Research training for general practitioners: an experiment in The Netherlands

One of the great problems in the field of primary health care research is the lack of qualified general practice researchers. The same is true for General Practitioners working in the University Departments of General Practice. Therefore the Department of General Practice at the University of Limburg in Maastricht in the Netherlands, developed a one-year research training programme for young General Practitioners. The aim was to provide a sufficient number of trained and qualified staff members in primary health care research for the various University Departments of General Practice. This article describes the main ideas behind this training course, as well as its contents and characteristics.