The 89th EGPRN meeting took place in Vigo, Spain, between the 17th and the 20th October 2019. A total of 176 participants joined the EGPRN meeting in Vigo, from 27 different countries. Most participants were from Spain (46%), followed by Turkey (6.2%), France (5.7%) and Portugal (5.1%). In total, 153 abstracts were submitted, with a rejection rate of 22.3%.
The general topic of the meeting was “General Practice and the Community: research on health service, quality improvements and training”. Prof. Anne MacFarlane, from University of Limerick gave the international keynote speech on “Community Participation in Primary Healthcare”, while Jordi Varela, specialist in Community and Family Medicine and post-graduate in Epidemiology and Statistics (CESAM Paris) and in Hospital Management (ESADE Barcelona), gave the National Keynote lecture on “Looking for Value-Based Community Health”.
The meeting followed the traditional EGPRN format, including pre-conference workshops (“Diagnostic test and optimal cutpoint selection” and “Social determinants of health”), presentation of theme papers and freestanding papers, and several one slide/five minute presentations.
A unique and interactive EGPRN poster session was held, where participants present posters that are not their own, and authors join at the discussion stage. The best poster prize was awarded to the work "It’s a double-edged sword”: translation and cultural adaptation of a prostate cancer”, authored by Sofia Baptista, Bruno Heleno, Marta Pinto, Bruna Guimaraes, Diogo China, Joao Pedro Ramos, Andreia Teixeira, Kathryn Taylor and Carlos Martins, from University of Porto (Portugal).
There was also a session dedicated to the participants that completed the modules of the EGPRN Web-based course.
EGPRN also supports several collaborative research groups, which have resulted in various multicentric studies in the last years. EGPRN meetings also represent an opportunity for these groups to meet and further develop their work. Active groups include the PROCOPD Study Group, the FPDM Study Group, the Family Violence Study Group, the Örenäs Study Group and the HEFESTOS Study Group, amongst others. Active EGPRN members lead all groups.
In Vigo we saw many interesting studies, innovative projects and great ideas coming to life – and are looking forward to experience again this energy in the next EGPRN meeting, which will take place in Gothenburg, between the 7-10th May 2020, under the topic “e-Health and Digital Medicine”.
Authors
Ana Luisa Neves and all the members of the PR and Communications Committee:
Tiny van Merode
Vanja Lazic
Ayse Caylan
Tuomas Koskela
Radost Asenova
Burak Usgurlu
Mine Kaya Bezgin