The retrospect and prospect of the development of general practice research in China—the analysis of development, research fields and bottlenecks

Objective To analyze the development and current situation of general practice research in China and summarize the bottlenecks for enlightening further development of general practice of scientific research in China. Methods Published studies on the history and current situation of general practice research in China were systematically reviewed and analyzed. We searched CNKI database, Wanfang database, VIP database, Web of Science and Pubmed for articles about general practice published between 1990 and 2019 using "General Practice" or "General practitioner" or "Family Doctor" or "Team of General Practitioners" or "community health" as terms. Results The development of the general practice research can be divided into three stages: embryonic stage (from 1986 to 1996), initial growth stage (from 1997 to 2009) and accelerated developing stage (2010 and afterwards). Six main research fields of general practice include general practice education and training of general practitioners, models of health care in general practice, health promotion and disease prevention, disease treatment and clinical efficacy, community rehabilitation and continuous management, performance evaluation and post competency of general practitioners. The core bottlenecks in the development of general practice research include the limited research objects, the research method and ability deficiencies, and the blank areas in research fields. The general practice research should cover the fields of preventive medicine, clinical medicine, rehabilitation medicine, public health, humanities, and social science and management, which should be conducted with the core of health of community population. Conclusion The development of the general practice research should clarify its core connotation accurately, build a clinical practice-oriented general practitioners' team, and open up a scientific research road with the characteristics of general practice, so as to promote the comprehensive and sustainable development of the general practice research.