 Qualitative research is an important part of primary care providing insight into areas such as patient care, health services provision, policy setting, and health administration. Despite this importance, there have been criticisms about the quality and robustness of qualitative research. Five case studies illustrate how qualitative research can be used to improve primary care ranging from clinical health screenings to community-based disease monitoring, evaluation of outfars triage services, provincial psychiatric care pathways models, and national legislation of core measures for children's healthcare insurance. The concept of validity, reliability, and generalizability is discussed, along with the current views and controversies surrounding qualitative research.