COMMUNICATION SECTION

EGPRW European General Practice Research Workshop

History The EGPRW is an organisation primarily consisting of general practitioners who are interested in conduction re- search. The EGPRW originated in 1974 as a result of meetings between general practice researchers from coun- tries bordering the North Sea.

Aims Its main aims are to promote and stimulate research in general practice (and primary care), to initiate and coord- inate multinational research projects, to exchange research experiences and by doing so to develop a valid internation- al base for general practice. These aims are pursued by: a. learning from other research experiences in Europe by

means of international contacts, discussion and ex- change of information;

b. the organisation of international workshops; c.stimulating research on and for general practice in

Europe through the development of common definitions and relevant research and conducting international re- search projects.

Organisation The EGPRW is governed by an Executive Board of four to eight persons, which represents the full board consist- ing of one national representative from each of most Euro- pean countries. Anyone interested in general practice re- search can become a member of the EGPRW by paying a small (more or less symbolic) membership fee in the cur- rency of hidher own country to their national EGPRW representative.

Meetings The EGPRW meets twice a year, generally in May and No- vember, for up to two-and-a-half days. These meeting are based on scientific papers, including sessions of free-stand- ing papers as well as papers confirming to a pre-deter- mined conference theme. The meetings are truly work- shops with never more than 60-70 people attending. For EGPRW members there is no congress fee. During these meetings proposals for research, work in preparation and unpublished studies can be presented in an atmosphere which, whilst begin constructively critical, is also friend- ly and safe. It is not necessary to be a member to visit these meetings. Abstracts of the meetings are published twice a year in the journal ‘Family Practice’.

Other activities Twice a year, the EGPRW spreads a newsletter to its

members with new announcements of international (general practice) conferences, reports of EGPRW board meetings and news items of interest to members. From now on, this newsletter and other interesting topics will be published in The European Journal of General Prac- tice. The EGPRW organises, in collaboration with WHO, international research courses in general practice. These courses usually last a week and are designed to promote the knowledge about research methods amongst gen- eral practitioners. Since 1984, there have been four courses in England, Denmark, Italy, and Spain. The EGPRW has conducted several European collab- orative studies, often with financial support of the Euro- pean Community (COMAC-HSR), such as the Euro- pean Interface and the European Referral Study.

Subsidies There is a limited fund available to which those unable to afford the cost of travel to any EGPRW meeting may ap- ply for a small subsidy.

Benefits Besides the benefits of receiving the newsletter and having the possibility to exchange research ideas with an interna- tional audience, EGPRW members can subscribe to the Journal of Family Practice at a 50% reduction rate. Also, EGFRW members are entitled to a reduction of 30% on personal subscription rates of The European Journal of General Practice.

Future activities Spring meeting 1995. May 4th-8th, 1995 in Porto (Portu- gal). Central theme: Working with families in general practice. Autumn meeting 1995. October 12th-l5th, 1995 in Dublin (Ireland). General theme: Research methods in gen- eral practice. Spring meeting 1996. April 1996 in Malta. Autumn meeting 1996. October 1996 in Sweden.

Executive board J Gervas, Spain, chairman (until May); P Wallace, United Kingdom, vice-chairman (after May 1995 chair- man); G Passerini, Italy, hon. secretary; JJ Rethans, The Netherlands, hon. treasurer; Z Azeredo, Portugal, mem- ber; G Fijten, The Netherlands, member; I Svab, Slovenia, member; J de Lepeleire, Belgium, member. The central administrative office of the EGPRW, the Co- ordination Centre for Primary Care (CCPC), is attached

44 European Journal of General Practice, Volume 1, March 1995

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COMMUNICATION SECTION

to the Department of General Practice of the University of Limburg in Maastricht (The Netherlands). This office acts as a pivot in all activities.

For more information you can contact the administrative office of EGPRW. A leaflet and a presentation booklet are available.

University of Limburg Department of General Practice PO Box 616,6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands. Telephone: .. 31 43 882 319 Fax number: .. 31 43 619 344.

Coordination Centre for Primary Care RJJ Kocken/H Prick

R]] Kocken, G Passerini, P Wallace, J Gervas, J] Rethans.

EQuiP European Working Party on Quality in Family Practice

History The European Working Party on Quality in Family Prac- tice (EQuiP) is a collaboration of professional organisa- tions in general/family practice in Europe on quality de- velopment.

The working party was founded in 1991 by Professor Richard Grol. It is part of the network on quality assur- ance of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA). So far, twenty countries are actively involved in EQuiP activities.

Aims and tasks The aim of this working party is to achieve the highest pos- sible quality of care for patients by promoting quality as- surance and improvement in general practice/family med- icine in Europe. Various activities are undertaken to achieve this aim:

Promoting collaboration between organisations of fam- ily doctors/general practitioners on the topic of quality development: each year two meetings, workshops of about two days, are organised in different countries; the sixth workshop was in November 1994 in Gottingen, Germany. Widening quality development activities by establishing national networks of GPs, educators and researchers in each country who will help to promote and implement the results of the working party: these national networks have been set up in most European countries now. Promoting teaching and training on quality assurance and improvement in undergraduate, vocational and postgraduate training: in many countries courses have been set up to teach practitioners, vocational trainees and keypersons in generavfamily practice the concepts and methods. A first international Summer School on Quality Assurance in Family/General Practice has been organised in Maastricht in 1994: 21 participants from

13 countries followed this course of a week and evalu- ated it very positively. Advising national organisations of GPs and govern- ments on quality development in general/family prac- tice: EQuiP members contribute frequently to national symposia aimed at setting up quality assurance and im- provement in a specific country. Initiating, supporting and supervising collaborative work in European countries on topics such as motivat- ing general practitioners to participate in quality assur- ance and impsovement activities, collecting information on current projects and policies in quality development and evaluating models of guideline development.

Basic assumptions on quality and quality development in family/general practice: a statement by EQuiP One of the activities of EQuiP in the last year was the pre- paration of a statement on basic assumptions on quality and quality development in family/general practice. Back- ground of this statement was the confusion frequently seen when discussing these topics. The statement may be help- ful in discussions in the different European countries, with- in professional organisations or with policy makers. The statement was prepared by dr Joachim Szecsenyi, Germany and dr Leo Schillemans, Belgium.

The aim of EQuiP is to contribute to the achievement of high levels of quality of care for patients in family/gen- era1 practice in all European countries. EQuiP will endeav- our to achieve this by offering a structure for collabora- tion and exchange of expertise and methodology, and by initiating projects on development and evaluation with re- gard to quality assurance, -management and -development (which will be used as the most comprehensive definition). Quality development for generavfamily practice is a con- tinuous process of planned activities, based on perform- ance review and setting of explicit targets for good clini-

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