On July 21st, the HSRAANZ co-hosted an informal Research Roundtable with the Australian General Practice Network in Auckland, prior to the World Health Care Networks Conference.

The Roundtable, which was chaired by Toni Ashton, was attended by about 30 invitees, including some of the international keynote speakers from the conference. The Roundtable commenced with brief presentations given by Judith Smith from England, Brenda Hefford and Brian Evoy from Canada, Richard Bohmer from the USA, Harry Pert from New Zealand and Bob Wells from Australia. This was followed by a presentation about primary healthcare reform in Australia by Rosemary Huxtable from the Department of Health and Ageing. The Roundtable concluded with some lively discussion about many aspects of primary care reform. Some themes that emerged were the need for more innovative and effective payment mechanisms, the role of information technology in improving primary care, the need to overcome some of the constraints imposed by professional boundaries, and – inevitably – the need for more research in the area of primary care.

Summary

Slides