Past JRA Winners

Here are the past winners of EYFDM Award recognising advanced research projects to encourage research skills and improve health care in primary care.

2024

Awarded at WONCA Europe 2024 Dublin.

Junior Research Award: Charlotte Morris (UK)

Charlotte is a GP in Stockport, UK, and NIHR School for Primary Care Research PhD fellow at The University of Manchester. Her research focusses on health inequalities, especially for older people and people with dementia.

Project: Socio-economic Inequalities in Primary Care for People with Dementia: A Scoping Review

Junior Research Award Runner-up: Tom Cronin (Ireland)

Tom Cronin is currently undertaking an Aspire / ICGP Post-CSCST Fellowship and an MD in the area of frailty and people experiencing homelessness. 

Project: Reversing frailty and building resilience among people experiencing homelessness: a feasibility study of a primary care intervention

Junior Research Award Runner-up: Ikbal Humay Arman (Turkey)

İkbal Hümay is a Family Medicine specialist and PhD candidate in Public Health from İstanbul, Türkiye. She works as an Assist. Prof. at School of Medicine, İstanbul Medipol University. She is interested in health promotion and preventive health services.

Project: Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Admissions Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Department Admissions in Children with Respiratory Tract Infection Symptoms: A Controlled Educational Intervention Study.

2023

Junior Research Award: Katrien Danhieux
Awarded project: “Scale-up of a chronic care model-based programme for type 2 diabetes in Belgium: a mixed-methods study”
Katrien Danhieux is a general practitioner since 2018. She has experience in various types of primary care practices and in multidisciplinary collaboration. 
After her Advanced Master of Medicine in Family medicine at the University of Ghent she decided to study further and completed the Postgraduate course Introduction to International Health at the Institute of Medicine in Antwerp. Her interest in health systems had been sparked and motivated by experiencing herself as a provider the benefits and drawbacks of the primary health care system in Belgium she decided to conduct a PhD at the University of Antwerp.

As a researcher she is responsible for the implementation of the Belgian part of the European research project SCUBY: SCale-Up diaBetes and hYpertension care (www.scuby.eu). She conducts both qualitative and quantitative research on how we can scale up integrated care for diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases in Belgium and Flanders. The focus of this research is on the organization of a primary care practice and on how policy can stimulate the implementation of integrated care. In doing so, she actively collaborates with stakeholders at practice, regional and policy level, as she believes it is important that research is relevant and has impact on the field. She has already published 12 articles in national and international journals and presented her research on multiple national and international conferences. After the SCUBY project she will be a researcher on a new European project: Joint Action on CARdiovascular diseases and Diabetes (JACARDI).
As a coach she supports primary care practices in organizing their practice following the principles of integrated and proactive care, guided by the chronic care model.
As a general practitioner she works in the community health center ‘De Vlier’, in the city of Sint-Niklaas in Flanders. There she cooperates with nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, midwives, social workers and administrative staff.”

Junior Research Award Runner-up: Sophie Sun (France)
Junior Research Award Runner-up: Raisa Álvarez Paniagua (Spain).

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

Junior Research Award Runner-up: Ebrahim Mulla
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

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: 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

2019

Junior Researcher Award Winner: Fabian DuPont (Germany)

Awarded project: “A competency based/blended learning teaching approach”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Domenico Italiano (Italy)

2018

Junior Researcher Award Winner: Patrick O’Donnell (Ireland)

Awarded project: “Measuring and Operationalising Social Exclusion in the Context of Primary Healthcare”.

Details

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Gatzoudi Kalliopi (Greece)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Alice Serafini (Italy)

2017

Junior Researcher Award Winner: Eugene Tang (United Kingdom)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Canan Tuz (Turkey)

Research project: “Intimate partner sexual violence and relationshiop with depression symptoms among college women”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Mark Murphy (Ireland)

Promising Research Award Winner (tied): Patrick O’Donnell (Ireland)
2017 Promising Research Award Winner (tied): Luís Monteiro (Portugal)
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”.

2016

2016 Junior Researcher Award Winner: Nuno Basílio (Portugal)

Research project: “Life expectancy and care in the elderly – a qualitative study”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Carol Sinnott (Ireland)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Persijn Honkoop (The Netherlands)

2015

Junior Researcher Award Winner: Katarzyna Nessler (Poland)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Jessica Watson (UK)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Patrick Redmond (Ireland)

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”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Sam Creavin (UK)

Research project: “Towards improving the diagnosis of memory loss in general practice (TIMeLi)”

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Danielle Divilly (Ireland)

Research project: “Chronic Disease Management – The Patients’ Perspective”.

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

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Pavel Vychytil (Czech Republic)

Research project “Compliance and non-compliance with GP/specialty training requirements”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: João Sarmento (Portugal)

Research project: “Clinical Information Integration Project”.

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”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Anne Maren Dahlhaus (Germany)
Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Mirene Anna Luciani (Italy)

Research project: “Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a retrospective observational study project”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Virginia Hernandez (UK)

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”.

Junior Researcher Award Runner-up: Florian Stigler (Austria)

Research project: “The future of primary care in Austria”.