Domhnall MacAuleyPicture of Domhnall MacAuley is a CMAJ Associate Editor and a professor of primary care in Northern Ireland, UK.

 

The following brief video summary of the recent International Colloquium on Clinical Academic Careers in Primary Care highlights enthusiasm, strong collaboration and funding as key facilitators for robust primary care research. The meeting focused mostly on developments in Canada and Ireland but it also brought together experts from the UK and Sweden, together with a world view from the incoming president of WONCA. It was especially useful to hear from Professor Wendy Norman from UBC Vancouver and from Professor Robyn Tamblyn, Scientific Director at the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and to see the developing dialogue between researchers and funders. Shared understandings will undoubtedly build the foundations of future collaborative developments. We heard the UK perspective from Richard Hobbs, head of the world recognised primary care research unit in Oxford and Director of the NIHR School for Primary Care Research; gained a unique Swedish perspective from Lars Lindholm, whose initiative at their National School & Umea University attracted substantial external funding and; learned about the career trajectory for an academic in Ireland from Emma Wallace, while Prof Norman encouraged all doctors to find their ‘inner researcher’.  As funding is key to development the audience listened closely to Annalisa Montesanti from the Heath Research Board in Ireland and Robyn Tamblyn from the Canada Institute of Health Research. Some contributors offered valuable insights in this short vox pops video: