Five years and $7.72 million later, family practice research blossoms -- October 2002 -- FP Report

October 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 10

Five years and $7.72 million later, family practice research blossoms

In fall 1997, the AAFP Congress of Delegates committed $7.72 million to fostering family practice research and researchers during the next five years.

"Family practice will reap the dividends from this investment for years to come," says Stephen Spann, M.D., of Houston, chair of the Task Force for the Plan to Enhance Family Practice Research. The task force sunset in May, ceding follow-up responsibilities to the Commission on Clinical Policies and Research.

"The ultimate dividends will be in discovering new knowledge that will improve the care of our patients," says Spann.

Advanced Research Training grants

The best investment of the AAFP research initiative, says Spann, has been the Advanced Research Training grants. "Twenty-eight ART fellows have each been given about $100,000 to help them develop the research skills to become competitive in seeking extramural funding. They'll be able to dedicate a significant amount of time throughout their careers to research," says Spann.

The ART grants were awarded based on the skills participants would gain, the formal training they planned and the mentor relationships they would establish.

By this spring, the initial ART fellows had developed 119 research publications (journal articles, book chapters and books); had given 62 research presentations; and had received 31 grants amounting to $17,236,192.

Some topics the fellows have studied: pain management during labor; mental health problems in a poor, minority, underserved, semirural population; problems of adult survivors of childhood cancer; and alternative medicine.

University-based research centers

The Academy gave three family practice research centers up to $900,000. The objectives included training new family medicine researchers and increasing the centers' capacity to undertake research that would assist family practices and improve patient care. The three centers, chosen from 62 applicants, are:

the Center for Family Medicine Science at the University of Missouri, Columbia;
the Michigan Consortium for Family Practice Research, a collaborative project of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Michigan State University, East Lansing; and now Wayne State University, Detroit; and
the Center for Research in Family Practice and Primary Care at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Some results attributable to the infusion of AAFP funds, as of this spring: 588 research publications, 211 research presentations and 99 grants totaling $47,906,618.

Other projects

The Academy's multifaceted research initiative included the following.

Part of the $7.72 million supplied the Academy's portion of funding to launch the Annals of Family Medicine. The journal, also supported by five other organizations, will debut in 2003. If you're interested in submitting a manuscript or serving as a peer reviewer, see the information and directions at http://www.annfammed.org/.
A grant from the AAFP initiative and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine supported the grant-generating project of the North American Primary Care Research Group. The project, administered by the family and community medicine department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, trains researchers in developing and submitting proposals. By this spring, 54 family medicine researchers had completed one-year fellowships and had gained $1 million in research grants and $2.3 million in training grants.
Many research initiative projects supported practice-based research networks. For example, staff for the AAFP National Network for Family Practice and Primary Care Research have coordinated the activities of the Federation of Practice-Based Research Networks. (Note: The AAFP network, established in 1999 separately from the research initiative, has obtained more than $1 million in external grants.)
The research initiative backed advocacy efforts for family medicine grants, and these efforts will continue. "We believe we'll see a growth in funding from the NIH, the CDC, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and various foundations," says Spann. "We'll see many more trained, successful family practice researchers."

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