Skill mix in primary care--creating a bibliography.

Skill mix in primary care should be governed by research-based evidence of how skills may best be distributed among health professionals in order to optimize the cost-effectiveness of health service delivery. There is a dearth of research in this area, yet many changes in skill mix within primary care have still to be adequately researched. Existing evidence of the nature and cost-effectiveness of skill mix change is scattered across the specialist literature of many different disciplinary groups, making it difficult to form a coherent overview of service provision. This paper reports on a project that sought to create a comprehensive database bringing together specialist literature relating to skill mix in primary care, as resource for health services researchers, providers and purchasers in the UK.