Engaging family practitioners in research: are we getting it right?

The argument that health care for everyday conditions should be based on research conducted in primary care is widely accepted. To achieve this, governments in various countries have sought to develop academic family practice and support community-based re- search. These include initiatives to develop new re- searchers, as well as to encourage service practitioners to take part in studies initiated by academics or the pharmaceutical industry. In Australia, the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development strategy aims to strengthen primary care research capacity.1 In the UK, the 'Mant' report in 1997 her- alded increased funding2 and more recently the establishment of a national Primary Care Research Network has raised expectations that adopting a sys- tematic approach will improve the amount and quality of research conducted.3 But how effective are initia- tives like these at engaging people working in frontline primary care services? Two papers published in Family Practice this month cast light on this question.4,5 Reporting from Germany, Hummers-Pradier et al. explored the views of GPs who had opted not to take part in a portfolio of research projects which drew on electronic health records to identify patients with par- ticular conditions for further review.4 Although some of the findings relate to the specific project and the particular situation in Germany, where primary care research is less developed6, the scepticism uncovered has lessons for researchers more widely. Some saw re- search as an alien process that might conflict with their responsibilities to give individual patients the best care. Some described researchers as out of touch and self-interested and said that they had little opportunity to influence the study design. Others voiced concerns that research focussed on clinical practice might threaten their independence. Several of these concerns have also been voiced by GPs in the UK, particularly with regard to recruitment of people with mental health problems.7