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General practice research unit to close
General practice research unit to close
29 March 2012
The MRC General Practice Research
Framework (GPRF) will close at the end of March, a result of
the change in the funding of primary care research in the UK. Over
the last 10 years GPRF and MRC CTU have worked closely together on
various methodological projects. This was facilitated by
GPRF’s co-location with the CTU in 2003.
The GPRF was the first primary care research
network in the UK and was set up in 1973 by Dr Bill Miall. Dr
Miall created the network to get a group of practices to
collaborate on a single project, the MRC mild hypertension
trial. 176 practices completed the trial, screening a total
of 500,000 patients. Indeed, this was an innovative and astounding
achievement at that time. The findings from this study
changed the treatment of hypertension in general practice then and
has great relevance to its management even today.
Recognising its potential for research in
epidemiology, trials and general practice, the network was expanded
and became a national resource in 1986 through funding provided by
the MRC. At its peak, the GPRF had over 900 participating
practices and has conducted over 100 studies, including important
work on cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, infectious diseases and
mental illness.
Of the many great achievements of the GPRF, in
2007, research undertaken within the unit in collaboration with
University College London showed increased rates of cardiovascular
diseases in schizophrenic patients. This led to a change in
NICE guidance on the management of schizophrenia and to screening
for cardiovascular risk factors in this group. These findings
have since been incorporated into NHS practice through the quality
outcomes framework which is an essential part of the NHS general
practice contract. Many of the studies undertaken by GPRF
have even over the last 12 months attracted media interest, such as
the research on the delayed
diagnosis of dementia in primary care and other research that
demonstrated the increased
risk of depression in new parents (both mothers and fathers) in
the first year after the child’s birth.
With the creation of the National Institute for
Health Research (NIHR) in 2006, funding for primary care
research became the remit of the Institute, with the MRC retaining
responsibility for methodological and aetiological
studies. Infrastructural support for UK primary care
research (formerly provided by GPRF) is now the function of the
NIHR Primary Care Research Network in England, the Scottish Primary
Care Research Network, the Northern Ireland Clinical Research
Network and the National Institute for Social Care and Health
Research Clinical Research Centre in Wales.
The GPRF, however, was crucial in laying the
foundations for the creation and development of most of the primary
care research networks across the UK and this would certainly in
addition to the outstanding scientific work undertaken by the unit
over the last 40 years be its lasting legacy.
The MRC’s Director of Research Declan Mulkeen
said:
“The MRC is proud of GPRF’s
excellent track record and achievements but the time has come to
turn to the national primary care research networks (PCRNs), so
that there is a ‘one stop’ infrastructure for primary care
research.”
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