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President's report for the IPCRG AGM, 27 September, Hotel Imperial, Vienna

2003 Achievements

We are now in our third year of operation and believe we have made significant strides forward. I want to use this report to highlight a number of our successes.

Those of you at our small, inaugural meeting in Cambridge will remember our plans for an international organisation that could undertake global primary care research and provide a credible forum for the sharing of ideas, good practice and camaraderie.

I think we can be proud of our achievements:
  • We now have 23 member countries

  • We have two research projects underway with four more in the pipeline; thanks to David Price, Chair of the newly formed Research Sub-Committee and Thys Van Der Molen for getting these up and running, and all of you who are participating in the research

  • Wonca Executive has agreed for us to become one of its few special working parties with a launch at its triennial congress in Orlando in 2004. Thanks to Chris Van Weel for actively promoting us, and agreeing to be the Wonca representative for the IPCRG. We see Orlando as a great opportunity to make our mark in the USA, and are keen to hear from anyone wishing to help us with this event.

  • The IPAG guidelines organisers have agreed that the guidelines will be launched at our Melbourne Conference in February and after that we will be responsible for disseminating them across the world. We expect to use the Wonca meeting as one of the platforms for dissemination. You will be hearing from Ron Tomlins shortly about the latest IPAG news.

  • www.theipcrg.org has been launched and is being developed by a newly formed editorial team. Thanks to Miguel Roman, Hetty Van Dijk and Mike Thomas for volunteering, and for Mark Levy offering to be Web Consultant.

  • We are now a company limited by guarantee, with a clear constitution that sets out our process of accountability and decision-making and clarifies responsibilities, liabilities and limits to those liabilities. Siân Williams will be taking us through the key points later on the agenda.

  • We expect by the end of the year to also be a charity that offers us some financial benefits and grant opportunities.

  • In addition to the Research Sub-committee, we have three others each with draft terms of reference: Guidelines chaired by Onno Van Schayk, Membership chaired by Thys Van Der molen, and Governance chaired by Ron Tomlins. Many thanks to you for taking on these roles. We hope that our members and the individuals in member countries, will engage with these committees to improve the IPCRG's contact with practitioners across the world which will increase our value to you and improve our global presence.

  • We are grateful to our existing sponsors: AstraZeneca; Boehringer Ingelheim; Merck Sharp & Dohme and GSK for supporting us in our infancy, and keeping a light touch on our activities.

  • We look forward to welcoming them as associate members in 2004, as well as Altana that has pledged support. We will be working with them and all our members to develop a long-term partnership and are developing plans for an industry forum for exchange of ideas about research, dissemination and education.
We are counting down to the 19th February 2004 and the launch of the IPCRG's second major international conference. We are really pleased with the programme, the range of speakers from primary and secondary care and know that the venue in Melbourne will be exceptional. Early bird bookings are about to open, and we are soon to announce our sponsors who are generously contributing to the event. We already know that there are 45 subscribers from Norway, which is fantastic, and we are convinced that there will be a new and interesting mix of participants from Asia Pacific as well as Europe and the Americas. We welcome you all!

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues on the IPCRG Executive for their hard work and support.

Dr H John Fardy
Joint President		 Assoc Prof J J Reid
Joint President
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