is an opportunity to enrich and extend our engagement with the art and practice of medicine. The aim is not to displace our attention to academic rigour, but to enhance it…and it is not about creating entertainment, but about entertaining creativity in how we think about primary health care.

References

EISNER, E. 2008. Art and Knowledge. In: KNOWLES, G. J. & COLE, A. L. (eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

LANGER, S. K. 1957. Problems of art: Ten philosophical lectures, New York, Scribner.

MCNIFF, S. 2008. Arts-based research. In: KNOWLES, J. G. & COLE, A. L. (eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

RICHARDSON, L. 2000. Evaluating Ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 253-255.

SEELEY, C. 2011. Uncharted territory: Imagining a stronger relationship between the arts and action research. Action Research, 9, 83-99.

YOUNIE, L. 2013. Introducing arts-based inquiry into medical education: ‘Exploring the Creative Arts in Health and Illness’. In: MCINTOSH, P. & WARREN, D. (eds.) Creativity in the Classroom: Case Studies in Using the Arts in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Bristol: Intellect Publishers.

YOUNIE, L. 2014. Arts-based inquiry and a clinician educator's journey of discovery. In: C.L.MCLEAN (ed.) Creative Arts in Humane Medicine. Edmonton: Brush Education Inc.

The SAPC Dangerous Ideas Soapbox is BACK AGAIN!

'Experience is the name one gives to ones mistakes' This session encourages risk taking! 

This is your opportunity to stimulate conversation and debate. 

At a time of significant change and challenge in the world of primary care, we need critical and creative ideas to help find solutions to problems affecting patients and practitioners.

Dangerous Ideas should represent blue sky thinking - and we want to hear your thoughts. An idea can’t be dangerous if it stays silently inside one person’s head.

SAPC ASM aims to bring people together in a festival of ideas; there’s room for brand new conversation and experimentation just as much as evaluation of existing research.

The Dangerous Ideas Soapbox facilitates thought experiments in a fun and friendly way: 2 minute pitches followed by debate open to the floor.

Voting and vetoing strongly encouraged. An open mind is essential.

Do YOU have a dangerous idea? Want to challenge the status quo? Join us at SAPC ASM 2026.

Submission Details

• A Dangerous Idea is something which challenges, but also demonstrates a commitment to action and making a difference.
• Speakers have 2 minutes to pitch a Dangerous Idea – outlining your idea, why it matters and how you will make it happen.
• Each pitch may be accompanied by one PowerPoint slide.
• The audience are asked to vote for the best idea - the one that they most feel needs to be heard. 
• We ask you to chose an idea that is new (challenging, even provocative); that recognises and resonates with the vision of driving improvement in primary care through scholarship; and has the potential to make a difference.

Background

Launched in 2012, the Dangerous Ideas Soapbox was inspired by the model at Sydney Opera House and St James Ethics Centre which brings speakers together to raise “important questions…as a catalyst for sharp and vibrant discussion”.

Find out more by reading our past winning ideas. 

2016 round-up of all the ideas is here The winning idea came from Antony Chuter, arguing that it is time for a revolution in community pharmacy. Equal 2nd prize went to Austin O'Carroll arguing that medical community discriminates against the homeless, and Sarah Alderson who proposed that GPs shouldn't prescribe opioids except in terminal illness.

2015 winning idea: Health research should be crowd-funded through Kickstarter

2014 winning ideas: 1st - Addressing antibiotic resistance with the Krapsule  2nd - Involving patients to improve Significant Event audits  3rd - Virtual GP: replacing GP training with an app

2024 winning ideas: 1st - GP's should ask patients how it went 2nd - Primary care should tackle healthcare inequalities but not health inequalities 3rd - All symptoms are wrong (but some symptoms are useful) 4th - Treat RA like cancer

2025 winning ideas: Pay GPs to spend more time in their communities - Patients should be discouraged from Googling their symptoms and use Chat-GPT instead - Scrap mandatory annual basic CPR training - Listening to our patients