Putting Research into Practice and Practice into Research

Jeffrey A. Linder, MD, MPH, FACP

A Q&A with Dr. Jeffrey Linder, Director of the Brigham and Women's Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network

Are you a researcher who is interested in recruiting BWH patients for a study? Or are you a clinician who believes that bringing research into your practice may help improve patient care?

Whether you are a researcher, clinician or both, the mission remains the same-improve patient care and advance medicine. Helping to connect the primary care world with the research world under this mission is Jeffrey A. Linder, MD, MPH, FACP. Linder is director of the Brigham and Women's Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network (BWPC PBRN).

Nationally certified by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the BWPC PBRN is a network of 14 hospital-based practices, community-based practices and community health centers affiliated with BWH. The network aims to create and promote a community of primary care clinicians and researchers collaborating in scholarly activity to improve the practice and outcomes of primary care. The following is an interview with Linder.

What is the goal of the PBRN?

A. As our tag line says, the Brigham and Women's Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network is working to "put research into practice and practice into research." Breaking that apart a bit, first, by "putting research into practice," the PBRN seeks to improve primary care practice through research and quality improvement projects.

Second, and probably more important, by "putting practice into research," I hope we can bring the reality of primary care practice to research and investigators. Many research projects fail to recognize the time, space and financial constraints faced by real primary care practices.

Likewise, much of what gets published is not generalizable to real primary care practice. By involving primary care clinicians and patients early in the scholarly process, I hope we can improve the feasibility and relevance of research and quality improvement projects that come to our practices.

Our BWPC PBRN Steering Committee includes representatives from each of the practices and the Director of Primary Care, Dr. Joseph Frolkis. We have met three times since last fall, drafted a mission statement, and created an application process for investigators who would like to engage with our practices, clinicians and patients.

How does the process work?

A. When contacted by a researcher about a research project, practices will check to see that the project has been vetted and approved-a "seal of approval"-by the BWPC PBRN Steering Committee. Therefore, we are asking investigators who seek a clinical practice setting to conduct research, quality improvement or scholarly projects to submit a 4-page application to the Steering Committee. Proposals will be reviewed by two members of the Steering Committee and me.

What sort of project proposals are you looking for?

A. Going forward, I hope we see more "ground up" projects that germinate from within the BWH Primary Care Practices. I hope the BWPC PBRN will serve as a trans-practice networking mechanism that brings clinicians and investigators together to perform and disseminate scholarly work that improves primary care.

If frontline clinicians have an idea for a research or quality-improvement project that they feel should be run in one of our practices or that they hope to disseminate beyond our practices, please contact the BWPC PBRN.

Where can clinicians and researchers get more information?

A. BWH clinicians and researchers can visit our new website. The website includes information about the BWPC PBRN and information for investigators. Please take a look at the website and let us know if you have thoughts or suggestions.

I look forward to trying to bridge the divide that often exists between the frontline clinical and research worlds. By bridging that divide, my hope is we can make the research better, but more importantly, make primary care practice better for us and our patients.

Harry Reyes, BWPC PBRN Network Manager (right) works with Dr. Linder on the daily operations and website management.