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Primary Health Care Research Impact Project

The purpose of this study was to develop a feasible way of assessing the impact of primary health care research. This project is being conducted in two stages.

This first stage, conducted during 2006, studied four nationally funded research projects to:

• identify how much or what types of impact can be assessed through various means at different stages of research completion
• develop efficient methods for primary health care researchers (or other organisations) to use to track and assess the impact of their projects.

The recommended model for the Research Quality Framework (RQF) has now been released and our research findings are proving to be very timely in feeding into the discussion on how primary health care can best meet the RQF requirements. Our project gives grounds for optimism that primary health care research can potentially do well under the RQF as we found that the strongest pathways to impact were formed by strong collaborative links, personal relationships and the involvement of practitioners, health care managers and policy makers in defining the research question in the research processes. Also important was good dissemination, the involvement of respected champions and the alignment of the research findings with Government priorities. Primary health care research is well positioned, with established networks, links with health care organisations, practitioners and policy makers, setting up the pathways through which ideas spread.

The final report of stage one of the Primary Health Care Research Impact project, which includes discussion of these issues and the input of the Advisory Committee, is available on the PHCRIS website (http://www.phcris.org.au/activities/rip/).

Peer review publications

PHC RIS' main focus this year has been on sharing the skills and knowledge that PHC RIS staff have acquired through their roles as newsletter editors, conference coordination and convening, information scanning, writing for publication and producing conference posters. By drawing on this experience to write papers for peer review journals, we have achieved six peer review publications in national and international journals.

See full list of 2006 Publications