International Visiting Fellow report: Observations on e-health and research networks

Abstract

During the three week visit I was able to meet primary care researchers at all stages of their research career in most primary health care professions and many disciplines which contribute to Australia's vibrant and developing primary care research community. I undertook a range of lectures and seminars as detailed in the itinerary and as exemplified in appendices ii and iii. I formed a strong impression that many of the capacity building efforts that have been undertaken in recent years have been very successful. This is borne out by the large and increasing number of successful National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) bids from primary care. A recent international comparison prepared by York University for the Heads of Department in the UK Society for Academic Primary Care shows that Australia's primary care research productivity is exceeded only by the Netherlands and the UK. The figure below which shows the estimated number of robust publications by primary care researchers per billion dollars of GDP on research.