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PCN Research Participation: How Primary Care Can Become Research-Ready
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- What is PCN research participation?
- Why does primary care research matter for PCNs?
- How can PCNs identify patients for research safely?
- What role do Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians play?
- How can a PCN become research-ready?
PCN research participation helps practices connect eligible patients with studies while strengthening data quality and evidence-based care. For PCN leaders, the opportunity is practical: become research-ready without creating unnecessary operational pressure.
Key takeaways
- Research-readiness: A research-active PCN needs clean data, safe cohort searches and clear roles.
- Workforce model: Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians can support patient identification, coding quality and study coordination.
- Patient benefit: NHS England says research can support patient benefit, staff engagement and better evidence for care.
What is PCN research participation?
PCN research participation is when Primary Care Networks help identify, engage or support eligible patients for approved research studies. This may include feasibility searches, cohort reviews, practice engagement, or communication with eligible patients.
Research participation in primary care does not mean every GP practice must run complex trials. Start with reliable processes to identify patients for relevant studies.
The NHS explains that clinical trials compare one treatment with another. For PCNs considering primary care clinical trials, its clinical trials guidance also explains that research involving people must be reviewed and approved through safeguards.
Why does primary care research matter for PCNs?
Primary care research matters because most patients are reviewed in community settings. Better primary care research can widen access to studies beyond hospitals.
NHS England’s Research in the NHS paper says research can give patients earlier access to new treatments and technologies. It also highlights wider benefits, including evidence on effectiveness, better staff engagement and stronger research ecosystems.
For PCNs, this creates three practical advantages:
| Research-ready activity | PCN benefit |
| Data quality checks | More accurate searches and safer invitations |
| Patient cohort identification | Better matching between patients and studies |
| Clear team roles | Less disruption to routine practice workload |
| Study communication support | More consistent patient experience |
How can PCNs identify patients for research safely?
PCNs can identify patients safely by using agreed searches, clear inclusion and exclusion criteria and documented review processes. Clinical audit can support this by highlighting population health gaps, but research participation should remain the action that follows insight.
A safe model usually starts with data quality. Coding, registers and recent review information need checking before any patient list is used. This is where medicines optimisation support and Clinical Pharmacy infrastructure can add value.
What role do Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians play?
Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians can help PCNs turn research interest into reliable operational delivery. They already work across long-term conditions, medicines safety, recalls, structured reviews and patient-facing care.
A Clinical Pharmacist may review clinical suitability, risk factors and medicines-related criteria. A Pharmacy Technician may support searches, coding checks, recall processes and follow-up administration. This combination helps create a research-active PCN without adding avoidable pressure to GPs.
Clinical Pharmacy teams can support safe delivery by helping practices manage searches, coding quality and patient communication consistently. Structured Clinical Pharmacist support can add capacity. Our guide to Clinical Pharmacists in PCNs explains how role clarity helps networks use this workforce safely.
Expert insight from Adeem Azhar, qualified Clinical Pharmacist and CEO
Research participation works best when PCNs have clear roles, reliable data and a workforce that understands everyday primary care pressures. Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians can help turn insight into structured, safe delivery.
Adeem Azhar, MPharm, IPres
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer – Core Prescribing Solutions
Qualified Clinical Pharmacist
How can a PCN become research-ready?
A PCN can become research-ready by starting with simple governance, clean data and named operational leads. The aim is to make research participation in primary care realistic, safe and easier to integrate into routine planning.
Practical first steps include:
- Agree which practice or PCN lead owns research opportunities.
- Review data quality before running patient searches.
- Define how patients will be contacted and recorded.
- Use Clinical Pharmacy teams with GP Input to support safe clinical review.
- Build learning into routine PCN meetings.
This approach helps create research-ready GP practices and a research-active PCN that can respond to future studies with less disruption.
FAQs
Looking for support to build research-ready primary care teams?
If your PCN wants to strengthen data quality, patient identification and Clinical Pharmacy capacity, Core Prescribing Solutions can help. Our teams build practical models that support care and reduce workload pressure.
