Royal College of General Practitioners

The Royal College of General Practitioners was founded in November 1952 to provide an ?academic headquarters for general practice [and] to raise the standards and status of general practice?. The founders of the college wanted it to encourage, guide and co-ordinate research into the problems of general practice. They recognised that general practitioners were in a unique position, they could follow diseases of their patients through all their stages, they had a registered list of patients in which to collect morbidity information and were already keeping standard information in patient records.

One of the first things the new College did in Janaury 1953 was to form a Research Committee, convened by Robin Pinsent (1917-1988). It?s first meeting was held in Bath and although a Council Committee it was for many years administered in Birmingham where Pinsent was based. Advertisements were placed in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet on 31st January 1953 asking for those who were interested in research to place their name on the College?s research register. By the end of 1954 there were over three hundred members on the register. The idea of the register was to bring together people of similar interests so that they could collaborate and get to know what ground had already been covered. A panel was formed to co-ordinate research and give advice and guidance. Doctors with an interest in a particular disease could select co-workers from the register.

A research newsletter was started in September 1953, this initially just went to members of the register but the growth interest led to the register being sent to all members and associates of the College and in January 1958 it was renamed the Journal of the College of General Practitioners [now the British Journal of General Practice]. There was still a need for a clearing house of ideas between members of the register and so the Research Committee started publishing Between Ourselves (1956-1968).

The Research committee published A Guide to Research In General Practice in 1962 to train aspiring general practitioners in research methodology. The second edition published in 1969 was entitled A Handbook of General Practice Research.

The regional faculties of the College were encouraged to set up their own Research Committees and the Council Research Committee maintained a register of all research carried out by College members and associates.

It became clear that it became clear that various different strands of research were being carried out including single practice research such as by John Fry (1922-1995) and multi practice research. The Research Committee organised multi-practice research often through ad hoc working parties. This enabled research such as national morbidity studies to be carried out on a much larger scale than could be undertaken by a small group of workers or by a faculty.

Other activities of the Research Committee were setting up study groups for long term investigations e.g. respiratory diseases; the Research Foundation board (1960-1976, at which point it amalgamated with the Education Foundation to form the Scientific Foundation Board) which awarded grants for research and the Records Unit (1959-1965 later Records and Statistical Unit). This unit was a statistical advisory service and grew out of the experience gained in the first National Morbidity Study of 1955-1956 which had to devise and perfect its own methods of working. The unit devised a classification system for disease known as the ?E Book? after Dr T S Eimerl. The E books developed into a diagnostic index. Other tools developed were the ?Age-Sex Register? by Arthur Watts which was designed so that the contents could be used as punch-cards for computers and the records summary or ?S Card? by James Scott.

In 1966 a Research Department was formed ?The maintenance of high standards of research recording in general practice has never been so difficult. There are now fewer doctors in practice and their capacity to meet the needs of their patients is severely strained. Research work must never be undertaken at the expense of patient care and is an addition to the practitioner?s heavy load. If standards are to be maintained every possible step must be taken to lighten the extra commitments that so many general practitioners now voluntarily assume [annual report 1966].? It was renamed the research division in 1976 which was chaired by Clifford Kay and aimed to advise on research policy, co-ordinate the work of the College research units [See ARE Records of Research Units], encourage primary care research in Britain and abroad. Between 1979 and 1994 Research Intelligence was published by the division giving information on primary care research. The College was restructured in 1988 and the Research Division became the Clinical and Research Division.