How To Do Primary Care Research / Edition 1

by Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Robert Mash

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138499584
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/12/2018
Series:	WONCA Family Medicine
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Felicity Goodyear-Smith is a general practitioner and academic head of the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. She and Professor Bob Mash co-edited the companion book to this current title: ‘International Perspectives in Primary Care Research’, CRC Press, 2016. She is Chair of the WONCA (world family doctors) Working Party on Research, and both books have been written on behalf of WONCA. She also chairs the International Committee of the North American Primary Care Research Group. Felicity was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Primary Health Care. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers as well as a number of books and book chapters.

Felicity is passionate about the importance of research underpinning clinical practice in primary care. As well as her own research projects and those of her graduate students, she is actively engaged in research capacitybuilding globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This current book is particularly for emerging researchers, written as a ‘how to’ guide to conducting primary care research.

Bob Mash graduated from The University of Edinburgh and trained as a general practitioner in Scotland before emigrating to South Africa in 1991. He worked in the townships outside Cape Town with community health workers, providing community based primary care in the final days of the apartheid era. Following the onset of democracy, he worked for 10 years in the public sector, providing primary care in Khayelitsha. During this period, he worked with Stellenbosch University to create the first learning opportunities in family medicine and primary care for undergraduate medical students. Subsequently, he also developed a new online master’s degree programme for the training of family physicians.

He obtained his PhD on mental disorders in primary care in 2002 and has now published over 150 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals. He is currently the head of Family and Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch responsible for research activities and training at both master’s and doctoral levels. He is the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine and is a rated researcher with the National Research Foundation. He is a founding member of the Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa (a network of researchers) and an active leader within the Primary Care and Family Medicine Education (Primafamed) Network, a group of departments of family medicine in sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently the President of the South African Academy of Family Physicians.

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

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)
Description: Endorsed by the World Organization of Family Doctors, this book addresses research that has somewhat fallen by the wayside in favor of large scale, double-blinded studies funded by government and large corporations. The book encourages clinicians to embark on smaller studies that have great value and may help guide the direction of larger-scale clinical studies.
Purpose: The authors wish to engage primary care clinicians to become more involved in research studies for numerous reasons, such as adding another dimension to their practice and to help move policy in a patient-centered direction. The book does not discourage participation in larger studies but emphasizes the importance of case studies, observational, and smaller randomized studies. The authors make a sound argument for these types of research and present another means by which clinicians can avoid the burnout of everyday practice by offering a change-of-pace thought endeavor.
Audience: This is a book for every clinician who wishes to expand their scope of practice to include research through less rigorous studies with a focus on the case study, observational studies, or a limited randomized trial. This also has great utility for those who have to write a thesis for an advanced degree.
Features: The first of the six parts is an introduction that addresses some very basic concepts including how to choose a topic and define a research question. Part 2 outlines some innovative approaches to primary care research highlighting interdisciplinary research and authentic engagement, cocreation, and action research, which involves addressing local issues and local engagement of those impacted by the issue to find solutions. Preliminary planning is discussed in part 3, while part 4 outlines the traditional methods and techniques of research. Part 5 discusses how to disseminate research through writing and posters at conferences and interacting with policymakers. Part 6 discusses training students and peers, making the environment for future research possible, and incorporating findings into practice. Each chapter has many subdivisions discussing practical topics such as data, what is it, what to do with it, and how to organize it; literature searches; some relevant statistics, and common mistakes novice researchers may make.
Assessment: At a time when so many clinicians become overwhelmed with their everyday challenges and responsibilities, this book offers a respite to change one's thinking, expanding the scope in an additional area of thought. It is a well-written, easy-to-read text book brings a renewed thinking to research.

Doody's Review Service

"At a time when so many clinicians become overwhelmed with their everyday challenges and responsibilities, this book offers a respite to change one's thinking, expanding the scope in an additional area of thought. It is a well-written, easy-to-read text book brings a renewed thinking to research."

Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)

From the Publisher