Building research capacity in primary care

A recent BJGP editorial¹ highlights the importance of primary care research and argues that health systems should ‘invest in the academics and research practice networks that provide the evidence’.¹ However, numerous barriers to participation in clinical research exist, particularly in the UK primary care setting where GPs are under immense pressure due to increased workloads and a dwindling workforce.² Consequently, GPs may experience difficulty conducting research alongside clinical duties due to time constraints, competing interests, and a need to carefully balance clinical and academic responsibilities. Despite these barriers, general practice offers diverse opportunities for conducting clinical research. Clinical-academic GPs have the advantage of being embedded in a general practice, meaning that they understand the inner workings of their practice and patient population, giving them insight into the feasibility of specific research projects.

At our NHS primary care practice in the South West of England, we have successfully established a pro-research culture and developed a dedicated multidisciplinary clinical research team consisting of clinical-academic GPs, research nurses, a research healthcare assistant, a finance officer, and a dedicated non-GP clinical research physician. The recent appointment of a non-GP clinical research physician has expanded the team, enabling the practice to participate in more projects, pursue new areas of research, and develop independent research projects. To the best of our knowledge, we are the only NHS primary care practice in the South West of England to employ a dedicated non-GP clinical research physician. Based on our experience, we would recommend that other practices consider developing similar roles and infrastructure to facilitate meaningful participation in clinical research.

Creation of dedicated non-GP clinical research physician roles, embedded in NHS primary care practices, may be a way to integrate clinical research into this setting and build research capacity. Initiatives like this could address one of the key findings from a recent report, conducted by The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, which explored how to involve NHS staff in research: ‘Bringing a wider range of expertise into healthcare research may require new forms of career structures and building in time to conduct research beyond clinical academic and fellowship models.’ ³

• © British Journal of General Practice 2020