Practice-Based Research Networks: Strategic Opportunities to Advance Implementation Research for Health Equity

While the vast majority of people receive their medical care in community primary and specialty care clinics, most clinical research is performed in academic tertiary care hospitals and hospital clinics. Practice-based research networks are most commonly collections of primary care practices that work together to ask and answer health questions for their patients and communities and are an integral part of the translational pathway from discovery to practice to community health. Community primary care practices are at the front line of health equity issues; equity in clinical care, equity in community health, equity in social determinants of health, and equity in health outcomes. Practice-based research networks can gather and combine data from dozens of communities, hundreds of practices and thousands of patients to address health equity and disparities across the full spectrum of community and public health to clinical and primary care. This article will briefly outline the history of PBRNs, types of PBRNs, locations, topics, and patient outcomes over the past 25 years. Current PBRN efforts to address health disparities and improve health equity will be described. New PBRN opportunities to address health disparities and approaches to advance implementation research for health equity in the practice and community will be described. Readers will be challenged to consider ways to engage practice-based research networks in their health equity efforts.