NEW MEMBER COUNTRIES
We are delighted to welcome four new country members to the IPCRG, elected at the recent Annual General Meeting: these are India, Singapore, Slovenia, and Vietnam.
THIRD SCIENTIFIC MEETING UPPSALA 23–24 MAY 2013
We held a very successful scientific meeting in Uppsala 23–24 May. We received the best ever number of abstracts to this meeting, which bodes well for the future of primary care research. We were delighted to debate research with new colleagues in India, Bangladesh and Chile, as well as industry partners.
IPCRG 7TH WORLD CONFERENCE ATHENS 21–24 MAY 2014
Bookmark this page http://www.ipcrg2014.ORG to keep up-to-date with this event and put the dates in your diaries: Dates: 21–24 May 2014 (with exhibition set-up on 21 May). Theme: A breath of fresh air: Multiple morbidities and integration. Venue: Hilton Hotel, Athens.
TWO NEW EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS FUNDED
We have awarded funding to two new pilot educational projects as part of a second round of the e-quality programme in 2013/2014. This follows a rigorous selection process led by the IPCRG education sub-committee.
Dr Sonia Maria Martins and colleagues (Sao Bernardo Do Campo, Sao Paolo, Brazil): A multidisciplinary educational programme to develop knowledge and practice for diagnosis and treatment of asthma and COPD: Family health strategy.
Dr Beraki Ghezai, Dr Svein Hoegh Henrichsen, Dr Anders Ostrem (Lunger i Praksis, Norway) and Professor Andemariam Gebremichael, (Dean, Orotta School of Medicine, University of Asmara, Eritrea): Training programme to improve diagnosis and management of CRD in Eritrea.
More information at http://www.theipcrg.org/display/EDUPRO/Educational+Programmes.
TWO MORE E-QUALITY PROGRAMMES SUPPORTED
We supported two E-Quality programmes in 2011/2012—see an update on the project pages of the IPCRG website.
Dr Sundeep Salvi and Dr Monica Barne (Chest Research Foundation, Pune, India): To assess the impact of Chest Research Foundation's one day training programme for GPs on asthma called CHAMPS (Changing asthma management practices).
Professor James Stout (University Washington) in collaboration with Professor Alan J Crockett (University of Southern Australia) and Dr Kerry Hancock (Adelaide): Disseminating on-line spirometry training and feedback in Australia based on the Spirometry 360 train-the-trainer programme.
More information at http://www.theipcrg.org/display/EDUEQU/IPCRG+E-Quality+Programme.
MAPPING RESPIRATORY GUIDELINES USED IN PRIMARY CARE
IPCRG member countries have different approaches to guidelines for use by primary care practitioners. Some countries have developed their own national guidelines; others use internationally accepted tools as guidelines and several are in the early stages of developing guidelines. Now the IPCRG is undertaking a mapping to systematically collect and present information on national guidelines used by primary care for the key IPCRG topics of COPD, asthma, allergic rhinitis, CAP, obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and stop smoking. We anticipate this resource will be useful to IPCRG members reviewing existing guidelines or developing new ones in their own country. In particular, it will support: access to other guidelines, and inform on different approaches; access to published information about the implementation and effectiveness; monitoring recent developments; finding national contacts on guidelines; debate and learning between IPCRG members.
This mapping will not cover non-IPCRG countries. It also does not include analysis of the implementation or effectiveness of the guidelines. Key contacts from each IPCRG country are now in the process of submitting information about guidelines used by primary care in their country using a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. This information should be available on the IPCRG web platform during June 2013: http://www.theipcrg.org/display/ResMapping/Mapping+ of+ national+ guidelines+ used+ by+ primary+ care.