Overview of research within the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice
The Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice conducts research that aims to understand and improve access, use, equity, and outcomes from primary and community health services.
We have diverse community, provider, and health system partnerships that enable us to respond to emerging health need and research opportunities.
We undertake a wide range of research activities relevant to Primary Health Care and General Practice.
Through all our research we strive to identify and address inequities in health service access, use, and outcomes for people, whānau, and communities. Our research has a strong focus on translation into health policy and delivery.
We integrate our research findings into undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and supervision. We further advance teaching and learning through educational research and interprofessional education research.
Research teams within the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice
Our research teams and interventions are intrinsically interdisciplinary and interprofessional. We aspire to support and develop research skills in our teams. We have diverse skill sets including qualitative research, conceptual and ethical analysis, exploration of lived experience, participatory action research, conversation and interaction analysis, survey research, systematic review, health measurement, clinical trials, process evaluation, health service evaluation, analysis of large health datasets, implementation science and translational research.
Research groups
Research themes within the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice
Areas of enquiry include health interaction and communication, use of interpreters, use of medicines, immunisation, mental health, musculoskeletal health, respiratory health, sexual health, women’s health, youth health, refugee and migrant health, rainbow health, body size and health, interprofessional collaborative practice, health and research ethics, disaster risk identification, response and recovery, teaching and learning, and the health of groups disadvantaged by inequity, in particular Māori and people from Pacific communities.
Key research themes
- Addictive and Lifestyle Behaviours
Alcohol, recreational drugs, smoking, obesity, nutrition - Communication in Health Care
Conversations in health care consultations, skills in talking about challenging topics - Educational Research
Interprofessional education, learning about empathy - Health Services
Health care delivery, models of care, health professionals working together - Mental Health
Mild to moderate mental illness; social constructs, definitions, prevalence, interventions and outcomes
Research projects
Knee Care for Arthritis through Pharmacy study (KneeCAPS)
Study seeking participants
August 2024:
Improving medicines safety for older New Zealanders on multiple medicines at hospital discharge seeks particpants for interviews.
Masters' and PhDs
If you are interested in collaborating with us we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in studying with us and learning to be a researcher see:
Summer Student Research Projects
The department supervises a number of student research projects each summer.
Summer Studentships at the University of Otago, Wellington
Events
- 2023 NZ Primary Health Care, General Practice and Rural Health Research Symposium – Booklet (PDF)
- 2019 Academic General Practice and Primary Health Care Research Symposium – Booklet
- 2017 GP Research Weekend – Book of Abstracts
Publications and other research activity
You can explore the Research Activities and Publications of Primary Health Care and General Practice staff members' on their profile pages.
Further information
Professor Maria Stubbe and Professor Ben Darlow: Research Co-directors
Email maria.stubbe@otago.ac.nz or ben.darlow@otago.ac.nz