IDENTIFY AND RESPOND TO INFORMATION NEEDS OF STAKEHOLDERS

PHC RIS increases sharing of information and knowledge within and between policy makers, researchers and the Divisions of General Practice network using several strategies as shown here.

Using multi-faceted communication tools

From January to December, 2009, PHC RIS produced:

• 47 issues of PHC RIS eBulletin
• six issues of PHC RIS infonet(emailed to over 1 200 subscribers and hard copies posted to over 1 000 subscribers)
  ten new infoBytes
• revised nine Fact Sheets
• produced seven issues of RESEARCH ROUNDup
• continually updated web-based resources.

Stakeholder survey

During the 2009 GP & PHC Research Conference in July, PHC RIS conducted a paper-based survey to assess the awareness and usefulness of PHC RIS products and services among delegates. Eighty eight people participated in the survey and indicated that, overall, the products and services they were aware of, were very useful.

Of the web-based resources, delegates found ROAR, the Acronymslist, the PHCREDwebpages and PHC RIS Assist to be most useful.
Some of the feedback PHC RIS received from this survey reflected the value of PHC resources:

I always send new researchers to your site because of its usefulness.

You are keeping researchers connected, well informed and updated with current research.

You play an important role in facilitating primary health care research in this country.

PHC RIS has provided feedback to stakeholders via ROAR by highlighting the top ROAR profiles and projects undertaken throughout the year. These included most viewed ROAR profiles with a research interest in the health workforce and providing the top ROAR projects in Indigenous/Aboriginal Health.

PHCRED consultation workshops

PHC RIS convened consultation workshops on Phase 3 of the PHCRED Strategy between 11-21 September in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Participants included representatives from the Department, PHCRED funded people and other relevant stakeholders.

The workshops received positive feedback from participants who were also invited to comment on the draft reports before the final report was sent to the Department in October.

Snapshot 2009

The second edition of the successful annual publication Snapshot of Australian primary health care research 2009 waslaunched at the GP & PHC Research Conference in July. Snapshot provides readers with a selection of current Australian research relevant to key Australian Government health policy directions.

The quality of the product demonstrates confidence and pride in the fact that PHC research is newsworthy and influential. I think, in years to come, it will increasingly become a document in which researchers will want to be listed – as something worthy of special mention in the CV.

2009 General Practice and Primary Health Care (GP & PHC) Research Conference

Researchers, policy advisors, practitioners and consumers (over 460 of them) attended the 2009 GP & PHC Research Conference in Melbourne, which was entitled, Driving Change.

More than150 speakers from Australia and overseas delivered a wealth of information about primary health care research, evaluation and development with the aim of shaping the future of health and primary health car in Australia in line with the Government’s proposed Health Reform.

Keynote speaker, Dr Tikki Pang from World Heath Organization engaged the audience with his striking stories of the inequities in primary health care in our region and urged us to work towards the goals of effective PHC reform: universal coverage, enhanced service delivery, strong leadership and effective public policy.

Professor Frank Sullivan from the University of Dundee offered insight into how PHC research has evolved in Scotland, providing delegates with ideas on how this could be adapted to Australian conditions.

All abstracts and presentations (where permission has been given) are available at: <www.phcris.org.au/conference/2009>

The conference evaluation (which received a 40% response rate) indicated that most respondents (89%) considered the conference increased their knowledge and understanding of the scope and nature of current research, evaluation and development to a great to moderate extent.

The concurrent paper sessions made it easy to find out about lots of different sorts of research happening without having to sit through long presentations. Having 4-5 presentations in each session created variety and good discussion opportunities.
Conference Evaluation, June 2009

Planning began in late 2009 for the 2010 Primary Health Care Research Conference which will be held in Darwin, 30 June-2 July with the theme Primary health care research and health reform: Improving care.

Knowledge brokering

PHC RIS conducted, contributed to and evaluated three meetings between researchers and policy advisors in 2009 as part of a knowledge brokering project, designed to facilitate exchange of knowledge and information between researchers and policy advisors. The project reinforced there is no single method or model for knowledge brokering, as exchange of knowledge depends on all the factors which affect human interaction and communication.

RESEARCH ROUNDup

Seven electronic issues of RESEARCH ROUNDup were produced in 2009 and maintain clear links with Australian health strategies and initiatives, utilising systematic reviews where possible, whilst providing a succinct overview of the latest research.

Topics covered included:

• Nursing in General Practice: still some way to go
• The primary care role for people with cancer
• Dementia and primary health care
• Chronic disease self-management
• Health promotion of physical activity
• Evaluation of chronic disease management in primary health care
• Australia’s primary health care research workforce

Giving feedback to providers of data

PHC RIS provided individual feedback to each Division about their responses to the Annual Survey. The feedback contained a selection of Division responses to the Annual Survey of Divisions, along with aggregated responses in six comparison categories.

The aim of the feedback is to provide Division specific comparisons of performance from year to year and benchmarking with other Divisions of similar demographic characteristics.

PHC RIS also prepared and sent reports to the Australian General Practice Network (AGPN) and SBOs aggregated from the response of Divisions to questions about these organisations. Divisions data was made available in many formats through the suite of on-line tools found via the Divisions Network Reporting section of the PHC RIS website.