EAPRASnet

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EAPRASnet Steering Committee
Stefano del Torso (Chairman),Italy; Zachi Grossman, Israel; Adamos Hadijpanayis, Cyprus; Diego Van Esso,Spain.
info@eaprasnet.eu

ABOUT EAPRASnet
EAPRASnet (European Academy of Paediatrics Research in Ambulatory Settings network) is a practice-based research network that  was established in 2009. It consists of paediatric practitioners from practices in European and Mediterranean countries and research consultants from  Europe in collaboration with the EAP and AAP PROS.

WHAT IS THE MISSION OF EAPRASnet?
The mission of EAPRASnet is to improve the health of European children and enhance the quality of  primary care paediatrics  by conducting  collaborative practice-based research.

WHAT ARE EAPRASnet OBJECTIVES?
Establishment of a structure and process to study the care provided to children in community-based general paediatric primary care settings and the effectiveness of that care; provision of investigative experience to a large group of practitioners on the study of care and treatment issues in practice;  dissemination of study results to paediatricians and other primary care practitioners, public health groups and groups formulating guidelines, standards and recommendations so that they might act on this new information.

WHAT WILL EAPRASnet DO?
EAPRASnet practitioners and researchers work together to generate research questions, design study materials and protocols, obtain research funding, collect study data, analyze collected data, and publish results. This collaboration is accomplished through EAPRASnet participants, , recruited and maintained by EAPRASnet national coordinators.

WHAT KINDS OF STUDIES WILL EAPRASnet BE DOING?
The network is the research laboratory of the primary care setting and in the latest study, EAPRASnet has enrolled a total of 685 pediatricians from 21 countries .
A recruitment survey showed that areas of most interest for research were: quality of care indicators, communication with parents, obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and effective well child care. Main incentives for participation in a research project were interest in the topic (81%) and effort to improve quality of care (71%). Lack of time was the leading reported obstacle (72%). (1)
A second electronic survey assessing primary care pediatricians’ estimations and practices regarding parents’ vaccination refusal was sent to 395 EAPRASnet members, with a response rate of 87 %. Of respondents who vaccinate in their clinic, 93% estimated the total vaccine refusal rate less than1%. Sixty nine percent of all respondents prefer a shared decision making approach to handle parents’ vaccine hesitancy. (2)
A recent survey on Use of Antibiotics in Upper Respiratory tract infections
has been performed to evaluate European primary care paediatricians’ knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections in order also to identify targets for future intervention studies.
Hopefully, the new knowledge generated from the EAPRASnet studies could lead to changes in clinical guidelines or policy statements of paediatric pace-setting organizations, as has already happened with the AAP PROS studies influencing AAP policy.

1)  delTorso S, GerberA, Drabik A, Hadjipanayis A, Nicholson A. Van Esso D, GrossmanZ.
European Academy of Paediatrics Research in Ambulatory Setting Network. (EAPRASnet): A multi national paediatric network for better child health.
Child Care Health Dev 2010;36:385-91.

2) Zachi Grossman MD, Diego Van Esso MD, Stefano delTorso MD, Adamos Hadjipanayis MD⁴, Anna Drabik MSc, Andreas Gerber MD PhD, Dan Miron MD
Primary care pediatricians’ perceptions of vaccine refusal in Europe
PIDJ 2011; 30;3.

3) Zachi Grossman, Stefano del Torso, Adamos Hadjipanayis, Diego van Esso, Anna Drabik, Mike Sharland.
Antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections: European primary paediatricians’ knowledge, attitudes and practice.
Acta Pediatrica, 2012.