Projects

International Research Training

MIPC has supported the training of primary care researchers in Malta and other Mediterranean countries, most recently with its involvement with an International Research Course in collaboration with EGPRN and SNAMID in Palermo, Italy in 2012. (Link to Courses page)

International Clinical Training

MIPC has collaborated with the University of Ulster to support the delivery of a Masters programme in General Practice and Primary Care to Maltese and Italian family doctors, and with Bournemouth University and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic to deliver courses in diagnostic ultrasound for primary care workers. (Link to Courses page)

Support of the International Classification of Primary Care

MIPC has supported and promoted the use of the International Classification of Primary Care (link), including sponsoring the coding of family practice consultations with electronic medical record systems in Malta, participation in the international Transition Project research project using ICPC in primary care in Malta, the Netherlands and Serbia, and the analysis of ICPC family practice data in the EU FP7 TRANSFoRm project (see below). MIPC has also supported, sponsored and/or hosted numerous ICPC-2 update meetings in Malta and Italy in collaboration with the World Organisation of Family Doctors International Classification Committee (link), the most recent being held in Malta in March 2013. MIPC is also sponsoring on-going work to update the ICPC-ICD-10 Thesaurus originally funded by the Dutch Government and now included in the National Library of Medicine (USA) UMLS Meta-thesaurus project, and a new version of the Transition Project family practice research databases. MIPC also supported the translation of ICPC-2 in Italian.

The International Transition Project

MIPC continues to collaborate with the International Transition Project to promote research using ICPC to define the content of family practice in Malta and the Netherlands, as specified above. MIPC continues to support a family doctor registration network in Malta, active since 2000.

EU Funded Projects

MIPC was a partner in the EU FP-7 funded research project OTC-Sociomed, led by Prof. Christos Lionis from the University of Crete, Greece. The project studied over-the-counter prescribing in primary care and the local study lead was Dr. Dominic Agius.

MIPC is currently a partner in the EU FP-7 project TRANSFoRm (FP7 247787, www.transformproject.eu ), a project led by Prof. Brendan Delaney at King’s College in London. TRANSFoRm is studying the implementation of the learning healthcare system in primary care, to use knowledge generated in practice, from the electronic record systems used by family doctors in Europe, to inform practice and reduce patient error. MIPC was directly involved in work on semantic interoperability of information systems, the evidence base for a diagnostic decision support system, and numerous publications and conference presentations regarding this project. The lead researcher is Dr. Jean Karl Soler.

MIPC is currently submitting a bid under the EU Horizon 2020 framework for funding of a project extending the diagnostic decision support system piloted in TRANSFoRm.