JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The generation of research evidence and knowledge in Primary Health Care (PHC) is crucial for informing the development and implementation of interventions and innovations and driving health policy, health service improvements, and potential societal changes. The specific and in-depth exploration of the definition and measures of research impact within PHC is notably absent in the existing literature. Current measures of research impact focus on academic productivity, prompting the need to examine the conceptualization and measures of research impact in PHC.

Objective:

This review protocol aims to address the existing gap in understanding the conceptualizations and measures of research impact within the realm of PHC. By synthesizing existing knowledge and identifying trends in impact conceptualization and measurement, this review seeks to guide future research endeavors and enhance methodologies used in assessing research impact within PHC.

Methods:

The protocol outlines the rapid review and environmental scan approach that will be used to explore research impact in PHC. The rapid review follows scoping review guidelines (PRISMA-SCr). The environmental scan will be done by consulting with professional organizations, academic institutions, information science, and PHC experts. The search strategy will involve multiple databases, citation and forward citation searching, and manual searches of grey literature databases, think-tank websites, and relevant catalogs. We will include grey and scientific literature focusing explicitly on research impact in PHC from high-income countries, using the World Bank classification. Publications published in English from 1970 to the present will be considered. The collected articles will undergo screening using Covidence software and a two-stage independent review process based on predetermined inclusion criteria. The research team will extract data from selected studies based on the research questions and the CRISP protocol statement. The team will discuss the extracted data, enabling the identification and categorization of key themes regarding research impact conceptualization and measurement in PHC. The narrative synthesis will evolve iteratively based on the identified literature.

Results:

The results of this study are expected at the end of 2024.

Conclusions:

This review will extensively explore the conceptualization and measurement of research impact in PHC. The synthesis will offer crucial insights that will guide subsequent research, emphasizing the need for a standardized approach that incorporates diverse perspectives to comprehensively gauge the true impact of research in this pivotal healthcare domain. Furthermore, trends and gaps in current methodologies will set the stage for future studies aimed at enhancing our understanding of and measurement of research impact in PHC.