Upcoming AAAPC Webinar - Bridging health services and research through networks and collaboration: a tale of two cities May 6

The AAAPC Early Career Researcher and Capacity Development Subcommittee are pleased to host Dr Jean-Frédéric

Dr Jean-Frédéric Levesque is the Chief Executive of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity at UNSW. Jean-Frédéric is a leader in healthcare system analysis and improvement, combining experience in clinical practice in refugee health and tropical medicine, clinical governance and academic research. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Prior to joining NSW Health, Jean-Frederic held senior positions responsible for publicly reporting information about the Canadian health system at the Institut National de Santé Publique du Quebec and the Commissaire a la sante et au bien-etre du Quebec and he was a Visiting Academic at the University of Melbourne.

In this webinar, Dr Jean-Frédéric Levesque will reflect on his work in the academic and policy realms to highlight the polarities often erected as barriers for both sectors to work collaboratively. He will draw on examples from recent collaboration across industry, clinical, policy, and academia to drive health care service innovation and system improvements in clinical care. Dr Levesque will discuss how he has built networks across all aspects of the health sector including facilitators and challenges to building collaboration. He will also highlight more specific opportunities for primary care to collaborate with government to drive service improvements. 

Update from the Early Career Researcher and Capacity Development Subcommittee 

The AAAPC Early Career Researcher and Capacity Development Subcommittee will hold a session FACES - Friends Advancing Careers through E-based Support via Zoom THIS Friday on April 30th. The session will be led by Dr Renee Fiolet talking about her experience of using community participatory based research during her PhD.

New membership prices

Commencing in 2021, AAAPC membership categories and fees will be revised to encourage increased student memberships! The new AAAPC membership categories are:

• Individual ($175 AUD / NZD $190) for all professional members);
• Registrar ($85 AUD / NZD $95 for all registrars/trainees less than 5 years post qualification); and
• Student ($55 AUD / NZD $60 for all students).

This change in membership policy addresses two important objectives of the AAAPC Strategic Plan, namely increased student and multidisciplinary memberships. Current AAAPC members who have renewed membership in 2021 and are eligible for a new discounted category are recommended to contact secretariat@aaapc.org.au to arrange reimbursement of excess paid fees. Please note, fees in NZD are subject to exchange rates of time of transaction.

Celebrating AAAPC Members

Congratulations to two of our members for successfully completing their PhDs!

• Professor Jenny Reath: Jenny’s thesis addresses the question “What is best practice in training and support for General Practitioners in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health?" Recommendations for best practice are made and gathered under the themes: Indigenous leadership and partnerships; organisational commitment; systemic approach; learning approaches; learning content; and assessment and evaluation.
• Dr Renee Fiolet: Renee’s thesis titled: Exploring the use of technology to address barriers Indigenous peoples experienec when help seeking for family violence. The research draws on community-based participatory research with an Indigenous community. Renee's findings suggest that issues of mistrust and fear can be addressed through online, co-designed family violence resources that facilitate healing through connection to culture, community and country.

Congratulations to some of our members on successful publications!

• Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis and team: Prescribing and deprescribing in chronic kidney disease
• Liz Sturgiss and team: Obesity management in primary care: A systematic review exploring the influence of therapeutic alliance
• Bryce Brickley and team: Putting patients first: development of a patient advocate and general practitioner informed model of patient-centred care

This list does not comprehensively include the achievements of all of our members (sorry!). Please send me an email at katelyn.barnes@anu.edu.au when you or another member you know has an achievement that we can all celebrate! Some previous examples include a new PhD completion, publication, or an award.

Welcome to New AAAPC Members

We warmly welcome some new members from the Adelaide Rural Clinical School at the University of Adelaide! The Adelaide Rural Clinical School has been quietly working to increase primary care research capacity in rural South Australia to enable them to invest in community-engaged research. New members for AAAPC this month include:

Associate Professor Davide Gonzalez who has a background as a paediatrician and epidemiologist with experience in global public health, preventive medicine and biostatistics. He is currently coordinating a study investigating the impact of the Adelaide Rural Clinical School on the medical health workforce in rural settings. Moreover, he works on several projects that use health informatics to support primary health workers, including the analysis of big datasets (MedicineInsight, Royal Flying Doctors Service database) and the use of patient and doctors reminders for preventive activities.

Associate Professor Pascale Detwiller is an academic pharmacist based in Pt Lincoln who has significant experience in community-driven research projects, clinical audit and therapeutics. One of her current projects involves the investigation of community resilience and wellbeing in regional South Australia.

Kym Thomas is a Nukunu elder who works in Pt Augusta. He has longstanding experience in Aboriginal community development, governance and leadership. He is currently leading a research project on how local Aboriginal people experience aged care services.

Dr Sue Williams is based in Nairne, has a strong history of public health research and provides vital support to our distributed research team. She is currently coordinating a project looking at Point of Care Ultrasound in rural general practice.

We would love to welcom all new members to AAAPC - if you would like your bio to be published in the monthly newsletter, please email secretariat@aaapc.org.au This is a great way to build networks within our community. 

AAAPC Newsletter Editor update

Hello everyone! My name is Dr Katelyn Barnes, I will be filling in as newsletter editor for a couple of months while Melinda is on maternatiy leave (Congratulations Melinda!). I am a dietitian by trade, though have traversed into the land of general practice research over the last 2 years. I love research - planning, doing, reading, and critiquing! Outside of research, I am a baker, caffeine addict, pet lover (that's Yuki in the picture!) and aerial acrobat!

I'm looking forward to being in touch with you all over the next few months to share the good AAAPC news!

Please do get in touch if you have news to share

Until next month,

Dr Katelyn Barnes, AAAPC Editor

katelyn.barnes@anu.edu.au