This practical ‘How To’ guide talks the reader step-by-step through designing, conducting and disseminating primary care research, a growing discipline internationally. The vast majority of health care issues are experienced by people in community settings, who are not adequately represented by hospital-based research. There is therefore a great need to upskill family physicians and other primary care workers and academics to conduct community-based research to inform best practice. Aimed at emerging researchers, including those in developing countries, this book also addresses cutting edge and newly developing research methods, which will be of equal interest to more experienced researchers.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Editors

Contributors

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

1. What makes research primary care research?

Felicity Goodyear-Smith and Bob Mash

2. Ontology and epistemology, methodology and method, and research paradigms

Eric K. Shaw

3. How to choose your topic and define your research question

William R. Phillips

SECTION II: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO PRIMARY CARE RESEARCH

4. Interdisciplinary research approaches in primary care

Trish Greenhalgh

5. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods

Elizabeth Halcomb

6. Authentic engagement, co-creation and action research

Vivian R. Ramsden, Jackie Crowe, Norma Rabbitskin, Danielle Rolfe and Ann C. Macaulay

7. Development and use of primary care research networks

Emma Wallace and Tom Fahey

8. Using big data in primary care research

Daniel J. Exeter and Katherine E. Walesby

9. Conducting primary care research using social media

Charilaos Lygidakis, Ana Luísa Neves, Liliana Laranjo and Luís Pinho-Costa

10. Quality improvement research in primary care

Andrew W. Knight and Paresh Dawda

11. Programme evaluation in primary care

Lauren Siegmann, Robyn Preston and Bunmi Malau-Aduli

SECTION III: PRELIMINARY STEPS TO DOING PRIMARY CARE RESEARCH

12. How to prepare your research proposal

Bob Mash

13. How to ensure your research follows ethical principles

Christopher Barton, Sally Hall, Penelope Abbott, Chun Wah Michael Tam, Amanda Lyons and Siaw-Teng Liaw

14. How to search and critically appraise the literature

Celeste Naude and Taryn Young

SECTION IV: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DOING PRIMARY CARE RESEARCH

15. Taking stock of existing research: Approach to conducting a systematic review

Taryn Young and Celeste Naude

16. Statistics in primary care research

Richard Stevens

17. How to conduct a survey in primary care

Lauren Ball and Katelyn Barnes

18. Validation studies: Validating new tools and adapting old ones to new contexts

Sherina Mohd Sidik

19. Clinical and other diagnostic tests: Understanding their predictive value

Sarah Price, Robert Price and Willie Hamilton

20. How to conduct observational studies

Tibor Schuster

21. Randomised trials in primary care

Gillian Bartlett-Esquilant, Miriam Dickinson and Tibor Schuster

22. Grounded theory

David R. Thomas

23. Doing interpretive phenomenological primary care research

Valerie A. Wright-St Clair

24. Why ethnography is an important part of primary care research and how it is done

Carissa van den Berk-Clark

25. Case study

Robin Ray, Judy Taylor and Robyn Preston

26. Interactional analysis of primary care consultations

Maria Stubbe, Anthony Dowell, Kevin Dew and Lindsay Macdonald

SECTION V: HOW TO DISSEMINATE YOUR RESEARCH

27. How to write and how to publish

Felicity Goodyear-Smith and Katharine A. Wallis

28. How to create an effective poster

Katharine A. Wallis

29. Using social media to disseminate primary care research

Charilaos Lygidakis and Raquel Gómez Bravo

30. Reaching decision-makers and achieving social impact with your research

Bob Mash, Nasreen Jessani and Liesl Nicol

SECTION VI: BUILDING RESEARCH CAPACITY

31. How to supervise and mentor a less-experienced or novice researcher

Elizabeth Sturgiss and Lena Sanci

32. Creating the right environment for mentoring to flourish

Amanda Howe

33. A systems approach to building research capacity: Individuals, networks and culture

Grant Russell

34. Including primary care research in clinical practice

Chris van Weel

Index /

This practical 'How To' guide talks the reader step-by-step through designing, conducting and disseminating primary care research, a growing discipline internationally. The vast majority of health care issues are experienced by people in community settings, who are not adequately represented by hospital-based research. There is therefore a great need to upskill family physicians and other primary care workers and academics to conduct community-based research to inform best practice. Aimed at emerging researchers, including those in developing countries, this book also addresses cutting edge and newly developing research methods, which will be of equal interest to more experienced researchers.