No 75: Building collaborative research in UK Primary Care
tldr
Please can one of the main organisations involved in Primary Care Research in the UK create a one-stop mailing list for everyone to join?
https://linktr.ee/jakemat91
Anyone who has the misfortune to have my phone number will know that I love a whatsapp group. Mainly because getting lots of people in one place often makes it much easier to find information or get a group to complete a project.
Call it an overly optimistic belief in the power of the grass roots and the masses.
However, I have personally been part of small whatsapp groups that have grown into large well conducted international research projects, like when I was lucky enough to work with the WMRC and the RIFT study .
My question for everyone in UK General Practice or Primary Care is – if you are interested in quality improvement or research shouldn’t you be able to sign up to a single mailing list that covers everyone with a similar interest in the UK and get monthly updates on what’s going on?
[PS if anyone would like to get occassional emails are interesting primary care stuffy then subscribe now using the buttong below….]
Yes, I suppose you could argue that this is basically what the BJGP does, but to share an idea via the BJGP takes quite a lot of rigorous work, whereas maybe there needs to be something quicker and easier?
For example, WiseGP, the RCGP, NIHR and local CRN all produce newsletters, but again, it takes quite a lot of work to find and sign up to each of these bulletins, and then you get email spam because you are receiving multiple emails from all of the different organisations.
I have tried to create a mindmap / org chart/ doodle of all of the overlapping organisations and teams involved in UK Primary Care research and who might have a mailing list. It’s quite complex.
And as far as I am aware, there doesn’t seem to be anyone who has easy access to a majority of the primary care clinicians who might be interested in research.
So, my call to action is this… I don’t mind who takes responsibility and whose logo goes at the top of the bulletin, but could all of the teams currently producing bulletins just agree to share and join together their mailing lists?
Just imagine the power of being able to have a study idea, email a person who has access to the list, share your idea with thousands of clinicians at over >6000 practices in the UK and other NHS organisations and Universities and then within a few days form a team of like minded people from across the UK?
Or imagine wanting to know the mood of the UKGPs, well here is a massive distribution list that you could ask to share a survey.
Or imagine wanting to recruit patients into a trial, one list and you get all the practices, wouldn’t that be useful?
Or imagine you want to host a conference and you want to invite delegates and attract abstract submissions?
The West Midlands Primary Care Collaborative
We have recently set up a whatsapp group as the basis for a Primary Care Collaborative in the West Midlands. We have reached nearly 150 members in just a few weeks. The aim is to increase knowledge sharing, form project teams, share ideas and maybe organise some online lectures. If you would like to join this group then contact me and I will send you the link – you don’t have to be from the Midlands.
https://www.gppact.org/join
This is actually what I was looking for! It's an MDT organisation for primary care research and collaboration!