Abstract
Background
There is a widely held assumption that the engagement of clinicians and healthcare organisations in research improves healthcare performance at various levels. Previous reviews found small numbers of studies that suggest an association between the engagement of individuals and healthcare organisations in research, and improvements in healthcare performance. The current study sought to provide an update.
Methods
The team updated an existing published systematic review, and addressed the question: Does research engagement (by clinicians and organisations) improve healthcare performance? The search covered the period January 1, 2012 to March 2024, in two phases. First, the formal updated search ran from January 1, 2012 to May 31, 2020, in any healthcare setting or country and focused on English language publications. In this phase two searches identified 66,901 records. Second, a further check of key journals and citations to identified papers ran from May 2020 to March 2024. In total, 168 papers progressed to full-text appraisal; 62 were identified for inclusion in the update.
Results
Fifty-eight of the 62 papers report positive results, of which 48 are purely positive and 10 positive/mixed meaning that there are some negative elements (i.e., aspects where there is a lack of healthcare improvement) in their findings. In the updated review, the literature is still dominated by papers from the US (35/62) and is mostly drawn from the Global North. The papers cover a range of clinical fields but with considerably more on cancer than any other field.
Conclusions
The updated review collates a substantial pool of studies, especially when combined with our first review, which are largely positive in terms of the impact of research engagement on processes of care and patient outcomes. Of the potential engagement mechanisms, the review highlights the important role played by research networks. The review also identifies various papers which consider how far there is a “dose effect” from differing amounts of research engagement. Additional lessons come from analyses of equity issues and negative papers. This review provides further evidence of the contribution played by systems level research investments such as research networks on processes of care and patient outcomes.