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BEAMER awarded as the best research project at the semFYC Conference 2023

The 43rd edition of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC) Conference was held in Donostia, Spain, from 11-13 May 2023.

This annual gathering brought together thousands of family medicine doctors, along with other healthcare professionals such as public health doctors, medical administrators, nurses, and pharmacists, all associated with Primary Care.

With the theme “Rowing as a team,” the conference aimed to highlight the significance of teamwork in Primary Care and the need for collaboration among healthcare actors to provide comprehensive patient-centred care. The event provided an excellent platform for professionals in the Primary Care sector to connect, exchange ideas, and establish valuable contacts.

Participants dedicated their time and efforts to explore proposals and solutions that aim to improve the healthcare system and enhance the quality of patient care. Experienced professionals contributed their knowledge, opinions, and reflections through enriching masterclasses and debates, while younger profiles offered their vision of the future and helped identify challenges and areas for change. Attendees reflected on the current critical moment and discussed the necessary actions for the future of Primary Care, involving professionals, managers, and political decision-makers.

One of the conference’s three thematic lines focused on research in Primary Care under the title “Navigating in uncertainty: research in Primary Care.” This thematic line emphasized the role of research in the development of healthcare and the need for evidence-based care models. It aimed to ensure that informed and scientifically backed decisions are made for positive change.

Research is vital for improving clinical practice, and access to quality data is essential for obtaining valid and relevant conclusions. The knowledge generated from primary care caters to the needs of patients and professionals and should be developed within healthcare centres and communities to which they belong. Workshops, discussion tables, and presentations by leading professionals provided opportunities to explore research questions, disseminate study findings, and transfer knowledge to patients. Additionally, projects and results developed by primary care professionals in recent months were shared, fostering collaboration and learning.

Our European project, H2020 – IMI Project BEAMER, was selected for presentation in a session showcasing the best research projects at the conference. The session covered various topics, including cardiovascular health, pharmacology, new technologies, prevention, and community health in Primary Care.

Access to health information has become a crucial aspect of research, both in Spain and internationally, within Primary Care. Initiatives promoting the evolution of the healthcare system and the provision of quality data facilitate better clinical and organizational decision-making. In this context, we explained the purpose of BEAMER, which aims to improve patient adherence throughout their medical care, enhancing their health status, quality of life, and the accessibility and sustainability of healthcare.

We presented research conducted in Madrid, including preliminary results. This research will facilitate an extensive data search to predict non-adherence by comprehending the complex factors influencing patient adherence. Our focus is on “real individuals” rather than “ideal individuals,” utilizing characteristics and medication adherence data from a large population of high-risk chronic patients based on electronic medical records and pharmacy data from the real-world setting in the Community of Madrid.

The predictive model for non-adherence to medication will be based on medical history and pharmacy data, enabling the development of a tool for automatic identification in electronic medical records and personalized interventions.

The BEAMER project garnered significant interest among attendees of the session on best research projects. In the closing ceremony, it was recognized as the “Best Research Project” by the Scientific Committee of the conference.

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Healthcare Professional

The primary aim of the end user personas is to support the creation of materials to support the implementation of the BEAMER model framework and to help define requirements for the elements of the BEAMER model framework. Hence, healthcare professionals (HCPs) represent the primary envisaged end user group of the BEAMER model framework and the associated Adherence Intelligence Visualisation Platform (AIVP)

It is one learning from the joint design process that the job titles of healthcare professional team members do not necessarily predict the roles they would play within the change management process for implementing BEAMER and installing it as a standard model within healthcare. Additionally, the role and responsibilities of certain job titles, for example nurse, varies across different healthcare systems and would affect how they interact with the BEAMER model outputs and the access they would be permitted and so it would not be helpful to include these job titles: The four personas represent role-independent archetypes within the group of HCPs. They encompass a Managerial HCP Persona, an Implementer HCP Persona, a Support HCP Persona, and a Established HCP Persona.

These healthcare professional personas may be further tailored to specific healthcare settings depending on the needs of the individual pilot sites. Thus, adapted or spin-off versions of these original personas may be considered. The persona displays include a summarising statement, goals, challenges, experience, and needs to enhance the accessibility and usability of the model while minimising user burden.

Patient Organisation

Patient organisations are considered potential users of the model outputs. Consequently, personas were designed for these groups to assure that the implementation materials may also support their needs in the longer term, thus fostering sustainability of the project outputs.

The identified focus areas within this persona are goals, needs, skills and tools, along with potential challenges anticipated during the implementation process. The persona emphasises awareness-raising, capacity building, education, peer support provision, and the promotion of research and development in therapeutic care.

The patient organisation persona serves as a theoretical framework representing how patient organisations could benefit from and include the BEAMER model framework in their therapy and care related as well as their organisational work. This persona comprises the needs, goals, challenges and necessary tools, facilitating preparation and implementation of the model and optimising the user experience of patient organisations as end users of the BEAMER model framework. It can be used as a guide to identify potential obstacles and understand the prerequisites for a patient organisation to successfully adopt and integrate the BEAMER model framework.

“In implementing the BEAMER model, we want to be able to respond to the different needs of our patients to ensure their adherence, build a supportive community and improve outcomes.”