Development and use of primary care research networks

Internationally, several types of primary care research networks exist with varying principal functions, but all aim to improve the quality of primary care by building a setting-appropriate evidence base. There are global differences in the stages of development and implementation of these networks, with some of the most well-developed in countries such as the UK and the Netherlands. ¹ In general, primary care research networks can be subdivided into sentinel practice networks, practice-based clinical research networks, networks contributing data to routine databases and specific condition/purpose networks.