Innovation in frontline healthcare strengthened by new collaboration

Led by the University of Exeter Medical School, the Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primacy Care (APEx) will bring together partners including GPs and healthcare providers. It will establish the South West Peninsula as a national centre of excellence for research and education in Primary Care – the day-to-day care given by a GP, nurse or other healthcare professional.

APEx was launched at the St Luke’s Campus last week, with a key note speech from Dr Mike Bewick, Deputy Medical Director of NHS England. Dr Bewick said:  “I am delighted to help launch the APEx programme. Its focus on primary care research at a very practical level supports NHS England's work to transform primary care. I look forward to learning of its progress and success.”

Professor John Campbell, Interim Director of APEx, is both a practicing GP and a researcher at the University of Exeter Medical School. He said: “APEx is all about providing the impetus for partners in the South West to come together to make the most of the excellent expertise in the region. In our ageing society, patient needs are becoming ever more complex. We must continue to find innovative new treatments and ways of working, to future-proof the high standard of healthcare in the UK and meet the challenges facing primary care service delivery.

“There’s a huge amount of activity in frontline healthcare within the University and among our partners. Not only do we train the doctors and medical scientists of the future, but we offer continued professional training throughout their careers. Our ambition is to bring this expertise to a wide range of primary care health professionals in the future, with the aim of directly benefiting patient care. Our research is widely influential nationally and internationally, and has helped shape guidelines in a number of important areas of care. This reflects the standards across the South West as a whole, and we are now cultivating our already strong relationships across all levels of the regional healthcare service to ensure this calibre is nationally recognised and to maximise impact.”

The launch also incorporated presentations from Professor David Mant, from Oxford University’s Department of Primary Care Health, and Dr Tim Burke, Chair of North, East and West Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG).

For more information, visit the APEx website: https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/apex/

Some examples of the University of Exeter Medical School’s research in Primary Care are listed below:

Phone triage does not save money or reduce practice workload
Invisible blood in urine may indicate bowel cancer
Doctors raise blood pressure in patients

View images from the launch on our Flickr album.