Strengthening Collective Professional Engagement around COPD: An Action Research in Primary Care

ing primary, secondary and supportive care.The objective was to explore the effects of this action research on COPD on multidisciplinary primary care participants. METHODS SettingThe action research was conducted between September 2019 and September 2022 in an MSPU in southern France and was funded through a call for projects on chronic disease management led by the Regional Health Agency (ARS).The study drew on participatory knowledge mobilisation (KM) methods [7][8][9] .It is reported in accordance with the quality assessment checklist for action research (Appendix 1) 10 . RecruitmentThe project was co-designed with healthcare professionals, through a horizontal co-construction approach initiated by general practitioners who were university senior lecturers (FC, AOE).The early involvement of clinical leaders experienced in co-creation enabled effective knowledge mobilisation.Purposive sampling broadened participation to a range of profiles: respiratory specialists, public health and communication experts, and qualitative research methodology experts.Participants knew the researchers as members of their own care team, sharing a common interest in improving coordination around COPD.They knew that the evaluation of the action research was part of a shared collective approach. PreparationTo develop the project and guide the co-construction workshops, a literature review was conducted in 2019 via PubMed and MEDLINE on epidemiological data on COPD morbidity, mortality and risk factors.A brainstorming session with the steering team (two GP senior lecturers, a respiratory specialist, a public health physician, a coordinator, and a practice nurse) launched the process and helped identify the training content.