ABSTRACT:Rural general practitioners (GPs) are currently involved in two concurrent and systematic programs of research/evaluation. These programs are generated, respectively, by initiatives in rural health and in general practice. This paper examines the consequences of this involvement by GPs as implementers and/or targets of components of each of these programs, and concludes that it is appropriate that they be provided in a systematic way with the knowledge and skills base they need to empower them to participate in (both developmentally and at the implementation level) and/or to appraise the research impinging on their lives. Six broad levels of involvement in rural health research are identified for rural doctors in this paper, which proposes an innovative strategy — health research literacy — to assist doctors at these various levels of involvem
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