Surf*Net Competitive Continuation

University Of California San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

The San Diego Unified Network for Research in Family Medicine (Surf*Net) is a four year old practice-based research network in Southern California. Surf*Net, while housed in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California School of Medicine, is also affiliated. with Kaiser, Scripps, and Sharp (the three largest healthcare providers in the region) and several clinics dedicated to the underserved. This diversity plays well into the plans for the current project. Surf*Net proposes two goals for this project. The first goal is to complete a NAMCS survey of 40 Surf*Net physicians, with appropriate safeguards for adequacy and accuracy of data collection. While IRB approval has not yet been obtained, infonnal communication with the UCSD IRB office provides strong indication that a) approval can be expected and b) consent from individual patients will not be necessary after appropriate elimination of patient identifiers from the survey has been accomplished. The second goal is three-fold. First, we will capitalize on the diverse nature of the Surf*Net patient base to assess via a series of focus groups clinician and patient knowledge and attitudes about protecting the privacy and confidentiality of research data collected in primary care settings. To add to the generalizability of the project we will include a non-Surf*Net clinicians in our focus groups. Second, we will use the information obtained from the focus groups to develop a questionnaire that can be used in large survey of patients and clinicians. Finally, we will pilot test this questionnaire with Surf*Net patients and clinicians to produce initial estimates of the importance of the factors determined by the focus groups.