Science AI Journal
Health Professions · Research topic

Open research questions in Primary Care and Health Outcomes

265 gap statements mined from Primary Care and Health Outcomes papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,237 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Primary Care and Health Outcomes? See the ranked Medicine journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • There is a lack of understanding of the factors contributing to patients bypassing primary healthcare facilities. The study aims to address this gap by investigating the reasons for non-referred patients seeking care directly at public hospitals.

    Factors Contributing to Patients Bypassing Primary Healthcare Facilities: Evidence from Mpumalanga Province, South Africa · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore potential underlying mechanisms and establish whether the same relationship exists between objectively measured relational continuity and patient complaints.

    Less continuity with more complaints: a repeated cross-sectional study of the association between relational continuity of care and patient complaints in English general practice · 2025 · DOI

  • There is a gap between aspiration and implementation in academic family medicine. Advanced topics such as research methodology and dissemination strategies are only briefly introduced in existing resources.

    New Faculty Guide to Academic Family Medicine: A Collaboration of STFM Collaboratives: Faculty Development and New Faculty · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to evaluate whether SRFCs are located in objectively defined areas of need. There is a lack of research on the geographic alignment of SRFCs with medically underserved and underinsured areas.

    A Cross-Sectional Study on Geographic Alignment of Student-Run Free Clinics with Medically Underserved and Underinsured Areas in the United States. · 2026 · DOI

  • There are no existing globally informed guidelines on how to prepare family medicine faculty. The current regional variations in training pathways, certification, and recognition create a need for a global framework.

    A global ‘Common Core’ framework for family medicine faculty development: Getting the right person, doing the right thing, right! · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to evaluate the possibility of transforming PHC centers into family health centers. The lack of specialized family physicians and limited staff training.

    POSSIBILITY OF TRANSFORMATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTERS INTO FAMILY HEALTH CENTERS · 2026 · DOI

  • The challenge of sustaining a workforce capable of delivering high-quality care is not adequately addressed. The future of healthcare depends on creating workplace environments where individuals choose to remain, develop and flourish.

    Editorial: Future-proofing the workforce for person-centered healthcare · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of access to diagnostic tools and treatments for respiratory conditions in Africa. The limited familiarity of primary care providers with COPD and other respiratory conditions. The impact of climate change on respiratory health in Africa.

    Is primary care the ‘right care’ for respiratory medicine in Africa? · 2026 · DOI

  • This study aims to describe and analyze the co-development and work of the PC-QI PAC to identify factors that shape meaningful patient engagement in the design and implementation of research in primary care, contributing to the limited evidence on this topic.

    Building meaningful partnerships: engaging and co-developing a patient advisory council to inform the implementation of person-centred quality indicators in Alberta primary care · 2026 · DOI

  • Within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), 14 sites have implemented HiH programs, yet limited research has examined implementation within a large integrated system.

    Identifying Contextual Factors affecting Hospital In Home Program Implementation within the Veterans Health Administration · 2026 · DOI

  • Challenges with health care access in long-term care facilities, including lack of administrative, financial and governance integration between the health and social welfare sectors. Financial incentives, workforce shortages, and increasingly greater demands on the primary care sector. The study had to account for the complex health care needs and functional and cognitive impairment of long-term care residents.

    The impact of primary health care services, continuity of care and patterns of care on mortality and hospitalisation-related outcomes in residents of long-term care facilities: a comprehensive national evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Voluntary empanelment is widely adopted as a primary care strategy across diverse health systems to promote continuity of care and early disease detection, yet its equity implications remain underexplored, particularly in Asian multi-ethnic settings.

    Beyond financial access: socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in preventive care engagement under Singapore’s Healthier SG programme · 2026 · DOI

  • The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care is intended to provide accessible and comprehensive care, but little is known about how practicing in a PCMH is associated with rural family physicians’ scope of practice.

    Rural Family Physicians in Patient Centered Medical Homes Have a Broader Scope of Practice · 2026 · DOI

  • Student-run free clinics are crucial in providing healthcare to underserved populations; however, few studies have evaluated common reasons patients seek care, particularly those in recovery from substance use.

    Retrospective Analysis of Patient-Reported Reason for Visit · 2026 · DOI

  • In some form, team-based care is an essential element of family medicine practice; however, the composition, roles, and definitions of team members vary widely.

    To Team or Not to Team: A Foundational Debate for the Future of Family Medicine—Insights from the Family Medicine Leadership Council · 2026 · DOI

  • Advocacy and community mobilisation efforts should be through Ward-Based Outreach Teams, strengthened community health workers, traditional leaders, and civil society organisations.

    Healthcare workers’ perspectives on patient bypassing of Primary Health Care facilities in Mpumalanga province, South Africa · 2026 · DOI

  • The current system of recruitment and retention in academic family medicine leadership is flawed. Diversity efforts are often reliant on individual resilience rather than systemic change.

    From Pipeline to System Design: Reframing Diversity in Academic Family Medicine Leadership · 2026 · DOI

  • A central tenet of our findings is the imperative to invest in robust digital infrastructure and establish interoperable systems, echoing the priorities outlined in the NHS plan, so that health systems are better equipped to implement and sustain transformative improvements.

    Barriers and enablers for health system reform · 2026 · DOI

  • In parallel, many countries throughout the OECD have expanded the scope of nurses, often in advanced or nurse practitioners roles, alongside creating new roles such as physician assistants to improve access, continuity and quality of care while reducing pressure on GPs.

    Barriers and enablers for health system reform · 2026 · DOI

  • Deficient referral systems, - Fragmented PHC delivery, - Limited engagement with the private sector, - Weak tracking and preference for private providers contributed to attrition, - Low screening uptake and poor follow-up due to weak record…

    Integration of Cardiovascular Disease Services within Primary Health Care Systems: Insights from South Asia · 2026 · DOI

  • Prioritise robust evaluation of the impacts on CVD morbidity and mortality, - Investigate novel approaches to integrate service provider networks and referral pathways, - Examine the effects of digital and home support innovations on CVD…

    Integration of Cardiovascular Disease Services within Primary Health Care Systems: Insights from South Asia · 2026 · DOI

  • Family medicine–specific; rooted in continuity clinic, resident education, and community partnerships Modular “Know/Do” framework with basics, timelines, barriers, and resources Collection of concise pearls, reflections, and practical advice Early career family medicine faculty; program directors and mentors Early career faculty in academic medicine across disciplines Actionable checklists, barrier-mitigation tips…

    New Faculty Guide to Academic Family Medicine: A Collaboration of STFM Collaboratives: Faculty Development and New Faculty · 2026 · DOI

  • Expanding the FMSTP to produce more graduates. Improving rural training and retaining health workers through mentorship and community engagement.

    Family medicine and primary health care in Liberia · 2026 · DOI

  • Researchers should look to implementation research methodologies to assist with this in grant applications, - Key issues to consider might be how to improve diagnostic accuracy with appropriate technology, - We need to look at how community-orientated primary care can help address issues such as heat and air…

    Is primary care the ‘right care’ for respiratory medicine in Africa? · 2026 · DOI

  • Linking them to hard outcomes such as patient safety indicators, mortality, readmissions, length of stay, and workforce turnover and retention would connect perceived quality to measurable organizational performance, as planned in the wider FlaQuM research programme.18–21 Third, the next cycles will be a direct test of the ceiling idea proposed here: if the final gap really is harder to close, FIS values should fall…

    The impact of the Flanders Quality Model (FlaQuM) on staff and patient/kin perceptions of quality: a multi-centre longitudinal study · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Primary Care and Health Outcomes

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Primary Care and Health Outcomes sub-topic

This page shows what the Primary Care and Health Outcomes literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, search the Research Gap Finder: the search is free with a free account and lists the papers closest to your topic first. Unlocking that topic (50 credits, charged once) fills the comparison table from our 7.9M-paper local library and writes the gaps from its rows.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Health Professions

Physical Education and Pedagogy
1,107 open questions
Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention
1,091 open questions
Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
998 open questions
Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
900 open questions
Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes
832 open questions
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
807 open questions
Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
784 open questions
Health Policy Implementation Science
747 open questions
Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a lack of understanding of the factors contributing to patients bypassing primary healthcare facilities (“Factors Contributing to Patients Bypassing Primary Healthcare Facilities:…”, 2026); (2) There is a need to evaluate whether SRFCs are located in objectively defined areas of need (“A Cross-Sectional Study on Geographic Alignment of Student-Run Free Clinics…”, 2026); (3) There are no existing globally informed guidelines on how to prepare family medicine faculty (“A global ‘Common Core’ framework for family medicine faculty development:…”, 2026); (4) The lack of specialized family physicians and limited staff training (“POSSIBILITY OF TRANSFORMATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTERS INTO FAMILY HEALTH…”, 2026); (5) The lack of access to diagnostic tools and treatments for respiratory conditions in Africa (“Is primary care the ‘right care’ for respiratory medicine in Africa?”, 2026). 265 gap statements have been mined from Primary Care and Health Outcomes papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,237 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 1,100,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? Acceptance odds for top, mid and open/emerging journals, in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck for prior publication across 7 sources and our local library.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

How Pre-Check worksHow AI Review works

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.