ABSTRACT
Since 1980, when the first conference on training in family medicine was held in Nigeria, primary care research has been one of the issues targeted for academic development. The commencement of the 4-year residency Fellowship Training Programme in Family Medicine in 1981, with a mandatory 2-year research project and writing of a research project dissertation, kick-started structured primary care research in Nigeria. Most research activities currently take place in the training institutions accredited for residency training in family medicine and are conducted by the residents. Clinical training settings include tertiary teaching hospitals, mission hospitals, federal medical centres, general hospitals and private general practices. The greatest primary care research capability in Nigeria lies in the units/departments of family medicine at the colleges of medicine/teaching hospitals scattered all over Nigeria, at both federal and state levels. Some of these departments have also established university-linked practice-based family medicine research networks, like the Family Medicine Unit at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.
