In primary care the most frequently presented signs, symptoms and chronic diseases belong to four organ systems. Within the Cluster Primary Care, research concentrates on these four systems:
- the locomotor tract
- the respiratory tract
- the cardiovascular tract
- the gastrointestinal tract
The cluster represents clinical research in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, with patient health as the central outcome. Many studies are based on large cohorts from population and primary care based registration networks, in which 130,000 patients are continuously followed up.
The main objective of this cluster of multidisciplinary research programmes is to optimize patient outcome. Research is focused on clinical improvement of patients with chronic diseases and less on the improvement of organizational aspects of care. This objective is reached by improving the diagnosis and treatment of the chronic diseases studied. Clinical efficacy, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of innovative interventions are studied. The research methodology and statistical analysis used are comparable in the different programmes. Consequently, exchange of knowledge between the programmes in the area of clinical epidemiology and health technology assessment is crucial.