{"id":2483,"date":"2026-10-02T09:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:35:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:35:50","slug":"what-happens-when-the-clinicians-your-research-is-designed-to-support-challenge-its-assumptions-reflections-on-presenting-physical-activity-research-at-european-forum-for-primary-care-2026-and-why-di","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/apex\/2026\/10\/02\/what-happens-when-the-clinicians-your-research-is-designed-to-support-challenge-its-assumptions-reflections-on-presenting-physical-activity-research-at-european-forum-for-primary-care-2026-and-why-di\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when the clinicians your research is designed to support challenge its assumptions? Reflections on presenting physical activity research at European Forum for Primary Care 2026 and why disagreement can be valuable when developing interventions that need to work in real-world primary care, by Dr Rosina Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to travel to Stuttgart for the European Forum for Primary Care (EFPC) 2026 conference, where I presented two areas of our research; the development of the GP PA Toolkit and our evaluation of the parkrun practice initiative. Both projects explore, in different ways, how primary care might support people to become physically more active. But some of the most valuable conversations I had at the conference were not about our findings. They were about whether primary care should be doing this at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When research is challenged<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
During discussions with GPs, I encountered some really challenging, but important questions about the realities of promoting physical activity in practice. When consultations are already under considerable pressure, clinicians are managing multiple competing priorities, and patients may arrive with several immediate concerns, how realistic is it to expect healthcare professionals to also discuss physical activity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll admit, being challenged like this in a room full of peers was really uncomfortable. When you have spent a considerable amount of time researching a problem and developing something intended to help address it, your instinct is to explain why your work matters. As a researcher working in physical activity and primary care, it would be easy to respond by making the case for why physical activity matters. But we already know this, being active can benefit physical, social and mental health and help prevent and manage long-term conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But reflecting on these conversations, I realised that doing so risks missing the point entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listening to the realities of primary care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For an intervention to work, demonstrating that something is beneficial is not enough. It also needs to fit within the context in which we expect people to deliver it. If the clinicians an intervention is intended to support tell us that something feels unrealistic or burdensome, that isn\u2019t necessarily a barrier to the research, it is research evidence itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This feedback resonated strongly with what we have been hearing through interviews for the GP PA Toolkit. Primary acre professionals aren\u2019t necessarily questioning the value of physical activity, they are describing the practical conditions that determine whether conversations about it can realistically happen, including time and workload pressures, confidence and knowledge, professional roles and availability of referral pathways and wider organisation support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Designing alongside practice, not for it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discussions in Stuttgart reinforced why co-development is so important. Our aim shouldn\u2019t be to design an intervention and then persuade busy clinicians to use it. It should be to understand what would make physical activity feasible, acceptable and useful in routine primary care and develop it alongside the people it is designed to support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conferences are often opportunities to share findings with peers who agree your research matters. This one reminded me that conversations with people who challenge our assumptions can be just as valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we want research to change practice, we need to be willing to listen when practice challenges research.<\/p>\n\n\n
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to travel to Stuttgart for the European Forum for Primary Care (EFPC) 2026 conference, where I presented two areas of our research; the development of the GP PA Toolkit and our evaluation of the parkrun practice initiative. Both projects explore, in different ways, how primary care might support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":989,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[277,275,273,179],"class_list":["post-2483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ltc","tag-disagreement","tag-european-forum-for-primary-care-conference","tag-gp-pa-toolkit","tag-parkrun"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
What happens when the clinicians your research is designed to support challenge its assumptions? 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