TUTOR-PHC: Strengthening Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Primary Care

How do early career academics build international collaborations? How do you get started writing interdisciplinary grant applications? Having recently finished my PhD and started as an Academic Clinical Lecturer I was grappling with these questions when I came across TUTOR-PHC.

TUTOR-PHC is a one-year interdisciplinary training programme in primary health care in Canada which seemed to offer exactly what I needed. Not only that but it involved a week-long symposium in Canada to allow trainees and mentors to meet and get to know each other. After working through the covid-19 pandemic I have to admit that the opportunity for some travel and a face-to-face symposium was exciting.

Due to ongoing uncertainty with covid-19 the symposium was switched to online. This was definitely good news for my carbon footprint (which I’ve been trying hard to reduce) but I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed not to get to visit Canada in person! However the course organisers gave a masterclass in how to run an online symposium, with lots of icebreakers, breakout rooms and a great mix of presentations, interactive discussions and engaging content. The main thing that was missing was that opportunity to meet people socially outside of the timetabled symposium sessions, which I think can foster deeper connections and collaborations.

The symposium was a great opportunity for me to step back and think about the big picture and where my research fits in. Whilst I like to think of myself as a collaborative teamworker, it was an eye opener for me on the importance of fostering an interdisciplinary culture in primary care research (see here or at the image below for top tips). Members of TUTOR-PHC came from nursing, physiotherapy, psychology, social work, occupational therapy, epidemiology and family medicine backgrounds, and these different disciplines brought fresh eyes and new perspectives to my research ideas. Sessions on knowledge translation, engaging with decision makers and patient engagement were inspiring and offered practical tools for me use in my research.

It's important to be aware that TUTOR-PHC is much more than just a one-week symposium. Follow on workshops in June and November included topics such as leadership, writing for publication, and engaging policy and decision makers. All this culminated in an intensive period of collaborative grant writing during winter. Logging into the online portal to keep up with regular posts was not easy, but I was very impressed with the final output achieved and would definitely recommend TUTOR-PHC to anyone looking to gain interdisciplinary experiences and collaborations.

Post written, with thanks, by Dr Jessica Watson