Healthcare system reforms are pushing beyond primary care to more holistic, integrated models of community based primary health care (CBPHC) to better meet the needs of the population. In order to scale up and spread successful models of care it is important to study what works and why. The first step is to select “appropiate” cases to study. In this commentary, this study reflect the difficulty in identifying “successful” models to study, the value of drawing on clinical and organisational networks and experts, and the association between policy context and ease of case selection. Such insights have important implications for case study methodology in health services and policy research.