Introduction
"The Change Program" is a general practitioner (GP)-delivered weight management program for adults in primary care. A pilot implementation trial was commenced in early 2015 involving the recruitment of GPs and patients.
Method
GPs who had already been involved in the development of the program were approached to participate in the pilot. Any GPs who expressed interest were asked to recruit at least one other GP in their practice. The GPs were then given the program materials and asked to recruit two of their own patients to participate in the pilot. GPs were remunerated for their consultation time with patients.
Results
The recruitment of GPs was rapid and only required one email from the research team. We also had one practice approach the research team directly having heard about the research in local media. Patients took longer to recruit and GPs gave a number of reasons for why they found this difficult.
Conclusion
Collaborating with clinicians to develop research projects that they are interested in can improve recruitment. Assisting GPs to recruit their patients to research requires planning, integration within the practice, ongoing support and some flexibility.