Observatory Venice Summer School - Primary Care: Innovating for Integrated, More Effective Care, 24 – 30 July 2016, Austria

Objectives: To

• Provide evidence‐based country experiences of different approaches and innovative models of primary care
• Describe how primary care can serve whole populations, emphasizing vulnerable groups
• Provide mechanisms and tools that facilitate the integration between health care, public health and social services
• Provide tools to assess the performance of primary care
• Explore innovations that strengthen effectiveness of primary care interventions
• Review how provider payments and incentives can enable that primary care fulfils its role
• Systematize and interpret primary care innovations and their implementation

Why innovation and primary care?

There is a Europe wide consensus on the central role of primary care to enable universal access; facilitate continuity in health care; promote intersectoral work; empower communities; and adopt a public health perspective. This course will go beyond these core commitments to address how countries in very different systems can use, adapt and apply innovative models to make primary care a key force for integration and effectiveness. It will seek to address the following policy questions:

• How can innovation be shared and applied in practice in very different European systems, given the path dependency of provision?
• How can innovation be used to include vulnerable groups whether they are migrants, minorities, in isolated rural communities, or otherwise excluded?
• How can professionals, carers and patients be engaged in and support achievement of better health outcomes?
• How can the most fitting strategies be identified in a given national context?

Approach: The six day course includes formal teaching but has at its core the experiences of participants in practice. A highly participative approach emphasizes group work that cuts across themes, participant presentations, round tables and panel discussions. It mobilizes the latest evidence and a multidisciplinary team of experts with a track record in the analysis, implementation and evaluation of primary care. Course participants will also be able to share perspectives with and gain insights from key international organizations including the World Health Organization, the European Commission and relevant professional and governmental organizations and to engage in political dialogue with senior policy makers. They will be part of the Summer School tradition, which fosters evidence‐based policy‐making and encourages European health policy debate by raising key issues, sharing learning and building lasting networks.

MODULE 1: Where do we stand with primary care in Europe?

This module describes the current situation of primary care in Europe and addresses issues, such as:

• What is primary (health) care? A working definition
• Interface with other sectors: integration between health care, public health and social services
• GP‐led primary health care: organizational forms, scope of practice, cooperation with other health care sectors and social care
• Primary care performance: what does the international evidence show?

MODULE 2: Health system challenges and Primary care reforms

This module addresses the challenges that health systems face:

• Changing care needs in the population: multimorbidity, ageing, chronicity
• Taking care of diversity of patients, especially in vulnerable situations (e.g. migrants, homeless and minorities) and using primary care as vehicle for integration
• Workforce and organizational challenges: new professions in health care, incentives and appropriate skill mix to best meet patients’ needs
• How primary care reforms attempt to solve health system challenges
• Primary care reforms and policy developments in European countries

MODULE 3: Policy, planning and evaluation

This module addresses the potential for change, both at system level and at the level of organizations and networks. We will address issues such as:

• Use of technological innovations and information system developments to support more effective primary care and better integration
• Empowering patients and making primary care the guide through the health system, to support choice and access to the right services in the right settings at the right time
• Policy development and implementation: how to translate the international visibility of primary care into actual reform at national (and subnational) level
• Policy evaluation

Accreditation: the Summer School has applied to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and it is expected that participation will count towards ongoing professional development in all EU Member States.

Organization: the Summer School is organized by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the Veneto Region of Italy, the European Commission and World Health Organization with the participation of NIVEL – the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research

Applying: The Summer School is primarily aimed at senior to mid‐level policy‐makers although more junior professionals will be considered. All participants should be working in a decision‐making or advisory function in a governmental and non‐governmental context – such as ministries, (public) health institutes, regulatory or funding bodies, provider and professional associations – that focus on policy and management at a regional, national or European level.

Applications are welcome from all 53 WHO European Region Member States and the programme will be tailored, as far as is possible, to the backgrounds of participants. If places allow, participants from outside the region will be considered.

Potential participants are requested to apply by submitting their CV with the brief application formattached. The deadline for applications is 31 May 2016.

The cost of € 2,200 covers teaching materials, social programmes, transfer from/to the airport to/from the island, accommodation and meals.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ive8q4qgkr70wsr/VeniceSS_Primary%20Care_%202016.pdf?dl=0