The Ariadne Project: Identification of research gaps in primary health care in low- and middle-income countries

The aim of this study is to address organization and models of care (workforce and team development, scale, and new models for management) and financing (market structure, political economy, and uptake of evidence) for primary health care (PHC). We identified and prioritized the knowledge needs of PHC practitioners and researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), leveraging on the work previously conducted by Primary Health Care Measurement & Implementation Research Consortium, also further informed by a scoping literature review.

Specific objectives

1. Produce a list of 10-15 prioritized research questions.
2. Produce a gap map, including areas where there is evidence of what works to improve the gap, and where there are major gaps in evidence regarding how to measure and/or improve PHC organization.
3. Prepare research implementation plans for the top four research questions in each area.

Background

PHC research has predominately advanced in high-income countries (HIC).^4,5 Many LMICs are still establishing family medicine as a specialty, and the relative immaturity of the discipline, combined with the dominance of research by bioscience agendas, and the greater capacity of HICs for funding and performing research, means that capacity and funding for research on LMIC PHC priorities is still limited. Research priority setting does occur in LMIC, but tends to be led by governments and international agencies with limited evidence of subsequent implementation.⁶

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