International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG)

The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) is a clinically-led charitable organisation.

Our mission is to work locally in primary care and collaborate globally to improve respiratory health.

Our vision is of a global population breathing and feeling well through universal access to right care.

Our scope is research and education on improved primary prevention, recognition, diagnosis, treatment and palliation of non-communicable respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COPD, and respiratory infection in community and primary care settings. The scope includes symptoms such as cough, wheeze and breathlessness; and tackling key risk factors such treating tobacco dependence, exposure to air pollution and encouraging physical activity.

We are an alliance of 37 national primary care respiratory organisations, reaching over 150,000 family physicians and other primary care professionals such as pharmacists and nurses around the world. We are also a community of practice, collaborating globally with academics and clinicians on respiratory research and innovation, and exchanging knowledge about best practice and impact with all respiratory stakeholders.

We advise the World Health Organization and WONCA, extend academic learning into communities, develop global collaborative networks, and lead in the promotion of a culture of critical inquiry and public reasoning about the best ways to deliver effective respiratory care.

Taking a primary care perspective includes taking a holistic approach, including mental health and psychological interventions and multiple morbidities. It also means working with whoever delivers care in the frontline in a community eg GPs, family physicians, nurses, pharmacists and community health workers and enabling them to deliver the 90% of care over a person’s lifetime, which the WHO states is possible with quality primary care. It also means taking a population approach to make the best use of scarce healthcare resources and personal energy and time.

Find out more at www.ipcrg.org

You can follow IPCRG on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IPCRG/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/IPCRG