Research roles for family physicians.

This article describes five possible research roles for family physicians--tenure-track faculty member, clinical faculty member, practitioner-investigator, research network participant, and consumer of research--with the hope of encouraging more family physicians to identify an appropriate research role and contribute to the research mission of the discipline. In addition, issues specific to the various roles (eg, necessary skills, time for research) are identified and suggestions are provided for family physicians actively considering each role. Research has become critical to the future development of family medicine, and more family physicians (residents, faculty, and practitioners) need to become involved in research.