COLLECT, ANALYSE & SYSTHESISE INFORMATION ABOUT DIVISIONS & PHC RESEARCH

PHC RIS generates knowledge about activities and outcomes of primary health care research and the Divisions of General Practice Network keeping in touch directly and indirectly with diverse people in policy, practice and research sectors, PHC RIS staff members have been aware of and responsive to their current information needs.

Scanning the environment

Environmental scanning for PHC RIS eBulletin continues to meet the needs of our stakeholders.
The PHC RIS eBulletin is designed to inform stakeholders of recently published:

• articles and reports
• news items
• media releases
• upcoming conferences and courses
• research grants, scholarships and fellowships
• PHC RIS products and services
• websites relevant to the primary health care field.

In December 2009 PHC RIS eBulletin had 1 839 subscribers, 29% of these followed at least one link provided to them in the weekly eBulletin.

“…..This email…bulletin is one of the most informative that arrives in my inbox.  The content is not only relevant to what I do, but [it] allows me to flirt with things I'd like to do or know more about. The format is clear, concise and the links always reliable. With limited time to search journals and databases, your summary is invaluable.”

Researcher Development Program Survey

This survey is an evaluation of the Researcher Development Program (RDP) which has been operating in the 26 university departments of General Practice (UDGP) and Rural Health (UDRH) across Australia.

The project examines the extent to which the RDP has impacted on knowledge, attitudes and practice in relation to research and to develop a profile of RDP participants. It builds on the work already done with RDP participants in NSW and ACT.

Data was collected via an on-line survey from 105 RDPs (88% female, 57% from UDGP). Preliminary analysis indicated that 94% found it a valuable experience while 89% expressed interest in undertaking further research.

Contribution of research to reform

During 2009, PHC RIS undertook an applied research project to establish the contribution of primary health care (PHC) research to health reform processes in Australia.

The project was conducted using publicly available information on the websites of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission, the National Primary Health Care Strategy and the Preventative Health Taskforce.
We used this information to determine three aims:

• To what extent PHC researchers are involved as commissioners and authors of commissioned papers or submissions
• The number of submissions by PHC researchers or research organisations
• To what extent primary health care research was cited in commissioned papers, submissions and in the final reports of the task forces.

The project found that of the 30 people appointed to the formal working groups in the three initiatives, 10 had published papers in the field of primary health care; for four of these it was their principal field of research.

Overall, 17% of the authors commissioned to write discussion papers had a current PHC university appointment. There were 40 submissions from primary health care research organisations and of these, 21 were funded by the  Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) Strategy. Primary health care research was the subject of approximately 12% of references cited in the submissions and commissioned papers.

Aim 3 was the most time consuming part of the project and involved harvesting and coding over 6 000 citations from over 1 200 submissions and papers.

A project report was finalised in November 2009 and the results were disseminated through a poster at the Health Services Research Conference in November and is available on the PHC RIS website.

Rapid Response Research projects

In 2009 PHC RIS successfully completed three rapid response topics at the request of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (Department):

• Models of patient enrolment
• Primary health care regional fund-holding
• Patient experience of health care performance.

Divisions Performance Indicator Reports

It was agreed that PHC RIS would be more involved in the analysis of the Divisions of General Practice National Performance Indicators (NPI) information and analysis of the NPIs, combined with the Annual Survey of Divisions (ASD) information, resulted in a new series of reports called Divisions Performance Indicator Reports (DPIR).

These four projects focused on chronic disease management, access, prevention, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people health care checks.

Annual Survey of Divisions

In 2008, the Department headed the ASD review process, conducting this in parallel to the development of the NPIs for the 2008-12 period.

This led to significant changes and also a reduction in the survey content. Due to these changes as well as those in the contractual relationship between PHC RIS and the Department, the decision was made not to publish the report on the 2007-08 Annual Survey of Divisions in the usual way. Instead the Summary Data Report of the 2007-2008 Annual Survey of Divisions of General Practicewas produced and sent to the Department in March 2009. This report has subsequently been published on the PHC RIS website.