Academic Knowledge Centers (AKCs): a unique concept in Swedish primary care

Abstract

　　In the mid-1990s in Sweden, the care of large groups of patients, including many with chronic disorders, was transferred from hospitals to primary health care. This change made it necessary to increase clinically relevant research in primary health care. To meet this need, Lund University and Region Skane (the county council in Skane, the southernmost county in Sweden) jointly founded in 2008 a clinical research unit dedicated to primary health care: the Center for Primary Health Care Research (CPF). The overall goal of the CPF is to conduct ground-breaking clinical research in order to increase the quality of primary health care and thereby improve public health. The clinical research is performed in close collaboration with primary care clinicians to exploit their ideas, experiences, and expertise. In order to build bridges between academia and primary care, the CPF established a network of nine Academic Knowledge Centers (AKCs) in Skane. At each AKC, an active clinical researcher (AKC coordinator) employed by the CPF provides on-the-job assistance with tasks including study design, implementation and applying for research funding. Each AKC supports a fixed network of primary health care centers and the nine AKCs together support all 150 primary health care centers in Skane. The AKC network has the potential to establish Sweden at the international forefront of clinical research in primary care. Its ethos and infrastructure could serve as a template for research collaboration between academia and clinicians in primary care around the world.