Primary Care resources
The NIHR have a School for Primary Care Research which aims to increase the evidence-base for primary care practice.
You may also find the Primary Care strategy useful to look at. This strategy document describes the direction for expanding research activity in Primary Care settings and how this is to be achieved through both concerted work within the NIHR Research Network and through its links with the wider NIHR and key organisations influencing the Primary Care landscape.
The Research and Quality Improvement Learning Community for Primary Care offers a rich portal for users to interact with colleagues from across the UK as well as access to a range of high quality resources and related training.
You may also find the Health & Care Engagement ‘Lunch and Learn’ session on increasing research activity in areas experiencing high socioeconomic disadvantage in Deep End GP Practices helpful background.
Your Local Research Network will generally have a primary care site.
Ask a member of your team or manager for a link to this.
Top tips:
You may need access to and training in using GP clinical systems (SystemOne, EMIS or Vision)
Health information within GP Electronic Health Records (clinical systems) is often coded using ‘research codes’
GP Practices operate like independent providers so you will need to be aware that approaches to data governance may differ slightly from other settings and you may need a Confidentiality Agreement
Make sure you have access to the right information and you are using it correctly
When you are working independently - follow your regions SOPs or Working Instructions (WIs)
Your point of contact will usually be the practice manager
Consider a research folder on the practice shared drive
You will need to support practices with site file management
Make sure research documents are not destroyed before they should be, according to the research protocol
Research in primary care often uses Health Informatics (HIs), commercial Data Service Provider services or other digital tools to aid feasibility assessments and patient identification and engagement in research.
For more information about how the Network can support primary care researchers and GP sites with the development of HIs please contact your local PRIDES Lead or the PRIDES Hub
There are further resources in the awesome table