As part of its strategic goal to enhance impact through collaborative action, SAPC supports a number of Special Interest Groups.
The SIGs programme was established to support areas of work and topics that are core to primary care, but may be traditionally difficult to find support and funding for elsewhere. For example, SIGs address the basic science / blue sky topics in our discipline. Ideas for SIGs come from the membership.
What is a SIG?
A ‘Special Interest Group’ (SIG) is a community with an interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members co-operate to affect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organise conferences. They may at times also advocate or lobby on a particular issue or on a range of issues but are generally distinct from advocacy groups and pressure groups which are normally set up for the specific political aim the distinction is not firm however and some organizations can adapt and change their focus over time.
SAPC established its SIGs to enable members with similar interests to identify each other, share information and ideas, and potentially work up collaborations around teaching and research.
What do SAPC SIGs do?
Each of our SIGs agrees its own plan of activity with its members. You can find out more about the activities of each individual group on our website.
Most SIGs hold meetings at the Annual Scientific Meeting, and sometimes at regional meetings too.
We ask each SIG to send us an annual report of their activities, which is posted on their webpage.
What does SAPC do to support its SIGs?
SAPC supports the activities of SIGs through providing a web presence for the group, a meeting slot at the Annual conference, and access to a bursary of up to £500 per year (A maximum of five times in the life of the SIG) to support additional activities of the group.
I am interested in setting up a SIG, what do I need to do?
If you have an idea for a SIG, you need to submit an application form to SAPC Executive. The proposal must come from an SAPC member. Your application should detail why the topic is relevant to primary care/academic primary care, and why establishing a SIG would be supportive/necessary to take the work forward.
Completed application forms should be sent to office@sapc.ac.uk. Applications are reviewed by the SIG lead (currently Dr Rachel Spencer) before being presented for approval at the next SAPC Executive meeting.
Established SIGs will be required to submit an annual report on their activities by the end of January each year. Reports will be posted on to the individual SIG webpage.
Groups will only be eligible to apply for an annual bursary once they have been established for a year/submitted one annual report.
I am an academic GP and my research interest is in all aspects of patient safety in primary care, I have been involved in mixed-methods safety research for the last 15 years. I can advise clinical academics on the transition to research independence and balancing career demands. As a former NIHR advanced fellow and sitting panel member for HSDR I can advise those seeking funding via these routes. I can offer a mid-career perspective to anybody who is interested in an academic career in primary care. I work in a multi-disciplinary directorate with many non-clinicians who I have guided and advised informally and was formerly the unit training and development lead. I have experience as a clinical academic mentor to clinical trainees who are coming up through academic GP training or thinking of undertaking a PhD. I have also supervised NIHR Academic Clinical Fellows externally.
I have been in post-doctoral roles at Warwick Medical School since 2019 and I sit within Warwick Applied Health where I lead our Primary Care theme. I have been a member of the Society of Academic Primary Care executive committee since 2021. I am also a part-time salaried GP in Coventry. In 2018 I was the West Midlands CRN First 5 research champion promoting research in practice to young GPs across the region. I completed my doctoral work with Professor Anthony Avery at the University of Nottingham between 2014 and 2018. Prior to this I was an academic GP trainee funded by the NIHR from 2011-2013 in Nottingham.
