Primary Health Care Research
Evaluation and Development
PHC RED is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing under the PHC RED Strategy.
Website Themes by CoffeeCup Software
PHCRED Qld 2010 Research Informing Policy forum: building on success
(View the full report and evaluation summary here.)
Of the 41 respondents twenty per cent (8) of participants at this year's event had attended the first forum in 2008 and 39% (16) in had attended
the second event in 2009. Encouragingly, 66% (25) of the respondents in the evaluation survey suggested they would attend a similar event
next year
. (View the the Evaluation Summary here.)
Despite the downpour, over one hundred participants attended the Third Annual Research Informing Policy Forum hosted by PHCRED
Queensland in Brisbane on 2nd March 2010. The event attracts a number of professionals working in primary health care service delivery
from private, public and non-government agencies. This year the Forum participants came to share their thoughts and ideas building greater
inter-sectoral approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders.
The keynote address by the Assistant Secretary, Service Access Programs Branch, Primary & Ambulatory Care Division, Department of
Health and Ageing Vicki Murphy outlined the key principles of reform on the eve of the Hospital and Health Care Reform Strategy
announcement. Ms Murphy said that the current government reform agenda was the greatest scale initiative since the inception of Medicare.
Other speakers also outlined their expectations of how the imminent reform package may impact on their agency and sector. Speakers
including Director-General of Queensland Health, Mick Reid and Director of the Queensland Social Services Council outlined their priorities
for attaining closer professional collaborations with the primary health care sector.
A central theme of this year's Forum related to translating current research into policy. Some suggestions focused on the importance of
understanding the key product offering. Dr Nick Lennox, Murray Watt (MP) and Dr Cindy Shannon, all provided examples of how research
is incorporated into policy when the drivers for action align. Their advice included looking broadly at the opportunity for evidence
researchers are presenting, the political timing and traction that may emerge from collaborating across sectors.
Later in the day, participants formed groups to workshop the themes raised in the Forum for future research collaborations. Professor Richard
Murray from James Cook University, described this activity as an important undertaking that reflected the resource and opportunity investment
of the Forum. He said that he believed the event was a hallmark of the collaborative activities in PHCRED Queensland and by including a
commitment to developing a rapid research summary on themes that emerged from the day was one tangible outcome that captures our
commitment to building the Primary Health Care evidence base.
Participant Evaluation of the Forum - Overview of Key Findings
This is the third year PHCRED Qld has hosted this event. A range of participants from Government, Universities and NGOs attended the
Forum. There were forty-one (41) responses to the survey posted in Survey Monkey from 4 March 2010 to the 26 March 2010. There were
approximately 112 people at the forum, so this is a response rate of 36.6%. Statistical analysis was done automatically by Survey Monkey and
the files of the open questions were imported by Elly Scheermeyer into NVivo. Iterative thematic analysis of qualitative data was then
undertaken by Robyn Preston and Kylie Armstrong.