William R. Phillips, MD, MPH; Elizabeth Sturgiss, BMed, FRACGP, MPH, PhD; Angela Yang; Paul Glasziou, MBBS, FRACGP, PhD; Tim olde Hartman, MD, PhD, FP/GP; Aaron Orkin, MD, MSc, MPH, CCFP(EM), FRCPC; Grant M. Russell, MBBS, MFM, FRACGP, PhD; Chris van Weel, MD, PhD, FRCGP (Hon), FRACGP (Hon)
Corresponding Author: William R. Phillips, MD, MPH; University of Washington. Email: wphllps@uw.edu
Section: Original Research
Publication: June 3, 2021
Purpose: To assess how primary care practitioners use reports of general health care and primary care research and how well reports deliver what they need to inform clinical practice. Methods: International, inter-professional online survey, 2019, of primary care clinicians who see patients at least half time. Respondents used frequency scales to report how often they access both general health care (GHC) and primary care (PC) research and how frequently reports meet their needs. Free-text short comments recorded comments and suggestions. Results: Survey yielded 252 respondents across 29 nations, 55% (121) women, including 88% (195) physicians – of which 88% (144) were family physicians/general practitioners – nurses 5% (11) and physician assistants 3% (7). Practitioners read research reports frequently but find they usually fail to meet their needs. For PC research, 33% (77) accessed original reports in academic journals weekly or daily and 36% found reports meet their needs "frequently" or "always." They access reports of GHC research slightly more often but find them somewhat less useful. Practitioner comments called for easier access to research findings, greater focus on generalizability and implementation across PC settings, and richer description of the context of clinical care, relationships and teams. Conclusions: PC practitioners access original research in academic journals frequently but find reports meet their information needs less than half the time. PC research reflects the unique PC setting and so reporting has distinct focus, needs and challenges. Practitioners desire improved reporting of study context, interventions, relationships, generalizability and implementation.