The awards recognise an individual or group of researchers who have undertaken and published an exceptional piece of research relating to general practice or primary care. They were announced at the RCGP annual conference, which is taking place in Liverpool.
The winning paper looked at wether the IRIS programme, a specialist domestic violence and abuse training, support and referral programme for GP practices, was effective and increased referrals to specialist workers. It found the programme led to a significant increase in referrals received by domestic violence and abuse workers.
The paper was also the winner in the awards' health services research category.
COVID-19 research
Dr Ashley Clift, a clinical research fellow at the University of Oxford, and colleagues won the COVID-19 Research Paper of the Year for their work developing the QCovid risk prediction model. The model helps to identify those at risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. Its use across the NHS in England resulted in an additional 1.7m people being added to the clinically extremely vulnerable shielding list earlier this year.
Other research recognised in this year's awards were:
- Dr Garth Funston who won the clinical research category and was highly commended in the overall research paper of the year for their paper 'The diagnostic performance of CA125 for the detection of ovarian and non-ovarian cancer in primary care: A population-based cohort study'
- Dr Emily Cottrell and colleagues won the medical education category for their paper 'Revealing the reality of undergraduate GP teaching in UK medical curricula: a cross-sectional questionnaire study'
The winners of the RCGP/National Institute for Health Research's Clinical Research Network Awards also received their awards at the conference. The awards recognise GP practices and First5 GPs who are active in primary care research.
Dr Nicholas Thomas and Dr Ian Binnian from Windrush Medical Practice and Eynsham Medical Group in Oxfordshire recevied the practice award. Dr Rakesh Narendra Modi, an academic GP and Wellcome Trust PhD Fellow, received the First5 award.
Early Career Researcher Awards
The winners of the Society of Academic Primary Care's Early Career Researcher Awards, which were announced earlier this year, also delivred presentations of their work at the RCGP annual conference.
Dr Samuel Seidu from Leicester, whose main area of research is in diabetes and cardiovascular disease, won the Early Career Researcher Academic GP Award.
Dr Shoba Dawson from Bristol, whose main area of research is inclusivity and diversity in patient and public involvement and engagement recevied the Early Career Researcher Primary Care Scientist Award.
