GP Program: UPDATE 2011

This year’s GP Program was held from 7 May until 13 August. Our aim was to grow and to reach as many GP’s as possible through this initiative. In 2010 we held 6 meetings in the 6 major cities in South-Africa. This year we included those areas, but we also expanded to the less visited areas in South-Africa, including a very successful meeting which were held in Windhoek, Namibia. A total of 19 meetings were held in 2011. In 2010 we had 13 speakers and this year we had 25 dedicated cardiologists participating in the program. Furthermore, the number of General Practitioner’s who attended have grown from 160 attendees in 2010 to 267 delegates attending in 2011. SA Heart and HeFSSA have also gained more than 50 new members.

The general practitioner’s were very appreciative in their feedback: “Thank you for the informative talk. It has motivated me to keep on going”, “I have learned a lot – it will definitely benefit my practise” and “We need this kind of workshops more regularly”.

At the end yet another successful program we have to acknowledge several prominent role players who were essential contributors: Dr P Obel, Prof K Sliwa and Dr E Klug whom was responsible for the slide kit compendium (template) used during these meetings. The following dedicated cardiologists were part of this year’s faculty, i.e.: Drs Mark Abelson, Cobus Badenhorst, MPG Dean, S Fourie, Jens Hitzeroth, Ronnie Jardine, Dave Kettles, Eric Klug, JA Lochner, Tony Lachman, EM Makotoko, Farouk Mamdoo, S Middlemost, Martin Mpe, Pro Obel, Ian Roscher, Darryl Smith, Adriaan Snyders, A Stanley, A Thornton, Nico Vd Merwe, Tjaardt Venter, Jean, Vorster, Prof A Mitha and Prof Karen Sliwa. Prof Sliwaand Dr Obel also prepared a questionnaire in order for the attendees to gain additional CPD points.

These programs would not have been possible if HeFSSA did not receive unconditional grants from our corporate members: Astra Zeneca, Servier, Pharma Dynamics and Medtronic.