The Research Award includes a live presentation at the following WONCA Europe conference (and some money).
Call for Junior Research Award 2023
Past Winners
2021 Junior Research Award Runner-up 2: Ebrahim Mulla
Awarded project: „Proactive frailty identification – a good idea? A sequential mixed-
methods study of GP”
Dr Ebrahim Mulla achieved his MRCGP in 2021 and is working as an NHS General
Practitioner in the East Midlands region of England. He is the First5 representative for
the Leicester Faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners and is a Committee
member for the Primary Care Academic Collaborative, a UK-wide primary care research
network.
Proactive frailty identification – a good idea? A sequential mixed-methods study of GP
Background In England, GPs are independent contractors working to a national contract.
Since 2017, the contract requires GPs to use electronic tools to proactively identify
moderate and severe frailty in people aged ≥65 years, and offer interventions to help those
identified to stay well and maintain independent living. Little is currently known about GPs’
views of this contractual requirement.
Aim To explore GPs’ views of identifying frailty and offering interventions for those living
with moderate or severe frailty.Design and setting A sequential mixed-methods study of GPs in the East Midlands region
of England — namely Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and
Northamptonshire — undertaken between January and May 2019.
Method GPs were made aware of the study via professional organisations’ newsletters
and bulletins, GP email lists, and social media, and were invited to complete an online
questionnaire. Responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and, based on those
survey responses, GPs with a range of GP and practice characteristics, as well as views
on identifying frailty, were selected to participate in a semi-structured telephone interview.
Interview transcripts were analysed using framework analysis.
Results In total, 188 out of 3058 (6.1%) GPs responded to the survey and 18 GPs were
interviewed. GPs were broadly supportive of identifying frailty, but felt risk-stratification
tools lacked sensitivity and specificity, and wanted evidence showing clinical benefit.
Frailty identification increased workload and was under-resourced, with limited time for,
and access to, necessary interventions. GPs felt they lacked knowledge about frailty and
more education was required to better understand it.
Conclusion Proactively identifying and responding to frailty in primary care requires GP
education, highly sensitive and specific risk-stratification tools, better access to
interventions to lessen the impact of frailty, and adequate resourcing to achieve potential
clinical impact.
More: https://bjgp.org/content/71/709/e604
2021 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: 1. Aviel Nagar
Awarded project: „The UTI Diagnostic Tool Study”
My name is Aviel Nagar, I’m 32 years old, married+1 and I’m a resident at the family
medicine department of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) since 06/20. I’ve graduated
medical school at the Technion and graduated my internship at Hillel Yaffe medical center
at 2016 with honors. I’ve been practice medicine since 2017, first as a general practitioner
at an IDF naval base for three years where I accompanied soldiers in their most intense period, from their recruitment till the end of their training and also gave operational
coverage and
telemedicine to soldiers offshore. After this significant time at the navy, I started my
residency. I chose family physician because I couldn’t give up the personal relationship
with the patients and couldn’t give up the diversity of this amazing occupation.
„The UTI Diagnostic Tool Study”
UTI (Urinary tract infection) is the most common disease is the primary clinic and its
prevalence increases with age (with the exception of a spike among 14-24 years old).
According to current guidelines, the diagnosis is clinical but most of the classic studies
describing dysuria, frequency and urgency as high value predictors of UTI are from the
60s80s and recent studies rase questions about their predictive value due to the rise in
STI (Sexuall transmitted infections) rates and the elusive diagnosis of interstitial cystitis.
misdiagnosis of UTI results in unnecessary use of antibiotics and in some cased untreated
STI. My goal is to stratify clinic and laboratory data from which we extract a simple tool
(such as centor score) with high sensitivity and high positive predictive value that will guide
us to whom we need to send a urine culture and who is appropriate to empiric treatment.
In order to achieve this goal, every healthy, non-pregnant women with genitourinary
complaint will be asked to participate in the study and fill in a detailed questionnaire, give
urine sample for dipstick, urinalysis, urine culture and PCR STD and we will also extract
date from her physical examination findings at the doctor’s office. The importance of using
antibiotics when required only and open the differential diagnosis to other pathogens and
diseases is highly important for reducing antibiotic resistance, STI prevalence and pelvic
complication in the population which increase in number.
2021 Junior Research Award: Peter Kurotschka (Italy)
Awarded project: “General practitioners’ experiences during the first phase of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a critical incident technique study”
Peter completed his GP vocational training on January 2021 in Cagliari, Italy. Soon during
his training he became passionate about general practice research and since 2018 he
worked together with his colleagues on several projects as an independent researcher,
with a focus on quality of care. Since 2019, he leads the still ongoing Broad-Spectrum
project, carried out in a scientific collaboration between the Italian National Institute of
Health and the University of Cagliari. The aim of the project is to investigate the
determinants of antibiotic use in Italian primary care. Peter currently works as a researcher
at the department of General Practice at the University of Würzburg in Germany, where he
investigates, under the guidance of his PhD supervisor Ildikò Gàgyor, on new
management approaches for women with urinary tract infections in primary care. Due to
the fact that in Italy it is not possible for GPs to pursue a PhD in General Practice and to
go through and academic pathway while General Practice is still not recognized as an
academic discipline, with this research award and with his work Peter hopes to give a
contribution for the development and growth of academic primary care in Italy and
beyond.
The 2021 Vasco da Gama Junior Research Award winner is Peter Konstantin Kurotschka
(Italy) for his project “General practitioners’ experiences during the first phase of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a critical incident technique study”. Following a robust
qualitative methodology, this study gives a unique insight on the challenges faced by the
primary care workforce in Italy during March and April 2020, when the pandemic hit the
country in an unprecedented manner. The study reveales huge criticalities in the capacity
of the healthcare system to take care of patients during a health emergency of the
dimensions of COVID-19. At the same time, the study shed light on the many opportunities
that Italy have to rebuild a stronger healthcare system, with the core competencies of
General Practitioners as its fundamental part.
The study was carried out in a multidisciplinary team of young GPs, epidemiologists, a
qualitative methodologist, and a law graduate experienced in medico-legal issues.
The authors would like to thank the Giotto Movement for its support.
To read the full study results, click here https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/
fpubh.2021.623904/full
2019 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Domenico Italiano (Italy)
2019 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Fabian DuPont (Germany)
Research project: “A competency based/blended learning teaching approach”.
2018 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Gatzoudi Kalliopi (Greece)
2018 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Patrick O’Donnell (Ireland)
Research project: “Measuring and Operationalising Social Exclusion in the Context of Primary Healthcare”.
2018 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Alice Serafini (Italy)
2017 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Mark Murphy (Ireland)
2017 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Canan Tuz (Turkey)
Research project: “Intimate partner sexual violence and relationshiop with depression symptoms among college women”.
2017 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Eugene Tang (United Kingdom)
2017 Promising Research Award Runner-up: Meryem Baştürk (Turkey)
Research project: “Evaluation of dipper and non-dipper blood pressure pattern and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”.
2017 Promising Research Award Winner (tied): Patrick O’Donnell (Ireland)
2017 Promising Research Award Winner (tied): Luís Monteiro (Portugal)
2016 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Carol Sinnott (Ireland)
2016 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Persijn Honkoop (The Netherlands)
2016 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Nuno Basílio (Portugal)
Research project: “Life expectancy and care in the elderly – a qualitative study”.
2015 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Jessica Watson (UK)
2015 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Patrick Redmond (Ireland)
2015 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Katarzyna Nessler (Poland)
2014 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Sam Creavin (UK)
Research project: “Towards improving the diagnosis of memory loss in general practice (TIMeLi)”
2014 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Danielle Divilly (Ireland)
Research project: “Chronic Disease Management – The Patients’ Perspective”.
2014 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Daniel Pinto (Portugal)
Research project: “An open cluster-randomized, 18-month trial to compare the effectiveness of educational outreach visits with usual guideline dissemination to improve family physician prescribing”.
2013 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Pavel Vychytil (Czech Republic)
Research project “Compliance and non-compliance with GP/specialty training requirements”.
2013 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: João Sarmento (Portugal)
Research project: “Clinical Information Integration Project”.
2013 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Nikki van Dessel (Netherlands)
Research proposal “Prognosis and perpetuating factors of Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS): a prospective cohort study
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2013.12.011
2012 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Tiago Luís Veloso (Portugal)
Research project “Mood, Hypertension and Target Organ Damage – A Cohort Study in a Primary Care setting”.
2012 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Anne Maren Dahlhaus (Germany)
2012 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Mirene Anna Luciani (Italy)
Research project: “Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a retrospective observational study project”.
2012 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Virginia Hernandez (UK)
2011 Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Florian Stigler (Austria)
Research project: “The future of primary care in Austria”.
2011 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Gretel van Esch (Belgium)
Research project: “Fitness level tests to the aid of stress and depression management in a primary care practice”.