Overview

Most health care in Australia is delivered in the general practice setting. There is an increasing recognition that countries with sufficient wealth to appropriately resource medical research devote most of those research resources to laboratory-based research rather than primary care research, despite the need for research to guide quality in primary care. Divisions of General Practice are at the forefront of ongoing change in the general practice sector and have an important role to play as advocates for and collaborative partners in research in primary care.

Over the past 12 months, the Sunshine Coast Division of General Practice (SCDGP) has developed an organisation-wide strategic commitment to research. The research strategy has a finite timeline of three years at which point it will be comprehensively reviewed and evaluated.

SCDGP research commitment is underpinned by an ethical framework which provides an accessible and culturally secure approach to the consideration of ethical issues in primary health care.