Support and promotion

In 2005 support materials were made available to the PHCRED community on the PHC RIS website, including, the proceedings of the 2004 PHCRED National Meeting and the evaluation report of the PHCRED Strategy (both summary and full reports).

PHC RIS continued to keep current the contact details of the Research Capacity Building Initiative (RCBI) coordinators, managers, directors and program officers available on the PHC RIS website, providing easy access for those wishing to find out more about the individual RCBI programs.

Ellen McIntyre synthesised the data from the RCBI 2003 annual reports and in collaboration with five RCBI researchers, submitted the paper ' Building Research Capacity in Australian departments of general practice and rural health: a snapshot of 2003 ' to the Medical Journal of Australia . Ellen McIntyre presented this work in October at the North American Primary Care Research Group (NPCRG) annual conference in Quebec.

PHC RIS expanded its ROAR database to include PHC research summaries, researchers, and research grants along with the details of PHC research organisations. Information about RDP (Research Development Program) Fellows and PHC NHMRC scholars and fellows was sought and added to ROAR, while four of the six PHC RIS infonet editorials in 2005 focussed on PHCRED related matters: What role does research have in the Division network?; Getting research right for policy and practice; PHCRED review and beyond; and Research capacity building in university departments of General Practice and Rural Health.

The 2005 GP & PHC Research Conference enabled many RDP and other PHCRED supported researchers to present their work in the concurrent paper sessions and as research posters. The increase in the number of abstracts submitted and delegates attending indicated this was a very successful way to present and share information. The PHCRED lunch organised during the conference was deemed very useful by those attending. PHC RIS began developing a draft PHCRED Communication Strategy in consultation with the Department of Health and Ageing.

PHC RIS has been actively engaged in the promotion of PHCRED. Promotion occurred primarily via the PHC RIS infonet and the PHC RIS website, and in addition, via eUPDATEs and eBulletins.

In the 2005 issues of PHC RIS infonet : APHCRI prepared updates regarding their activities and achievements which were published in the February, June and October issues; PHCRED funded university departments were invited to submit short articles about RCBI activities, resources and achievements for publication in the PHC RIS infonet - this resulted in the publication of 32 articles from 13 departments and three PHCRED state coordinators; PHC NHMRC grants (title, chief investigator's name and institution) commencing in 2005 were published in the February issue of PHC RIS infonet ; and chief investigators of PHC NHMRC grants were approached which resulted in 12 summaries being published.

PHC RIS continued the PHC RIS infonet 'PHC researcher profiles ' segment in 2005. Throughout the year, 30 researchers were included in this segment; profiles include the researcher's position, contact details, research interests and photo. Anne Magarey continued to promote PHCRED activities, events and vacancies via eUPDATE and eBulletin , and PHC RIS staff attended seven State PHCRED research meetings and reported on these in PHC RIS infonet.

Planning and reporting

In July 2005 the Minister for Health and Ageing announced the four year continuation of the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation Development (PHCRED) strategy (until 2009). Phase 2 of the strategy crystallises the goals of the program, which are:

• an expanded pool of primary health care researchers
• more research relevant to practice and policy
• in collaboration with other relevant organisations, well informed primary health care practice and policy

Under the new strategy PHC RIS will play a more prominent role as the importance of effective dissemination and knowledge exchange is recognised as a formal strategy component.

Following the release of the evaluation report of the PHCRED Strategy (Phase 1), PHC RIS worked with the Department of Health and Ageing to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) and information for both the PHCRED Strategy (Phase 2) as a whole as well as the RCBI specifically. The KPIs, following consultation with the RCBI (Research Capacity Building Initiative) community, were included into the reporting pro forma for RCBI contracts (commencing in 2006).