IA-PCAT: IBERO-AMERICAN COLLABORATION FOR ADAPTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PRIMARY CARE ASSESSMENT TOOLS.

The Ibero-American Collaboration for adaptation and implementation of Primary Care Assessment Tools (IA-PCAT) is a non-for-profit network aiming to contribute to the development of primary care assessment through the adaptation and implementation of PCAT with an integrative perspective. In its beginnings (2004-2009), researchers of Brasil, Spain, Argentina, and Uruguay conducted the cross-cultural adaptation processes with the external supervision of Prof. Barbara Starfield, who created this model for primary care assessment. IA-PCAT was constituted in 2010 during a meeting of that researchers with Barbara Starfield, in Montevideo. After the Prof. Starfield’s death, the research groups initiated a coordination of actions and collaboration in their studies. The network consolidation became with the supporting to adaptations processes in new countries, conducting analysis and producing join publications. IA-PCAT grew up when PCAT was adapted in Ecuador (2012), Colombia (2013), Bolivia (2014), and México (2014) with the support of the first countries’ researchers as external experts. Among the results and products that constitute a collective capital available for other researchers and countries are: 1. PCAT questionnaires for facilities, providers, and users, adapted for being used in Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, and Mexico; 2. A protocol for adaptation processes in Spanish speaking countries, elaborated by the founding group, and already applied in the other countries. This protocol capitalizes the processes previously done and move in adapting to new contexts simultaneously with the harmonization between countries. The IA-PCAT Collaboration proposes to advance in international collaborative studies for providing knowledge for decision making.