Abstract
Background: Health systems worldwide are focused on strengthening primary care, improving quality and access to regular primary care providers and care teams, and integrating primary care with the rest of the health system. This workshop aims to share findings from an international comparative health policy research network comprised of high and middle-income countries across four world regions and to stimulate dialogue and lesson sharing on the causal mechanisms of policy change.
Audience: This workshop targets a diverse set of participants, including health care providers, system managers, patients, and researchers, with an interest in sharing experiences with primary care reforms in their own jurisdiction and/or with an interest in learning about the mechanisms for policy change in health systems.
Approach: This 90-minute workshop will be highly engaging and interactive, including dynamic presentations by lead researchers, facilitated group discussions, and collaboratively drafting an analytic framework. This workshop goes beyond description: it seeks to help understand why/why not the reforms have achieved their intended system impacts. Interactive tools will be used to increase engagement of all attended, such as polls and Q&A in Slido.
1. Introduction and overview (5-10 minutes): Introduction of the international comparative health policy network and highlights from a major scoping review of primary care governance reforms across Canada and Australia; review workshop goals and processes.
2. Presentations (20 minutes): Investigators from three countries (Australia, Brazil, and Canada) will present the proposed analytic framework for comparative analysis, and they will share study findings about the mechanics of reforms to engage primary care in health system integration efforts, including a background of the health system and main reforms introduced/underway, and insights into the mechanisms of those changes.
3. Facilitated discussions (30 minutes): Participants will form small groups with a member of our research network who will facilitate the discussion. Guiding questions include: What mechanisms for change have you uncovered in your own work and/or experienced in your jurisdiction? Are there any similarities between the results shared here with your own jurisdiction or experiences? What research methods have you found useful to uncover mechanisms of policy change?
4. Small group rapporteur report (20 minutes): Participants will contribute to refining an analytical framework that will be used to aid the identification of underlying mechanisms in future reform evaluation and design with applicability across multiple diverse jurisdictions.
5. Concluding remarks (5 minutes): Will include a summary of the of the themes that emerged from the small-group discussion.
Outcomes: This workshop will stimulate lesson sharing and forge new collaborations across multiple world regions and across researchers, system managers and others interested in understanding how to overcome challenges to strengthen primary care and integration with the rest of the system. A written summary of the workshop, including the refined analytical framework, will be shared with all participants via our network website. Also, participants will be invited to join future events (e.g., public webinars), and contribute to ongoing work (e.g., special issues for journals).