Priority setting and cross-country learning: the relevance of TO-REACH for primary care.

AIM

To inform the primary care community about priorities for research in primary care as came up from the European project TO-REACH and to discuss transferability of service and policy innovations between countries.

BACKGROUND

TO-REACH stands for ransfer of rganizational innovations for esilient, ffective, equitable, ccessible, sustainable and omprehensive ealth services and systems. This EU-funded project has put health systems and services research higher on the European agenda and has led to the current development of a European 'Partnership Transforming Health and Care Systems'.

METHODS

To identify research priorities, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. Policy documents and strategic roadmaps were searched, and priorities were mapped. Stakeholders were involved through national roundtable consultations and online consultations. Regarding transferability, we carried out a review of the literature, guided by a conceptual framework, and using a snowballing approach.

FINDINGS

Primary care emerged as an important priority from the inventory, as are areas that are conducive to strengthening primary care, such as workforce policies. The large variation in service organisation and policy around primary care in Europe is a huge potential for cross-country learning. However, the simple transfer of primary care service and policy arrangements from one health system to another has a big chance to fail, unless known conditions for successful transfer are taken into account and gaps in our knowledge about transfer are resolved.