You might have been invited by us to participate in research studies in which we are working with our academic general practice or other colleagues in universities or other research institutions. One of our doctors, Dr. Oliver Frank is a University Senior Research Fellow in the Discipline of General Practice at the University of Adelaide.
Most research has been and still is conducted with people who are in or being treated at hospitals. Why is it important to conduct medical research in general practice? The major reason is that people who are in hospital or under hospital care represent only a small part of the population and differ in many ways from the rest of the population. This means that the findings of studies conducted with people who in hospital or under hospital care often have limited relevance to people living in the community. In addition, traditional or conventional trials of new medicines or other treatments try to have people in the study who are similar. This is known in the research world as ‘controlling for other variables’. This results in most people who volunteer for research studies being rejected. Findings of studies conducted with small groups of highly selected people often have little relevance to the ‘real world’, where people vary greatly in their health status and in their ability to manage their own health care.
Another reason for conducting research in general practice is that many of the health problems that we deal with in general practice are not treated in hospitals, making general practice the only setting in which we can study how we can improve the care for people with those health problems. A third reason is that many improvements in health care can come from applying existing knowledge better and from organising the system of care better. Studies conducted in hospitals of these aspects usually have little to tell us about how we can improve the use of knowledge and the system of care outside hospitals.
By participating in research studies that we conduct here, you can help to improve health care for all.
