What research agenda could be generated from the European General Practice Research Network concept of Multimorbidity in Family Practice?

Jean Yves Le Reste ,M Odorico,T Jan,E Melot,Miguel A Muñoz ,Paul Van Royen ,Agnieszka Sowińska ,Pierre Barraine ,Charilaos Lygidakis ,Jeremy Deriennic ,Sławomir Czachowski ,Patrice Nabbe ,Đurđica Kašuba Lazić ,Christa Doerr ,José M Valderas ,Heidrun Lingner ,Claire Liétard ,Bernard Le Floch ,Stella Argyriadou ,Radost Assenova ,Harm Van Marwijk

doi:10.1186/s12875-015-0337-3

Abstract

BackgroundMultimorbidity is an intuitively appealing, yet challenging, concept for Family Medicine (FM). An EGPRN working group has published a comprehensive definition of the concept based on a systematic review of the literature which is closely linked to patient complexity and to the biopsychosocial model. This concept was identified by European Family Physicians (FPs) throughout Europe using 13 qualitative surveys. To further our understanding of the issues around multimorbidity, we needed to do innovative research to clarify this concept. The research question for this survey was: what research agenda could be generated for Family Medicine from the EGPRN concept of Multimorbidity?MethodsNominal group design with a purposive panel of experts in the field of multimorbidity. The nominal group worked through four phases: ideas generation phase, ideas recording phase, evaluation and analysis phase and a prioritization phase.ResultsFifteen international experts participated. A research agenda was established, featuring 6 topics and 11 themes with their corresponding study designs. The highest priorities were given to the following topics: measuring multimorbidity and the impact of multimorbidity. In addition the experts stressed that the concept should be simplified. This would be best achieved by working in reverse: starting with the outcomes and working back to find the useful variables within the concept.ConclusionThe highest priority for future research on multimorbidity should be given to measuring multimorbidity and to simplifying the EGPRN model, using a pragmatic approach to determine the useful variables within the concept from its outcomes.

Highlights

Multimorbidity is an intuitively appealing, yet challenging, concept for Family Medicine (FM)
The number of people suffering from multiple conditions is rising rapidly especially in family medicine (FM) [1]
Researchers in the field of multimorbidity explored innovative research topics, themes, questions and appropriate design formats in relation to the concept of Multimorbidity for FM, leading to the question: what research agenda could be generated for Family Medicine from the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN) concept of Multimorbidity?

Summary

Introduction

Multimorbidity is an intuitively appealing, yet challenging, concept for Family Medicine (FM). An EGPRN working group has published a comprehensive definition of the concept based on a systematic review of the literature which is closely linked to patient complexity and to the biopsychosocial model. This concept was identified by European Family Physicians (FPs) throughout Europe using 13 qualitative surveys. The concept of multimorbidity was first described in the 1970s [2] It was, at that time, an addition to the concept of comorbidity, with the intention of looking at all the conditions in one individual [3,4,5]. The word’condition’ was not sufficiently clear for research or practical purposes (for instance, whether a treated disease was a ‘condition’ in this sense), and could lead to numerous interpretations

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion