Asia-Pacific Academic Primary Care Group (AAPCG): Enabling Primary Care Research Collaboration

Abstract

Summary of Symposium SY3-12: The Asia-Pacific Academic Primary Care Group (AAPCG) is a new initiative and a voluntary collaborative partnership among academic family medicine and primary care of nine universities in Asia-Pacific region. The institutional members include University of Melbourne, Fudan University, the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Malaysia, University of Putra Malaysia, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and Duke-Medical School of Singapore. The objective of the AAPCG is to establish synergy, collaboration and partnership in academic primary care in the Asia-Pacific region through building academic family medicine and primary care capacity, creating a rich research and educational environment, and answering important research questions to improve health care. In this symposium, we will be presenting on: 1. How the AAPCG was formed and its activities since its inauguration in 2017. 2. Practical tips on how begin research in primary care. 3. The experience of how a locally important research project on diabetes was upscaled to the regional level through collaboration with the AAPCG scholars. 4. The discussion around multi-morbidity research among AAPCG scholars using different research methodologies.