by Alejandra Bonwick, Second Year Undergraduate Medical Student, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol
“If you devote yourself to being the best practitioner you can be, you will improve the lives of thousands of patients in your working lifetime.
If you teach students and young doctors, you will help to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients.
If, through research, you change the way we all practise, you will help to improve the lives of millions.”
Paul Freeling
High quality research is a cornerstone of our healthcare system: it ensures that evidence-based medicine underpins patient care. We are surrounded by it from the moment we start medical school, yet academic general practice is often more invisible than research in secondary care. Academic GPs are scattered across the country in smaller practices, rather than being concentrated in the hospitals where we spend the majority of placement as students. However, that is not to understate the importance of research in this setting: over 90% of patient interaction in the NHS takes place in primary care.
I recently undertook a student choice project as part of my undergraduate degree in Medicine at the University of Bristol with the Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT), where I had the chance to interview multiple academic GPs, who gave me invaluable insights into research in general practice. I had not previously known much about research, let alone in primary care. In this blog, I share what I learned, which I hope will be useful to medical students and others thinking of getting involved in primary care research for the first time, alongside tips for getting involved.
The scope of primary care research is far-reaching, with diverse subject areas
I was surprised by the breadth of the topics I saw during my placement. From cancer detection and survivorship to post-natal depression, asylum seeker and refugee health to genetics – as Dr Dipesh Gopal points out, “pretty much anything that comes through the front door is general practice.” There is research into how to improve patient care at every stage, shaping how we will practice; this includes big conversations around having continuity of care with the same GP for patients. You can see the full extent of what is covered by visiting the Society for Academic Primary Care website or browsing universities’ primary care department pages (a directory can be found here).
Research in general practice is fundamental for research inclusion
In order to represent our communities within treatment and policy, we must reach them in our research. My conversation with Dr Serge Engamba emphasised that primary care is an integral part of this equation: “research impact cannot happen without [involving primary care to some extent] because people are in primary care.” He highlights that we need to think not just about those who put their hand up to participate in research, but those who are harder to reach for a variety of reasons, including mental health problems, addiction, being housebound or being in a care home. “If you don’t think about all of these people, then your results don’t represent them.”
Tips for getting involved in research
- Start small. Your first publication, although it may sound daunting, doesn’t have to be extravagant. In fact, it could be a short letter to a journal responding to an article you read; equally, you can turn parts of your medical school curriculum, such as student choice projects and medical electives, into conference presentations with guidance from a supervisor or mentor. Building confidence and developing your analytical skills this way can introduce you to the world of research and prepare you for bigger projects down the line.
- Reach out to people. Whether it’s online (sending a message via email or LinkedIn) or face-to-face, many of the GPs highlighted the importance of mentors or supervisors to support you in your journey. Simply talking to people whose path aligns with your interests, whether they are based at your clinical placement or university, can help you become familiar with steps you can take to get there. Cold emails (even if it may feel a bit bold!) can be useful to start building your network. As a start, you could let them know (a) why you have approached them (b) who/where you are (c) what you would like to achieve and asking whether they can help with that. Don’t be disheartened if they don’t reply – it only takes one response to help you on your way!
- Get involved with research programmes. Getting involved with schemes is a fantastic way to get a taste of research and find out whether it’s for you. PACT is open to anyone in healthcare interested in primary care research, regardless of prior experience; you can become a member to hear about any opportunities to get involved. For medical research more generally, INSPIRE runs initiatives, in Bristol and across the UK, for medical students to enter the world of research. This manifests as funding summer studentships for research, the INSPIRE conference, and student journals amongst other things.
Above all, there is no one ‘typical’ researcher, and the journey into research can (and often does) look different for everyone. In fact, there is strength in diversity when designing and delivering research by virtue of the different perspectives people bring from their experiences. If you are interested in research, you can dip your toe in and find a way to fit it in with your career that works for you, whatever that may look like.
Thank you to Dr Molly Dineen, Dr Serge Engamba, Dr Dipesh Gopal and Prof Debbie Sharp for their inspiring interviews. You can listen to the full conversations on the PACT podcast.
About PACT
PACT is a collaborative research network of enthusiastic primary care team members who want to participate in high impact projects and learn more about research. Established in 2019, PACT now has over 1,000 members across the United Kingdom and is continuing to grow. The current PACT Chair is Dr Jessica Watson, a GP and Academic Clinical Lecturer at Bristol Medical School, based in the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol.