General practitioners’ willingness to participate in research networks in Germany

Abstract

Objectives To investigate general practitioners’ (GPs’) willingness to participate in long-term medical research and in research networks (RNs). Design and setting Cross-sectional survey among German GPs around Halle-Wittenberg and Leipzig in 2020. Subjects Random sample of 905 GPs. Main outcome measures and results Response rate 37%, 69% female. Overall, 57% were interested in participating in medical research, 34% in an active role in a RN. Interest in RN participation was positively associated with male sex, younger age, previous experiences in medical research, being involved in teaching undergraduates, and having qualification in a further specialty. Main motivators were improving patient care, giving a more realistic picture of GP care, and carrying out research on topics within their own interest areas and a reliable contact person at the leading institution. Most GPs were not afraid of reduced earnings; however, time investment was the main barrier for participation. GPs were willing to dedicate twice as much time to research when remuneration was offered. High rated topics were polypharmacy, chronic diseases, drug safety and adverse drug reactions. Conclusion GPs are interested to participate in practice-based research. The study results providing useful and generalizable insights in barriers and motivators should be considered when building and running GP-RNs. KEY POINTS There is a difference between general practitioners’ (GPs’) overall interest in clinical research and their job and socio-demographic related readiness to participate in research networks (RNs). GPs are interested in RNs when it is a resource of and leading to enhanced patient-oriented care. GPs are willing to dedicate twice as much time to research when remunerated. GPs need a reliable counterpart within the leading institution.

Primary care involvement in clinical research – prerequisites, motivators, and barriers: results from a study series

“…Likewise, most of the 24% of respondents having already taken part in cRCTs were located in urban areas with a greater variety of care services, which is often a prerequisite in effective clinical research [ 7 , 9 ]. We did not find any significant gender differences in the studies we carried out; this contrasts with other individual studies on willingness of GPs to participate in research networks such as Virnau et al [ 2 , 42 , 43 ]. Apart from the difference between urban and rural physicians, age is a factor that this study has in common: Openness to clinical research projects amongst the respondents decreased with age [ 2 , 21 ].…”

“…However, it also applies to GPs in guiding their patients through the healthcare system by specifically referring them to other levels of care. Primary care participation in clinical research processes will play a central role in expanding primary care and other healthcare roles in a consistent and methodical fashion while also testing novel forms of healthcare and improving the healthcare system as a whole [ 1 , 2 ]. New healthcare models – especially in the low-prevalence area – need to encompass sufficiently large patient cohorts for evidentially significant results, making primary care involvement inevitable in many cases [ 3 – 9 ].…”

“…However, GP-based interventions face significant hurdles in projects in clinical as well as healthcare research despite the significant role of primary care in clinical research and the potential benefits that may result. It is often a challenge to recruit a sufficient number of GPs for these studies, which usually involves a sophisticated cluster-randomised design in cRCTs [ 2 , 10 ]. Various research projects and application areas have indeed shown recruitment of GPs to be a limiting factor in performing clinical projects involving primary care [ 1 , 10 – 16 ].…”

“…Summarising, recruiting GPs for major clinical healthcare studies is one of the greatest challenges facing healthcare research. This issue has already been identified and discussed, but there is still a lack of effective strategies towards overcoming it [ 2 , 4 , 6 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 16 ]. One of the reasons is that the positions, requirements, and experiences of GPs on participating in clinical research have hardly been examined up to now.…”

DemStepCare: Risikostratifizierte Unterstützung der ambulanten Demenzversorgung – Bewertung aus hausärztlicher Perspektive

“…Insgesamt gestaltete sich die Gewinnung von Hausärzt*innen als herausfordernd [6,21]. Ursächlich kann neben Zeitknappheit eine teils nicht immer reibungslose Vereinbarkeit der Intervention mit Praxisroutinen sein [26,27,29]. Besagte Rekrutierungsproblematiken spiegeln sich im Rücklauf der quantitativen Befragungswellen und der Bereitschaft zum Führen qualitativer Interviews wider.…”