What do you need to know about research in primary care?

Changes in research

The DoH published 'Best Research for Best Health: A new national health research strategy' on 25/1/06

The organisation and funding of research throughout the NHS has changed. You can find out the latest news at

The National Institute for Health Research website www.nihr.ac.uk

The NIHR site has the updated 'Best Research for Best Health' strategy implementation plans, information about the NIHR work streams and "arms length" programmes, and the latest news about the Institute.

What does this mean?

The old funding streams for research have been stopped or are stopping. Locally the GP research practices lost their funding and The Bristol and District  Primary Care Research and Development Consortium will change its funding after 31/3/09 and become part of the South west Primary care research network (see below). All the new funding schemes are awarded after formal application. New research will be more centrally controlled and focused on NHS priorities.

One of the new funding streams is the research networks

The South West’s Primary Care Research Network www.pcrnsw.org

Dr Phil Evans, based in Exeter is the Director, and the local contact for the network is Dr Peter Brindle, Director of R&D, Avon Primary Care Research Consortium

Western Local Comprehensive Research Network (CLRN) is one of 25 CLRNs across England which form part of the NIHR Comprehensive Clinical Research Network (CCRN). CCRN provides support for clinical trials and other well designed studies in all areas of disease and clinical need, includes all research that isn't in the topic specific networks (see below), manages the NHS service support costs, research management and governance. UBHT lead this network. http://www.ukcrn.org.uk/index/networks/comprehensive.html

The DoH funded topic research networks across the region provide hubs and/or spokes for include

Medicines for children. Prof Adam Finn in Bristol led a successful bid to be one of the spokes for this network Primary Care Network- England.The contact for the network is Dr Ruth Allen Ruth.Allen@bristol.ac.uk Tel: 0117 3420197 Mobile: 07775764820 - http://www.mcrn.org.uk

Dementias & Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (Dendron) - http://www.dendron.org.uk/rn/south_west.html

Diabetes Network - http://www.ukcrn.org.uk/index/networks/diabetes.html

Mental Health Network - http://www.mhrn.info/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=83

Stroke Network - http://www.ukcrn.org.uk/index/networks/stroke.html

Cancer Network - http://www.ukcrn.org.uk/index/networks/cancer.html

and the

General Information about research

RESEARCH is finding out what we ought to do or the attempt to derive generalisable new knowledge by addressing clearly defined questions with systematic and rigorous methods Clinical research is based primarily on patients or ex-patients and designed to answer a question about disease (aetiology, concomitants, diagnosis, prevention, outcome or treatment).

This page tries to be a summary of what is happening in the  world of primary research around Bristol, and point you in the right direction for more information. If you have any suggestions about how we can improve this section, or want to learn more, or get involved with research in primary care email contact@bristolgpsolutions.org.uk.

There are two main types of research in primary care, commercial and non-commercial. Non-commercial research is usually funded by the NHS, research councils, charities or grant giving bodies and covers a wide range of activities motivated by knowledge rather than commercial gain. Commercial research is usually funded by pharmaceutical companies undertaking clinical trials of new medicines.

ALL research in NHS primary care must comply with NHS research governance guidelines. The local policy that covers all the Bristol area PCTs is accessed at http://www.apcrc.nhs.uk/research_governance.htm

There is a grey area between clinical audit and research (e.g. innovations) and if you are unsure you are advised to ask the chairman of the local ethical committee for guidance.

The Avon Research and Development Strategy and Advisory Group (ARDSAG) advises the Avon Primary Care Research Collaborative. This is hosted by Bristol Primary Care Trust, and is responsible for all Research Management and Governance in the following PCTs:

South Gloucestershire PCT, North Somerset PCT, Bristol  PCT.

The Avon Primary Care Research Collaborative website is: www.apcrc.nhs.uk. The collaborative was founded in December 2002. Alongside the three PCTs, the Collaborative has affiliations with the University of Bristol and University of the West of England and the University of Bath. There are links to other local Trusts, including Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust and Bath & North East Somerset PCT, and the local Acute sector, namely North Bristol Trust and United Bristol Healthcare Trust and the local Research & Development Support Units (RDSU'S). The collaborative leads or collaborates with the following NHS research programmes:

For more information contact Jo Pearce, jo.pearce@bristolpct.nhs.uk

Research Consortium Practices

The Bristol aand District Primary Care Research and Development Consortium. Since 1998 the Consortium, a group of 28 practices, has been funded by the NHS to host non-commercial externally-funded research usually (but not exclusively) initiated by the University of Bristol. Each year the Consortium hosts roughly 80 projects across its members. Funding is assured for 2008/9 but the consortium will become part of the PCRN from 1/4/09 with a different organization and funding probably more targetted funding through support for specific research projects supported by the various research networks. In the meantime new practices are invited to join in 2008/9 and should approach Dr Peter Brindle for more information peter.brindle@nhs.net

Consortium Members contact details

Consortium newsletter

NHS acute trusts

The two acute trusts in Bristol (North Bristol and UBHT) have research programmes and may involve primary care to recruit patients or host research.

NBT

UBHT research
http://www.ubht.nhs.uk/research

Universities

University of Bristol. The Division of Primary Health care, is an active research unit. Current projects include http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/PrimaryHealthCare/research.htm

UBHT/ University of Bristol 
Joint clinical academic and commercial research unit programme is based at the BRI and wants to recruit practices to host commercial and non-commercial research. For more information contact Sue.allen@bris.ac.uk

Uuniversity of West of England
Research in the School for Health and Social Care August 1st 2007 saw the establishment of the new Faculty of Health and Life Sciences based upon a merger of the previous faculties of Applied Sciences and Health and Social Care. These pages refer mainly to research in what has become the School of Health and Social Care (the other school is now known as the School of Life Sciences; formally the Faculty of Applied Sciences).Much of the research of the school lies within its three University-recognised research centres
Centre for Public Health Research (Director: Judy Orme) Centre for Clinical and Health Services Research (Director: Professor Selena Gray) Centre for Learning and Workforce Research (Director: Dr Pam Moule)

as well as its postgraduate research studies. In addition, it has close links with a number of other research groupings. First, there is the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, which is a joint initiative between the University of the West England and the University of Bristol and based in the University of Bristol under the direction of Professor Alan Emond. 

Second, there are very close links with the Centre for Appearance Research, Professor Nicky Rumsey (Co-Director, Professor in Health Psychology) and Dr Diana Harcourt (Co-Director, Reader in Health Psychology)  which was based in the Faculty of Applied Sciences, but which is now providing a focus for psycho-social research on health related issues for the new faculty.

Third, the School works closely with the Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust and directed by Professor Sue Roulstone and Dr Brian Pertheram.
In addition, the School of Health and Social Care is delighted to host the Centre for Local Democracy, which is a multi faculty initiative under the direction of Professor Chris Miller.

Finally, it also hosts SOLAR which is a whole systems actions research group which is under the direction of Professor Danny Burns.

What's new in research

UBHT NHS Trust Research research news
http://www.ubht.nhs.uk/research/latest-news.html

RCGP research news http://www.rcgp.org.uk/research/whats_new/index.asp 

Resources

http://www.rcgp.org.uk/research/resources/index.asp
The Research and development support service (RDSU) support any part of the research process by NHS staff, including non-medical personnel and those working in community or primary care within the Bristol geographical area. There are regular Research Skills Workshops at the BRI and Southmead Hospital. In October 2008 it is changing to become the Research Design Service (RDS) which will concentrate more with NIHR and the NHS regional ‘research for patient benefit’ studies. RDSU contact information http://www.ubht.nhs.uk/research/how-to-contact-us.html

UK Federation of Primary Care Research Networks. The Federation was established in 1998 to bring together research networks from around the UK, to facilitate their collective functioning and promote their interests at a national level. Its future may be threatened by the changes in financuing research. http://www.ukf-pcro.org/

How to get started

The RCGP/PCT study day in April 2006 discussed this and the slides from that day will help you: The programme and the power point slides

'Insights From Practice-based Researchers to Develop Family Medicine Faculty as Scholars' examines how practice based research can get started http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2007/July/Linda504.pdf

GP school Education and Research

The Severn Deanery serves the northern half of NHS Education South West. The GP school formed in 2007  but in the old Severn & Wessex Deanery there was an education manager who had a role as a research fellow with a management role. The main role was to provide support to the Deanery GP team in developing education and training for doctors in general practice, based upon research that evaluates current training and CPD arrangements. An evidence base for good practice in GP education was being developed in three ways:

        by preparing critical reviews of new and different ways to train general practitioners based upon academic research in national and international medical education literature;

        by setting up and co-ordinating research projects to evaluate the quality of existing GP training programmes. Projects are funded by the Deanery but conducted by contracted researchers;

        acting as a point of contact to facilitate deanery wide communication about on-going education projects. As part of this role providing individual support for GPs undertaking educational research and assist them in disseminating their work via journals, conferences etc.

Hopefully the new GP school will try to continue this arrangement. At the time of writing (28/5/08) there is no GP school research strategy for GP education and GP educators that monitors the quality of training programmes and schemes in line with national standards, and develops them. It could explore

new training routes through research that evaluates innovative pilot posts/placements. A big part of this would be to build partnerships with other organisations in order to conduct collaborative research.

new areas, looking at workforce issues and working on reports to profile the workforce and the changing trends in working patterns. This could contribute to the GP school strategy on workforce planning for the future, and it's consequent effects on education and training.

The Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC), formerly the Association of University Departments of General Practice (AUDGP) promotes excellence in research, education and policy development in general practice and primary health http://www.sapc.ac.uk/

The North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) is a multidisciplinary organization for primary care researchers. Founded in 1972 and oriented to family medicine, NAPCRG welcomes members from all primary care generalist disciplines and related fields, including epidemiology, behavioral sciences, and health services research http://www.napcrg.org/

The MRC General Practice Research Framework (MRC GPRF) is an organisation of over 1000 general practices throughout the UK involved in epidemiological, primary care and health services research. Working in partnership with researchers the GPRF serves as a national resource to undertake high quality studies that require a co-ordinated framework of general practices http://www.gprf.mrc.ac.uk/

INVOLVE - promoting public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research www.invo.org.uk