ABSTRACT
Post-Apartheid South Africa has made the development of primary healthcare and provision of universal coverage a cornerstone of healthcare policy since 1994. This has redirected the attention of academic and higher education institutions towards a focus on family medicine and primary healthcare in both teaching and research. Methodologically, the emphasis remains on small-scale descriptive studies using surveys or qualitative interviews and quality improvement projects. Because the greatest activity is among registrars who perform a research assignment / dissertation as a part of their degree and clinical training, the topics and methods reflect the amount of time, expertise and funding available for such studies. Family medicine remains the strongest academic discipline in primary healthcare, with much smaller contributions to the research output from primary healthcare nursing. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing emphasis on training at a doctoral level within the country. However, only two of the nine heads of department of family medicine hold a PhD.
