• 21st Century Issues •
Researchers at final ASPN convocation welcome new era for practice-based research
BY SHARON DENT
Colorado Springs, ColoA pair of FPs -- father and son -- served as symbols of the business under way at the final Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network annual convocation Dec. 1-4 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"Every physician who's practicing and providing continuity of care is doing research -- he or she is studying what the patients' problems are and how the interventions are working."
-- Gene Farley, M.D.
Gene Farley, M.D., of Madison, Wis., was one of ASPN's founders in 1981. His son, Tillman Farley, M.D., of Fort Lupton, Colo., followed in his footsteps as a family practice researcher. Together, they reflected both the traditions and future possibilities of practice-based research as ASPN passed the torch to the Academy.
ASPN announced last year that financial burdens were forcing its closure, and the Academy responded by launching plans for a national network for family practice and primary care research based on the ASPN model.
"We had real concern about what was happening to ASPN as an organization and what would happen to the research that ASPN was directing, but now it looks like the research will continue. It's all coming together," said Gene Farley.
Larry Green, M.D., worked with Farley to start ASPN and nurture its growth over the years. Now director of the Academy's Center for Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care in Washington, D.C., Green said convocation attendees were both saddened by ASPN's demise and enthusiastic about the Academy's new network. "At the front end of the meeting, there was apprehension and some mourning," he said. "By the back end of the meeting, the apprehension had been assuaged, and people were interested in doing research and getting on with it."
In a speech to attendees, AAFP President Bruce Bagley, M.D., of Albany, N.Y., told researchers that the key elements of ASPN would remain as main components of the Academy's new network:
- research generated by health care professionals and conducted in the practice setting,
- an annual convocation of practices for sharing ideas and enthusiasm for practice-based research,
- an advisory committee composed of stakeholders and
- continued support for the Federation of Practice-Based Research Networks.
"I wanted to assure the ASPN folks that we have the same mission and vision," Bagley said. More than 100 ASPN clinicians from the United States and Canada have expressed interest in participating in the Academy's research network, he noted.
Brainstorming sessions at the meeting focused on topics such as quality of care, the value of the doctor-patient relationship, diabetic patients with other problems, the use of antibiotics in treating bronchitis and the decision-making process regarding use of hormone replacement therapy.
Gene Farley predicts a bright future for practice-based research. "Every physician who's practicing and providing continuity of care is doing research because he or she is studying what the patients' problems are and how the interventions are working," he said.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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