It is becoming increasingly important that the research undertaken within the primary health sector has relevance to government policy. But how can this be achieved? To follow on from a workshop held by MICRRH in 2004 the MICRRH Primary Health Care Research Education and Development (PHCRED) program, in conjunction with the Queensland PHCRED Tripartite held a policy workshop facilitated by Dr Anne Tiernan from The Policy Practice and aimed addressing three main issues: relationships, relevance and realism.

Attendees included representatives of various Divisions of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Health Workforce Queensland, independent health workforce consultants as well as members from the five PHCRED partners in Queensland. Most participants found the workshop extremely informative and were very positive about incorporating some of the many strategies discussed during the day into their professional lives.

Of particular value has been the increased understanding of the drivers for policy decision-making and the identification of several strategies for interacting with policy makers to maximise our dissemination activities. Some of the strategies identified were:

• Building relationships with other stakeholders to ensure a coordinated approach and message,
• Actively disseminating to policy makers (e.g. through publishing with the Australian Policy Online or generating policy bulletins),
• Being aware of the policy implications of your research from the start so – don’t wait to the end of a project to take advantage of opportunities to influence relevant policies.