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Research Paper of the Year

Background Information

• Raise the profile of research in general practice and primary care.
• Demonstrate that high quality research is being undertaken in general practice and primary care.
• Give recognition to a group of researchers, or an individual researcher, who have/has undertaken and published an exceptional piece of research relating to general practice or primary care.
• Recognise the increasing importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to primary care.

The 2008 RCGP Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited Research paper of the year award was awarded to the paper Effect on smoking quit rate of telling patients their lung age: the step2quit randomised control trial

After much deliberation, the Panel chose the paper Effect on smoking quit rate of telling patients their lung age: the Step2quit randomised controlled trial because it has echoes of the great traditions of general practice research.  Gary Parkes is a working GP with a good idea that he makes the subject of a rigorous piece of research.  In doing so he addresses the important and, for GPs, very relevant question of how to more effectively get people to stop smoking.

He adapted earlier work by Peto to allow a calculation of lung age based on FEV1.  He found that the quit rate at 12 months in people told their lung age was double that of controls (13.6% versus 6.4%), with an NNT of 14.  He has also left the reader with an enigma – the intervention works, but it remains unclear how or why.

Read the 2008 Winning Paper here

The Research Paper of the year 2008 winning authors

2008 Highly Commended Paper

The rules of the award mean that the panel may, in exceptional circumstances, highly commend a paper. The panel decided this year to give special recognition to the paper Patient’s attitudes to the summary care record and HealthSpace: qualitative study. 

The sharing of personal health information is highly contentious.  A large-scale IT project is underway to place a Summary Care record for every patient on a central store from which it can be accessed by NHS staff.  This will also be accessible to patients via the HealthSpace website.  Much of the current debate is based on the received wisdom of health professionals and information specialists, and it is evident that views are both polarised and entrenched. 

In this study, Trish Greenhalgh used a novel methodology to capture the views of patients; the people who will be directly affected by this new technology.  The way in which she has broken down the issue into the conflicting tensions contributes a more considered and first hand perspective.  It is for this bringing the patient dimension to this debate that the Panel chose to highly commend her paper.

Read the 2008 Highly Commended Paper here

The Research Paper of the Year 2008 Highly Commended authors

Previous RCGP Research Paper of the Year Winners

The links below will take you to previous award winning papers.