The Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) is the primary organisation championing academic primary care in the UK. SAPC aims to provide a clear voice and a strong presence for APC in the complex and ever-changing Primary Care environment. We offer a point of reference and contact for those seeking academic solutions to the problems they face in the provision and study of Primary Care. SAPC also provides career support to professionals seeking to develop excellence in the provision of primary care and the advancement of academic primary care.
The early years
A detailed history of SAPC has recently been published.[fn]Howie J, Whitfield M, editors. Academic General Practice in the UK medical schools, 1948-2000. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; 2011.[/fn] In brief, APC in the UK originated in the educational arm of our discipline. The first UK funded undergraduate academic General Practice (AGP) post was established in Edinburgh in 1948.With the foundation of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in 1952 came a goal to establish a department of General Practice in every medical school.
The visionary work of key individuals led the growth of AGP departments with independent Chairs throughout the UK. The first AGP scientific meeting was held in 1972 in Cardiff, at which the Association of University Teachers of General Practice (AUTGP) was established. As the maturing discipline expanded its capacity for both education and research, emerging departments welcomed colleagues from multiple disciplines. AUTGP became the Association of University Departments of General Practice, and – in 2001 – the Society for Academic Primary Care.
SAPC today
SAPC today maintains its firm base within university academic departments delivering primary care teaching and research. Our diverse membership reflects the range of professional disciplines working with and within primary care; about half of our members have a clinical background.[fn]Calitri R, Adams A, Atherton H, et al. Investigating the sustainability of careers in academic primary care: a UK survey. BMC Family Medicine. 2014; 15: 205. DOI: 10.1186/s12875-014-0205-6[/fn] Reflecting the growing diversity and complexity of UK primary care, we also work with an expanding range of colleagues and organisations to support primary care improvement – including the RCGP, national Clinical Research and Academic Health Science Networks, research funders including the National Institute for Health Research, as well as international partners including the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care (AAAPC) / the Australasian Primary Health Care Researcch Information Service (PHCRIS) and the North American Primary Care Research group ( NAPCRG ).
Our work focuses on the Society’s three key goals: i) to champion a vision of advancing primary care through education and research ii) to build and support a vibrant APC workforce and iii) to create and sustain impact through collaborative action. Activities include hosting regional and national meetings; career support for early career academics, primary healthcare scientists, and academic GPs through providing a range of ‘getting in’ and ‘getting on’ resources; as well as outreach work with external organisations. This work is led by the SAPC Executive, currently made up of 9 elected and 6 co-opted members – including the Chairs of the Heads of Departments and Heads of Teaching groups.
ASMs and regional meetings
View a list of Annual Scientific Meetings and regional meetings over the years.
Our Strategic Plan
In 2013, and in light of ongoing changes in both the academic and clinical contexts, SAPC identified the need for a new strategic plan to guide our work. Our new plan focuses around three areas of work:
- Raising the profile of Academic Primary Care - a distinct discipline driving improvement in primary care through scholarship
- Building and sustaining an academic primary care workforce
- Achieving impact through collaboration
SAPC ASM 2022 Wednesday 6th July, keynote during the joint session SAPC/ASME 11.00-12.40
Presentation: Today’s doctor is a generalist: opportunities and challenges for academic practice
Health Education England declared “The future doctor is a generalist”. But it is today’s doctors who battle with the growing levels of whole person (generalist) problems – multimorbidity, treatment burden, problematic polypharmacy, persistent physical symptoms, and the list goes on... Barriers to delivering generalist care identified by my research include problems with both the evidence and education we offer to clinicians, and health services, to support the complexity of their daily knowledge work – the processes by which they make sense of illness. My work focuses on addressing those gaps. I’ll use examples from current projects (WISE GP, TAILOR, CATALYST) and others to describe the gaps, offer suggestions for “recovery and innovation”, and consider the benefits and challenges we might anticipate. I will conclude by inviting you to join me planning how we “future proof…our practical wisdom” as we work towards “recovery and innovation”
Biography
Joanne is an inner city GP and professor of primary care at Hull York Medical School, internationally known for her research and scholarship on medical generalism. She leads the national WISE GP partnership, is Chair of the SAPC Heads of Departments Group, and Director of the Academy of PC at HYMS where she also leads the flagship CATALYST programme. Her book, Medical Generalism Now, will be published by Taylor Frances in 2023.
Further details
My work tackles two of the biggest challenges facing modern health care systems. Namely, finding primary care solutions for the growing burden of chronic, complex illness; and building capacity for high quality, meaningful primary care scholarship to support the necessary changes.
The primary care approach is defined by a person-centred model of care. As a clinical academic, I lead an international collaboration to develop, implement and evaluate the provision of the individually tailored model of care that is expert generalist practice. My work is underpinned by expertise in the fields of complex interventions research, action research, and translational scholarship. As recent past Chair of the Society for Academic Primary Care, I lead work to enhance the capacity for advancing primary care through education and research; supporting quality improvement through the shared application of the skills of scholarship.
All of which is supported and sustained by my role as a non-principal GP in a busy inner city Practice in Hull.
Information for mentees
Hello!
I am Joanne – an academic GP working in Hull. I have benefited from being a mentee from early in my clinical career and in turn, enjoyed being a mentor for a number of years.
I am Professor in Primary Care Research at Hull and York Medical School (HYMS) . My research is in the area of primary care re-design based on person-centred/expert generalist principles. I have described the development of a new basic science of generalism, and now use implementation research and scholarship approaches to apply this work to tackling key challenges of today’s primary care (including multimorbidity, polypharmacy, mental health care and acute care). I work with clinical, academic and patient colleagues in the UK and internationally (including a Special Interest Group on Generalism within NAPCRG).
I have been a member of SAPC Executive since 2011 – initially as early career rep and communications lead. From 2013-2016, I was SAPC Chair. I am now co-opted on the Exec leading work on developing academic General Practice and GP Scholarship and chair of the Heads of Department group (HODs).
My own career has been an entertaining path of twists and turns. I have succeeded and failed in getting NIHR fellowships, grant funding, papers published, abstracts accepted… I have enjoyed and been challenged by development and leadership roles in local NHS, SAPC and RCGP.
I believe that we need strong academic primary care at the heart of a vibrant primary care community – scholarship leading and delivering innovation and improvement. So I’m delighted that you are developing your career in academic primary care too. And I would welcome working with you to help describe and achieve your career goals.
