Are We Asking All the Right Questions About Quality of Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Evaluating health systems strengthening interventions in low-income and middle-income countries: are we asking the right questions?

In recent years, there have been several calls for rigorous health policy and systems research to inform efforts to strengthen health systems (HS) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including the use of systems thinking concepts in designing and evaluating HS strengthening interventions. The objectives of this paper are to assess recent evaluations of HS strengthening interventions to...

Are we asking the right questions?

Are We Asking the Right Questions?

Questions about computers replacing teachers sound a lot like the old class size issue. Some wonder if online learning is too focused on drilling fundamentals rather than exploring concepts. Budget issues now involve expensive technology replacing other costs or whether we even need textbooks. And we fully expect a news story soon about whether kindergarten is too early to introduce students to...

Women in Academia: Are We Asking the Right Questions?

784 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 51, NUMBER 7 The recent study A National Analysis of Diversity in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities by Donna J. Nelson and Diana C. Rogers [2] has been widely cited by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and in Congressional testimony [3], [4]. From fifty departments in each of fourteen fields of science and engineering, including mat...

Interruptions in medication administration: are we asking the right questions?

1 The nature of today’s healthcare practice makes interruptions, distractions and multitasking commonplace, even during complex and high-risk tasks.1–3 Interruptions are often cited as a problem in medication safety, particularly in relation to nurses administering medication.1 4 Previous studies5 6 suggest an association between interruptions and medication administration errors. While a direc...

Interaction and exposure modification: are we asking the right questions?

Most diseases arise not purely through genetic abnormalities nor purely through environmental causes, but as "complex" conditions brought about by the combined effects of genetic susceptibility factors, nongenetic experiences and exposures, and bad luck. Finding simple models capable of both characterizing such joint effects and providing new insight into pathogenesis remains an ongoing challen...