BACKGROUND Recently, there has been a surge of international interest in combining qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study--often called mixed methods research. It is timely to consider why and how mixed methods research is used in health services research (HSR). METHODS Documentary analysis of proposals and reports of 75 mixed methods studies funded by a research commissioner ...

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT), a large-scale operational screening program which has generated a tremendous volume of data on the sociodemographic characteristics and health status of Medicaid-eligible children, seems to provide an ideal context within which to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive child health care. Concerns about health care expenditures gen...

Latinos in North Carolina experience disparities in sexual and reproductive health. To identify and explore assets for and barriers to sexual and reproductive health in the Latino community, an academic-community partnership engaged community health workers (CHW) in Photovoice, a participatory qualitative research methodology. Five sessions were completed in which CHW agreed on photo assignment...

insurance funds and other parties involved in the health care sector have realized the need to obtain specific data on health services provision. The task of health services research is to investigate the reality of health services provision under everyday conditions (German Medical Association 2005). Health services research has established itself as the third pillar of health research – along...

The theme 'patient-centred interprofessional collaboration' of the EGPRN conference in October 2012, captures in just three words important challenges for European primary care and its research agenda. Challenges for future research are formulated, in three domains: clinical, educational and health services research. Transferability of research, based upon advanced computational infrastructure,...

PROBLEM BEING ADDRESSED Family medicine departments and primary health care research centres across the country are growing in size and complexity and therefore require increasingly sophisticated management strategies. Conducting effective and relevant research relies on a stable and efficient organization. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROGRAM To focus on the needs of individuals, teams, and the organizati...

There appears to be no single universally accepted definition of health services research. However, in 1976 the XVIII Meeting of the WHO Advisory Committee on Medical Research accepted the definition of health services research as “the systematic investigation and evaluation of a country’s health services in terms of both their interrelationship with all health related factors and such measures...

Editor’s Note: The purpose of this Editor’s Choice article is translational in nature. It is intended to illustrate some of the most common examples of potential study bias to help policy makers, journalists, trainees, and the public understand the strengths and weaknesses of various types of health care research and the kinds of study designs that are most trustworthy. It is neither a comprehe...

Operations Research (OR) is gaining importance in public health interventions and programmes increasingly both nationally and internationally. The focus of these research techniques is to constantly guide the programme implementation to achieve best results. It modulates inputs and processes involved in the programme cycle and strive to produce optimal gains in achieving targets and goals. Util...

INTRODUCTION Allied health professionals (AHPs) report positive attitudes to using research evidence in clinical practice, yet often lack time, confidence and skills to use, participate in and conduct research. A range of multifaceted strategies including education, mentoring and guidance have been implemented to increase AHPs' use of and participation in research. Emerging evidence suggests th...