RESEARCH
AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN OFFICE SETTINGS
Grossman Z1, Kahan E2
1 Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association, Tel Aviv, Israel
2 Dept. of Family Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Pediatric care in the community is
gradually replacing traditional care in hospitals.Despite that, research
activity in the community setting is minimal due to objective difficulties.
These are mainly constraints of time, office work and lack of research
supporting logistics. Research network in primary care is a group of
physicians performing research in the community. The aim of the network
structure is to promote and support research activity – the “research
laboratory “ of the community.
IPROS – Israel Pediatric Research in
Office Setting network was established 5 years ago by the Israel Ambulatory
Pediatric Association (IAPA). Today, the network is also affiliated with
Schneider Children Hospital. There are 250 pediatricians listed,
representing the composition of pediatricians in Israel. The network’s
policy is defined by a steering committee. The types of studies are
diverse. Experimental studies, epidemiologic surveys and quality
improvement projects are carried out by the network.
Effective intra-net communication is
vital to the existence of the network, and is accomplished by three
modalities: 1) semiannual updates by mail , 2) e-mail, using an electronic
mailing list to facilitate connection between members, 3) semiannual
meetings.
Research budgets are derived from
public sources and private sources such as pharmaceutical companies. The
administration of the network is supported by IAPA and the Children
Hospital.