Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease guideline implementation: Lessons learned on recruitment of primary care physicians to a knowledge translation study

Background: Implementation of current clinical practice guidelines in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is suboptimal. New implementation strategies should be developed and evaluated. Methods: The authors report the rationale and planned methods of a project that sought to use a multifaceted knowledge translation intervention consisting of interactive education, mentorship through quality circles and practice-based tools in primary care to address key asthma and COPD care gaps. The present study was aborted due to inadequate primary care physician recruitment. Accordingly, the authors provide a critical review of their recruitment strategies and discuss alternative approaches and examples based on previous literature. Discussion: These practical lessons and discussion seek to inform researchers involved in designing and recruiting for future knowledge translation studies addressing chronic disease management in primary care.