Research and PhDs in Family Medicine in LMICs

Why this page on PhDs.
Research and PhDs are essential for strengthening the foundations of FM and for helping to raise the academic profile of FM departments.
A PhD is a step towards understanding research or becoming a researcher.
In many departments of FM, they prefer a Head of Department with a PhD.

How to get started on a PhD
In North-South collaboration, research and PhDs are an essential means of achieving this.
WONCA supports the following: Consult their offer.
If you are planning to start a PhD programme, your FM department may wish to set up a cooperation with the host institution. Together, the institutes can apply for funding or NUFFIC in the Netherlands.
SHE in Maastricht offers such PhD programmes.
Contact Mark Spigt

WONCA & ARC help to promote research into FM through capacity building
AfriWon RENAISSANCE is the African organisation for young and trainee family doctors in the WONCA Africa region. 
The ARC (African Research Collaborative) is part of Afriwon, which promotes global primary care research. Read BMJ Global Health paper on how to catch up. 

Primary Care Research Methods

Bob Mash et al. have produced a series of 11 articles aimed at doctoral-level researchers and their supervisors. We have also just published an editorial to position and introduce the series. 
Please make use of this series with your Master’s and PhD students and in your teaching on research.
Bob Mash. https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/browseSearch/sections/view?sectionId=15

1. Writing for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): A guide to developing a strong and coherent thesis.
2. From dreamers to doers: Navigating the doctoral journey in family medicine and primary care.
3. Phenomenology for primary care researchers.
4. Understanding implementation research.
5. Clinical trial methods for family medicine and primary care.
6. Cost-effectiveness analysis in primary care research: A practical guide for early-career researchers.
7. Integrating evidence synthesis into doctoral research: A guide for family medicine and primary care.
8. From separate streams to confluence: A framework for meaningful mixed-methods integration in African primary care research.
9. Design science research in quality improvement: Embedding rigour in digital health innovation.
10. Real-world evidence for primary care: A primer on observational research.
11. Integrated knowledge translation: A guide for primary care researchers.

Examples of successful theses
– Diagnostic evaluation of smear-negative TB in a resource-poor setting. Mala George Otieno.

– Intestinal Parasitosis and Malnutrition in Ethiopia: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Prevention. Mahmud Abdulkader Mahmud

– Care for chronic diseases in low-income countries. The health system perspective and self-management of diabetes. Josefien van Olmen- Access to Care For children under five in countries with high pneumonia mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Camielle Noordam

– Where altitude and sex meet: Sexual risk behaviour and altitude sickness among visitors to travel clinics M. Croughs. +32475394800, mieke.croughs@telenet.be 

– Prevention of cardiovascular disease in the slums of Kenya. Steven van de Vijver. doctoral thesis & publication in *The Lancet*.

– K. von Pressentin, a South African FP, wrote an excellent thesis on the contribution of general practitioners to the South African healthcare system.