Resources

The following resources are available for researchers within the UBC Department of Family Practice:

RESEARCH RESOURCES

• Basic Concepts
• Community-based participatory research
• Critical appraisal and EBM
• Evidence based medicine sites
• Literature searches and managing your bibliography
• Planning a survey
• Program evaluation
  
• Qualitative research resources
• Quality improvement
• Research design and methods
• Statistical packages and tutorials
• Writing resources for publication

Basic Concepts

1. Definitions of common terms relevant to primary care research from the North American Primary Care Research Group. Annals of Family Medicine 6:570-571 (2008).
2. Reusable Learning Objects for those of us who are visual learners, an interactive site with voice animation. Scroll down to Epidemiology (NNT, prevalence, sensitivity and specitivity, etc), Research Methods (Why a questionnaire? and Participant and non-participant observation) and Maths and Stats (Levels of measurement, Probability and Cross-tabular data).
3. Epidemiology for the uninitiated - How to read a paper: Getting your bearings (deciding what a paper is about). Trisha Greenhalgh. BMJ 1997;315:243-246 (26 July)
4. Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski's presentation on Epidemiology and Study Design
5. Royal College CanMeds 13-minute podcast, Guide to doing research. Although this podcast is intended for residents, DFP members who are beginning research, or who are thinking about research, will find this resource helpful
   

Community-based participatory research

1. For a detailed description of action research, participatory research and community based research, please see this CBPR curriculum guide
2. Participatory research toolkit - resources of Participatory Research at McGill
3. Definitions of common terms relevant to primary care research from the North American Primary Care Research Group. Annals of Family Medicine 6:570-571 (2008).

Critical Appraisal and Evidence-based Medicine sites

• CHEWS - Canadian Health Evidence Web-Site
• TRIP Database (Turning Research Into Practice)
• Centre for Evidence Based Medicine
• EBM Glasgow Checklist
• UBC DFP Clinical Resources
• Shropshire and Staffordshire Health Libraries - Critical appraisal and EBM
• Dr Chris Cates’ EBM Web Site www.nntonline.net 
  
• GATE (Graphic Approach to Epidemiology) developed by Dr. Rod Jackson in New Zealand.
  

Literature searches and managing your bibliography

1. Pub Med tutorial Absolutely essential
2. Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research. www.mendeley.com
   
3. RefWorks Reference manager will help you with your bibliography - free for UBC students and faculty
4. Department of Family Practice and Paediatrics Research Methods Course. In particular, see the module Literature Searching
5. For guidance on conducting a systematic literature review, read the  PowerPoint and Publication written by Dr Janusz Kaczorowski

Planning a survey 

1. Read survey pearls written by Dr. Eugene Leduc
2. Scroll down the Reusable Learning Objects to Research Methods (Why a questionnaire? and Participant and non-participant observation) and Maths and Stats (Levels of measurement, Probability and Cross-tabular data)
3. Read the sections on survey design in The Research Methods Knowledge Base
4. Read about Survey Biases
5. Health Technology Assessment is an extensive survey resource
6. Consider how you will demonstrate survey validity and reliability
7. Read Dr Janusz Kaczorowski's PowerPoint
8. Use sociodemographic questions that have already been validated in Canada (e.g. Canada stats; PHAC, etc)
9. Likely your topic has been studied before - email authors of publications to ask for a copy of their vallidated survey tool
10. Consider using an open source survey tool that has been validated in similar populations. [e.g.WHO Quality of Life tool]
11. Read the Research Methods Course, Module 4- study design ll (surveys) and Module 6 - sample size considerations
    
12. Privacy concerns regarding on-line survey tools
• Read UBC Ethics Board statement for guidelines regarding ethical review of on-line survey research.
• An official UBC memo outlines UBC's privacy concerns with the use of USA-based on-line survey tools. On-line survey designs which do not link survey participants’ email addresses to survey responses do not generate the same degree of privacy concern: these surveys gather no identifiable data of participants. However, these survey designs do not enable response rate calculations and do not provide information on non-respondents, which decreases survey design rigour and validity.
• UBC’s Applied Research and Evaluation Services (ARES) will design on-line survey tools for approx $25/item.
• Dr Morgan Price, Informatics Lead Faculty, is currently piloting an open-source on-line survey tool, for possible future use by UBC DFP.

Program evaluation

• "Splash & Ripple"
  
• Evaluation Toolkit, Public Health Agency of Canada
  
• Guide to Project Evaluation: A Participatory Approach, Public Health Agency of Canada
• The Logic Model: a blueprint for describing programs (the pdf is here)
• Introducing Program Teams to Logic Models: facilitating the learning process (the pdf is here)
• Read about evaluation in the Research Methods Knowledge Base:
  
  • Evaluation Research
    
  • Introduction to Evaluation
  • The Planning-Evaluation Cycle
• The Precede-Proceed Model of Health Program Planning and Evaluation
  
• The Community Tool Box – developing a framework
  
• Competencies for Canadian Evaluation Practice
  
• CNC Immunization Program Evaluation Toolkit
  
• Trochim: Evaluation research
  
• CDC Framework for Program Evaluation
  
• World Bank – Building Monitoring and Evaluation System
  

Qualitative research resources

1. Read about research study design – Module 5-study designs lll (qualitative designs)
   
2. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is a natural fit for health related qualitative research.  Read these 4 articles:
   
   • IPA (Biggerstaff and Thompson, 2008)
     
   • IPA (Smith and Osborne, 2007)
     
   • IPA and Public Health
   • Critical evaluation of IPA use
3. Trent University guide to qualitative analysis
4. Grounded Theory 'how to' manual - written by our very own Garry Grams, PhD
5. NVivo software will help to organize your data. 30-day trial available for download. It won’t do the analysis for you – you need to immerse yourself in your data. Student licenses are also available.

Quality improvement

1. Pan-Canadian Primary Health Care Indicators
2. PDSA (plan-do-study-act) cycles of quality improvement
3. The King's Fund
   
4. Institute for Healthcare Improvement
   
5. Academy of Family Physicians Family Practice Management Tool Box
   
6. Quality in family practice, Book of tools (2010).Carol Levitt & Linda Hilts
   
7. Cornerstone Preparation Guide
   
8. Aiming for Excellence - download now
   www.healthaudit.co.nz/audit_areas/general_practice
   
9. Improving Chronic Illness Care
   
10. Clinical Microsystems
    see'Workbooks > Outpatient Primary Care', and ‘Action Guides’
    
11. Quality Improvement Toolkit (Health Quality Council, Sask).
    This document describes some of the theory behind and the tools used in quality improvement. QI tools and templates can be found online.
    
    

Research design and methods

1. The Research Methods Knowledge Base uses an informal, conversational style, it is a fully hyperlinked text.
2. The Department of Family Practice and Paediatrics Research Methods Course. Good modules available on Refining a research question, Literature searching, Study Designs I, Study Designs II (Surveys), Study Designs III (Qualitative Designs), Sample Size Considerations, Data Management, Implementation Issues and Grant Writing. The complete course is also available online.
   
3. Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski's presentation on Epidemiology and Study Design

Statistical packages and tutorials

1. Statpages Free statistical tools
2. Research Randomizer - a tool to assist you in selecting random samples
3. StatsDirect is a statistical program designed for health care professionals. Uses data from an Excel spreadsheet. Amazing tutorial. 10-day free download trial. 
4. Statistics at Square One - a British Medical Journal textbook
5. SPSS Graduate pack is available though UBC Bookstore for >$200 to all graduate students.

Writing Resources for Publication

1. See also Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski's PowerPoint and Publication
2. How to write an abstract by Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski
3. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
4. Dr. John Hoey's Medical Writing Workshops:
• The Editing Life
• Writing for publication

5. Poster printing
   Do you need to print a poster for a presentation? Wide format poster printing is available from suppliers such as the Media Group at UBC and Canadian Drafting & Engineering Supplies, 1545 W. 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC T:604-734-8885 E:vancouver@candraft.com

   Tips for scientific poster design - How to keep your poster from resembling an 'abstract painting'

UBC Family Practice Residents: For more detailed information, please go to 'Resident ScholarProject' in the Postgraduate Education Intranet webpage. This is a resident password protected site.