This session will provide an overview of the assessment and management of syncope, summarising current international guidelines and providing an approach from initial outpatient consultation to appropriate investigations and subsequent management.
This event is RACGP and ACRRM approved for 1.5 hours of Educational Activities.
Learning outcomes:
- Provide an overview of types and mechanisms of syncope.
- Use a structured, risk-based approach to assess syncope in general practice, distinguishing patients who require urgent emergency referral from those suitable for outpatient assessment or reassurance.
- Select appropriate initial investigations for patients presenting with syncope, including ECGs and non-invasive cardiac investigations, based on clinical presentation.
- Explain the role, strengths and limitations of contemporary cardiac investigations, including 12 lead ECG, Holter/loop recorder monitoring and echocardiography.
- Provide an overview of management of syncope, from reassurance and conservative measures to specialist referral and indications for pacemaker therapy
Speaker information:
Dr Peregrine Green is a staff specialist Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Tasmania. He trained in the United Kingdom, qualifying from the University of Oxford in 2009 and graduating with a first-class undergraduate Bachelor of Arts, Distinction and Prize in Final Examinations, before undergoing his cardiology and Electrophysiologist training in Oxford. This included completion of a 4-year PhD at the University of Oxford, investigating the interaction between cardiac metabolism and cardiac resynchronisation therapy, with this work winning the Young Investigator prize at the Heart Rhythm Congress in 2022 and published in several high impact peer reviewed journals. He finished his training in 2023, with a subsequent 6 month Electrophysiologist fellowship at the John Radcliffe Hospital, before moving to Australia to complete an additional 18 month Electrophysiologist fellowship with Professor Jon Kalman at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He was appointed at Royal Hobart Hospital in Oct 2025.
Dr Paul MacIntyre has clinical interests in general cardiology, pacemakers, heart, device therapy and cardiac rehabilitation. He graduated from Glasgow University, Scotland in 1987. He completed specialist training in Glasgow and was appointed as a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in 1996. In 2007 he received a merit award for achievements in Cardiology in Scotland and his broader contribution to the NHS. In 2005 he was appointed to the position of Lead Clinician for Coronary Heart Disease in Scotland and Chair of the National Advisory Committee to the Scottish Government. In this role he worked the Scottish Government on service development, strategy and policy in relation to Cardiology. He moved to Hobart in 2011. He was Director of Cardiology at the Royal Hobart Hospital from 2012 to 2020. He was instrumental in the development of clinical services and is a member of the RHH Executive Committee.
Dr Graeme Bleach originally trained in the UK and has over 30 yrs experience as a GP in Tasmania. He stepped away from clinical practice in 2023 but has continued since 2013 as lead clinical editor for Tasmanian Health Pathways, and since 2012 as a tutor at the medical school. He has been involved in Primary Health Networks and Cardiac Clinical Networks since their inception. He also consults directly for Streamliners NZ who originally conceived Health Pathways and now run them for New Zealand, Australia, Wales and parts of England and Canada.