Working Party on Research 2019 Annual Report

Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Chair, WONCA Working Party on Research writes:

Structure & membership

The Chair is Prof Felicity Goodyear-Smith. The group membership is organised by entry into an excel spreadsheet and by membership of a Google Group (WONCA Research Assembly). The WP-R Executive consists of Chair, Regional representatives (Marvin Reid, North America: Bob Mash, Africa; Mehmet Akman, Europe; Ryuki Kasai, Asia Pacific; Raman Kumar, South Asia; Lydia Cabellero, Iberoamericana; Taghreed Farahat, Eastern Mediterranean), Young Doctor representative (Nagwa Nashat) and Chris van Weel as panel convenor. The Council include others active members, such as those involved in the Ariadne Research project (eg Bob Phillips, Amanda Howe, Michael Kidd, Andrew Bazemore), members who are key players in WONCA (eg Shabir Moosa, WONCA Africa President) and others actively involved in WP-R projects.

There were about 120 members listed at the time of the World meeting in Seoul, but many of these were inactive. Members were invited to submit their bios and details about why they wanted to remain on the WP-R. Non-responders were removed from the group following warning that this would take place. There are currently 86 members, most of whose bios are available on the website.

Ariadne project

The WONCA team held two grants: Identification of Research Gaps to Enable Better Primary Health Care Models of Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries and Identification of Research Gaps to Enable Better Primary Health Care Financing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. This was funded by the Gates Foundation through Ariadne Labs. This has led to a number of publications, workshops and conference presentations and now development of a PHC Global Research Consortium – see below.

Conference workshops and presentations of Ariadne project:
1. Presentation: Health Systems Global Satellite Session: Understanding and Addressing Knowledge Gaps in Improving Primary Health Care Systems and Delivery in LMICs from Governance through Quality: Findings from an Emerging Research Consortium at the 5th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, Liverpool, UK, Nov 2019

2. Presentation of this project at the North American Primary Care Research Group, Chicago, USA Nov 2018 was awarded the AAAPC international prize and a plenary speaking slot: North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) 45th Annual Meeting. Identification of research gaps to enable better primary health care organisation & financing in low- & middle-income countries. Goodyear-Smith F, Bazemore A, Coffman M, Fortier R, Howe A, Kidd M, Phillips R, Rouleau K, Van Weel C Chicago, US. Oct 2018.

3. Workshop Identification of research gaps to enable better primary health care organisation & financing in low- & middle-income countries. Goodyear-Smith F, Howe A, Fortier R, Kidd M, Phillips R, Van Weel C. WONCA World Conference. Seoul, Oct 2018

Books

How to do Primary Care Research. Edited by Felicity Goodyear-Smith and Bob Mash. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis, London, UK.330 pp, 2018.

International Comparisons of Primary Health Care Policy: experiences and methodology. In Primary care around the world: recommendations for international policy & development. Edited by Chris van Weel & Amanda Howe, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Oxford, UK, 2019

PHC Global Research Consortium

WONCA will have one of the six seats on the steering committee for this Research Consortium. These are awarded to the initial grantees of the Ariadne project. This will be Prof Felicity Goodyear-Smith as the lead for the two WONCA grants. WONCA and Primafamed were unsuccessful in their EOI to host the core. A concept note was developed after a meeting in Cape Town in Feb / Mar 2019 to seek funding from Gates Foundation and others. This is still under exploration and negotiation.

Scientific writing workshops

1. Workshop. Scientific writing. Goodyear-Smith F, Flegg K, Akman M. WONCA World. Seoul, South Korea. Oct 2018
2. Workshop. Scientific writing. Goodyear-Smith F, Flegg K. WONCA Asia Pacific. Kyoto, Japan. May 2019
3. Workshop. Scientific writing and publishing. Goodyear-Smith F, Flegg K, Akman M. WONCA Europe, Bratislava, Slovakia. June 2019
4. Writing & publishing workshop. Wallis K, Goodyear-Smith F. AAAPC conference, Adelaide. Jul 2019

Comparative PHC system workshops

The WWPR continues to run panels / workshops whereby different countries compare how their primary care is organised, using regional coordinators in the different WONCA regions. A template to prepare the slides is provided (panel project resources). These are led by Prof Chris van Weel. The slides are being updated for 2019 to address the include details on access, training, financing and other potential strengths of PHC services.

1 Workshop. Developing PHC measures – is it possible to capture the values of PHC? Van Weel C, Goodyear-Smith F, Kassai R, Bazemore A. WONCA World Conference. Seoul, Oct 2018
2 International Forum: Is the work in progress on developing PHC measures capturing the values of PHC? Van Weel C, Etz R, Goodyear-Smith F, Kidd M, Olde Hartman T, Phillips B, Roland M, van Boven K. North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) 45th Annual Meeting. Chicago, US. Oct 2018 (working on publication)
3 Workshop. Profiling Profiles of Primary Health Care Policy Implementation around the World – from current experiences towards the next phase Van Weel C, Goodyear-Smith F, Kassai R, Bazemore A, Phillips B. WONCA World Conference. Seoul, Oct 2018
4 Workshop. Academic family medicine. Howe A, Kidd M, Van Weel C, Goodyear-Smith F, Wass V. WONCA World Conference. Seoul, Oct 2018
5 Workshop. Filling the evidence gap on outcomes from primary care development. Howe A, Goodyear-Smith F, Akman M. WONCA Europe, Bratislava, Jun 2019.
6 Iberoamericana panel. Caballero L, Franco, J, van Weel C. Focused on the region's input on the main axis of the Astana Declaration. Participating countries: Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela. Tijuana, May 2019

Website

The WP-R has been updated. It includes mission statement; how to join; the bios of current members (>80), and updated templates for the panel projects available here.