Shaping the Future of Family Medicine Research: The 2023 National Family Medicine Research Summit

Amanda Weidner; Irfan Asif

doi:10.1370/afm.3086

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Table 1.

National Research Strategy for Family Medicine: 2024-2030

VISION Family medicine research is whole-person, family, and community centered and improves health by enhancing health promotion, improving care for chronic diseases, and advancing health care delivery, while including cross-cutting themes of health equity, technology, and team science.
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
Pathways/Mentorship	Funding & Advocacy	Infrastructure
GOALS
Grow the family medicine research workforce by expanding pathways and strengthening mentorship	Increase funding for family medicine research and advocate for enhanced health policy and support	Build a national infrastructure for organizing and optimizing family medicine research opportunities
OBJECTIVES
A1. Maintain, promote, and contribute to a database of family medicine research programs to connect learning to research training opportunities	B1. Define and promote the value of family medicine research broadly	C1. Create partnerships and align the discipline with future enhancements in health care delivery to be on the forefront of new research opportunities and challenges in health care policy
A2. Enhance and grow pathways to participate in family medicine research for: Medical students (eg, expanding MD/PhD programs) Residents (eg, creating additional degree programs and fellowships) Family physicians (eg, offering training opportunities)	B2. Align advocacy efforts with the 2021 NASEM report and forthcoming action plan to build momentum and increase support for family medicine research, including the creation of an Office of Primary Care Research	C2. Utilize a repository of clinical data to answer key questions in primary care
A3. Create structured mentorship experiences inside and outside home institutions	B3. Continue advocacy to increase funding for AHRQ National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research and support efforts to direct other sources of funding to primary care research (eg, foundations, payers, venture capital, and other federal funding agencies such as PCORI, CDC, and HRSA)	C3. Increase accessible and integrated research models that produce clinically applicable research and evidence base (eg, optimize PBRNs, communities of practice, and consider other types of networks such as geographic and content networks)
A4. Normalize a team science approach by developing cross-disciplinary partnerships with PhDs, interprofessional groups, and community-based organizations	B4. Advocate for increased funding for Departments of Family Medicine from institutional leadership	C4. Leverage Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) networks and create Centers of Excellence to increase family medicine research within institutions
A5. Promote a “culture of curiosity” among medical students and family medicine residency programs to ensure the workforce is well-equipped to critically analyze and apply evidence	B5. Identify and promote promising practices for chairs to support and fund research participation within their departments and institutions	C5. Design and utilize distinctive methodology such as pragmatic trials, participatory methods, community-based research, translational science, implementation research and dissemination, big data analytics, and machine learning

AHRQ = Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; HRSA = Health Resources and Services Administration; NASEM = National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; PBRN = practice-based research network; PCORI = Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.