Health services research

For the medical journal, see Health Services Research (journal).

Health services research (HSR), also known as health systems research or health policy and systems research (HPSR), is a multidisciplinary scientific field that examines how people get access to health care practitioners and health care services, how much care costs, and what happens to patients as a result of this care.[1] Studies in HSR investigate how social factors, health policy, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, medical technology, and personal behaviors affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and quantity and quality of life. Compared with medical research, HSR is a relatively young science that developed through the bringing together of social science perspectives with the contributions of individuals and institutions engaged in delivering health services.[2]

Goals

The primary goals of health services research are to identify the most effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality care; reduce medical errors; and improve patient safety.[3] HSR is more concerned with delivery and access to care, in contrast to medical research, which focuses on the development and evaluation of clinical treatments.

Health services researchers come from a variety of specializations, including geography, nursing, economics, political science, epidemiology, public health, medicine, biostatistics, operations, management, engineering, pharmacy, psychology, usability and user experience design.[4] While health services research is grounded in theory, its underlying aim is to perform research that can be applied by physicians, nurses, health managers and administrators, and other people who make decisions or deliver care in the health care system.

Approaches

Approaches to HSR include:[2]

Health Services Research by country

Many data and information sources are used to conduct health services research, such as population and health surveys, clinical administrative records, health-care program and financial administrative records, vital statistics records (births and deaths), and other special studies.

United States

Data availability

Claims data on USA Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries are available for analysis. Data is divided into public data available to any entity and research data available only to qualified researchers. USA's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services(CMS) delegates some data export functions to a Research Data Assistance Center.[5]

23 Claims data from various states that are not limited to any particular insurer are also available for analysis via AHRQ's HCUP project.[6]

Centers

Colloquially, health services research departments are often referred to as "shops"; in contrast to basic science research "labs." Broadly, these shops are hosted by three general types of institutions - government, academic, or non-governmental think tanks or professional societies.

Government Sponsored

University Sponsored

Think Tank or Professional Society Sponsored

Canada

Several government, academic and non-government agencies conduct or sponsor health services research, notably the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (i.e. the third pillar: "research respecting health systems and services").

Others include the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, and the Canadian Collaborative Study of Hip Fractures.

Denmark

Data availability

Several registries are available for research use, such as Danish Twin Register or Danish Cancer Register.[7]

France

Public Health Research Laboratory.

See also

References

  1. ↑ AcademyHealth. What is HSR?, June 2000.
  2. 1 2 Sheikh K, et al. Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Framing the Questions. PLoS Med, 8(8): e1001073. Published August 16, 2011. Accessed August 22, 2011.
  3. ↑ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, February 2002.
  4. ↑ UX Magazine 14.3 - Healthy Designs, September 2014.
  5. ↑ "ResDAC". Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  6. ↑ "AHRQ.gov". Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  7. ↑ Frank, L. (2000). "Epidemiology. When an entire country is a cohort". Science. 287 (5462): 2398–2399. doi:10.1126/science.287.5462.2398. PMID 10766613.

External links

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