Highlights of the EGPRN meeting in Zürich (14–17 October 2010)
The theme of the Zürich meeting, very well organized by Marco Zoller and his colleagues from the Zürich Institute for Family Medicine, was ‘Motivation in medical education and patient communication.’ Jan-Joost Rethans gave a key-note lecture on the use of simulated patients to motivate learning by medical students. Norbert Donner-Banzhoff discussed the tension between ‘motivational interviewing’ and ‘shared decision making.’ Klaus Bally and Andreas Zeller told us about research in Swiss primary care, the ‘Swiss cheese challenge’ as they called it. We were impressed by the number of complex randomized clinical trials performed by the Swiss departments of GP/FM! Oliver Hirsch won the EGPRN Poster Prize for his poster on the use of an electronic library of decision-aids for cardiovascular disease by general practitioners during the consultation. Other highlights were the presentation by Emma Wallace, who reported on an ambitious project by the Irish College of General Practitioners and who is collecting and systematically reviewing clinical prediction rules; the presentation by Anneli Rätsep on transcultural validation of the Diabetes Obstacle Questionnaire (a study in the EGPRN initiated research line on DM); the presentation by Berend Terluin on cross-cultural validation of the Polish version of the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire (4DSQ) using Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis; and finally, the presentation by two Turkish medical students from Izmir on the reasons for (non-) smoking behaviour among teenagers. For more details, see the abstracts of the Zürich meeting published in this issue of The European Journal of General Practice.
Summary of the European Research Agenda published
The Summary of the ‘Research Agenda for General Practice/Family Medicine and Primary Health Care in Europe’ has finally been published. The Research Agenda is a comprehensive review of GP/FM research. It was developed upon request of Wonca Europe, related to the European Definition of General Practice/Family Medicine (2002; 2005). The Research Agenda summarizes the current scientific evidence related to the core competencies and characteristics of GP/FM, based on several key informant surveys and a comprehensive review of the scientific literature. It points out research needs and action points for health and research policy.
Both the full text and the Summary of the Research Agenda are freely available on the EGPRN website (http://www.egprn.org). This Journal published a series of papers and commentaries on the Research Agenda.
EGPRN Conference in Nice, May 2011
The 72nd conference of the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN) will take place in Nice, France, from 19–22 May 2011. The theme of the conference will be: ‘Relevant outcome measures in general practice research into chronic diseases.’ Chronic diseases affect patients’ quality of life, and the relationship between patients and GPs. They are a major topic of health policy, given the greater life expectancy in our societies. For many clinical questions in general practice, we are still lacking evidence about what to do for the best. To improve patient's health in his/her real life, an intervention needs to be feasible in the daily practice. However, even in fields with strong and clear evidence, there is often uncertainty on how to implement results in practice. How can we translate figures from international trials into value for the real life of our patients? This question is particularly relevant for patients with chronic diseases. Very often target levels of many clinical indicators appear unrealistic in the primary care setting and in real life. Particular importance is given nowadays to the so called Quaternary prevention, which is defined as action taken to identify patients at risk of overmedication, to protect them against new medical interventions, and to suggest to them interventions that are ethically acceptable.
When designing a study, particularly in Primary Care and General Practice, the choice of the outcome measure is of great importance. The right outcome measure would be patient centred, clinically relevant and realistic, but it is not always easy to meet those criteria.
Many of these relevant questions in primary care will be discussed in keynote lectures, oral presentations, posters and workshops. This is truly a challenge for our discipline.
EGPRN Research Course in Nice, May 2011
Prior to the EGPRN meeting, from 16–18 May in Nice, France, there will be an EGPRN Research Course titled ‘From idea to detailed proposal.’ The target group for this course are primary health care workers who are considering setting up a local research project and wanting to dedicate some time to research. The course is designed to achieve a balance between theoretical and practical learning, and between conceptual and factual materials. There is teaching with regular breaks and adequate discussion time within small groups after each didactic session. The topics will include: Formulate ideas that can be tested in a scientific manner; How to do a literature search; Given a good research question, how to choose the appropriate research method; Explanations of paradigms of qualitative and quantitative research; Fundamental statistics; Quantitative and qualitative sampling techniques, sample sizes, bias; and all other matters to think of when planning to set up a feasible research project. The curriculum is based on previous international EGPRN courses and is given by primary health care researchers.
EGPRN Conference in Poland, October 2011
The EGPRN Autumn 2011 meeting will be held in Krakow, Poland, 13–16 October 2011. The theme will be ‘Infectious diseases’. Deadline for abstracts: June/July.