Mentoring for the Diverse Range of Family Physicians’ Engagement in Research

Abstract

Primary care researchers are increasingly at the forefront of developing innovations and new research methods to address complex issues in health care, including multi-morbidity, social determinants of health, health equity, managing population health in clinical practice, patient satisfaction, and provider burnout. Research demonstrates that “primary care is the only health care component where an increased supply is associated with better population health and more equitable outcomes.”¹As a primary care specialty, family medicine has evolved beyond its initial focus on clinical practice and education to realizing the imperative for the discipline to robustly engage in research and embrace the responsibility to generate the evidence that drives changes in primary care practice and policy.² The primary care clinic is increasingly seen as a complement to medical school laboratories as a powerful site for developing new evidenced-based medicine, and essential for translating new clinical knowledge into practice. Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs) comprising primary care clinicians working in the “real world” of clinics promise to bridge “the gaps between communities, funders and policy makers”³ and the National Institutes of Health has shown increased interest in strengthening Clinical Translational Science Awardees’ collaborations with PBRNs.⁴ Despite primary care’s proven ability to deliver improved outcomes at a lower cost, not enough family physicians are currently engaging in research to improve practice and inform policy. This commentary attempts to describe the wide range of family physicians’ intensity of involvement in primary care research and the prospects of mentoring for these needs.