Using focus groups in general practice research

Recent years have seen a growing recognition of the appropriateness of qualitative methods in family practice. This has been paralleled by an upsurge of interest in focus group discussions as a method. Drawing on the experience of using focus groups with general practice teams as one component of a multi-method study this paper explores emergent orthodoxies regarding the use of focus groups and reviews the contribution which this method can make to research in general practice.