Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, have won two of the three Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research Paper of the Year Awards 2025.
The awards recognise findings from the Remote by Default 2 programme – a major National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded collaboration between Oxford, the University of Plymouth and the Nuffield Trust examining how UK general practice has adapted to hybrid models of care that combine face-to-face and remote consultations.
Understanding the realities of hybrid general practice
Health services research – winner: What are the challenges to quality in contemporary, hybrid general practice? A multi-site longitudinal study (British Journal of General Practice, published online 2024; print 2025).
Led by Dr Rebecca Payne – then an NIHR In-Practice Fellow at Oxford and now combining her DPhil with an academic role at Bangor University – the study followed practices in England, Scotland and Wales for more than two years. It shows that remote care works well for some people, for whom it offers timely and convenient access, yet complex systems can be hard to navigate and risk widening existing inequalities.
Staff were committed to high-quality care, but faced mounting pressures including high turnover, new supervisory demands as the general practice team expanded and the challenge of sustaining the human elements of care such as compassion and continuity when providing care at a distance. Digitalisation sometimes introduced new inefficiencies, and management of long-term conditions was variable. Wider system factors – austerity, constrained social care capacity, long hospital waiting lists and telephony or digital systems that were not fit for purpose – compounded the strain.
“General practitioners and their teams are committed to delivering high quality care, but this has become increasingly difficult in contemporary general practice. Many well-meaning initiatives intended to improve access and care for patients have had the opposite effect,” said Dr Payne.
The author team showcases Oxford’s Early and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) pipeline, including Dr Francesca Dakin (then DPhil, now postdoctoral researcher), Dr Ellen MacIver (NIHR In-Practice Fellow), Nadia Swann (MSc, now DPhil scholar), Tabitha Pring (medical student), Asli Kalin (NIHR pre-doctoral fellow) and Emma Ladds (now a Wellcome Doctoral Fellow), working with senior colleagues and collaborators across institutions.
Identifying the skills staff really need
Education – winner: Training needs for staff providing remote services in general practice: a mixed-methods study (British Journal of General Practice, 2024; 74(738): e17–e26).
This mixed-methods paper, led by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh with substantial EMCR contributions, offers a draft set of competencies for remote and digital general practice. The central message is practical: training needs are not primarily about learning brand-new technologies, but about using existing tools, especially the telephone, more effectively and safely in busy workflows. Clinical staff highlighted triage and safety-netting, communicating without visual cues and managing privacy when others may be listening. Senior GPs sought implementation and training skills to embed new workflows and roles. Support staff wanted clear guidance on prioritising and signposting patients, and on judging when a modality such as phone, video or e-consult is unsuitable.
“Staff want help to do the basics consistently well: triage, safety-netting and telephone communication in busy, real-world contexts. Small, practical changes to training and workflow can make a big difference to patient experience and safety,” said Dr Emma Ladds, Wellcome Doctoral Fellow.
“These awards recognise rigorous, embedded research carried out by a talented interdisciplinary team of academics working in partnership with educators. What stands out is the leadership from early and mid-career colleagues. The message for the system is clear: invest in people, processes and skills as well as platforms,” added Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, senior author.
Professor Kathy Rowan, Director of NIHR’s Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme, said:
“Many congratulations to the researchers. It’s always good to see teams recognised for their hard work. This study, building capacity through involving many early career researchers, is an example of research with actionable findings for patients, carers and busy general practice staff by informing best use of new technologies for all.
“This evidence can make a real difference to everyday service problems – shedding light on some of the opportunities and challenges of combining face-to-face and remote consultations in hybrid general practice. This is part of modernising health and care services, so they are more efficient and accessible.”
Building on departmental success
The wins add to a strong year for the department's early career researchers. In May, Dr Jienchi Doward, Academic Clinical Lecturer in the Infections, Respiratory and Clinical Care team, and Dr Kelly Birtwell, whose postdoc is supervised by Professor Sophie Park, each received 2025 Outstanding Early Career Researcher Awards from the RCGP Scientific Foundation Board and the Society for Academic Primary Care. Jienchi's research focuses on improving HIV management in primary care, while Kelly works on mindfulness for underserved groups and the health and wellbeing of autistic adults.
A sustained track record from emerging leaders
This year’s wins follow last year’s success for the same programme. Patient safety in remote primary care encounters (BMJ Quality & Safety, 2024; 33:573–86), led by Dr Payne, won the 2023/24 award, and A contemporary ontology of continuity in general practice (Social Science & Medicine, 2023), led by Dr Ladds, was highly commended.
You can read more on the BJGP site.