International Perspectives On Primary Care Research

International Perspectives on Primary Care Research examines how the evidence base from primary care research can strengthen health care services and delivery, tackle the growing burden of disease, improve quality and safety, and increase a person-centred focus to health care. Demonstrating the inter-professional nature of the discipline, the book also features a section on cross-nation organisations and primary care networks supporting research. National perspectives are offered from researchers in 20 countries that form part of the World Organization of Family Doctors, providing case histories from research-rich to resource-poor nations that illustrate the range of research development and capacity building. This book argues the importance of primary care research, especially to policy makers, decision makers and funders in informing best practice, training primary health care providers and achieving equitable distribution of care.

This practical ‘How To’ guide talks the reader step-by-step through designing, conducting and disseminating primary care research, a growing discipline internationally. The vast majority of health care issues are experienced by people in community settings, who are not adequately represented by hospital-based research. There is therefore a great need to upskill family physicians and other primary care workers and academics to conduct community-based research to inform best practice. Aimed at emerging researchers, including those in developing countries, this book also addresses cutting edge and newly developing research methods, which will be of equal interest to more experienced researchers.

Quality is at the heart of the government's strategy for NHS development, and which is to be delivered through clinical governance. This book explores accreditation through practical case studies and research findings, and outlines how it can assure the quality of care. Systems of accreditation for measuring and improving quality are described, and show how they can be used easily and effectively to meet the challenges of the new NHS. It is clear, concise and relevant to all the current changes in healthcare provision. All those responsible for delivering a service based on clinical and cost effectiveness will find it essential reading. 'In the United Kingdom primary health care is based almost wholly on general practice. From April 1999 all general practices will belong to primary care groups. Questions of quality and accountability will be high on their agenda as part of the new arrangements for clinical governance. This book on accreditation in primary care is therefore most timely.' Sir Donald Irvine, President, General Medical Council, in the Introduction.

Public health approaches to palliative care have been growing in policy importance and practice acceptance. This innovative volume explores the major concepts, practice examples, and practice guidelines for this new approach. The goal of ‘comprehensive care’ – seamless support for patients as they transition between home based care and inpatient services – relies on the principles of health promotion and community development both to ensure services are available and importantly appropriate for patients’ needs. In developing contexts, where hospitals and hospices may be inaccessible, a public health approach provides not only continuity of care but greater access to good end of life care. This book provides both a historical and conceptual overview whilst offering practical case examples from affluent and developing contexts, in a range of clinical settings. Finally, it draws together research-based guidelines for future practice. Essential reading for public health researchers and practitioners with an interest in end of life care and global health as well as those involved in developing palliative care provision, International Perspectives on Public Health and Palliative Care is the first volume to present an overview of theory and practice in this emerging field.

This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach with a wide scope of perspectives on primary healthcare, describing related principles, care models, practices and social contexts. It combines aspects of development, research and education applied in primary health care, providing practitioners and scholars with a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge and delivery models of healthcare in community settings. It covers the practical, philosophical and scholarly issues pertinent to the delivery, financing, planning, ethics, health politics, professional and technological development, resources, and monitoring in primary health care. Contributors are from a diverse range of academic and professional backgrounds, bringing together collective expertise in mainstream medicine, nursing, allied health, Chinese medicine, health economics, administration, law, public policy, housing management, information technology and mass communications. As such, the book does not follow the common clinical practice or service-based approach found in most texts on primary care.The contents will serve as a useful reference work for policymakers, researchers, community health practitioners, health executives and higher education students.

... Is a unique collection of authoritative briefings from over 90 countries around the world. Each chapter covers a particular country's demographics, mental health resources, undergraduate education, postgraduate training in psychiatry, research activities, mental health legislation, and policy and development strategies.

Health care is constantly undergoing change and refinement resulting from the adoption of new practices and technologies, the changing nature of societies and populations, and also shifts in the very places from which care is delivered. Primary Health Care: People, Practice, Place draws together significant contributions from established experts across a variety of disciplines to focus on such changes in primary health care, not only because it is the most basic and integral form of health service delivery, but also because it is an area to which geographers have made significant contributions and to which other scholars have engaged in 'thinking geographically' about its core concepts and issues. Including perspectives from both consumers and producers, it moves beyond geographical accounts of the context of health service provision through its explicit focus on the practice of primary health care. With arguments well-supported by empirical research, this book will appeal not only to scholars across a range of social and health sciences, but also to professionals involved in health services.