The Article in Brief

How Primary Care Networks Can Help Integrate Academic and Service Initiatives in Primary Care

Paul Thomas, MD, FRCGP, and colleagues

Background Primary care research networks (PCRNs) are groups of primary care medical practices in the United Kingdom that promote and facilitate research in clinical practice. This study looked at the performance of four PCRNs in order to draw lessons about ideal ways to organize PCRNs.

What This Study Found The ways in which PCRNs organize themselves is influenced by the circumstances in which they are formed. Different types of PCRN organization are associated with different results. A PCRN that uses a "top down, hierarchical" approach, based on relationships with other institutions and university expertise, attracts more research funding and has the highest percentage of local participation among the networks studied. A "bottom up, individualistic" network, which centers its authority in its steering group, has a strong focus on medical practice and the highest number of projects that only involve general practices. A "whole system" PCRN has little primary care collaboration but has the most partnerships between general practices and other organizations.

Implications

• By encouraging shared leadership of projects, networks can help integrate research and development initiatives.
• Networks can gain funding and stability through strategic alliances with other institutions.
• Local medical practices have the potential to be centers of research activity in which multidisciplinary teams reflect on concerns that relate to primary care practice.
• A whole system approach, which brings together participants from throughout the system, may offer a way for PCRNs to address participants' varied interests.