Gerd Winter & Sarah Eckermann,
PHC RIS
 To find out what you had to say about Roadmap Of Australian primary health care Research (ROAR) we conducted interviews with 44 randomly selected stakeholders comprising policy advisors (n=10), Division of General Practice (n=7), PHCRED directors (n=17), and primary health care (PHC) researchers (n=10).
ROAR, what it is…
The on-line database ROAR, is there to help you understand what is going on in PHC research.
ROAR lists four project categories which you can search for specific purposes, eg. to contact researchers, to find out about current projects or to get information about funding sources:
- research project title and summary (533)
- profiles of researchers (289)
- funding bodies and programs (41)
- research organisations (166).
Stakeholders needs…
The surveys asked researchers and policy advisors what their research needs were, and the results showed that:
- 70% of researchers have a need to find out about researchers in their field to collaborate with to help with a project
- 70% of researchers have a need to find out about other projects to prevent duplication of research effort and/or to complement parts of their work
- just less than half of policy makers surveyed rely on contact with PHC experts for advice about relevant topics.
…and what you said:
Awareness of ROAR was good among PHCRED directors and researchers with 90% and 100% respectively, saying they knew about ROAR, but lower among the Divisions of General Practice and policy advisors which was expected at this time.
The results showed us the innovative ways researchers and policy advisors could use ROAR, and revealed some exciting suggestions for the future development of ROAR. Comments included:
- a hit counter for individual projects and profiles to show that ROAR is effective in promoting PHC research
- added publication records to individual profiles
- providing policy updates
- a mapping tool that shows the spread of research in a particular area across Australia.
All suggestions made are currently under review in an effort to continually tailor ROAR to best meet your needs. If you have any comments on your own experience with ROAR please contact us at: www.phcris.org.au/website/feedback.php
You can submit your researcher profile and project details by electronic submission.
The forms are available on the ROAR webpage: www.phcris.org.au/ROAR
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