VicREN

VicREN is a practice-based research and education network (PBRN) managed by the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at the University of Melbourne that enables collaboration between 750 primary care practices around Australia (mostly in Victoria), members of the community, researchers and academic institutions. VicREN aims to encourage the conduct of evidence-based primary care practice by:

• Supporting collaborative practice-based primary care research that aims to improve health outcomes and the care experience
• Providing primary care providers and patients with opportunities to engage in research and other development opportunities
• Contributing to dissemination of research findings

The VicREN team have been successfully implementing research in primary care settings since 2007. We are experts in recruiting both practitioners and patients for primary care research without compromising or interrupting clinical care. To delve deeper into the history of VicREN, click the links to read articles in the Australian Family Physician about the establishment of VicREN and practice-based research networks in Australia.

Why is VicREN important?

Primary care is the healthcare setting people use and attend most frequently;,however, most health care research is conducted in the hospital or laboratory setting.

Research generated in hospital and laboratory settings may not be relevant to primary care clinical practice. To be applicable and meaningful, research about primary care should be designed for, and undertaken within, the primary care environment. VicREN helps this to happen.

If you are interested in utilising VicREN's research, primary care trials or recruitment services, please complete the enquiries from below and a member of our team will be in contact to discuss your request further. All VicREN service requests must be submitted at least four weeks prior to your research deadline.

Enquiry form

Collaborate with us

Our collaborators benefit from our research expertise, including designing studies for the unique general practice environment, providing methodological advice around recruitment of GPs, practices and patients as well as the creation of appropriate recruitment materials and advertisements. Further information is available here.

VicREN members are provided with opportunities to learn more about research and teaching and contribute to research projects that make a difference to practice, public health, and policy. It links primary care practitioners and community members with researchers. Go to the Membership page to learn more.

Community members are also invited to join our Advisory Pool for potential opportunities to contribute to the development of University of Melbourne's Department of General Practice and Primary Care and education activities.

Our Team

• Prof Lena Sanci: VicREN Chair, Head of Department
• Prof Meredith Temple-Smith: Director of Research Training
• Department Database Manager
• Practice Liaison and Recruitment Officers
• Research Assistants
• Department Business Manager A
• Administrator support

Recruitment, GP Consulting and Data Services

The VicREN team works with the Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit (PCTU) to provide a general practice and primary care trial recruiting and research consulting service. We provide various levels of assistance. Contact us for pricing and service enquiries.

Collaboration

Our academic GPs can collaborate on general practice projects arising outside of our Department. This can have many benefits. The extent of the collaboration varies from project to project.

Our collaborators benefit from our research expertise, including designing studies for the unique general practice environment, providing methodological advice around recruitment of GPs/practices and patients and the creation of appropriate recruitment materials and advertisements.

Advertising/promoting studies

We promote primary care related research through the distribution and promotion of regular newsletters and notices to GPs, practice managers, practice nurses and broader primary care organisations. Contact us if you have a general practice-related project to promote (Conditions apply – not all requests will be promoted).

Active Recruitment

VicREN has the ability to recruit GPs, general practices and/or patients (fee based). The level of involvement can range from:

• Identifying a GP/practice that may be interested in a study/trial and passing on details to a researcher and/or recruiting a GP Advisor/Associate Investigator for a study
• Engaging with and visiting practices, educating staff about study details, and gaining their consent to participate
• Recruiting patients for trials within consenting practices under direction from the research team
• Identifying patients who may be eligible to participate in research in our Data for Decisions/ Patron network and working with the GP practice to recruitment them
• Organising and hosting events, e.g. practitioner of consumer focus or advisory groups
• Undertaking commissioned and/or collaborative research studies or evaluations, including recruitment, data collection, analysis and write up.

Patron primary care data repository

Over 100 general practices across Victoria contribute de-identified data from their electronic medical records to the Department of General Practice and Primary Care Patron data repository. This is part of VicREN’s Data for Decisions program of research. For more information from the Data for Decisions website (go to the ‘Communities and Data Use’ tab and then the ‘Researchers’ section). There are costs associated with accessing Patron data and due dates for submission of applications to access Patron data. The independent Patron Data Governance Committee meets quarterly to assess applications.

• Quotes to access Patron data. Be sure to contact the VicREN / Data for Decisions team as soon as you commence grant writing. Not all quotes are straightforward. Some projects require a single data extraction, others require extractions at multiple time points, data linkage capability, in-house data analysis and/or VicREN liaison with practices to gain practice consent to be part of an intervention study that might/might not require re-identification of Patron data (which can only happen with patient consent, and patient consent can only be gained by having a consenting practice contact the patient on behalf of the researchers).

When to contact VicREN

We encourage researchers planning general practice-related research (including the use of Patron data) to contact us a minimum of four to six weeks before the deadline for their research proposal/project. This lead time is essential to understand your project, enable us to provide appropriate advice/options specific to your project and determine if we can assist.

Researcher often find out too late that they have under budgeted (or not budgeted at all) for general practice recruitment or to use of general practice data, leading to extensive study time and expense blow outs.  We regularly receive requests for recruitment assistance after researchers discover how difficult it can be to engage general practice staff and clinicians in research and trials. Be sure to contact us BEFORE you write your grant proposal!

Example projects assisted by VicREN through active recruitment of practices and/or participants:

• Future Health Today
• Data for Decisions
• The PARTNER Project
• HARMONY
• I-PACED: Implementing Pathways for Cancer Early Diagnosis
• SpringboarD
• The Target-D Trial
• Great Expectations: Achieving the promise of public reporting of health service performance
• The CRISP tool
• First cohort recruitment for NPS MedicineInsight