Ways to Get Involved

Ways to get involved in research studies

• Recruiting patients to a study

• Carrying out research activity at your site (which can be anything from consenting patients to carrying out medical procedures, questionnaires etc.)

• Working with others to support a study

If you already know the study you want to be involved in, click here to contact the team to find out how.

Recruiting patients

Some studies recruit patients through general practice but the research activity takes place in another setting, e.g. hospital.

These are known as Participant Identification Centre (PIC) studies, which means the study team does not have permission to carry out research activity in general practice but general practices can be involved by recruiting patients. This can involve all or some of the following:

• Conducting a search of your database to identify a list of participants which fit a study’s inclusion/exclusion criteria

• Sending out a letter to patients to introduce the study, or providing the list of eligible patients so that the study team can send out the letter

If the study requires the health care professional to consent patients or carry out any other research activity, including consenting patients, then it is a full research study and not a PIC.

Research activity at your site

Other studies involve conducting some of the research in primary care, which could mean, for example:

• Consenting patients to take part in the study (this involves going through the information sheet and consent form and taking signatures from patients who would like to be involved)

• Taking samples or measurements from patients

• Issuing surveys, questionnaires or tests

• Allowing a member of the research team access to the practice for the purposes of conducting research activity

• Allowing a member of the research team access to your patient record system for the purposes of conducting research activity

In the new HRA system, when a practice takes part in a study their lead GP will normally take on the role of Principal Investigator (PI). This means they take responsibility for the conduct of the research at that site.

Working with others to contribute to a study

You can contribute to studies in other ways than your practice recruiting patients or running the study. You can feed into where you think researchers should focus their research, or become part of a team feeding into a research proposal.

If you are interested in being part of or feeding into a research application, please contact the WY R&D Team to let us know what areas you are interested in and we may be able to match you up with studies in the area.

Or why not become a reviewer to inform the development of new NIHR studies?