In seeking to understand how the goal of providing efficient and effective mental health services can best be attained, services researchers have developed principles and methods that distinguish it from other research approaches. In 2000, the National Institute of Mental Health called for translational research paradigms that seek to expand the conceptual and methodological base of mental heal...

OBJECTIVE Community-based participatory research has the potential to improve implementation of best practices to reduce disparities but has seldom been applied in mental health services research. This article presents the content and lessons learned from a national conference designed to stimulate such an application. DESIGN Mental health program developers collaborated in hosting a two-day ...

Women live within complex and differing social, economic, and environmental circumstances that influence options to seek health care. In this article we report on a metasynthesis of qualitative research concerning access disparities for women in the Canadian province of Ontario, where there is a publicly funded health care system. We took a metastudy approach to analysis of results from 35 rele...

Gatekeeping in health care research is the process of permitting or denying access to a selected research site. It is a complex process that researchers should be aware of as the process of gaining the confidence of the various gatekeepers is often time-consuming. This article identifies how gatekeeping occurs at various stages of the research process and highlights the reasons why some gatekee...

Primary care research networks have emerged in other countries over the past decade. Rigorous data to determine the level of their achievement are lacking. Research networks are a part of the current Australian primary healthcare research capacity building program, yet we have no systematic approach to their introduction. Australian networks should build upon international experience and should...

In a large proportion of health care research based on the retrospective review of records, minimal breach of patient confidentiality appears to be inevitable. This occurs at initial identification of and access to the chart, selected on the basis of the condition under investigation, and while individual identifiability can be blocked at subsequent stages, at this point it does occur. Prospect...

BACKGROUND In recent decades, extensive resources have been invested to develop cellular, molecular and genomic technologies with clinical applications that span the continuum of cancer care. METHODS In December 2006, the National Cancer Institute sponsored the first workshop to uniquely examine the state of health services research on cancer-related cellular, molecular and genomic technologi...

BACKGROUND Systems to exempt the indigent from user fees have been put in place to prevent the worst-off from being excluded from health care services for lack of funds. Yet the implementation of these mechanisms is as rare as the operational research on this topic. This article analyzes an action research project aimed at finding an appropriate solution to make health care accessible to the in...

To translate scientific discovery into improved health, we must study health care itself; i.e., how people access health care, costs or other barriers to the provision of good care, and what happens to patients as a result of this care. Health services research (HSR) is the interdisciplinary field that studies health care and its effects. This paper reviews different types of HSR and highlights...