Is primary care research a lost cause?

The recommended pathway for the young GP interested in research is
well described by Del Mar (1) and your other correspondents. You become an
academic GP, join a university department of primary care and help to
organise large trials or to research the dynamics of primary care.

Ordinary GPs may be called upon to help recruit for such research but are
not expected to have any ideas of their own. However, there is another
path. A GP can work with scientists in other academic departments such as
nutrition, psychology and genetics. These academics will often welcome a
GP who has developed a research question of his own. They will advise
whether this is a research question that can be tested and probably help
to improve and develop the GP's research idea. This has been my experience
and it led me into doing a masters degree in Nutritional Medicine and more
research (I have eight publications to my name). Sometimes these small
projects will help to develop the GP's perspective but are not suitable
for publication. That is not a failure or a waste of time. This was the
approach to research of Koch who was a GP when he started small scale
research. The idea that this approach is outdated and unproductive is
dominating GP academia and government policy and yet out of such small
acorns great oaks may sometimes grow.

(1) Del Mar C. Is primary care a lost cause. BMJ;340:61-62

Competing interests:
None declared