The paper found that members of the public overwhelmingly want to be tested for cancer, even when the risk of disease is as low as one per cent.

The Research Paper of the Year award gives recognition to an individual or group of researchers who have undertaken and published an exceptional piece of research relating to general practice or primary care. The judges considered the Bristol study innovative in its methodology, and topical given recent changes to NICE guidelines for GPs that lowered the referral thresholds for cancer investigation from five per cent to three per cent.

The winning team, led by Dr Jonathan Banks from the Centre for Academic Primary Care, along with researchers from Exeter and Cambridge Universities, received their award at the RCGP Annual Primary Care Conference last week.

A study demonstrating the importance of partnership with service users in the research process, led by Dr Alice Malpass from the Academic Centre for Primary Care at Bristol, won the journal’s Health Services Research and Generic category. The study highlighted women's experiences of referral to a domestic violence advocate in UK primary care settings.