Suzan Mehmet
UNSW Primary Health Care Research Network
Working Towards A Common Goal – recognising the importance of General Practice in primary care research
On 31 October, the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE) held a dinner to mark the launch of its new Practice Based Research Network (PBRN), PHReNet-GP, and to acknowledge the enormous contribution that GPs and other practice staff make to the research of the centre.
Over a three-course dinner, researchers and GPs mingled, discussing their common goal of high-quality primary health care research and improved patient care. Professor Nicholas Zwar introduced the idea of PHReNet-GP, a network of practices interested in participating in primary care research. The network will help streamline approaches to practices and should allow GPs and practice staff to become more involved in CPHCE research.
The network will represent a partnership between general practice and researchers, and should move towards better quality primary care research.
The existing Primary Health Care Research Network (PHReNet) will continue to operate in a ‘bottom up' fashion to build the research skills and capacity of GPs and other PHC practitioners by providing mentoring and training to practitioners interested in developing their own research interests.
Another important part of the evening was recognising the outstanding contribution of individual GPs to CPHCE research. Professor Mark Harris, the centre's executive director, presented awards to five GPs who had been nominated by centre staff for their dedication to primary care research.
The night proved to be a successful one, opening the discussion of how researchers and GPs can work better together to improve the quality of primary care research in Australia and ultimately to improve patient care.
Suzan Mehmet
Network administrator/coordinator
E suzan.mehmet@sswahs.nsw.gov.au
or s.mehmet@unsw.edu.au
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