PRIME Net Overview

The Primary Care Multiethnic Network (PRIME Net) is an established consortium of eight practice-based research networks (PBRNs) with a mission to conduct research focused on traditionally underrepresented and often underserved populations. PRIME Net was created in 2004 with funding from an NIH Roadmap grant to Dr. Robert Williams at the University of New Mexico. In 2014, Victoria Neale, Ph.D., M.P.H., became the PRIME Net Director.

PRIME Net is a unique resource among PBRNs in its combination of: 1) focus on medically underserved and minority populations that are traditionally underrepresented in health research; 2) diversity of patient populations; 3) diversity of practice types and locations; 4) size (eight PBRNs); and 5) track record as a successful collaborative research vehicle.

PRIME Net members include the following PBRNS:

PRIME Net Projects and Studies

Recruitment and Retention Best Practices in Primary Care Setting

An example of PRIME Net’s history of successful collaboration is demonstrated by its recently completed study titled “Recruitment and Retention Best Practices in Primary Care Settings” (funded by the National Institutes on Health (NIH) and National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); Victoria Neale, Principal Investigator). The objective was to identify best practices for recruiting and retaining diverse primary care patients into clinical research studies. 

This collaborative multi-site study engaged 5 of the 8 members of the consortium, each of whom worked with a local ethnic population, reflecting the research expertise of each PRIME Net member: African Americans (SOAR-Net in Dayton), Arab Americans (MetroNet in Detroit), Chinese Americans (SFBayCRN in San Francisco), Hispanic Americans (SPUR Net in Houston), and the Navajo nation (RIOS Net in Albuquerque).  The PRIME Net consortium, with its history of pre-existing relationships and research collaborations was crucial to establishing the feasibility of the study. Frequent audiovisual web-conferencing and posting study materials on a common SharePoint website facilitated communication. The mixed-methods approach to develop recruiting best practices included key informant interviews, focus groups and a national PBRN survey. 

Publications from this study:

PBRN Research Good Practices (PRGPs)

In September 2014, PRIME Net completed a four-year collaboration with the larger community of practice-based researchers to produce the PBRN Research Good Practices (PRGPs), a compendium of recommendations and resources from experienced researchers.  Funded by the AHRQ, the study “Building Research Culture and Capacity with Quality Improvement Strategies” (Neale AV (PI), engaged 7 PBRNs to work closely together Duke PCRC (University of North Carolina), IRENE (University of Iowa), MetroNet (Wayne State University), OKPRN (University of Oklahoma), ORPRN (University of Oregon Health Science Center) RIOS Net (University of New Mexico), and WREN (University of Wisconsin).  We also benefited from professional team facilitators from the University of Calgary, and the Institute of Cultural Affairs.  The PRGPs were disseminated via a national webinar, and are available on the NAPCRG website.

“Impact of Meaningful Use Patient Engagement Objectives in a Multicultural PBRN”

In an effort to define “meaningful use” of patient after-visit summaries, this is a project of the SPUR Net (Baylor College of Medicine, and MetroNet (Wayne State University) PBRN members of PRIME Net.  Funded by the AHRQ (PI's:  Neale and Pavlik), the study presented its findings at a national webinar in January 2015.

Our members are Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) organizations located throughout the United States.

map of prime net members