By Martin Fortin
2012 North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) Annual Meeting Forum
Martin Fortin, MD, MSc, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec (Canada); Elizabeth A. Bayliss, MD, MSPH, University of Colorado School of Medicine, USA; Stewart W. Mercer, MBChB, PhD, University of Glasgow, UK; Susan M. Smith, MD, MSc, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Jane Gunn, MBBS, FRACGP, PhD, DRANZCOG, The University of Melbourne, Australia; Mogens Vestergaard, MD, PhD, Aarhus University, Denmark.
A recent Cochrane systematic review on the impact of interventions for patients with multimorbidity (MM) found that there was a paucity of studies and a need for the consideration of appropriate outcomes and further pragmatic studies based in primary care settings (S. Smith et al. see S. Smith posting in IRCMo Blog, April 9, 2012: http://crmcspl-blog.recherche.usherbrooke.ca/?author=10 ). During this NAPCRG annual meeting forum, we will expand on an ongoing dialogue within an existing international community of researchers, decision-makers and health care providers interested in MM (International Research Community on Multimorbidity – IRCMo) and follow-up on discussions initiated during the NAPCRG 2007 meeting, and continued during sessions in Frankfurt, 2011; Glasgow, 2011-2012; and Aarhus, 2012. We aim to accomplish the following tasks in order to lay the groundwork for interventions to improve outcomes for persons with MM:
1) Identify key elements for interventions aimed at improving outcomes for MM;
2) Create a list of patient-centered outcomes relevant to interventions in this population and based on patient input;
3) Propose suitable intervention research designs;
4) Discuss specific evaluation methods;
5) Solicit input on potential national and international collaborations including funding opportunities.
The forum will include short presentations to outline the current focus and direction of interventions in MM followed by group discussions, each of which will address one specific topic. Finally we will synthesize the discussions into a report that will subsequently be shared among forum participants and with members of the IRCMo.
We welcome members to take part in this forum scheduled on Wednesday, December 5 from 9:30 am. to 12:30 pm.
Please visit: http://www.napcrg.org/ for more information about the forum.