Building research capacity in general practice: Identifying strategies to integrate research into routine practice

MacHSR Future Leaders Fellowship program (2023 cohort).

Primary care plays a vital role in the Australian Healthcare System and can improve patient outcomes with better management of chronic disease and effective longitudinal care. However, there are challenges in system interventions involving general practice. As General Practice is a relatively young discipline with less dedicated health research funding, embedding research activity including system change into practice is not routine and can be challenging. I am interested in exploring modifiable organisational factors within a practice that enable us to create a business model and organisational culture that integrates research into GP work, suitable to all practices accounting for their heterogeneity.

I will explore what GPs and practice staff think health services research is, and what value it has and explore the factors that would enable research to be embedded as a routine activity within the practice. Identifying the enablers and barriers in the system will result in recommendations for interventions targeted at making practices research ready for health service research, and proactively joining practice-based research networks.