he Primary Care Research Unit (PCRU) was established under the guidance of Professor Doris Young, Head of the Department of Family Medicine, in February 2019. The overall strategic goal of PCRU is to achieve excellence in Family Medicine primary care research. The objectives are to build manpower capacity, research skills capability, and local and international research collaborations to develop research programmes that address national health priorities and create career tracks for clinician-scientists in Family Medicine.

From the beginning, PCRU gathered a group of multidisciplinary researchers from NUS and other primary care entities to form the PCRU advisory group. The group members are experienced researchers from NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, NUHS’ Research Office, National University Polyclinics, National Healthcare Group Polyclinics and Agency for Integrated Care. This group brought research expertise to discuss and advise PCRU on novel research topics, research methodologies and funding sources.

Within the first year, a grid with research themes of national and global importance and relevance in improving clinical practices and patient outcomes was drawn up to guide the research endeavours for the Department (see Table 1). Clinical themes of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease including chronic kidney disease, cancer care, mental health and healthy longevity were mapped onto aspects addressing behavioural and implementation sciences, innovative new models of care, data analytics and disadvantaged populations. This grid also aligns to research programmes at NUS Medicine. PCRU uses the research grid to focus its energy and resources in building research programmes. The medical education research focuses on medical humanism and educational pedagogy.

Table 1.

	Diabetes/CVD	Cancer Care	Mental Health	Healthy Longevity
Behavioural and Implementation Sciences	PACE-D patient activation and conversation study Systematic review on diabetes self-care	Follow up of breast cancer patients and caregivers	Postnatal mental health problems study	Perceptions of older people with chronic conditions about primary care study
Innovative Primary Care Models	GP Primary Care Networks for improving DM care study		GP survey on youth mental health study
Digital Medicine and Data Analytics	CKD risk prediction study GP Initiative-MOHT quality improvement study	Gastric cancer mRNA study
Disadvantaged Populations	REVERSE-Diabetes (Gestational DM) study

At the Department’s annual strategic meeting held in January 2020, PCRU gathered existing and potential research collaborators to discuss and give further input to enhance the grid. From the meeting, PCRU derived three research strategies to be accomplished in 2020: aligning PCRU activities to its goals (capacity, capability and collaboration); identifying key projects, project leads and collaborators and sharing existing resources with its collaborators in teaching and conducting research. PCRU’s research strategies were shared at the NUS Medicine Head of Departments’ meeting on 6 July 2020 by Professor Doris Young.

Capacity: Building a clinician-scientist pipeline for Family Medicine research

PCRU builds its pipeline of Family Medicine researchers through targeted research training programmes for family doctors at different training levels with gradated objectives and deliverables. To date, PCRU is training 19 family doctors in research—two Junior Academic Faculty Scheme (JAFS) lecturers or FM Scholars, 13 National University Polyclinics doctors and one general practitioner—who are undertaking the College of Family Physicians Singapore’s fellowship programme and four first-year Family Medicine residents. In 2020, PCRU also provided research teaching and opportunities for about 20 NUS Medicine students. In 2021, the FM Scholars’ programme will expand to four Scholars from two the year before and start a new research training programme for the four first-year FM residents. The Department of Family Medicine also has its first PhD candidate who has been awarded the 2019 National Medical Research Council Research Training Fellowship.

In 2020, PCRU conducted eight Research Forums featuring primary care researchers sharing their research journeys and findings to an audience which comprised about 50 primary care researchers.

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12

Peer-reviewed Papers
were published by
the Department from
2019 to 2020

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Capability: Building research unit and developing research skills

By 2020, PCRU has increased in strength with four research staff (one research fellow, two research associates, one research assistant and one senior research executive). The number of projects has also grown to 11 (see Table 1), with grants amounting to S$760,000 (see Table 2). A grant review committee was set up to improve PCRU’s skills in developing and submitting successful research grant proposals. PCRU also leverages on existing NUS/NUHS research development workshops to hone its research skills.

Table 2.

Collaborations: Establishing impactful joint research projects and programmes

PCRU brings together local and international researchers from general practice, hospital practice, basic sciences, aged care, cancer care, biostatistics, health informatics, medical education, nutrition and psychology.

International visitors

From 2019 to 2020, PCRU hosted eight primary care researchers from universities around the world. These esteemed researchers who visited were Professor Andrew Farmer from University of Oxford UK, Professor Irene Blackberry from La Trobe University Australia, Professors Jon Emery and Lena Sanci and Associate Professor Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis from University of Melbourne Australia, Professor Cindy Lam from University of Hong Kong, Professor Samuel Wong from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Claire Jackson from University of Queensland Australia and Dr Ruth Teh from University of Auckland, New Zealand. They generously shared their expertise and experience to advice and guide PCRU in its planning and work.

Asia-Pacific Academic Primary Care Group

PCRU has research training and collaborations with primary care researchers from eight universities in the Asia-Pacific region, forming the Asia-Pacific Academic Primary Care Group (AAPCG). The universities are Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School and NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, University of Melbourne in Australia, University of Hong Kong, and Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Malaya, University Putra Malaysia and Fudan University in the People’s Republic of China. Once a year, the group holds a workshop on research methodology and update one another on their research programmes to facilitate future collaborations.

Funding: Building strong sources of revenue to support PCRU’s research efforts

PCRU is strategising to successfully obtain grants and pool resources to sustain its research. It also intends to work towards attracting philanthropic support for its research endeavours.

Dr Ruth Teh’s (third from left) visit to DFM in January 2020*.

Future Research Directions for PCRU

The future looks bright and exciting for PCRU, the new kid on the block in NUS/NUHS research. PCRU has started to forge its way steadily to create research opportunities for local family doctors to participate in impactful primary care research that will influence health practices and improve clinical outcomes for their patients. A 2020 PCRU Report Card outlining targets, programmes, action plans, achievements and future plans was used to document its accomplishments in 2020 and will be used to guide PRCU in attaining the Department’s key research objectives for 2021.

* Photographs taken before implementation of COVID-19 safe distancing measures, when classes and activities moved online.