title: Towards efficient use of research resources: a nationwide database of ongoing primary care research projects in the Netherlands.
abstract: PURPOSE. Although in the last decades primary care research has evolved with great success, there is a growing need to prioritize the topics given the limited resources available. Therefore, we constructed a nationwide database of ongoing primary care research projects in the Netherlands, and we assessed if the distribution of research topics matched with primary care practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a survey among the main primary care research centres in the Netherlands and gathered details of all ongoing primary care research projects. We classified the projects according to research topic, relation to professional guidelines and knowledge deficits, collaborative partners and funding source. Subsequently, we compared the frequency distribution of clinical topics of research projects to the prevalence of problems in primary care practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 296 ongoing primary care research projects from 11 research centres. Most projects were designed as randomized controlled trial (35%) or observational cohort (34%), and government funded mostly (60%). Thematically, most research projects addressed chronic diseases, mainly cardiovascular risk management (8%), depressive disorders (8%) and diabetes mellitus (7%). One-fifth of the projects was related to defined knowledge deficits in primary care guidelines. From a clinical primary care perspective, research projects on dermatological problems were significantly underrepresented (P = 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This survey of ongoing projects demonstrates that primary care research has a firm basis in the Netherlands, with a strong focus on chronic disease. The fit with primary care practice can improve, and future research should address knowledge deficits in professional guidelines more.
authors.affiliation: UMC Utrecht, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht.
authors.forename: Marlous F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Kortekaas
authors.forename: Alma C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: van de Pol
authors.forename: Henriëtte E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: van der Horst
authors.forename: Jako S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Burgers
authors.forename: Willemjan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Slort
authors.forename: Niek J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: de Wit
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005194:Family Practice; D058006:General Practice; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D011320:Primary Health Care
keywords: Database; family practice; funding; general practice; primary health care; research.